Photoshop Help!

Hey everyone, I need some Photoshop help. Actually, I"m using Jasc Paint Shop, so I'm sure there are some differences.

Anyway, I have attached the image I'm trying to edit, it's the first attachment below. Basically, I want to change the colors of the hearts from black to a maroon. I've tried to do it a couple of ways, both gave me poor results.

First I tried simply to select the hearts. The problem here is that the edges fade out, so when I selected an object, it really only selects the center, and doesn't appropriately catch the edges. I tried to fix this by simply expanding the area...but because the fading is not even around the entire image, I wind up getting lots of white space on one part while another part I still have not captured the entire edge. I've also tried feathering when I select, but I pretty much had the same problem. Then I just tried to manually select the edges, but I didn't know how to appropriately adjust the feathering. The end result is when I tried to paint over it is the second sample image. See how some edges are properly feathered...while others are not? Even if I could figure out how to get the whole area selected properly, when I paint over, it's kind of annoying because the black can still be seen underneath the red.

Next I tried a simple color replacement. But this resulted in simply a solid maroon heart, with not feathering around the edges. See the third attached image.

So is there a way to replace the black with maroon in such a way that it preserves the original feathering effect? So basically, Photoshop senses that the pixels around the edges are reduced in hue/saturation and adjust the maroon replacement accordingly?

I'm sure I'm not addressing my question in the clearest manner, but hopefully someone will get the idea of what I'm trying to say.

-Matt

I forgot to mention that I did try that approach...but I must be doing something wrong. I tried it both on Photoshop (which we have at work) and Jasc Paint Shop. I adjusted hue and saturation, but for some reason the black tones aren't altered at all...so below is my end result. Can you walk me what you did to get your results?

but if I just use a maroon paintbrush...it turns the entire image maroon. If I select the exact pixels of the heart (without feathering), it turns them all to the same shade of maroon, no fading around the edges. If I select the pixels with feathering, I have trouble getting the exact pixels I actually want. I just wish there was a simple way to say, I want the entire thing maroon, but I want the fading effect around the heart preserved, so that the paintbrush tool would adjust those faded pixels accordingly.

Here's what I ended up doing, I was able to select the exact pixels without feathering, and just turned the entire thing maroon. Then, I expanded my selection by 1pixel, and did an average blur. The result looks good, although there was some slight distortion, but what can you do? Here's my end result:

yeah...looking at my new image again...the edges just aren't quite as smooth as they are in the original black image and you can certainly tell they are a little fatter. So any other suggestions?

-Matt

ha ha...yeah...right after I posted that last message I went back and began trying all the different brush options. Screen is what I wanted. Thanks for the help! Enjoy the blessings

Here's the original and the final, just the way I wanted them.

-Matt