Equalising Colour/Shade in a series

[Stagecoach]

I have five images that I want to make a series of and would prefer the sky, which is bland and featureless, to be as close as possible the same shade. Adjusting all to the same WB does not give a good result as they were all taken at different angles to the light and varying light rain and mist.

Is there a recommended way to do this? I am not too worried about slightly differing shades of the sails.

Here are two from the set, only PPd roughly for now with the intention of making the boats prominent rather than trying to get detail in sky and water.

I'm using ACR & PSCC and the images are shot in RAW.





Grahame

[Urbanflyer]

Aside from masking and putting in a sky from another source, which might be overkill if all you want is the same featureless sky but of a blue hue, then I would suggest using the selective color feature under image/adjustment in PPCC. The color you want to adjust is white. you can use the sliders to get you where you want to go. There will be minimal change in the sail colors since you will only be working on the whites. When you are close, you can use the color sampler to see what the various sky colors are across your five images and use the information on each of those colors to guide final tuning. Let me know if you want more detailed explanation. If you really do want a more interesting sky, then masking will be the way to go.

With these images the more featureless sky works quite well. Love the pictures!

[Stagecoach]

Aside from masking and putting in a sky from another source, which might be overkill if all you want is the same featureless sky but of a blue hue, then I would suggest using the selective color feature under image/adjustment in PPCC. The color you want to adjust is white. you can use the sliders to get you where you want to go. There will be minimal change in the sail colors since you will only be working on the whites. When you are close, you can use the color sampler to see what the various sky colors are across your five images and use the information on each of those colors to guide final tuning. Let me know if you want more detailed explanation. If you really do want a more interesting sky, then masking will be the way to go.

With these images the more featureless sky works quite well. Love the pictures!

Thank you Judith, I'll have a look at this method and try on a couple.

Changing the sky from another source is certainly not on the cards, I think the bland one looks fine, if balanced.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Grahame, I would suggest the same thing (selective color adjustment layer) as Judith has done already. I use it in some of my sunset shots and because it is a detailed and effective tool I find it very useful in some situations. Let me explain. When you choose a color let's say blue you will see cyan,magenta,yellow and black color sliders in the blue color window . So, by adjusting those sliders you actually adjust the cyan,magenta,yellow or blacks in the blues of your image. So , you are able to deal with the colors more effectively

BTW both images are very nice , my fav is #1 with its composition and colors

[Stagecoach]

Hi Grahame, I would suggest the same thing (selective color adjustment layer) as Judith has done already. I use it in some of my sunset shots and because it is a detailed and effective tool I find it very useful in some situations. Let me explain. When you choose a color let's say blue you will see cyan,magenta,yellow and black color sliders in the blue color window . So, by adjusting those sliders you actually adjust the cyan,magenta,yellow or blacks in the blues of your image. So , you are able to deal with the colors more effectively

BTW both images are very nice , my fav is #1 with its composition and colors

Hi Binnur,

Well I set out to follow Judith's and your advice on the above two images from scratch and unexpectedly found a solution

With the first image open in ACR I did the following;

1. Crop to what I wanted.
2. Used the 'colour sampler tool' to place two sample points, one near top left one near top right.
3. Used the 'WB tool' in the sky are to get a rough balance.
4. Used the WB 'Temperature' adjustment slider to achieve an as near even value in the RGB figures of each sample point.
5. Made my basic PP adjustments, Dehaze +20, Contrast +10 from experience with earlier tries.
6. Adjusted (increased) the 'Whites' slider to get all RGB values at the two sample points as close to 250 as possible.
7. Opened in PS and undertook sharpening and downsizing.

Followed the same procedure for the other image and I think they match good enough The sky area at the top will be the same shade and brightness on all images.

Tomorrow I will follow Judith's procedure to see how that goes.

[pnodrog]

As well as adjusting the "Whites" slider (white point) it looks to me as if the black point needs to be adjusted as well....

[Stagecoach]

As well as adjusting the "Whites" slider (white point) it looks to me as if the black point needs to be adjusted as well....

Paul, these were just a quick and dirty attempt to get the background balanced between two images. They will all individually need minor tweaks in black point, contrast, sharpness and clarity due to the different distances shot at and weather variations.

[chauncey]

Grahame's technique works quite well...ya might consider getting rid of the far shoreline.

[ScoutR]

these are beautiful. I like what you have done with the edits, but agree some tweaking is needed. The first one looks excellent. Number 2 seems to have lost some colour/contrast, but I'm sure you will work on that for the final images.

Really, Really Nice

[bnnrcn]

Adjusting the 'whites' slider seems to have worked well Grahame

[Stagecoach]

Grahame's technique works quite well...ya might consider getting rid of the far shoreline.

Thanks William,

These were taken from the shore and what can be seen is the edge of the reef. Normally there would be surf breaking over this but things were really calm this day. Personally, I prefer to leave it in but will tidy up by cloning out such things as markers and untidy bits of rock as in No 2 on the left.

[Stagecoach]

these are beautiful. I like what you have done with the edits, but agree some tweaking is needed. The first one looks excellent. Number 2 seems to have lost some colour/contrast, but I'm sure you will work on that for the final images.

Really, Really Nice

Thanks Wendy,

[Stagecoach]

Adjusting the 'whites' slider seems to have worked well Grahame

Yes, I'm happy with the result Binnur

What I'm most pleased with is that I have now found the way of 'balancing' the shade and brightness of prominent areas using RGB values that does not rely upon my guesswork as I'm terrible with colour. Normally this is not a concern as I do not make sets of images.

[bnnrcn]

I don't usually use RGB values either Grahame, but your thread made me think of using them when/if necessary. It seems better than relying on my eyes

Yes, I'm happy with the result Binnur

What I'm most pleased with is that I have now found the way of 'balancing' the shade and brightness of prominent areas using RGB values that does not rely upon my guesswork as I'm terrible with colour. Normally this is not a concern as I do not make sets of images.