Expert: Glen Demers - 5/13/2010

Question
I do some photography that is used in claims support and sometimes goes to court.  When I shoot several items on the same background they don't always match perfectly and therefore I have to explain that these were shot under the same conditions. When I try to use match color in photoshop, it affects the color of the object way too much. Is there a way to sample the background color and set target images to that?

Answer
Hi Charlie,

The easiest thing to do is to put a small, neutral gray swatch on the background of each photo. This would be a known color (neutral gray) in each image and you can click on it with the set gray point tool from either the levels or curves dialog box to set the color.

See my blog for instructions on how to set the gray point: http://glenbest.wordpress.com/2010/04/27/quick-color-fix/

The images may need to be adjusted lighter or darker, but this will snap the color in place on the images with one click.

Hope this helps,
Glen Demers
Adobe Certified Expert, Photoshop 7
Prepress Technician, Best Printing Online
www.bestprintingonline.com

For more Photoshop tips please visit our help pages here: http://www.bestprintingonline.com/photoshop.htm