Hi. I found a template I want to use but I'd like to change a few colors around. I'm a noob at photoshop when it comes to making things look cleanly done. I have a few images that have a color I'd like changed, plus add a little gradient. I'm not sure how to do it. I need to do this to 3 pics. The header, footer and content. The grey in the following pic. think a noob can pull it off cleany?
A noob can definitely do it. There are lots of photoshop tutorials out there where you can learn how to achieve any effect. Probably the easiest thing to do is view the component images of the template and replace them with your own colors.
You could use the magnetic lasso tool to outline the central white part, then Inverse the selection and Copy Paste. That should get the gray on its own layer. Then you can alter color/gradient by going to the blending options and going to either Color Overlay or Gradient overlay.
Use the magic wand, click on the grey area to select all the grey section, then duplicate the layer with the selection. Right click ont he duplicated layer, go to Blending Options and apply a Color or Gradient Overlay.