Color Matching

[shangrawj]

GREETINGS from someone new to Lightroom Classic!  Question 1:  How do I get the exact dress color matches of photo 2 to photo 1?   Question 2:  Is there an easy way to clean up the dirt and pieces of paper on the stage floor and retain the glossiness?

[GoldingD]

2.  Is there an easy way to clean up the dirt and pieces of paper on the stage floor 

Accomplish an Edit in Photoshop

In Photoshop place a rectangular Marquee Tool over the floor. No concern with people.

Select a generative fill, perhaps type in black stage floor.

Some experimentation will be required.

hmm, does anyone know how to use ones own images (for example the same stage floor but clean) in generative fill?

You might want to ask over at the Photoshop Community.

[Jao vdL]

A better generative AI prompt for this will be "remove debris". It will retain the structure of the floor. 

For question 1, I tried using the screenshot but the dresses will not become the same color no matter what. This might be the stage lighting that prohibits that. If there were gels used on the lights, you get metamerism, an effect where the same color appears different because of the spectrum of the light source and you can't really correct but for some photoshop trickery. If you shot raw (hopefully you did), you can try syncing the white balance settings between the two images.

[shangrawj]

Thank you for replying!  What a fantastic solution!  Blessings, Jenny

[D Fosse]

As for the color matching: there are obviously different white balance settings on these two. Find a white/neutral area and use the eydropper. White robe/dress/shirt is perfect for that.

If you want to do it manually, drag the temperature slider towards blue in the bottom example.

[Conrad_C]

As for the color matching: there are obviously different white balance settings on these two.

By @D Fosse

And the reason why the white balance is different might affect how to fix the problem.

If you know the stage lighting is consistent during this scene, then use standard correction techniques such as the ones D Fosse describes. You can sample the white balance from one image, and apply the same value to the other image. That should only take a few seconds.

However, if you know the colors changed because the stage lighting was changing between frames (some  colored lights were being added or taken away), then you have to decide what to do:

If you want to preserve the intention of the lighting director (the colors are supposed to look different because they were changing the lighting), decide what you believe to be the neutral white balance Temp and Tint values, and apply those to all frames. 

If you want the colors in both images to match no matter what the lights were doing, then you have to white balance each frame separately. And this might not work perfectly, because if the light colors were changing, it might be difficult or impossible to make the colors match exactly. For example, if the lights shifted toward red, one picture might have too little green in it to fully match the other picture.

[shangrawj]

Thank you for replying!  Yes, the stage lights constantly changed!  White balancing in some photos resulted in a bluish tint.  Knowing that I did the best I could eased my stress!