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I'm using a set of pictures in a colour-themed report. Please take a look at the pictures below. The theme colour is RGB{52,177,201}.

I would like to alter the images slightly, more specifically, alter the blue background and make it look more related to colour RGB{52,177,201}. Note that the width:height ratio should remain 2:1.

The reason for doing so, is to make the report look more consistent from the perspective of colouring.

Does anybody have a suggestion to how to approach the problem? Is there a simple way to achieve this.

As of now, I'm starting to become familiar with adobe Illustrator. However, every advice/help is much appreciated.

EDIT: I would like to mention that the first picture meets already a 'fitting' colouring background. Secondly, I am not intending to remove the background, rather changing the background colouring.

Greetings,

Nadia

ETA from comments

What I have tried so far, is making use of tints and matching the color with swatches. This was all done in adobe Illustrator. However, this didn't give me a satisfactory result. The reason why I added photoshop, is that I presumed that the problem might be better addressed in Photoshop, as this is a pixelated image. For now, I have little to no experience in Photoshop. Nevertheless, I am willing to start photoshop if adobe illustrator is not sufficient.

The images are PNGs. I am not intending to remove the background, rather making it more matching with the first image. From my experience, removing backgrounds does not give the desired results. The contrast between the image and background became too big. Of course, could be due to my limited skillset. Nevertheless, the main issue is altering the blue-colour. Not removing.

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    Hi Nadia and welcome to GDSE! Can you tell us what you have tried so far? Are you open with answers using Adobe Photoshop? I see the tags but no mention of it in your question.
    – curious
    Jul 3, 2019 at 12:25
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    Thanks for the kind reply. What I have tried so far, is making use of tints and matching the color with swatches. This was all done in adobe Illustrator. However, this didn't give me a statisfactory result. The reason why I added photoshop, is that I presumed that the problem might be better adressed in Photoshop, as this is a pixelated image. For now, I have little to no experience in Photoshop. Nevertheless, I am willing to start photoshop if adobe illustrator is not sufficient. Jul 3, 2019 at 13:05
  • Possible duplicate of How to remove neutral background in photoshop?
    – Luciano
    Jul 3, 2019 at 13:23
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    The images are PNGs. As to whether the post is a duplicate, I am not intending to remove the background, rather making it more matching with the first image. From my experience, removing backgrounds does not give the desired results. The contrast between the image and background became too big. Of course, could be due to my limited skillset. Nevertheless, the main issue is altering the blue-colour. Not removing. Jul 3, 2019 at 13:35
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    the techniques involved in removing the background are going to be the same you need here: You need to make a selection or a mask, then add whatever color you want. This way you can control wether other elements in the image change color or not.
    – Luciano
    Jul 3, 2019 at 15:12

2 Answers 2

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Unfortunately only one of your images can be fixed easily:

enter image description here

It's the last one. There the background is nearly right, only a minor adjustments to blue is needed (except if the medical tool must stay intact, then you need a selection or mask like in other images)

They need an adjustment layer, I think Hue&Saturation with Colorize=ON is the right one. That layer needs a mask. To create it you must draw a precise clipping path just like you would do when you want to make high precision background removals.

You must use Colorize, because there's not enough room for hue, saturation and brightness adjustment, the noise will jump up

I guess you must adjust the colors of some blue items too to keep them visible against the theme background.

ADD: I tried the masked Hue&Saturation method to your PNG, which was free from JPG noise. The paper guys were easily (due the lack of the noise) selectable by color + a minor help with the polygonal lasso, but the stetoscope needed a clipping path. Actually I removed the background, as the duplicate voters obviously could predict.

The version without a background can be seen in the layers panel. The layer mask appeared to the adjustment layer by selecting the emptiness of the background free layer and inserting a layer mask to the adjustment layer. There's a snippet of the reference image as the top layer for adjusting the colorization. It was done subjectively because the reference has a gradient. I think the colorization is acceptable.

enter image description here

I guess the paper guys need something. I would make them a little better visible (=darker, a hue shift away from the background), like this:

enter image description here

NOT ASKED: For curiosity I checked if the blue colors could be printed in CMYK. The stetoscope has too bright blue and the modified paper guys have nearly the same. Color proofing showed that they will be flattened in CMYK printing to less saturated.

Photoshop can be set to warn of unprintable colors. Gamut warning shows the unprintable colors as grey:

enter image description here

The used print color profile was Euroscale Uncoated, which has much narrower color range than RGB displays. Your theme background seems to be printable as is.

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  • Hi, thanks for the help. Thank you for the suggestion. I think this is a nice step in the right direction. I'll start trying it out myself. By the way, I would not mind much if the medical tools change slightly. Main objective is to alter the blue-ish background. Jul 3, 2019 at 14:31
  • I had added my own answer but ended up deleting it because you'll get better results with this method. One thing that I had in my answer that might be useful here, is that you can add a slightly bigger temporary background with your theme color so that you have something to refer to as you adjust.
    – curious
    Jul 3, 2019 at 15:09
  • @Emilie Undelete it. The noise can be JPG artefacts caused by the uploading. The questioner surely finds are her images clean enough, if you warn her.
    – user82991
    Jul 3, 2019 at 15:20
  • @user287001 as you wish :)
    – curious
    Jul 3, 2019 at 15:27
  • @NadiaMerquez If the answer was helpful to you, you may upvote it / accept it. Here is a tour of how the site works so you may make yourself at home :)
    – curious
    Jul 3, 2019 at 16:25
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  • Add a background layer that is slightly bigger than your image
  • Fill it with your theme color (this will be deleted, it's only for reference).

enter image description here

  • Select your image only so that you don't modify your reference color.
  • Go in Image > Adjustments > Replace color
  • Select your background and increase the fuzziness to make sure you get everything

enter image description here

  • Adjust the sliders at the bottom until you get close to your reference color.
  • Rinse and repeat for all images!

enter image description here

It's a bit more straight forward but might introduce more noise compared to user287001's answer, hard to say without having the original image. Definitely keep an original copy of your images.

This one was fairly easy to fix but you may need to mask some items in your other images accordingly.

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  • Thank you for the upload, Emilie. It is indeed helpful to see alternative methods to achieve the results :). For the sake of clarity, you both used illustrator and not photoshop? Jul 3, 2019 at 15:34
  • Actually this can work, because the noise can be only in our uploaded copies. Imgur doesn't treat them especially nicely. The questioner has the originals.
    – user82991
    Jul 3, 2019 at 15:34
  • @NadiaMerquez I won't have time to update my answer but you might want to edit your question to add in the link. I'm not sure I would share ALL the pictures but maybe one of the more complicated ones (2nd one comes to mind) so others can test potential answers.
    – curious
    Jul 3, 2019 at 15:51
  • @Emilie Thanks for your amazing help! It looks really convenient, but I can't look at it now on the computer with no Photoshop. I'll start right away tonight when I get home. Jul 4, 2019 at 14:04

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