Channel Mixer - using it to change color

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Go the menu Image/Adjustments/Channel Mixer to bring up this dialog box.


Tutorial Description: Often the channel mixer is used to modify black and white photos. However, this tutorial shows you how to change the color of a colored photo using the Channel Mixer.


Final Product is below.
Mostly we use the Photoshop Channel Mixer when changing RGB/CMYK to grayscales. Now we will use it on our RGB picture. We want to change this car color to something different like gold. The key is the blue color; we will change this blue to an effective gold with some simple steps..

 


Red channel There is no real exact way to balance a picture, the most common black and white is based on the red colors that's why the channel mixer started out with 100% red.

Choose from the menu Image/Adjustments/Channel Mixer.Why? Because we want to change our blue to gold, first from Output Channel choose Red. In the Source Channel set the Red percentage to 0% and set the Blue color up to +100%.

Blue channel

Now set the Blue color down to 0% and the Red up to +100%.

And here is our brand new re-sprayed car !

Just play around with the sliders and see how many effects you can create.

Important: Try to keep the total sum around 100 to avoid washed out areas in your picture.
You can refine this method to you taste. ie just select the outline of the car with the pen tool and you can retain the surrounding colors and adjust the background.
You can restrict blending effects to a specified channel when blending a layer or layer set. By default, all channels are included when blending a layer or layer set. The channel selections vary based on the type of image you are editing. For example, if you are editing a RGB image, the channel choices are R, G, and B. If you are editing a CMYK image, the channel choices are C, M, Y, and K. When using an RGB image, for example, you can choose to exclude the Red channel from blending; in the composite image, only information contained in the Green and Blue channels are affected.
To exclude channels from blending:
Double-click a layer thumbnail, choose Layer / Layer Style / Blending Options, or choose Blending Options from the Layers palette menu.
Note: To view blending options for a text layer, choose Layer / Layer Style / Blending Options, or choose Blending Options from the Layers palette menu.
In the Advanced Blending section of the Layer Style dialog box, deselect any channels you do not want to include when the layer is blended.