Help with photoshop

OK chaps, heres someone who doesn't like over manipulating images asking for help

And before you ask I dont want to post the image (not yet anyway)

I have a well out of focus green background of various shades, the main subject is bright orange (yes its a flower) but in the background and also in contact with the orange is an out of focus pink flower, OK so I know how to make a selection and I know how to feather it etc etc, what I need to know is how to change the various shades of pink to match the various shades of green in the rest of the image.

PS; The pink flower is far too large to effectively clone out.

post the pic let people have a go, and then tell you.

By far the easiest approach:

1. Create a new, blank, layer in the layers palette

2. In the layers palette, change the layer's blend mode from Normal to Color

3. Pick a soft brush and paint on the layer to change the colour underneath. If you Alt-click you change to the colour picker so you quickly sample the colour nearby.

You shouldn't have to worry about complex selections.
Additionally, because the work is done on a layer you can toggle the visibility of the layer (click on the eye on the left of the layer in the layers palette) - it gives you a quick before/after view.

HTH!!
Matt

You could duplicate the layer and create a feathered mask around the subject, select hue and saturation, then click on the selection tool (a dropper or hand holding an arrow depending on your version) click and hold on the subject the move the mouse until you have the right shade.

I found this course by Chris Orwig extremely helpful, but you do have to pay for it link, he was also the least annoying presenter I have found in a while.

Edit

Just found this link, but I expect you already know this bit
link

Throw it in the dustbin

I had a go with MattMatic's technique a few days ago - it's very easy and works extremely well!

To avoid painting over the orange flower, use the magic wand to select it and then invert the selection. (Adjust the tolerance value of the selection wand to get the whole flower).

Thanks folks, Matts suggestion was just what I was after, the technique works a trick but I still have a problem with the edges of the flower where the orange bleeds into the pink, if I try and colour that green it just looks odd, definately going to need a bit of extra work aound there, possibly with a mask and a bit of feathering.

You could copy and paste the edge of an orange petal (and adjoining background) from elsewhere. Probably a bit quicker than cloning.

What about the "Replace color" function ? ( Image > Adjustments > Replace color )

Just make a selection of the flower, it does not need to be 100% right it's just to make sure when you change the pink it won't change the pink else where in the photo.

So make a crude selection and make a layer adjustment tool called hue/saturation, if it's al right you still have the selection now make a layer mask out of that to hide everything except the selection.

Then with the adjustment layer hue/saturation you've a picker simply click on the pink flower and you see the range it picks in the tool and now you can selectively adjust the hue of the pink so make it orange for example.

If it's the only pink in the photo you can try to do it without the layermask.

Thanks again for the input folks.

Heres links to the before and after shots, the after shot is in my portfolio.

I used Mikes suggestion of changing the colour on a new layer and also did a bit of cloning.

Let me know what you think of the results.

Before:link

After:link

That looks a lot better but you see some lighter green spots around the area where the pink flower was.
With the smudge tool you can make that far less obvious by rubbing/smudging it out.

Edit: actually it looks very good, I find it so hard to cloon out things in the out of focus back ground, it looks fake very fast.

Hint: That's one good use for the "Darken" layer blend mode
Matt

That's indeed also an option but wouldn't it darken the rest as well?

It depends what you paint on the layer

If you pick the target colour (ie where you want to end up), then you will only darken those pixels that are lighter than that value. Everything darker gets left alone. So, you'd pick a shade of green where you want to finish at.

You can find that a mixture of cloning (or just copy/paste) an area that is good, and using an appropriate blend mode can do the job with a bit of 'randomness' (that simple painting may not provide).

The trouble is, each situation is slightly different, and it's all up to your ingenuity!

(I often end up using the 'Blend If' features... just love that facility. For me it's a 'must have' feature that I usually combine with blend modes and cloning and painting! )

Matt