A Challenge for you PS pros :)

[Elementz]

I have two images and I want to get one to have similar color tones as the other.

This is the first image ...

http://www.elementzoffoto.com/AAAver2/images/weddingnarratives/margaretandwinston/full_3.jpg

This is the image that I want it to be similar to. This image is actually shot on slide film and cross processed. There has been no photoshop manipulation used to get the color shifts and contrast tones.

http://www.elementzoffoto.com/AAAver2/images/weddingnarratives/margaretandwinston/full_1.jpg

Because these images are going into their wedding album and are feature photos, I would like the first photo to have a similar tonality and contrast as the second image, but I can't seem to get it to work. I have already tried the "colour match" feature in Photoshop CS and it doesn't work!!

I'd love some help!!!

[Leah]

The trouble is that cross-processing changes the relationships between colors, so you're unlikely to be able to do this in any automated way. Also you'll need to increase the contrast since cross-processing does that too.

I think your best strategy is to divide the photo into five areas:
- sand
- sea
- sky
- skin
- white (dress + shirt)
and correct each individually.

My attempt (attached) - layers numbered from bottom up

1. Background (original photo)
2. Curves layer, no mask and opacity set to 100%. [Red - Input 124 Output 143; Green - Input 117 Output 141; Blue - Input 249 Output 193]
3. Color balance layer, masked to apply to white areas only and opacity set to 35%. [Preserve Luminosity On; Shadows -13 +12 -4; Midtones -11 +16 -6; Highlights -4 +13 -5]
4. Color balance layer, masked to apply to sea only and opacity set to 50%. [Preserve Luminosity On; Shadows 0 -33 0; Midtones 0 +47 0; Highlights 0 +29 0]
5. Color balance layer, masked to apply to sky only and opacity set to 100%. [Preserve Luminosity On; Shadows 0 0 0; Midtones +1 +18 +18; Highlights 0 0 0]
6. Levels layer, no mask and opacity set to 100%. [Input levels 52 1.00 242]

I'm still not convinced about the color of the sand, but it's closer to what you're looking for.

[Ed_L]

Let me make it clear right now that I'm a l-o-o-o-o-ng way from being a pro. What I did was pretty easy. I made a hue/sat adjustment layer for the image to be corrected. Targeted yellow, and made a +20 hue adjustment. Targeted red, and made a -4 adjustment. This brought the sand close by eyeballing it. The dress and shirt remained pretty white, so I added an empty layer, and filled it with a sampled color from a shadow in the dress. Changed the blending mode to color, and added a layer mask. Filled the mask with black, then painted with white on the dress and shirt with a low opacity soft brush until it looked right. I didn't bother with the sky, but it shouldn't be too difficult to match when using layer masks.

Ed

[Elementz]

Thanks for taking the time to try this ... I'll take what you've done and play with it a bit more!!

[sdubose99]

Judy, I was intrigued by the question because I couldn't believe the Match Color feature wouldn't work properly. So I tried making rough selections in both image that I wanted to match -- dress, sand, skin, water, sky -- and did Match Color on each. The attached is what resulted, which I think is pretty good. And it's much quicker than I could have done manually...

You'll note that it's not perfect, though, if the selections are not done precisely enough, or if you select portions of the image that don't apply to what you're trying to match. For example, the area of the wave behind the veil, and her skin tones look a little off, but you get the idea...

The next question will be how to do this on many many images, quickly.

And now that I have re-read your post, I think I processed the wrong image!

Scott

[Mig]

Cross processing in ps is a lot of fun. Here's how the curves might look for it, although keep in mind there are plenty of variations. In the case of your second pic, apply these curves in an adjustment layer to the RGB, RED, GREEN and BLUE channels. Change the blend mode of this adjustment layer to multiply and reduce its opacity to 25%. Duplicate this adjustment layer and change the blend mode to hard light and keep the opacity at 25%. This will basically get you to where you want to go. You can verify this is correct by measuring the numbers in the Info palette. They should match your other pic.

Mig

[Elementz]

Thanks again!!!

I'm going to try the curves selections.

Scott ... that's actually pretty funny

My problem was that I wanted to go the other way!! And I just couldn't get the colour match feature to give me the results. I believe its because the image I wanted to match to is natural cross processing and that makes the matching process a bit unusual.

Anyway, off I go to try the curves technique!

[kiska]

I don't know if this is what you want. I used 3 Replace color adjustments. Sky,water,beach. They can be seen at...http://photos.yahoo.com/lakelahusage. kiska
Sorry, that would be in the Before and After album. Adjusts. were made to photo #3 only.
Just learning. Disregard the yahoo album.