How to Recolor an Element (Shading & make it appear 3D) - Using Photoshop

How to Recolor an Element (Shading & make it appear 3D)

Open up your image.

The image I'm working on is my "Basket Template" It's a 3600x3600 300 DPI image.

Double Click on the Layer you want to recolor in the Layers Pallet

This will bring up the Blending Mode.

Check the "Color Overlay" and choose the color of your choice.

See how using "Normal" (1) will make the color take over the element itself and not let the pattern show through? (2)

It just doesn't look nice. So, we're going to fix that.

 Change the "Blending Mode" to "Color" (1) from the dropdown list.
Now you can see a big difference (2).
The pattern is actually showing through.
But we're going to make it look even better.

If you aren't really happy with the color the last step gave you, you can fix it by checking "Satin" (1)

Choose from the "Blending Mode" drop down list to get different effects.

Here I've chosen "Soft Light" (2) from the dropdown list (to help brighten the color a little bit)

I used the same exact color as I did in "Color Overlay" (I liked how it looked but you can play around with the colors to get the shade you like best) (3) shows the results so far.
Now to give it life like shading.

Go to "Inner Shadow" (1) and choose a darker color than you used for the "Color Overlay" (2).
Leave the "Blend Mode" on "Multiply".
Now play around with the "Size", "Distance" and "Choke" utnil you get something you like.
Here I've left the "Choke" at 0, the "Distance" at 5 but put the "Size" up to 213.
(This is a 3600x3600 image so if yours is smaller you'll need to adjust accordingly).

Now for a little more shading.

Now do the same with the Inner Glow (1) that you did in the last step.
Make sure to change the Blend Mode to either "Multiply"  or "Normal" (2)
Though you can play around and see if you like one of the other settings from the dropdown list more.

Here are the results so far (3)

One final note.

When you're coloring the back of something you'll want ot make sure it's darker (3) so it appears further away (and/or shaded).
To do this, simply play with your settings under the "Inner Shadow" and Inner Glow" and change the "Colors", "Distance", "Size" Etc (2) to get the exact results you want.
Here is my final image.

I used the darker color(shading) effect on the back and the lighter coloring effect on the front to give it a more realistic appearance.
If you ahve any questions or suggestions please feel free to drop me an email justcreations@ymail.com