metallic object photograph touch up help!

[Jennifer Walter]

hi

apologies in advance, I am really very new to photoshop.
In brief, I've landed in a job where it is basically allowed for me to teach myself to use adobe suite to higher level - but I really want to do it for my own side projects!
However - I do have a good quiery to start me off that IS work related (using company time to design my own websites comes later mwahaha)

my question is this - how would I go about manipulating image A (below) so that the metal pieces look a similar tone and colour to image B (also below)? I took photo A and pen tooled it myself (wowza) but when it's been sent to the artworkers, it's sticking out like a sore thumb to me. As i know it's my work, I obviously looked out for it, but as you can see my image is darker, much more yellow overall, and maybe not quite as much contrast.

P.s. please note that I'm not asking someone to do this for me, I wan't to learn - hence the low res images - just for a reference.



A B




thanks so much in advance - these guys pay a photographer a lot of money to take and touch up photos, and I think I could be a real asset if I could save them those costs.

THANKS! Jw

 

[IamSam]

Hey Jennifer, photos A and B are definitely different photos of similar but different products. I realize that your demonstrating color difference and asking how to change the tone and color. It's very difficult for us to help you using generalized low-res references. For us to provide you with the best possible help, you would need to post higher-res images from the actual project. In some cases we may even require the actual PSD file itself.

The question is, why you would want to change the color of the product and how or why do you think it stood out like a sore thumb. Was there some color shifting that occurred during the photography? You may only need some minor color correction on the original.

NOTE: If the original image was on a white BG, there may have been much easier ways to isolate the product other than the Pen Tool.

But as far as answering your question, you can just use one of the color fill and/or adjustment layers (or several different ones), it's hard to say without seeing what we have to work with.

 

[Jennifer Walter]

hi IamSam,
thanks for your speedy reply - I will definitely be able to supply the high res original image of image A because I worked on it - image B will almost certainly not be attainable at a high resolution as it would have been touched up by the photographer (probably) and then handed to our PR people to be artworked into the catalogue page that I snipped it from in the first place. Would one high res image help?


The reason i want to change the colour of the product and/or why it stands out like a sore thumb is that these two images sit side by side in a catalogue, so the colour difference between the two is very obvious. Also there are lots of other products in the catalogue, and all of these metal ones are made out of the same material. I think the way they look so differently coloured is misleading as they surely would look the same if they were the same material, and also I am just a perfectionist and want to make it as consistent with the other pages as possible!
The photograph was taken using a digital camera and also a pop up white tent. I also used some studio lighting but please, don't assume I know about photography either They were recommended by a colleague, mostly used them because we could.

View attachment restrictor-la-changes.psd


thanks in advance for your help
J

 

[Tom Mann]

Hi Jennifer -

I completely agree with you that your photo, as it is, would stand out like the proverbial "sore thumb" if placed in the catalog. So, here is one way to fix it...

First, notice that in the current catalog (ie, your 2nd image), the parts are almost pure gray. You can use the eyedropper tool to confirm this. This makes it very easy to remove the warm cast in the photo you took: just completely desaturate it. BTW, desaturation doesn't work quite as one might expect when you are using one of the CMYK working spaces, so, before you do any post processing to your photo, I would suggest you either stay in sRGB, and only convert to CMYK at the very end of your work on the image, or, do what I did and convert your CMYK version to sRGB. BTW, if you are asked to photograph other parts that do have some color to them, you obviously can't just use the simple desaturation technique, but there are other relatively simple techniques to match the needed color, and we can explain them, when needed.

Second, after you desaturate your image, notice that the part is darker than the similar part in the catalog. The reason for this is that almost certainly, the camera in your iPhone 5c was used in automatic exposure mode to adjust the brightness of the image, and just like taking a picture at the beach, or on a ski slope, all the white that it was seeing fooled the auto-exposure system into thinking that the picture was over exposed, so it darkened it a bit. If you are going to continue to use your iPhone to take such pix, you should switch from using the built in camera app to a $4 app called "645 Pro" (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/645-pro-mk-iii/id518235205?mt=8). It will allow you to adjust the exposure as well as get a grayscale version (aka, "black and white") right in your camera.

To brighten up your image (after desaturation), I simply applied a "curves" adjustment layer, and obtained what you see in the following animated GIF comparison:


Finally, notice that the part in the catalog has some brighter reflections / highlights as well as more shadowing compared to the very flat, uniformly lit, matte finish in the version that you obtained. Part of the reason for this is the angle you shot at, but mostly, this is because you used a light tent. Light tents are great for photography of metal pieces such as this, but without a bit of tweaking, usually produce too flat lighting. I would suggest that in future shots, you intentionally illuminate the rear wall considerably more than the other walls and adjust the angles of the product and your camera so that you pick up a bit of specular reflection on the metal from that wall. (Don't worry - There will be plenty of fill from the other walls of the light tent).

HTH,

Tom M

 

[Jennifer Walter]

hi Tom M,

thank you so much - that was incredibly informative - THANK YOU! I already feel so great about joining this forum, everyone is so helpful and friendly and it makes learning this stuff so much LESS daunting!

please see below a quick snip of what I did with your direction - spot on!


I do agree, though, with the second image (the one that wasn't mine) has a lot more reflection/highlights - I had a bit of a tweak with a contrast adjustment layer which improved it a little bit but the information you have suggested regarding the photo tent is EXCELLENT! I have written it in my 'Notes Bible' for future reference - I can potentially save my new company a LOT of money with this as they spend a LOT on a photographer quite regularly.

I have some more photos which I can practise this technique on but I REALLY appreciate your help. Thank you so much - just as a last thing for now - how did you know I took the photo on my iphone? I stated i took it on a digital camera but had forgotten i tried both the clunky old cam and also the phone - is there something imbedded in the file info that told you that?


Thanks again Tom, great stuff!!

Jenny

 

[Tom Mann]

Hi Jennifer -

I'm really glad that you found some of my suggestions to be helpful!

With respect to your question about how I knew you took the photo with an iPhone, all I can say is ...



(hopefully, being on the other side of the big pond, you might recognize the reference to the great old, USA produced, 1940's- 1950's radio program).




Tom M

PS - Don't forget to try out the iPhone app that I recommended. I have absolutely no connection with the developer, but think it can really improve iPhone photography, particularly, B&W photography.

 

[Jennifer Walter]

hi Tom,

I will be sure to get it as I attend a festival next week so should be some good shootin' (in a hippie love kind of way, not a Spaghetti Western kind of way.)

I have to confess, despite living in the states for a little bit, I literally only recognise the name, but have never heard it.

Also I'm 26 so though I like older music/films/tv etc, 1940's is quite out my age range!

thanks again, and I'll be back soon I'm sure!

thanks in advance,

J