This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Color Matching Using ColorMatch
ColorMatch allows you to apply a color correction to an image by taking an old set of colors (source color) and matching them up to a new set (destination color) by adjusting the low, middle, and high values of the image. You can also do Contrast, Gamma, Mult, and Add color corrections.
When you match color and use the Color Picker, a good workflow is to first select all three source colors and then select the destination colors. Otherwise, you may pick colors that have been modified.
Let's try to match the beach shots by using the ColorMatch node.
- Extract the Mult1 node by highlighting it and pressing the E key.
This automatically extracts the node from the tree.
- Place a ColorMatch node after beach_ws.
- Double-click on ColorMatch1 to make it the active node.
You'll start by selecting the low, mid, and high source colors.
- Click on the Color Picker tab in the Node workspace.
The Color Picker, which is in a tab on the Node workspace by default, allows the sampling of values from the Viewer, which can then be dragged and dropped to other parameters. It includes handy analysis tools for finding and comparing different color values on your image. You can examine minimum, average, current, or maximum pixel values, which are particularly useful, naturally, when doing color corrections.
- Drag across the image.
As you drag across the image, the values will show up in the Color Picker constantly updating the Min, Max, Average, and Current color boxes.
In matching the two beach shots, the first step is to choose the shadows, or darkest areas of the screen.
- Zoom into the guy sitting below the lifeguard tower and press the + key repeatedly until you've zoomed in far enough.
- Drag the cursor over the dark areas of the man's pants.
- Use the Home key to reset the Viewer's zoom to a 1:1 ratio.
You've sampled a color—now what? Enter ColorMatch1's lowSource Color values using drag and drop.
- To do this, click once on the Current color box so that it is selected.
- Click and hold on the Current color box in the Color Picker and drag and drop onto the Color Picker next to lowSource in ColorMatch1.
Now you can set the midSource and highSource values.
- Click on the midSource Color Picker.
When you click directly on a Color Picker within a node's parameters, the Color Picker will automatically open. Once you pick a color from the Viewer, it will automatically be entered as a parameter value.
- Select the midSource color according to the following picture:
- Click on the highSource Color Picker and select the highSource color according to the preceding picture.
Now that the source colors are selected, you can select the destination colors.
- Change the Node workspace from the Color Picker to the Node View.
- Click on the left side of the beach_cu node so that you can sample colors from that shot.
- Select the low, mid, and high destination colors from this shot.
- Change the Node workspace from the Color Picker to the Node View.
- Click on the left side of the Over1 node so that you can view it.
Close, but no cigar. You'll need to do a little adjustment by hand.
- Look at the individual R, G, and B channels in the Viewer and adjust the midDest Red, Green, and Blue values by using the channel isolation technique from the last exercise.
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