Color matching for compositing two or more images

[hasl753]

I saw a YouTube tutorial on color matching of two images for compositing them together. The tutorial made use of an "unused command" (deprecated I assume) called "Manual Color Correction."

I'm surprised that color matching requires that you dig out an old command that isn't in the default command set. Is there a tutorial that explains how to do color matching of two images by using only the commands that come with PSP 2021 out of the box?

[Kathy_9]

I don't know of tutorials using "out of the box" commands but that doesn't mean they don't exist. I sure others will jump in with their thoughts.

However, I wanted to make sure you know that you can add the Manual Color Correction to your workspace.

Either go to View -> Customize or just right-click in the workspace and select Customize. Next choose the "Commands Tab" and scroll to the bottom and select "All Commands". Click in the right hand box and hold down the letter 'M" until Manual Color Correction appears. You can now drag the Manual Color Correction icon to a toolbar of your choice.

Click for larger view

Regards,
Kathy

[Jean-Luc]

See here:
https://forum.corel.com/viewtopic.php?p=304640

[migf1]

Welcome to the forum hasl753,

there is nothing wrong reviving "Unused Commands" in order to get the job done. Besides the Manual Correction tool, there is also the Black & White Points tool buried under "Unused Commands" which let us specify 3 neutral colors instead of 1 (black, gray and white). Frankly I have no idea why Corel has buried those 2 commands. As far as I can tell, both can really help when trying to color match with PSP.

[JoeB]

I agree with @migf1 - there appears to be no logical reason why these commands are hidden. But logic in creating the default UI has never been one of Corel's strong points. In the meantime, I would use @Kathy_9's suggestion to modify your workspace. But my suggestion would be to add both the Manual Color Correction tool and Black & White Points to the Adjust>Color flyout.

[hasl753]

I agree that the Manual Color Correction and B/W Points tools are excellent for this purpose; I'm using them now. BUT I assumed that Corel hid them because they plan to eliminate those tools in some future version of PSP.

[LeviFiction]

While always possible, the help documents do say they were hidden because they felt they were properly replaced with newer commands/functions, they've also been there for the past 10 years or so, maybe a bit longer. It's honestly far more likely they'll leave them alone for backwards compatibility and any commands removed from now on will just be fully removed rather than placed in that section.

I would also like to point out, that Corel keeps a count of how often commands are used in the registry, and on occassion when PSP phones home they'll get those statistics. So using them is far better than not when it comes to whether or not Corel will consider their removal.

Besides I greatly question some of the commands they've put in there. It's so odd to me that they put Manual Color Correction and Adjust Color Balance into the unused commands section. Nothing we've gotten since properly compare. I can't think of a single thing that does with Manual Color Correction does properly (though there are ways to use SmartPhoto Fix's white balance to get close). And Adjust Color Balance is almost identical to Photoshop's Color Balance command. I use it to help fine-tune color balances by tweaking the colors after adjusting the white balance.

[JoeB]

@LeviFiction, I do not see an Adjust Color Balance in Unused Commands. Are you referring to something else like Adjust White Balance?

[LeviFiction]

Yes, sorry. Same thing actually. When they originally replaced it with the current White Balance command they still called it Color Balance. They later renamed it White Balance and renamed the original Adjust Color Balance to Adjust White Balance. I always change it back Color Balance after adding it back to the menu.

[Sculptor]

So I often do collages where I am joining body parts together and want to blend flesh tones.

Would this be a good tool for that?

[migf1]

It would, yes. Also Black & White Points (also hidden under Unused Commands) and also the Smart Photo Fix with its Smart White Balance section, which lets us mark neutral colors on the photo.

[Jean-Luc]

So I often do collages where I am joining body parts together and want to blend flesh tones.

Open the two images (Edit mode).
Set the Pick tool to 11x11 pixels.
Search for the "Manual Color Correction" tool you'll find in the "View/Customize/Unused commands".
Activate (click on) the target image to correct.
Open the Manual Color Correction Tool.
Click on "Manual target color".
Click on the "Target" color rectangle.
The "Color" window opens.
With the cursor, click on the selected color in the origin image.
This color is now the "Current" color in the "Color" window.
Click on "OK" to apply the current color on the target image.

[Sculptor]

So I often do collages where I am joining body parts together and want to blend flesh tones.

Open the two images (Edit mode).
Set the Pick tool to 11x11 pixels.
Search for the "Manual Color Correction" tool you'll find in the "View/Customize/Unused commands".
Activate (click on) the target image to correct.
Open the Manual Color Correction Tool.
Click on "Manual target color".
Click on the "Target" color rectangle.
The "Color" window opens.
With the cursor, click on the selected color in the origin image.
This color is now the "Current" color in the "Color" window.
Click on "OK" to apply the current color on the target image.
X7 manual color correction.png

Thanks.
I'll give that a try next time.

[CHoffman]

AFAIK, there are still no white balance tools, new or old, that will correctly equalize RGB values in a simple fashion like every other program that has a white balance capability.

[LeviFiction]

Can you provide an example?