Color matching help

[ebrown]

Hello. I'm hoping someone here can help me out. I'm in a situation where our photographers shot two identical sets, but set the white balance incorrectly. One is slightly warm and a bit dense while the other is cool and perfectly exposed.

The sets are two identical "school portrait" setups with neutral-tone painted background. I have close to 1000 images, half from each set. I need to correct one set to match the other. Obviously, with this quantity, I will need to use some kind of batch.

I tried to use Photoshop's Match Color feature, hoping to match parts of the background and apply the change to the entire picture. The results were closer, but not close enough (plus, it did some weird stuff to the skin tones.)

I was wondering if anyone has any tips to correct this situation.

I attached two samples.

Thanks for your advice.

Eric

 

[Steve]

There are a lot of things you can try.
Hue/ Saturation, Color Balance, Selective Color are a few adjustment layers you can try.
You need to apply and adjustment to the whole image.
Open your test image and make sure you can duplicate the results when you get it right so you can record an Action.

Another way is with Threshold and Curves but see if one of the other tools works first


You'll apply this action through the batch mode in Bridge but you can worry about that later.

 

[X_Rogue_X]

Yep, lots of options here. You didn't specify, but you'll likely get the best results if the pics were shot using RAW. Even if they weren't, you can still open them all in the Bridge, choose open in camera raw, and batch process them with a custom white balance.

Since they were all shot under the same conditions, it should be a fairly painless experience.

 

[Tron]

Rogue has an excellent point. IF you have the RAW files for these pics just play with the white balance settings inside ACR and you can correct it easily.

If you don't have RAW files, maybe this video Yutosi posted can help:
http://www.photoshopgurus.com/forum/photoshop-tutorial-videos/27406-correcting-color-cast-problems-photoshop-video-tutorial.html

 

[Dezigns Unlimited]

Yep, lots of options here. You didn't specify, but you'll likely get the best results if the pics were shot using RAW. Even if they weren't, you can still open them all in the Bridge, choose open in camera raw, and batch process them with a custom white balance.

Since they were all shot under the same conditions, it should be a fairly painless experience.

Agreed, anytime im working with fresh photo's, i open them in RAW, even if i was happy with my shots, i simply like playing in RAW.... The new CS5 RAW, is HOT!!! Lots of new goodies....

 

[ebrown]

thanks, one more question.

Thanks for all this great advice. The images were not shot in RAW, but I will play around with this in Bridge to see what I can do.

One thing I noticed while reviewing the images in Bridge is that the color profile was different on each camera. One was set for Adobe RGB, the other for sRGB. This is causing me to question my original assumption that white balance was not set correctly. I never have had a good grasp on color profiles, though. My initial thought is that, in this situation, it doesn't really matter. After all, the output device (my monitor) just uses the color profile to know what the input device (the camera) means by "white." Right?

 

[Steve]

Thanks for all this great advice. The images were not shot in RAW, but I will play around with this in Bridge to see what I can do.

One thing I noticed while reviewing the images in Bridge is that the color profile was different on each camera. One was set for Adobe RGB, the other for sRGB. This is causing me to question my original assumption that white balance was not set correctly. I never have had a good grasp on color profiles, though. My initial thought is that, in this situation, it doesn't really matter. After all, the output device (my monitor) just uses the color profile to know what the input device (the camera) means by "white." Right?

No, you're problem is white balance not color profile.
The color space may make a difference on how they look when they're printed, and how they look when you open them in Photoshop, but no difference if you're viewing them in a viewer like Internet Explorer, Windows Picture and Fax viewer, or posted online.

You can use ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) to adjust white balance through Bridge.
You can also open several files at a time in ACR and adjust them all at the same time.
Your problem is you need to adjust 500 images.

I still think your best bet is to record an Action based on 1 photo and then batch process them.
PS will open each file in Folder1, run the action, and save it to Folder2 if that's the way you set it up.

Edit:
Backup the files before you do anything.