Adding Color to White Background

I have a photo of a silver object taken on a white background. I would like to change the white background to some other color, but have been unsuccesful in doing so. Any ideas?

Mindy,

If the background is truly white, I would suggest that you create a Solid
Color fill layer above your image, using the color you prefer, then change
its opacity in the Layers palette until it is the desired shade.

Then, with that Color layer selected, paint with black over the silver
object to reveal the original image layer, below.

You'll get plenty of other ideas from here, too!

Byron

<Byron Gale> wrote
> Then, with that Color layer selected, paint with black over the silver
> object to reveal the original image layer, below.

I should have added that if you reveal too much, switch to painting white to
bring back your color layer.

Mindy,

As Byron hinted, there are lots of ways to change the background. Here is another one:

If the background is solid white or close to it, you can try the Magic Wand tool. Click anywhere on the white and hopefully the entire background will be selected. If not all of it is selected or the selection drifts into the object, try adjusting the Tolerance or add/subtract from the selection using the Lasso tool. Feather the selection a few pixels if you want a soft transition between the object and background.

With the selection active, create a new layer above the image and fill it with your color. You can then adjust the layer's opacity to get the shade you want.

Mark

And yet another.....

Use the Paint Bucket Tool.

1. Select the colour you want using the Foreground Colour Picker.
2. Select the Paint Bucket Tool
3. Click on the White.

You'll perhaps need to play around with the Tolerance if some colour spills over. Try lowering it.

Colin