Lessons

Lesson Info

Color Grading

Here's I love this photo. That's just a stock photo. My So I just thought I was cute. And because of the kind of vintage apparel, I thought it might be fun to apply an effect that had that feeling as well. So there's obviously lots of ways we can do this, but one technique that's been around for quite a while I think it's kind of got a little lost in the shuffle because there's so many other things is an interesting option where you can say I kind of like the feel of the colors in this photo. So I'd like this one to kind of feel the same. So not copying the colors specifically, but sort of matching them together a little bit again. Unfortunately, this is something where you cannot do it in a smart way, which is soon as you realize that means OK, duplicate the background layer. That's the unfortunate part of this aspect is I wish there were ways to make this smarter than it is, but at least it's better than nothing. So imagine in your mind take a snapshot of this picture in your head be...

cause we're gonna This is what we're going to be using, but won't be able to see it quite as much. So this is kind of the look of what I want to use. So back in this photograph on this duplicated layer, I'm going to choose something called Adjustments and then match color. Now, when this first came out, the original demonstrations they took two photographs and used match color, and I was like, Oh, my gosh, they look exactly the same now I've never had that happen. I don't know why that is. Maybe just but I didn't have the right photos, so I've never to me. The word match color is not as important as borrow color because to say it's gonna match exactly to me, it hardly ever matches. So I wouldn't go into this with that expectation. They're gonna say, Oh, this is a great way to make these two photos that were taken 20 minutes apart Look exactly the same. It might help, but I don't to me, that's not what it's really. I don't use it for that. I use it more for I love the way the feeling of the colors in this photo. I like to see if I can make this one look kind of the same. So the way to this match color works again. Take note. Cancel preview. That means play experiment. It's OK, don't panic. But the main thing about this is we're saying, What do I want to use as the source from which I'm going to pull the colors? So right now it's the same image, which means not much is gonna happen. So if I go and say I want to be this one soon as I do that, see the difference where it's changed the feeling of a little bit. I'm not sure that I'm 100% happy with it yet, but that's OK because this is just step one. So, of course, you have slides to see sliders. That means you can move them. Fade would be make it not quite so obvious. And every time I do that, I tend to use the preview quite a bit. Even that it to me it looks pretty good. It's a nice little subtle effect, and you can say I want the colors to be mawr less intense, you know, change it a little bit. That's kind of a neat. In fact, we're getting It's almost like pulling some of the color out of it. But moving more towards this color neutralize can make it so you're not It's not quite as intense now. And my source document on Lee has one layer in it. Um, but what one things we can do is take it a step further by identifying a portion of our source photo we want to use right now, I just said I have two photos open. Look at that whole photograph and use that to cancel this for a second. Show you if I go back to the pier document and I make a selection and I say this is really the colors area that I like, not this brown about this. You can go in and make even one or two selections to tell match color. Use only the selected area. So if you had a photograph, for example, where the sky was awesome but it had green grass and on a green just make a selection of a portion of the sky. And now when I go back to this once, you still always have to come back to this document cause the sources over there. But now I'm looking inside that source document to say, Look inside the selection to make that match color happen. Still want a separate layer? Because I can't do it in a smart way. So now when I come in here, I choose the sources, my other document, and now you see it says U selection and source to calculate colors. So when I do that, it looks completely different to the point where maybe too much so neutralize that and faded out. So the difference between the two and I'm not in any way suggesting that it's gonna be a better result because the case, I'm not sure it is better, but it's nothing to try. So before you even go into match color the first time, if you're looking at your source document and saying there's a couple of different options, I might like just this area over here or the whole photograph. Just make a selection, then you have the choice of using that or not. So I tend to do that a fair bit unless there's ah, photograph that just is so intently. One color that I know that's gonna give me the result that I want So once. Let's just pretend the sake of argument that I liked this and I clicked okay, because it's on a separate layer. Now I have the option. I would probably tend not leave it like that. But do something else like some other blend mode or something toe accentuated or change a little bit. I could, of course, add a layer mask to say, I don't want this area affected as much. So all the things we talked about in the last couple of sessions are still the same. We're still gonna have that option to build on top of this. So that's one way to fairly automatically say, I would like to pull the feeling of the color from that other document. I've seen demonstrations where people said, I need to make his shirt color exactly the same as this shirt color and they match color. And I'm like, No, no, no. You did that because when I try that, it's close. But it's not like, yes, that's exactly the color. So personally, I wouldn't use it for that. I've used it more for this overall feeling. Okay, All right. So the other option. Just delete that and come back to this one and going to make this one smart for a minute, cause I want experiment with a smart filter. So when you look at this photograph overall, my I see one or two colors kind of as the main color. But if I wanna really have Photoshopped, help me determine if there was one color that could describe the tone of this image, what would it be? One of the ways to do that, and I'll do it as a smart filter to so I don't have to make it permanent. There's an option under the Blur set of field was called average, and then it averages out and says, Well, that's the color when I average everything, that's what I see is that color that right there. So with that in mind, I could take the eyedropper, sample that color and then going here and add a solid color adjustment layer with that color I just made and then change the blend mode to something like color or luminosity. Maybe not Nazi colors better, and then lower the opacity to start to get that feeling. That photo, of course you could just arbitrarily take any color you want on. One of the advantages we mentioned briefly the other day about using a solid color adjustment layer is once you have the blend mode and the opacity kind of in the right neighborhood, then this just becomes a Let me use the color picker and let me turn off that gamut warning. And since I don't need it now, as I choose other colors, Aiken in a live way, see what's happening so I can go to any color area I want and see if there's something that I like a little better than the one that came up from that average. So that's just another kind of a possibility Now. I didn't let's rewind all, but I didn't really introduce this by saying, I'm gonna do some color grading because that's the term that people are big on from the film industry that's now working its way into Photoshopped. To me, I've been doing color grading for a long time, he said. No, it because color grading is changing the color look and feel. Teoh emote a certain feeling, and that's basically what we're doing here is by finding ways to say, How can I change the feeling of this photograph by adjusting the colors in some way so that it looks more the way I want? Um, this particular one is nice because it opens up some possibilities like this. I'm gonna pick a color somewhere in this range. I think I'm gonna go a little intense at first just because I'm trying to do a full circle here and pull everything together. Eso I have pick that color solid color adjustment layer. I've changed the blend mode to color and I've put the opacity down a bit. I'm gonna put it back up. Just a hair. You can see better what's happening. And let's say that now that I've done that, I want to do a further adjustment toe change where the colors air really applying. So how could I do that? Will various ways, including painting on the mass. But I thought that's always in my head, that I always try because it takes 10 seconds or less to see if there's any point in doing this is I double click and go to the those blend if sliders because to me, that's such a marvelous way of blending things together. So in this case, the underlying layer if I take the darker spots to say, can I make that sort of pop groups see what's happening in the like in the train and everything? And now you that option all split and take the light part. Maybe do that a bit more. So this is changing the impact of that color quite dramatically. And in this dialog box, remember, even I'm in the blend of sliders. It's also replicating the fact that I'm in color and this opacity so I could now put this higher, lower, or try a different blend mode and see if that does anything for me, you know? So all of these things are just part of the experiment. Of course, any adjustment layer has a mass. So if you said I love everything except this part right here, I don't like the way that's looking than just paint on the mask and make it not happen right there. So there's there's never, hopefully should never be appointed ago. I that's so close to what I want. But there's one thing I don't like. If you do it in structure it in this kind of way, you should be able to get to a point of saying, Well, that's looking really good. But I'm just paint on the mask a little bit over here to take it out, and but the focus more on the middle area or whatever it might be okay. Questions so far, a couple of questions that came in here, a photo maker actually just posted this one wants to know David. You often combine color grading with texture overlays to create certain moves all the time. I mean, it depends what I'm doing it, but I love the feel of texture. Especially like this would be a prime example. I would definitely look at some texture for this voter we have just because of the feeling of it already has that kind of vintage look into me Vintage Christ for some kind of texture. He was just a subtle, you know, thing or something really dramatic. But as we talked about with texture overlays, I would still, you know, throw that into the equation, do the color and say, Now let's add a texture and see if we can make that blend in some other way. So My answer is always starts with. It depends because, you know, depends on photo. But it's definitely always in my thought process to say, Well, maybe a texture in here would be really cool to Okay, I think you touched on this one a little bit. We still have people who are voting on it, so I think maybe we could do another example. Get some clarification. But, uh, this question is Dave photo shop will allow you to add a second mask to a layer. Why would you do this? Maybe you could just touch on another example. Well, may do that The well, so you can. But it's not quite, is what it sounds like. So if you have a layer with a layer mask, the if you add a second layer mask is actually a vector mask instead of a pixel mass. Okay, so by nature, if I hit the mass button again, it looks like I'm getting another mass with. The difference is this one is pixel based shades of gray. This one is shaped based with like drawing with the pencil. So especially what we're doing today. There's not that many times, like now that I've done that. Let me draw a triangle and make it mask a perfect triangle shape. So that's what unfortunately visually people get thrown off because it looks like, Oh, I could have more than one mask. But not really. However, having said that, there are still times where, let's say, for sake of argument that I wanted to extract this kid so I would make a mask of the extraction. But on top of that, I wanted to make part of him fade out. Then I need to make another mask. But the way I would do that just so since we went down this path, let me talk about it quickly. So I'm gonna do this really quickly and badly. So don't judge me. This is not the point. This is just to get it done really fast. So we're gonna pretend Oh, look at that fantastically perfect selection. Just like that. Yeah, Perfect. So I've done that and I've I don't know, added some color behind. This is really don't look at the aesthetics of this work is really bad, But let's say now I've done that. I also want him the the suitcase to start to fade into the photograph. Well, I already have a mass, so I can't at a layer mask to that. So there's two possible solutions. One is really kind of unusual, and that is, if you put a single layer into a group, a group can have a mask. So now I could in effect mask the mask. So by doing it this way, this means Aiken have this mass. But I can also going to go. That's a horrible mass. Let me try and make that better. But doing that with on the same layer wouldn't work as well because it would be vector and I wouldn't be able to do that sort of graduated kind of thing. So that would be option one to be put in a group. The other options we talked about numerous times where I have said it over and over again is I could also convert this to a smart object. That way, it's like I'm starting again and now I could add a master that so if you ever find yourself situation where you feel like I want to keep that mask but have a second mask, it's better to do it in one of these ways because that that second vector masters wouldn't give you the same kind of ability or control. Vector mask is a shape. So if you want to put you know something you've done inside a really sharp rectangle or circle or something, that's where a vector mask would come into play. Quick, quick, follow question that photo maker has posted. Might that second mask work with split color toning in selected areas? It could. I'm going to show, almost momentarily, some options for a split, toning that I would consider doing going to do that actually, in a second. But it could in there. The That's the beauty of photo shop is when someone asked what's like that, Yeah, probably probably. You know, there's very few cases where it's like, No, that wouldn't work at all and most the time it's like, Yeah, you probably could do it that way. Okay, um, you know, So that's another option of how to do things. Okay, so one of things that came out in should keep a cheat cheat of versions of photos. I think it was CS six new adjustment layer called color look up table or color look up. And in the first version of Photoshop that came out in it was cool. Except all you could do is apply them, which is still kind of need. So I'll show that you anyway, So you go to the adjustment layer and use color Look up. And basically, in this version, air in the original couple of versions, all it waas and I don't want to undersell it because it was really cool is a list of presets. Unfortunately, some of them you look at the name and go, you know, pastel eight Hughes. Okay. Thank goodness for preview. Oh, my, that's interesting. What if I invert the mask? Not so much. Let's take it away completely. So that's one of the problems with this is you just kind of go. All right, Let's just try it and see. That's kind of interesting. So you can go in here. There's all kinds of ones. These are all built in some of the moment to emulate film styles, of doing things or, you know, someone. They just have to like horror Blue. I would you not click on that? Because that's just enticing you toe. Try it And what I found with This is a lot of time. I was like, That's close, but not quite so. Then I go back that it, well, me if I lower the opacity or change the blend mode or paint on the mast. So don't overlook these because you look through them at 1st 90 like No, that's too intense. What if it's in the right neighborhood? You can get it to the where you want by doing that combination of lowering opacity and or some blend mode to try and get it to look the way that you that you want. So that's up Until Photoshopped CC you had the ability to just click on existing look up tables that were provided by Adobe, one of things that happened in CC. Some version. That's when the fun things about teaching creative cloud versions of some update I think it was January 2000. I have no idea. At some point you suddenly have the ability to generate look up tables, which is kind of interesting, because now I can, for example, go in and say I'm gonna add a black and white adjustment layer on this. Leave it at Is that all lower the opacity dramatically, and I'll add a photo filter adjustment layer and say, I want some of this green in there. That's not green. Okay, let's do it manually. So you basically create a series of adjustment layers and then you have the option of, um, except where does what's over here? Export color? Look up table. And what it will do is it will look at the combination of things you did of umpteen adjustment layers, and it will export that as a color look up table and has stuff in here that you just very quickly click. OK, don't even read it. Just go export. Okay, because I'm someone could probably explain what these do. Stop me. Click. OK, say what you like to call it. We call it that. So now if we were toe open a different photograph completely and say Let's try that. If I go to color, look up table, I can go to load and they're on. My desktop is the one that I just made. Now I have one adjustment layer that basically is the cumulation of whatever I did in the other one. So without again getting into a sales pitch on Creative Cloud. This is one of the benefits is that in the good old days, Adobe would have waited 18 months to introduce this ability to create your own color look up tables because that was when the next version of photo shop was coming out. Now, just one day at a little notification creative cloud, saying, There's an update and I said, What is it? And said Now you can do these six things and one of them was Create your own color look up tables and these color look up tables are also usable for those people that are in other areas, like video software, you can load the same look up tables into that. So if you're trying to match the look of something you've done in photo shop to something you're doing in Premiere, for example or after effects, you could do that as well. So I don't want to spend too much time on this because it is specific. This one of the few things that specific to the latest creative cloud version. But that's a pretty neat idea where you have played around and kind of help solve that dilemma of How on earth did I do that? You know, that happens when you're just playing. Now you can get to that end result instead of saving a docking with all those adjustments in it, which you can obviously do that ability to take it one step further, make a color look up table things kind of a nice added benefit that weaken put in there.