Color matching via replace color

[longboy]

I am new to this forum, I am facing a problem in my work, I have more than 200 files and I have to do some retouching on these,

Here is what I have

layer 1 background layer ( color = 35, 40%, 89% HSB)
Layer 2 some objects scanned from an old book with range of black range of red and some dark brown shadow around all these

I want that dark shadow to be the same color as background color so that is invisible and do not disturb printing.

Question:

what is the best method to do that?
can I use replace color and then select desired color and modify?

Problem: if I use Replace color I got Hue Saturation and Lightness and if I try to put same values as color of background it changed to white color while I want some light camel color like paper color.

 

[X_Rogue_X]

So I'm reading this as you simply want to remove the shadow(s). Assuming that is the case, there are a few ways to do it.

One is to mask the objects on Layer 2 and paint the shadows away using the background color. However, that will probably look bad when printing. Another, and better way, I think, is to separate the desired objects and simply paste them onto the background. Trying to replace the shadow might be a lot of work, as the shadow has a range of hues. Not that it couldn't be done.

You could try Color Range for your selection, too.

200 files...time to roll up your sleeves I think.

Can you post an example for us?

 

[tricky500]

If this is printing I'd color correct using cmyk. Forget HSB. First thing i'd do is make a good selection of layer 2, minus the shadow. Apply alpha mask to layer to mask out shadow. What you can do if you still want a shadow layer is duplicate this layer, apply mask, double click on layer, go to drop shadow, then use color picker tool, click on background and use the background color as drop shadow color. you could make it lighter than the background so it stands out. Set fill to 0%. Move it to where you want. Set it to multiply if you want it to be darker than bkground color. The problem your going to run into if you don't make a mask for whatever your correcting is if your selection is not localized to a specific area, your adjustments are going to start affecting area's you don't want to mess with > especially so if you're making large color adjustments.
You always want to add what we call a hi lite min checker at my work. What this does is show you what parts of the image might drop out or possible scum (Designers are notorious for doing a bad mask job with scum dot all over my file that is invisible until you push the colors) you will need to remove because otherwise it will print. All you do is make a curve adjustment layer. Grab the linear curves @ top right, (100 and 100) and drag all the way over to top left as far as possible. (You'll also want to do this on a white background absent of color.) This pushes all the color so you can see anything that needs to be cleaned up or where drop out areas occur. Idk what type of printing your doing but if it's flexo your going to probably need min dots.

Keep all your layers separate so in case something comes back for changes you don't screw yourself! Don't merge your objects with background layer or shadow layer etc.. Always set your files up so you can back track to the original - which means often times creating duplicates, and putting them in a folder called originals and then hide it.

I do 90% of my color work through Curve adjustments and Channel Mixers.

 

[longboy]

here is the sample of work, I have cropped 1/3 of a line and there are 15 lines on every file. This is Arabic Script calligraphy and scanned from 300 years old book.

actual shadow is 2 pixel wide around text but its is clearly visible in printing.

I have only 10 days left to complete 200 pages.

 

[tricky500]

I have an idea that might help with that. Let me try something with that image real quick..

 

[tricky500]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Sorry for double post, will delete other. Anyway, what I did was go to select, color range, drag the range all the way over to 200. Now select the black text. Now go to select > refine edge. I used the settings > Radius 0, Contrast 40%, smooth 1, feather .5, contract expand 0. Now with this I made a curve adjustment layer using this selection as my mask. The text should be white and background black in the mask. Then I put my color adjustment to Output > 42, input > 122. This saturated the black to where the pixelation is not as noticeable. What you could do with this though is create your own text using this selection, just grab a brush and paint it black... Thats just one idea.. If your text is on a separate layer than the paper you can use this selection, invert it and then you can use a curve to remove the color or lighten it, or blur it a pixel or two..

 

[longboy]

Thank you for your reply but i could not understand few things in it. I have CS3 on mac.

after selecting how can i use curve adjustment layer ( i have tried few curves but its making shadow as white ) if somehow i can reduce the amount of shadow its fine for me I have maximum 2 minutes to do this adjustments then I have to do rest of retouching.

 

[tricky500]

Invert the selection you would have created and apply it as a layer mask. On your text layer