How To Change The Color of ANYTHING in Lightroom – COOL Adjustment Brush Trick!
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In this tutorial, you will learn how to change colors in Lightroom.
You might remember a recent tutorial where I showed you how to change the color of anything in Photoshop, this is going to be a similar tutorial, but we’re going to do it all in Lightroom and not Photoshop.
Photoshop has great masking options and a ton of tools to change the color of an object. But if you have an object that is easy to select you may want to stay in Lightroom and do all your work there.
Keep in mind that there are two versions of Lightroom. Lightroom Classic CC and Lightroom CC.
In this tutorial, we’re going to work with Lightroom Classic CC. This is the version of Lightroom that has been around for a decade and is the preferred version of professional Photographers.
Lightroom CC is the new cloud-based editor which does not have the cataloging and organizational features that Lightroom Classic does. But the editing features between the two apps are virtually the same.
Note: Adobe has since renamed Lightroom CC to Lightroom, and Lightroom Classic CC is now Lightroom Classic. This tutorial uses Lightroom Classic, the desktop app with the Develop Module.
If you want to learn more about the new Lightroom CC, then check out my free video course for beginners.
If you would like to download the photo used in this tutorial, you can download a free watermarked preview from Adobe Stock.
Key Takeaways
- The Hue sliders in the HSL/Color panel only nudge a color toward its neighbors. A red jacket can go orange or magenta, but never blue.
- The Adjustment Brush with Auto Mask confines your strokes to pixels of similar color, so you can paint a jacket without spilling onto the background.
- Drop the Saturation to -100 first, then pick the new color from the Color swatch. The brush tints a gray object cleanly.
- Temperature and Tint do nothing once the object is desaturated. Shape the new color with the luminosity sliders instead.
- The color change survives a preset, because it lives inside the brush adjustment, not in the global settings.
- Since Lightroom Classic 11.0 (October 2021), the Adjustment Brush lives inside the Masking panel as the Brush tool. The steps are the same.
Table of contents
What You Will Learn
- Why the HSL panel can only shift a color a little, and when that is not enough
- How to paint over one object with the Adjustment Brush and Auto Mask
- How to reset the brush sliders and change the color of the mask overlay
- How to desaturate the object and tint it with the Color swatch
- How to fine-tune the new color with the luminosity sliders
- Why the new color stays put when you apply a Lightroom preset
Requirements
Before you start
- Lightroom Classic CC, the 2018 release the video was recorded in, or the current version of Lightroom Classic
- A photo with an object that is easy to select, like the red jacket in the video
Keyboard Shortcuts
| Action | Windows | macOS |
|---|---|---|
| Select the Adjustment Brush | K | K |
| Turn the Effect label into a Reset button | Alt | Option |
| Show or hide the mask overlay | O | O |
| Cycle the overlay color | Shift O | Shift O |
| Make the brush smaller or larger | [ or ] | [ or ] |
| Decrease or increase the feather | Shift [ or Shift ] | Shift [ or Shift ] |
| Subtract from the mask while painting | Alt | Option |
| Zoom in to check for missed spots | Z | Z |
Change Colors in Lightroom With The HSL Panel
Before we go into the Adjustment Brush technique featured in this tutorial, it is important to be familiar with and understand the method that most people use to change colors in Lightroom and why it doesn’t always work.
Make sure that you are in Lightroom Classic CC, and go into the Develop Module.
From the Develop Module, you can click on the HSL/Color panel. Then you can select the Hue tab, where you will see a list of colors that you can adjust with the corresponding sliders.
In this example, the model is wearing a red jacket. If you wanted to change the jacket to another color, you could drag the Red slider to the left or to the right to shift the hue.
But notice that you can only shift the hue just a bit. You can make the jacket orange, or you can make it magenta, but you cannot change it to a specific color.
If you want to make the jacket blue, then you will need to use a different technique.
A better way of changing the color of an object in Lightroom to a specific color is to use the Adjustment Brush.
Change Colors in Lightroom With The Adjustment Brush
The best way to change colors in Lightroom to any color that you like is to use the Adjustment Brush along with the Color option.
Note: Since Lightroom Classic 11.0, the October 2021 release, the Adjustment Brush lives inside the Masking panel. Click Masking in the tool strip, or press ShiftW (Windows) or ShiftW (macOS), then choose Brush. Auto Mask, Flow, Density and the Color swatch are all still there, so every step below works the same way.
To do so, start by selecting the Adjustment Brush by pressing K (Windows) or K (macOS) on the keyboard or clicking on it from the tools bar.
Then make sure that no adjustments have been made to any of the sliders in the adjustment panel. You can hold Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) to change the “Effect” label to a “Reset” button. Once you click on the Reset button, all the sliders and settings will return to default.
To make things easier to select, make sure that you also check the Auto Mask checkbox, which will confine brush strokes to areas of similar color.
Tip: In the video, Flow and Density are both set to 100, so every stroke applies the full effect.
Notice that when you start painting over the image, you will see a red overlay. This overlay represents the areas that you have painted on and the areas that will be adjusted by the Adjustment Brush’s settings.
If your photo contains red areas, such as the red jacket in the photo in this example, you will not be able to see the overlay. But you can press ShiftO (Windows) or ShiftO (macOS) on the keyboard to toggle between the different colors available for the overlay. Red, green, white, and black.
If you don’t see the overlay, you can press O (Windows) or O (macOS) on the keyboard to enable it (or disable it).
When painting over the object, remember that the bracket keys on the keyboard, [ (Windows) or [ (macOS) and ] (Windows) or ] (macOS), allow you to change the brush size quickly. Adding the Shift key will let you adjust the feather, which is the sharpness of the edge of the brush.
Paint over the object whose color you would like to change. You don’t have to be very precise; you can always come back and fine-tune your selection later on.
Changing The Color of The Jacket
Once you have painted over the jacket, disable the overlay by pressing O (Windows) or O (macOS) on the keyboard, and reducing the Saturation to negative 100.
Without any saturation, you may notice that some areas still contain the original color. If you do, then simply continue painting over your object until it is completely gray.
Tip: Press Z (Windows) or Z (macOS) to zoom in and spot the areas you missed. You can turn Auto Mask off for those small touch-ups.
Remember that if you make a mistake, you can always hold Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) to subtract from the mask.
The next step is to add the color.
Go to the section here that reads Color, click on the swatch, and select any color that you like.
You can then use the luminosity sliders (Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, and Blacks) to control how the color looks.
Keep in mind that sliders that control colors, such as Temperature and Tint, will not change the color of the adjustment. The Adjustment Brush desaturated the image, so these sliders will not affect the color.
Lightroom Presets
One of the advantages of this coloring method is that it remains even when you apply a Lightroom Preset.
So, after replacing the color of an object, you can then apply your favorite preset!
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Select the Adjustment Brush, turn on Auto Mask, and paint over the object. Drop the Saturation to negative 100, then pick a new color from the Color swatch. Photoshop has better masking tools, but for a simple object like a jacket you can stay in Lightroom.
The Hue sliders in the HSL/Color panel only shift a color toward its neighbors. Red can become orange or magenta, but it cannot jump all the way to blue. To reach a specific color, use the Adjustment Brush instead.
Auto Mask confines your brush strokes to areas of similar color. Lightroom samples the color under the crosshair at the center of the brush and only paints pixels that match it. That keeps the background clean while you paint over a jacket.
The overlay is red by default, so it disappears over a red object. Press Shift and O to cycle the overlay through red, green, white, and black. Press O on its own to turn the overlay on or off.
The Adjustment Brush desaturated the object before the color was added, so there is no original color left for Temperature and Tint to shift. Use the luminosity sliders instead: Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, and Blacks. They control how light or dark the new color looks.
Yes. The color lives inside the Adjustment Brush adjustment, not in the global panels that a preset changes. Replace the color first, then apply your favorite preset on top.
Since Lightroom Classic 11.0, the October 2021 release, it lives inside the Masking panel as the Brush tool. Click Masking in the tool strip, or press Shift and W, then choose Brush. Auto Mask, Flow, Density, and the Color swatch are all still there.
Yes. Lightroom mobile has the same Brush tool under its selective adjustments, and the workflow is the same: paint the object, remove the saturation, then add a color. This site has a separate tutorial that walks through the mobile steps.
Your Turn
And there you have it! That’s how to change the color of an object in Lightroom CC Classic!
If you edit on your phone, the same trick works there too: see how to change the color of anything in Lightroom mobile. Let me know in a comment on the video if this technique was new to you.
Links Mentioned In The Video Tutorial
Selections and Masking Mastery
Complete course includes 2.5 hours of step-by-step lessons, 6 structured modules, downloadable practice files, and custom Photoshop brushes. Everything you need to master selections and masks in one place.
Keep going
Next, pick up 7 Lightroom hidden gems, including the Masking panel that replaced the Adjustment Brush.
Related Links
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First time I’ve seen this. Very clear tutorial. I have LR and PS via the cloud so it’s great to see tutorials for both. Thank you for making very clear tutorials.
You’re welcome, Susan!
I need to ask because I’ve been looking all over for these tools in the new Lightroom CC and I cannot find them .. I know this is a tutorial for the classic version, but you said that “the editing features between the two apps are virtually the same”, am I missing something? I cannot seem to find any color picker in the adjustment brush layer settings …
I have just tried this, but the new color I get is a muted color, not a vibrant one that I would like. Am I doing something wrong. (Using LR5).
Thanks
You are quite good, with clear and simple instructions for photoshop novices. Thank you.
You’re welcome!
Hi. Thanks for the tips. It’s amazing. However, I am trying to change the selected color to black and it seems that I can’t find this in the color selection. How do I change my selected area to black. Thanks!
How do I change it to black?
Hey, could you please also explain how you can change the hue of blacks, whites and greys like in photoshop? if i would like to take some yellow or red out of white colours? or take some yellow out of blacks to make them more blue looking? I mean without masking so I could apply the filter in bulk to other photos of the series.
With the update that brush is not available so how can we acheive that now
This is really helpful. But how do I make an object a SPECIFIC color in Lightroom? (I have CC, not Classic). It seems like I can only drag the color picker around the color selection area but not choose a specific brand color.
Excellent tutorial, especially that you list the steps below for reference. I followed it using my own project and ran into 2 problem areas. Painting the mask sometimes flowed onto areas I didn’t expect such as skin, but then you showed the blue on a thumb that you had to erase, so I guess that’s ok. The other was the zoom. It always zoomed to the center of the picture, not on the object I was working on which was on the left side. Tried different key combinations but nothing worked. (PC). Can you provide an explanation/ solution? Thanks
Thanks, very good tip.
I tried this but it does not seem to work with black. I was trying to go from black to red or any other color.
This tutorial was so helpful! I didn’t know you could play around in lightroom like this. Definitely bookmarking this for reference. Thanks for the easy tutorial!!
Hi, thank you for this tutorial. I was wondering if there is a way with this method to select a specific colours using RGB numbers or CMYK.
Thanks again!
I have stand alone LR 6, and I can do all the steps, but when I select a color it is not applied. I must be missing a step. What am I not doing?
Hello and thank you for this awesome video. I tried following the instructions here to attempt changing the background color of a photo from white to gray. After selecting the background area which was white, when I go to click on the “Color” picker option and try to change the color of the selected area , I don’t see that taking effect. The selected area stays white irrespective of what color I pick in the color picker. Is there anything extra needed to change whites into a different color altogether in this workflow? Thanks a lot