How to Change Silver to Gold in Photoshop

In this post, we walk through how to change silver to gold in Photoshop. It’s a simple process.

Why do this? Metals are difficult to photograph. So if you have the same style of jewelry in gold and silver, it’s quicker to take a photograph of one of them and then use Photoshop to change the color to gold or even rose gold.

Steps to change Silver to Gold in Photoshop:

1. Open the Image in Photoshop, then go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation

We start with an image with a transparent background – this is usually either a png or a gif file. If you’re working with a photographer, have them give you files in this format. The checkered background in Photoshop means that there is no background.

You’ll see the default Hue/Saturation window like this:

2. Check the Colorize box

In the Hue/Saturation window that opens up, check the ‘Colorize’ box. This tells Photoshop you want to add color to the image. Note: the settings you see below are added by default when you check the Colorize box.

More importantly, when you check this box, the slider ranges change. If you look at the above image, you’ll see that when the slider is in the middle, the setting shows as 0. But in the below image, after you check Colorize, the 0 setting appears when the slider is all the way to the left.

3. Move Sliders.

Next, move the sliders around to similar settings as I have below. The exact settings will vary for your image but start with the below and tweak as needed to get the color to match your product.

Here is what each of the sliders do:

• Hue changes the core color of the product
• Saturation makes the color more or less intense e.g. a bright gold v. a dull gold
• Lightness makes the image lighter or darker. This is different from Saturation. Try it to see how it changes your colors.

We added a white background to it and here are the final images. Note: when you save the png file as a jpg, the white background is automatically added (because jpg files don’t support transparent backgrounds)

Use the above settings as guidelines. The exact settings require some playing around depending on your product. As you can see, the process is simple but the catch is to be able to match the color of the metal. There are so many different shades of gold and silver so play with the sliders till you like what you see.

If you want to do the reverse – view our prior post on changing gold to silver or rose gold.

That’s it. If you have a question, leave a comment.