How Can I Change the Colour of Multiple Circles (Shapes) in Photoshop?

[rekhyt]

I'm doing a poster that uses lots of polka-dots stacked in the background and I've drawn quite a lot of shapes within Photoshop (Over 100) and want to change the colour of the shapes from black to another colour.

How can I do this? I don't see an option for it and can't seem to change it at all.

 

[autacraft]

Few ways to do this, a simple way is to have all your dots on one layer, go to 'adjustments > hue/saturation > then click 'colourise' - use the slide bars to get a colour you want.

What I normally do though is just click on the layer you want to colour (your dots layer) then just change your foreground colour to the shade you want to use, then go 'adjustments > gradient map'

that will switch it

Just shout if you have any more questions ok

 

[rekhyt]

Few ways to do this, a simple way is to have all your dots on one layer, go to 'adjustments > hue/saturation > then click 'colourise' - use the slide bars to get a colour you want.

What I normally do though is just click on the layer you want to colour (your dots layer) then just change your foreground colour to the shade you want to use, then go 'adjustments > gradient map'

that will switch it

Just shout if you have any more questions ok

Hello Autacraft,
Thanks for the reply.

Right now I have lots of dots on each row, so basically each dot is in one layer, and each row of dots is in one folder.

I changed the colour of the shape into black using the Fill --> Colour option but the option's grayed out when I select multiple layers/multiple folders as well as when I turn it into a smart object.

I can't really have all the dots on one layer because I have 140 dots total on the A4 page, and there is a reason for that-I need to be able to change the colour of the dot individually using the fill option, but right now I want to mass-change the colours of all the 140 dots into another shade of colour to use that as the base colour.

is there any solution for my situation?

 

[autacraft]

if its just a temporary colouring of all your dots - in your layers palette switch off everything in your workspace except the dots (leave them showing) then create a new layer. Click on this new empty layer and hit these keys (if youre on a mac that is):

cmd > alt > shift > E

this will then take a snapshot of every element you have visible and place it in the new layer.

You can then colourise this layer as per my previous posting

just switch off all your 'layered' dots (or the layer set) and leave the new single layer showing for now.

 

[rekhyt]

if its just a temporary colouring of all your dots - in your layers palette switch off everything in your workspace except the dots (leave them showing) then create a new layer. Click on this new empty layer and hit these keys (if youre on a mac that is):

cmd > alt > shift > E

this will then take a snapshot of every element you have visible and place it in the new layer.

You can then colourise this layer as per my previous posting

just switch off all your 'layered' dots (or the layer set) and leave the new single layer showing for now.

Well it's not temporary - I'd like the base colour permanently changed to another colour, and hopefully easily changed to another colour if I want to immediately.

I've done this to some extent using a temporary method (From black dots to white dots) by changing the layer effect manually in each folder of the rows of dots from "Pass Through" to "Divide", which subsequently changed it from black to white. However, one disadvantage of this is that it'd not really permanent and will be lost if I change the layer effect to something else.

 

[autacraft]

or, you could alternatively just set up an adjustment layer 'gradient map' above your dots layers.

this doesnt need to contain any content and will just alter states like colour on everything below

 

[autacraft]

Well it's not temporary - I'd like the base colour permanently changed to another colour, and hopefully easily changed to another colour if I want to immediately.

I've done this to some extent using a temporary method (From black dots to white dots) by changing the layer effect manually in each folder of the rows of dots from "Pass Through" to "Divide", which subsequently changed it from black to white. However, one disadvantage of this is that it'd not really permanent and will be lost if I change the layer effect to something else.

Google 'Adjustment Layers'

This is your answer by the sounds of what you are trying to achieve, it will jst take some organisation of your layers is all.

Good luck

 

[rekhyt]

or, you could alternatively just set up an adjustment layer 'gradient map' above your dots layers.

this doesnt need to contain any content and will just alter states like colour on everything below

I'm not sure how I carry this out - Do I make a new layer, fill it with the colour I want, place it above all the dot folders/layers, and... I've gone to Adjustments --> Gradient Map and it seems to lighten up the colour I've chosen but aside from that nothing else much happens.

Also, would this affect my background, which is a solid colour of red?

@#7 Is there a more permanent option than adjustment layers? Also, how do you carry out clipping mask with multiple layers?

 

[autacraft]

I'm not sure how I carry this out - Do I make a new layer, fill it with the colour I want, place it above all the dot folders/layers, and... I've gone to Adjustments --> Gradient Map and it seems to lighten up the colour I've chosen but aside from that nothing else much happens.

Also, would this affect my background, which is a solid colour of red?

@#7 Is there a more permanent option than adjustment layers? Also, how do you carry out clipping mask with multiple layers?

The only way to colour all the dots 'in a grouped set' of layers, is to use either layer adjustments (which effect everything below) or to set up a new layer of flat colour and use layer blend modes (linear dodge for example), this will alter colours across all your layers.

But yes, this will also alter your background colour.

The problem you have, is that you are wanting to color ALL the dots in one instance, which cant be done so easily in photoshop I'm afraid.

You might be able to create an 'action', by which I mean you could record the process of changing the dots colours and then 'action' this, but I'm not entirely sure you'd be able to action it in one go across your layer set. Give it a go I guess.

Word of advise, whenever you are using graphics in this way (altering/colouring multiple shapes) always ALWAYS use illustrator and bring into photoshop, avoids all this headache. Illustrator can do what youre trying to do in a matter of seconds!

 

[autacraft]

I've just thought of something actually, if you set up an 'adjustment layer' actually inside the 'group' layer (make sure the adjustment layer is at the top of the stack of dots) this will only effect the colour changes within your group, and not the background layer.

P.S your group's blending mode needs to be set to NORMAL

 

[usclaneyj]

Are these dots just pixel data or did you create fill layers with vector objects on them?

Personally, I think I would flatten all of the dots so that they are on their own layer. I know you said you wanted to avoid that but here's my solution:

Once all the dots are on one layer, you can lock the transparency of that layer and then quickly and easily fill the layer with whatever base color you want. Then, bam. all your dots are one uniform base color.

Then you can make a clipping mask on top of that dot layer, and you can just brush whatever colors you want in specific areas right into that clipping mask layer. Since it's a clipping mask, it will not affect the transparent areas of your dots layer at all.

Does that sound like it could work for you?