Color matching problem

[puppychew]

Hello - Attached are 2 photoshop file links.
house color and house

I have these two files open side by side. I click on a color from the color chart, and with a color overlay, I change the color of the house. The colors always match up perfectly with only a lighting adjustment needed.

For some strange reason, I am unable to match the colors for this project. I can't understand what I could have done wrong. The result of the color I click on is very very different. Can anyone see what this could be?

 

[IamSam]

This is the "siding" layer selection in it's original color with the "color overlay" turned off.



This is the "siding" layer selection in it's original color with the "color overlay" turned on. This overlay's the original color.............so it's a new color.



This is the siding layer with an added Hue & Sat layer. Now you have mixed in yet a third (3rd) color with the Hue & Sat layer added.......



So what you actually have is three (3) colors combined/mixed to create the final color. This can be an issue if you want exact color changes.

This method/technique ins not the best or accurate way to do accomplish color changes.

 

[IamSam]

What you need to do is to set your "Siding Layer" to Black & White. Remove all color.


Then add a Color Fill adjustment layer set to the exact color you desire (this is color 82). Clip it to the Siding layer.
Set it's blending option to "overlay"

Note that there is no "color overlay" layer style/effects on the trim layer.
You are only using one color instead of mixing three!

 

[IamSam]

However................if you want to know how to deal with what you have, turn off or delete the layer style color overlay. This let's the Hue & Sat layer to be the only influence on the original color. It will never be exact, but it will get you closer. As long as you are trying to add a new color to an existing color, you will never have an exact match.

 

[puppychew]

Hi - sorry I am confused. I have used this method over 1000 times and it always worked very well except this time the color is way off. It works find for this file 1105-6614-hc106.psd So if I turn off all my layers except the siding layer, I isolate the original color. I add the hue saturation layer and remove all the saturation so the siding is now gray. There are no other colors affecting it. The other option you mention is to make the layer B&W. How can I do that any other way than w the Hue Saturation? However - I think my way may still be best for my situation for I am changing the color about every minute or so and this way goes pretty fast.

 

[puppychew]

I tried doing this with another photo from the same homeowner and had the same problem Then I tried a photo from someone else and it worked perfectly. Both pics are jpegs - how can they react so differently? Could there be something in the profile of the image altering it?

update: I think I found the problem. I went to assign profile and ProPhotoRGB was checked. Others that I have worked with are SRGB. Should I always change the profile before working on a photo?

 

[IamSam]

Hi - sorry I am confused. I have used this method over 1000 times and it always worked very well except this time the color is way off.

Perhaps there is some confusion on my part for not understanding what it is you are actually doing, but even though you may have used this technique a 1000 times, you can never get an exact color match using your technique. BUT.........if it's working for your purposes, then don't let me convince you otherwise.

So if I turn off all my layers except the siding layer, I isolate the original color. I add the hue saturation layer and remove all the saturation so the siding is now gray. There are no other colors affecting it.

OK, this is my fault as I did not look at the saturation slider in your other two PSD files. I see now that you are trying to render the "siding" selection into black and white using a Hue & Sat layer. This won't work.

You say that no other colors are affecting it, so if you try this............using your technique, turn off the H&S layer and see if that changes the color of the siding selection. It does. So by adding the H&S layer you are still altering the color overlay of the layer style/effects. This does not work for changing the color of the selection.

There are no other colors affecting it. The other option you mention is to make the layer B&W. How can I do that any other way than w the Hue Saturation?

This is the best question you have had! Just select/highlight the siding layer and then go to IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > BLACK & WHITE or DESATURATE. Then you can use the color overlay in the layer style/effects to change the color. Now you will be able to use the exact Hex code for color changes.

I think my way may still be best for my situation for I am changing the color about every minute or so and this way goes pretty fast.

Yes..........as long as you desat the siding layer, and do away with the H&S layer. However, my technique is just as fast if not faster with only two clicks to your three clicks! LOL!!
But there's nothing wrong in using the "color overlay" in a layer style.

Should I always change the profile before working on a photo?

Yes if you want consistent results.

 

[IamSam]

There's also something very odd going on between these two layers in all of your files???? Not sure why you are changing the color.





Also I have noticed that your selections are a bit off..............is this on purpose?

 

[thebestcpu]

Hello - Attached are 2 photoshop file links.
house color and house

I have these two files open side by side. I click on a color from the color chart, and with a color overlay, I change the color of the house. The colors always match up perfectly with only a lighting adjustment needed.

For some strange reason, I am unable to match the colors for this project. I can't understand what I could have done wrong. The result of the color I click on is very very different. Can anyone see what this could be?

Hi Puppychew

You are correct, you will have really messed up colors if you sample colors from an image with a different color space (e.g. sRGB) and then try and use that sample in anothe color space (e.g. ProPhoto RGB). The sampling process moves the exact same color numbers from you sampling document to your editing document. Not that a color space an be thought of as a color scale. Similar to different temperature scales eg. Celsius and Farenheit, the same number in each scale is a totally different feeling cold or heat. Not different for different color spaces (scales)

In this case you are sampling in a very small color gamut space and using it in a wide gamut color space. The wide color gamut space uses smaller color numbers to represent the same visual color Therefore, when you use sRGB color data in ProPhotoRGB color data, it will appear super saturated (and I bet that is what you see).

When you bring in the home to be edited, if it is already been created in another color space (scale), you need to convert (not assign) that image to the desired color space (scale) which in your case would be sRGB. That will maintain the proper color of the house to be edited and match up with your sampling color space.

To do this you use the Edit > Convert to Profile command and have the target new color space be sRGB.

If when you open the original image house to be edited, if it has no assigned color space then you need to pick a color space to assign so it is properly managed. sRGB is a good starting point. The only time you Assign a color space is if the image does not have one assigned to it already.

If you take these steps I bet you will go back to your normal process and it should work just as well as it did before.

Hope this helps
John Wheeler

 

[puppychew]

I really appreciate all your help. With the pics you question, I first lighten up some of the shadows and make some adjustments. A do this all on a zoom call w a homeowner so I do it quickly and therefore some of the selections on a layer at the bottom are sloppy. This is a part I really do not understand much. The following are my settings.
I never had an issue opening an image someone sends or even thought about it. Therefore, I just changed it to "ask when opening." I guess it is still best to keep srgb as working space since my work is for the internet and for homeowners to view saved images on their computers.

When i save an image, I just do the regular "save as." Is it better to export to something like legacy?

Do you see any changes I should make to the above settings?

 

[thebestcpu]

I really appreciate all your help. With the pics you question, I first lighten up some of the shadows and make some adjustments. A do this all on a zoom call w a homeowner so I do it quickly and therefore some of the selections on a layer at the bottom are sloppy. This is a part I really do not understand much. The following are my settings. View attachment 149942
I never had an issue opening an image someone sends or even thought about it. Therefore, I just changed it to "ask when opening." I guess it is still best to keep srgb as working space since my work is for the internet and for homeowners to view saved images on their computers.

When i save an image, I just do the regular "save as." Is it better to export to something like legacy?

Do you see any changes I should make to the above settings?

You may have not run into a problem before as using sRGB is pretty common. Yet to avoid your problem in the future, having both your sample PSD file in sRGB and you file you are editing in the same color space (scale) is ot have it in sRGB as well.

If you want that to be automatic, you can just set the Color Management Policy dropdown for RGB to be "Convert to Working RGB" and leave your RGB working space as sRGB.
To always know what is going on, having the checkboxes checked in the Color Management Policy would be extra safe *yet not a must" as it will flag you when there is a mismatch.

Here is what I think you would want to want if you want to leave the checkboxes on:



Given you ahve been doing this work for a long time I think it will all go back to working the way you want with the changes you proposed.
John Wheeler

 

[puppychew]

Thank you so much - this made all the difference!!!

 

[thebestcpu]

Thank you so much - this made all the difference!!!

You're welcome and glad that worked for you @puppychew
John Wheeler