Skip to main content
M
Merlin3
Inspiring
January 29, 2025
질문

what tool to match photos on sampling Kodak Q13 colour card ?

  • January 29, 2025
  • 1 답변
  • 533 조회

Hi,

If I place in a non sunny scene a Kodak Q13 colour card and greyscale and take a correctly exposed photo..

If I want to make that photo with such in it , lets call that the CP, (conversion photo)

match that of that card photographed with correct exposure at midday under a cloudy sky ( i.e the correct photo of it without colour casts etc), lets call that TP (target photo).

I would like something like, click (sample) on the yellow on Q13 in TP then on same in the CP.

repeat for the magenta, then  the blue then the brown and and so on and the grey area.

hit match and the CP gets changed to the colour balance saturation etc of the TP.

 

Also most useful when photographing scale models in existing room light without flash then trying to adjust colour balance of image to be that of model in daylight.

 

Furthermore if I have a rusty bar in the CP and a reference picture of rusty bar as the TP, convert the CP to that of the TP so both rusty bars match.

why a rusty bar, I have a brick wall and want to get the colours right, as its a historical item and now needed for colour matching.  It has a green tinge to it, as does stalks and trunk of tree (and I can tell its a colour imbalance)  and the only thing in the photo as a colour reference is a rusty bar. I am presuming that rust on iron is the same colour wherever you are ! No doubt someone will say depends on the type of iron. There is a black shadow but too small to get a proper sample on, but it helped, far better and heading in the right direction !

 

After 30 years or so of evolution of Photoshop, and having just moved from CS6 to 26.2 I am hoping a colour matching tool by now exists, as a basic need, and folk do use Q13 and other colour match hand held items.

It would be THE MOST USEFUL TOOL I could do with and waited for all these years.

So what have Adobe been up to in all that time, hopefully a few basic tools such as this.

 

Merlin

1 답변

D Fosse
Community Expert
D FosseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 30, 2025

First of all you should get a "modern" color checker card with standardized Lab values, such as a ColorChecker Passport. But getting a perfect match in different lighting conditions is highly unrealistic.

 

A color checker will only work reliably for reproducing flat surfaces where the light is perfectly uniform across the surface. Three-dimensional shapes throws this off immediately as light angles and directions shift, with reflections from surrounding surfaces confusing it even more.

 

A much better approach is to focus on the quallity and type of lighting. To match outdoor overcast light, you need to use light diffusion indoors. Bouncing a flash off the ceiling can get you close, or a full studio setup with soft boxes.

 

A camera sensor doesn't read light quite the same way as the eye. Matching one color patch will throw another off. You can't get a perfect colorimetric match, and even if you could, it probably wouldn't look realistic. There will be compromises. You need to think equivalent color, not matching color.

 

The best way to do this is still by eye - and a good monitor, well calibrated and profiled, will make it much easier.

 

 

    davescm
    Community Expert
    davescmCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 30, 2025

    One more thing to add to D Fosse's excellent reply. The colour checker has it's uses particularly when trying to match product or artwork images where you can balance the image to the checker rather than have it swayed by the product or artwork itself. Similarly it is a useful tool for balancing images from different cameras or under difficult mixed indoor lighting. I use one myself for those purposes.

     

    You can get software to prepare a calibration profile that can be used with raw images in Adobe Camera Raw but it only applies under that lighting. Change the lighting at all and it is no longer valid.


    For general photography though, I learnt from experience that balancing every image using colour checker will take out the very light variation that makes an outdoor scene what it is. For example that late afternoon warm sunlight or that cool winter morning light. Take those vriations in colour away and you are left with dull images. Back in the film days we did use filters to balance light but often left them off and made the most of those differing light qualities, I now do the same with digital and just adjust those types of images by eye (on properly calibrated and profiled monitors of course).

     

    In short, a useful tool but not for every image.


    Dave

      D Fosse
      Community Expert
      D FosseCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      January 30, 2025

      Hi,

      ok, will get one, however I have thousands of images with Q13 in them and need to use those to colour match two photos, one with flash bounced and the other same shot , camera not moved, same subject same lens focal length same focus etc etc, but existing light. supposed to be daylight but was slightly greenish.

       

      and my brick wall, taken with no cards at all, 35mm neg, I need to match the two together. Historically important as it no longer exists and I need to show what it looked like.

       

      WHAT TOOL to use to click on a brick then same in other pic and say match the colour balance. then repeat another brick, and perhaps another.

       

      I DESPERATELY need to match photos together on colour appearance same subject same moment a few secs apart or a few minutes, lighting same in that both are sun in etc.

      Surely Pshop (not in raw) has a way of matching two pics together.

      Ideally also in raw mode, yes we can click sync, if two photos are in the strip at left but a monitor screen apart, so not visible at same time. but rather than try to judge it by eye, have tha ability to click an area and have it match up.

      maybe raw mode is best place to do this, whatever, need that tool or method somewhere PLEEEEEZE.

       

      Merlin


      You can match gray balance based on a specific sample point. There are three eyedroppers in the Curves dialog, for white point, middle gray, and black point.

       

      If the two images are otherwise the same, just different lighting, that should get you close. If you set the Curves layer to Color blend mode it won't affect the general tone curve.

       

      But I still maintain that different qualities of light will alter all color relationships, up to a point where you can't really "match" them. You can only make them visually equivalent, not numerically identical.

       

      There is something called Image > Adjustments > Match Color, but that's not something I have ever used seriously. The few times I tried it, it produced horribly unrealistic results. I don't think that's a reflection on the tool, but rather on the expectations of it. I would assume that the closer the two source images are to begin with, the higher the chance of success.

        약관 및 조건Accessibility statement
        Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices