Welcome back to another very exciting tutorial here at the PhotoshopTrainingChannel.com.
My name is Jesus Ramirez and you can find me on Twitter @JRfromPTC.
In this tutorial, we're going to talk about Color Matching in Photoshop. Specifically,
we're going to discuss how you can match specific colors. For example, you may have a client
who wants to match the color of an object to the color that represents their company
branding, and I will show you. You can use the LAB Color Mode to turn this car into any
specific color that you want. Also, before we get started, I want to throw a quick shout
out to my friend, Carlos Garro, who is an Adobe Community professional and an Adobe
Certified Instructor from Costa Rica. He is the person who showed me this technique, and
I just wanted to give him credit for that. If you like, you can follow Carlos on Twitter
@Cgarro.
So, let's get started with this tutorial. Okay, so we have this image of this car. If
you follow my tutorials, then you'll recognize this image. It's a rendering of the 3D model
that we used in the 3D Model Compositing Tutorial, where I showed you how to composite a 3D model
into a photograph. And we're going to use it in this tutorial because even though the
car is red, there are different shades of red. Some areas are dark, others are light.
And it could become a bit difficult to match a specific color. To do the color match, we'll
first convert the image into the LAB Color Mode and apply a Curves Adjustment Layer.
If you're not comfortable with curves, then don't worry. After I learned this technique
from Carlos, I knew that I have to find an alternate method for some of my followers
who struggle with curves. So I played around a bit until I found a method that utilizes
the Hue and Saturation Sliders, but I would recommend that you take the time to learn
curves since they're more powerful.
Before we do any color matching, I want to take a minute and talk about what the LAB
Color Mode is and how it works. That way, you understand what I'm doing and why I'm
doing it. My guess is that, right now, you're working within the RGB Color Mode. You may,
also, even be working with the CMYK Color Mode. If you don't know, you can go into Image,
Mode, and see which color mode has a check mark. In this tutorial, we're going to change
your current color mode into the LAB Color Mode, and that's because we can work with
color separate from the Luminance values. In other words, we can alter the color without
affecting the detail, which is what we want to do. We want to change the color of this
car into a specific pantone color without affecting the contrast between the lighter
and darker shades. And we'll talk more about that in a moment.
First, I want to make sure that you understand what the LAB Color Mode is. LAB is a color
space or color mode which covers every color that the human eye is able to see. Obviously,
its gamut exceeds those of the RGB and CMYK color modes. If you're not familiar with RGB
or CMYK, you may be interested in watching my tutorial on color correction, where I talk
a whole lot more about these color modes. In Photoshop, to work in LAB, you have to
convert your image into the LAB color mode. Once you're finished working with LAB, you
need to convert it back to RGB or CMYK. Converting an image to LAB is the easiest color conversion
to do and it's non-destructive. All you have to do is go to Image, Mode, and select LAB
color. No matter what color mode you start with, it will always fit within the LAB Color
Mode, because the LAB Color Mode contains all possible colors, and there could be no
deterioration in the image quality, as all colors convert unchanged.
The features that make LAB particularly powerful for working with color are that it separates
gray scale information completely from color information, and that each of the colored
channels are color opponent, meaning, they include information both about a color, and
its opposite color. The ways these features work in Photoshop are shown in this example.
The L Channel or Lightness is the easiest to understand as it is a gray scale or black
and white rendition of the image. You can see that in the Channels Panel. It has no
color value at all. It just contains the contrast between the lightness and darkest points of
the image. The Lightness values ranges from zero to 100. The A Colored Channel is a color
balance between Green and Magenta. Something in the middle is neither one. Notice that
these are the same colors as the Tin Slider in Camera Raw or Lightroom. The B Channel
is the color balance between Blue and Yellow. Something in the middle is neither one. These
are the same colors as the Temperature Slider in Camera Raw or Lightroom. The way the numbering
system works is that the warm colors are positive—Magenta and Yellow, while the negative numbers are
cool—Green and Blue. The values can range from 127 to negative 128. A numerical value
of zero, which is here in the center, is 50% gray—neither Green or Magenta, or neither
Blue or Yellow.
Okay. So now that you have a basic understanding of what the LAB Color Mode is, let's start
working on the color change, but we need to select the color first. So what color are
we going to turn this car? In reality, it really doesn't matter. So you can click on
the foreground color swatch here to bring up the Color Picker, and you can select whatever
color that you like. What I'm going to do is I'm going to click on Color Libraries and
just find a pantone color because that's probably what you'll get from a client that will have
a specific color that represents their company, and they just want to match that. So let's
just assume they want to match this color here. So I'm going to press OK. Now that's
my foreground color. I can click on the rectangle tool and make sure you have Shape selected
or pixels, either will work for what we're trying to do, and I'm going to just create
a rectangle that has that color in it, and that's all I need to do. Then, I'm going to
use the Info panel to help us with the Color Match. So I'm going to click on the Eyedropper
Tool, and then, I'm going to select Color Sample Tool, and this is going to create point
samples that tell us the numerical values of the colors that we select. So if I click
on the rectangle here, the Info Panel opens up, and you'll see the number one here, that
come in response to this number one here. And you'll see the values of the LAB Color
Mode, so Lightness 38, A Channel -45, B Channel 1.
Now we have to look at the object whose color we're trying to change; in this case a car
and we have to select an area that represents the color of the object. This car has these
lighter shades of red and darker ones. We want to select something that truly represents
the color, or as close as we can, and not the shadows or highlights. So, I think, that
maybe, somewhere around here, we'll have the actual color of the car. So, now, we have
two point samples, number one here, number two there, and you can see them in the Info
Panel here. The LAB values for the red are here. What we have to do is change these values
into this to turn the car green. The way we're going to do that is by creating a new Curves
Adjustment Layer, and I'm just going to Click and Drag this down because we're going to
need to look at the Output number here. The Info Panel is hitting back here so that's
not going to work. I'm going to Click and Drag this down, and I'm just going to place
it right below it, like right there. And, actually, even lower, right here. As I said
before, we're going to be using the Output values. So, then, I'm going to click on this
icon here, and this circle is going to appear on this line. If I hover over the image, you'll
see the circle move, and that circle is telling me where in the Curve the color below the
Picker falls in. I'm, obviously, interested in this point here. If I click on it once,
it's going to show you this circle, and this is where that color falls within this curve.
Unfortunately, if we go into the A Channel or B Channel, we don't have the circle. I'm
going to click in this icon to reset the Curve and get rid of that point. So I'm going to
hover over this point sample, hold Shift Ctrl, that's Shift Command on the Mac, and click.
That creates that point on the Lightness Channel again, but it also creates one in the A Channel,
and one in the B Channel.
So, now, we can target that specific color and we can change it. Remember, we got to
change the Lightness value from 20 to 38. It's currently 20, so we're going to change
that to 38. We're going to move into the A Channel, make sure that point is selected
by clicking on it. We got to change 38 to negative 45, so we'll do that. We'll change
the output to negative 45, and we'll change the B Channel to 1. So we're going to the
B Channel, click on the point, make sure it's selected, and then, change the output to 1,
and now we have the color. Now, notice the numbers are not exactly the same here, and
that's okay. All you need to do is be close enough. If you, really, wanted to try to change
it, you can click on the point there, and then use the arrow keys on the keyboard to
move it down, and now it's -45, even though it says -48 here. But, if you want to be exact
on the numbers and the point sample, you can use the up and down arrows on the keyboard
to move the point up or down, and then, truly match that number. So now, we have 38, -45,
and 1. The rectangle is under the Curve, and that's OK. That's usually where you want to
have it so you can see the values in the Info Panel. Now, I can Click and Drag that up.
You will see the actual color of the rectangle. I can click on it, and drag it over on top
of the car, and notice how it matches exactly the same color here on the car. Now, of course,
there are some problems, and we're going to work with those problems, but before we do
so, we're going to remove the green from the background, the tires, the windshield, and
everything else.
So what we're going to do is, first, I'm going to double click on the Zoom Tool to Zoom In
to 100% so we can see the entire image and we can now mask the colors out. We have a
white background, so we're going to be able to use the Blend If Sliders, so I'm going
to double click on the side of the layer here to bring up the Layer Style Window. Then,
with the Blend If Sliders, I can remove this color from the background. So, I'm going to
click on this drop down menu and select the A Channel, Click and Drag this to the right.
Once I get to about the center point, you'll see that the color is going to start disappearing
in areas that I don't want them in, like the background and the windshield and all the
other things that I mentioned before. So I'm going to hold Alt, Option on the Mac, split
this icon in half, that way we have a smoother transition between the areas that are disappearing,
and the areas we're keeping. If we go too far, it affects the car. So you have to find
the balance in-between the areas you want to keep and hide, and if you still see some
areas like here, that are hard to get rid of, just use the mask. So click on the mask
and paint with black in those areas. So I'm going to increase the brush size by clicking
on the bracket keys—the right bracket key. Paint black, and, maybe, some here. And it
seems that the only areas I need to paint on were here on the headlights, so that's
all I'm going to paint on for now.
Now we're almost there. What we're going to do now is simply fix the mistakes. For example,
the highlight here that doesn't seem like this is the right color, and there's, obviously,
some problem that is going on in this area here. We're going to double click on the Curves
icon to bring up the properties of the curve, and we're going to work with some colors.
This point here came way down from up here to down here to help create this green. There's
also some points here, along the curve, that were originally red but need to be green.
But since the curve is so high up, these colors didn't change completely. If I click on this
point and drag down closer to where the original point was, you'll see that the color started
changing here. I'll do the same thing in the B Channel. Click and Drag down somewhere there.
So, notice that, now, the transitions are much better. I could, also, click on this
icon here, and if I still have problem areas, maybe like here, I can see where the colors
are still not right. So, right here, so maybe I can even Click and Drag this one further
down, and in fact, some of the colors here are changing. I'm going to drag this all the
way back up, just so you can see the difference. So that's what we had before. If I drag down
here, these colors start changing. Now just to remind you, what we are doing here with
the curve is changing one color to another. The Lightness value only deals with Luminance
values, meaning black and whites and grays. So you can see this gray line here. Any point
above that line is white. Any point below that line is black, or different shades of
gray, I should say.
In the A Channel, any point below the line is green; any point above the line is magenta.
See, I'm going to click and drag that point up. Notice how the magenta comes up. I'm going
to just go to Edit, Undo; so, above the line, magenta; below the line, green. With the B
Channel, below the line is blue, above the line is yellow. So, that's essentially what
you're doing. We're dragging these points. We're adding more magenta or more green, more
blue or more yellow, to get the colors that you want. Also, one thing I should mention
is if you're in the RGB Color Mode, you usually don't want to have a curve with two points
that are pretty much on the same line because you're going to start flattening out your
image, and it's going to create some funky effects. But with the LAB Color Mode, it's
okay if you do this. You don't run into the same problems you do with RGB.
So now that we've made these changes, you can see now that the car matches the color
we had originally selected. Once again, I'm going to click on the rectangle and use the
Move Tool to move her around, and you'll see that it is, actually, the same color in a
lot of areas. Of course, not in the highlights or shadows, but in other areas, it's exactly
the same colors, especially here where we actually sampled the color from, right here.
Now, if curves are confusing to you, I'm going to show how to do the same thing with the
Hue and Saturation Adjustment Layer. The Hue and Saturation Adjustment Layer is actually
very simple. You only have sliders, but I don't think it gives such a good result. So,
I'll show you how that works. So I'm going to create a Hue and Saturation Adjustment
Layer above the rectangle. I'm going to click on the Hue and Saturation icon here, and we
got to do the same thing. We got to make these numbers match these numbers.
So the first thing you have to do is make sure you click on Colorize, and once you click
on Colorize, you got to use these sliders to match the numbers. The L value is the easiest
to change; use this slider here—Lightness. So, I have to make sure that I get to 38 on
that. So let me just move it over to the right and it says 38 here. This time, these values
won't help you out as much. You have to look at the Info panel as you're moving the sliders.
Now, the A and B channels are a little bit harder to get because when you move one slider,
both channels change. So you may have some difficulty trying to get those numbers. So
let's try to match the A channel. This needs to be -45, we currently have -34, so let's
see if we can get -45. There you go, -45. Now, we got to turn the B channel to 1, it's
currently -26. So let's drag this over to the left, and, now, we have 1. So, 38, -45
and 1. In this case, it wasn't that difficult, but sometimes you have to play around with
the Hue Slider, and then with the Saturation Slider, and, again, with the Hue Slider to
get the numbers right. So, I'm just throwing that out there, in case you have a little
more trouble than what I just did. If I Click and Drag the rectangle up, we can do the same
task; Click and Drag over here on top of the car and notice how similar the color is. What
we're going to do now is do what we did before. We're going to bring up the Layer Style Window,
and use the Blend If Sliders to get rid of the effect in unwanted areas. I'm going to
go a little bit faster this time. Move that over to the right. Split the icon by holding
Alt, Option on the Mac, and press OK. So that is the color match.
Now, the color looks great, but the problem with Hue and Saturation is we lose a lot of
the original contrast. Notice all the contrasts that we had in the car before, and now, we
lost some of that. The Curves Adjustment Layer helped us keep some of that contrast. So,
in my opinion, the Curves Adjustment Layer does a better job, but if you find the Hue
and Saturation Adjustment Layer easier to use, you can still achieve a pretty good effect.
Unfortunately, you may need to add some contrasts later. Now, before we end the tutorial, I
do want to show you one other thing, if you're working the LAB Color Space in the Color Picker
here, under Color. If you don't see that, you can go to Window, Color. You may want
to start using the LAB sliders because it will give you more practice with what you're
doing. As I mentioned before, Lightness goes from zero to 100; 100 being white, zero being
black, and we put that here at zero, and put this one as zero. So A is green to magenta,
B is blue to yellow. And by moving these sliders around, you can get any color that you like,
using the LAB Colors. So this, also, may help you understand more of what we did here in
the Curves Adjustment Layer to get this effect.
And that's it for this tutorial. As always, I hope that you enjoyed it, and that you learned
something new. If you have any comments or questions, please leave them down below. If
you haven't already, subscribe to my YouTube channel and my newsletter, and if you enjoyed
this video, don't forget to hit the Like button and share it with a friend. Thanks for watching
and I'll talk to you again, soon.