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How to transfer the colour palette of one picture into another picture?


Molly

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How to transfer the colour palette of one picture into another picture so both use the same set of colours?

In particular, I have a tourist’s contemporary photo of a landscape in a layer in PShop.
On the other layer I have Leonardo’s Mona Lisa.
Naturally, each picture has its own set of colours/ palette.

My aim is to transfer the colour palette specific to Mona Lisa onto
the contemporary photo, so it assumes the Mona Lisa’s colours and both pictures are within identical range of colours.

How to achieve this?

Extra info - I’ve tried to tweak colours of the contemporary photo using various colour correction tools and filters but the result is just not good- obviously I don’t have the skills needed…

Any practical tip how to achieve this transfer of palette from one image to another is much appreciated!

Thank You in advance!
 

ALB68

Dear Departed Guru and PSG Staff Member
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Hi Molly,
Both images have to be in the same color space. Shift+Ctrl+K will get you to the screen to insure that they are the same. If the image is to for viewing only, it should be the sRGB space as indicated.
colorset.JPG
 
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Tom Mann

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Surprisingly, it's not as easy to do as one trained as a painter might imagine. Try:

http://www.photoshop911.com/tutorials/match_color.html
- - - Photoshop's "match colors"

A much more advanced (and more difficult to use) version of the above is:
www.foksmarx.com

However, to be honest, I've had only limited success with either of the above.

Although it's not really designed for this, Photoshop's "Indexed color mode" might also be useful (Google it). It gives a "palette" of very specific colors, but the catch is that unlike painting, these colors can't be blended.

Finally, you will find all sorts of color palette generators on the web, eg, Adobe's Kuler, but these do something different than I think you are looking for.

Sorry I can't give you a more positive answer. Perhaps ibclare or one of our other regulars with a strong painting background will join in the discussion.

HTH,

Tom M


 

hawkeye

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As Tom Mann suggested you could try indexed color mode. Then save the accompanying color table. Once saved you can replace the swatches with the color table. This will give you all the colors, but it's unclear to me how you intend to transfer them from one photo to the other.
 

ALB68

Dear Departed Guru and PSG Staff Member
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Sorry, I misinterpreted the request. I have to defer to the more learned.
 

ALB68

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Tom Mann

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That's a great find, Larry. I had not see such specific and well written instructions before. The only problem is that I can interpret the OP's question in two different ways, and I'm not sure which she really wants.

1st possible interpretation: I'm a painter and I am used to squeezing out a bit of cerulean blue, crimson violet, cadmium yellow and burnt umber for one type of painting that I do, and I now want to do the analogous thing in PS, except that I don't want be forced to mix the colors myself (as I would with real paints), but instead, I want some algorithm to look at each color in my starting, much larger gamut (photographic) image, and then find the nearest color that can be achieved in the gamut defined by subtractive mixing of the above pigments or some other set of pigments.

2nd possible interpretation: This is almost the same as the previous interpretation EXCEPT that the desired gamut isn't defined by a small set of starting pigments, but by the gamut of one particular image (eg, the Mona Lisa in the OP's example).

I realize that the OP's question is much closer to the second interpretation, but if I were a painter, I would be much more interested in the 1st interpretation because I would not want to be limited to 256 indexed colors that can only vary by discrete steps as you go from one area to an adjoining area on the image, and (b) I would want to think in terms of pigments that I'm used to, not someone else's images.

To me, interpretation #1 sounds almost exactly like what printer driver software does for a living (eg, map some 16 bit RGB color into 6 (or so) quantities of inks in a particular inkset. So, I wonder if such software exists that is not specific to mfgr-specific printing.

Just my $0.02,

Tom M
 

ALB68

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Me either Tom, just trying to cover the bases.
 

ibclare

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Hmm, I am glad you think I could come up with an easy answer since I am a painter. However,I don't know how to interpret the question either?

I have some ideas with general guidelines, but again, without knowing exactly what Molly has in mind, I owuldn't know where to begin and could be way offo her expectations.

SO Molly, can you try to describe in more detail, but not technical, what it is you want to do. I think I do understand, but in Photoshop vs. really painting, I think the results must be obtained using some technical method. OTOH, you could use filters to add a sepia effect. You could apply a texture or color layer or double color layers, different colors to mix like paints and try changing layer modes, color opacity, etc. You could indeed by painterly and use the paint brush to wash over like watercolors to get an effect of older and yellowed hues and shades on the other image. I think I owuld try using layer adjustment>photo filter>sepia, and if that wasn;t right, try another color under the photo filter. Usually, in my experience, to achieve the desired effect, it takes a lot of experiementation, a good eye, creative ability, and patience!

You could post the two images and I could play around with them and give you my thoughts. I am not exaggerating when I say thatit can be a lot of layers, layer effects, adjustment layers, mode and opacity changes, filters, smart objects . . . so many considerations.

I often struggle to get images to work with each other in a manipulation/composition using a variety of images (usually I find these on Deviantarts.com as there are many talented artists, photograpers and models for photographers. A huge gallery of excellent images there. Anyway, in one manipulation using only 8 or so images, I might end up with 80 layers. Not unusual, but like my signature says, I have my pown rules:
3 Ps of PS: perseverance, patience, & play!

If I didn't bring a sense of fun into this, I could never get through the amount of work and time it takes to achieve the desired effect. But it is so worthwhile and I learn so much, often through seerndipity and discovering things I didn't know about the program accidentally and unintentionally. It is a constant wonder to me what you can do in PS. So I think it is well worth the time spent and I actually feel joyful doing it. I sent two framed manipulations out to my bro in law and one to my niece. My bro said that I am way better in PS, but of course that takes years of experience and learning to achieve. They both loved the gift.

Well, let me know if my rambling here has made any sense. I would be very happy to experiment with your project and see if I can supply any pointers. Cheers, Queen Bee. <<<--- not because I am such a royal; just egotistical and I enjoy bossing the other mods and our admin around!
:rolleyes:
:rofl:
 

Molly

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Big Thanks ALB 68, Tom Mann, hawkeye!!!

Your help is much appreciated!!!

Molly
 

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