In this video,
you will learn how to match a color onto any object in Photoshop. To follow along,
you can download the sample file from the Adobe page for this tutorial. Our working document contains two layers: A photo of a room and a yellow circle, which is the color that we're going
to reference for the color match. The goal of this tutorial is to apply
this yellow color to the couch. Before we get into that, we need to understand an essential concept about how color works
inside that HSB color system. If you double click
on the foreground color, the Color Picker will come up and you will be able to select
any color that you want. When you drag over
the color gradient or the Hue slider, you'll notice that the values
in the HSB boxes change depending on the color that you select. HSB stands for Hue,
Saturation and Brightness which are the three color components
that we need to understand to complete this advanced
color matching technique. Hue is what color something is. Is that orange, green,
blue, magenta or red? Saturation is the intensity of that color, a vibrant red or completely be saturated. And brightness is how light or dark
the color is. A combination of these components
will make up all the colors that you see in Photoshop. In this video, we're going to match the hue and saturation of
the yellow circle onto the couch, then we're going to try to match
the brightness as close as possible. You can't match all three components
of the yellow color to the couch because you'll end up
with a flat yellow couch with no shape or details. You need
the different levels of brightness, the highlights and shadows
that give the couch its shape and texture. The first step is to select the couch. From the Toolbar,
select the Object Selection Tool and with the Background layer active, click and drag a rectangle
that covers the couch. Photoshop will then use
machine learning technology to select the couch. If you inadvertently select an area
that you did not intend to select then you can subtract
from the selection by going into the Options bar and making sure that Object Subtract is enabled and hold Alt on Windows,
Option on the Mac and click and drag over the blanket
to deselect. You don't have to be precise; you can fine tune the mask later. Then you can create a group and click on the Layer Mask icon to create a layer mask
based on the selection. The reason that we're applying
the mask to the group is so that one mask can control
multiple adjustment layers. If you need to edit the mask, you will only have to do it once. Next, create a Solid Color Fill layer and click in the yellow circle
to apply that yellow color and press OK. Currently,
the Solid Fill layer is applying all three components
of the yellow color to the couch. The hue, saturation and brightness, which is why it looks completely flat. To keep the hue
and saturation of the yellow but use the brightness of the couch
to bring back the detail, you can use a blending mode. In the Blending Mode dropdown, you'll notice the four Blending Modes
below this line. These Blending Modes control
one or more of the color components: Hue, Saturation, Color and Luminosity. To match the Hue and Saturation, you can use the color Blending Mode
which combines both. Next, we can adjust the brightness and for that, you can create
a Levels Adjustment layer. Drag the color fill layer
above the Levels Adjustment layer, then select the levels adjustment
and from the Properties panel, use the Highlight slider
to brighten the couch. You can then use the midpoint slider
to increase contrast. If you made a strong highlight
on the cushions, you can drag the white point slider
to the left to reduce it. This makes the brightest point
on the couch a light grey and not white. At this point, you can finetune
the mask if necessary. And as simple as that,
we've applied the yellow to the couch. If you're wondering why we didn't use a hue and saturation
adjustment layer for this, then let me show you why. I'll disable the couch group and I'll hold Control on Windows,
Command on the Mac and click on the layer mask thumbnail to load the couch as a selection. With the group selected,
I'm going to create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. I'll adjust the Hue to get the yellow, then I'll increase the Saturation. And this is where the problem arises. If I adjust the Lightness lighter
to get a brighter yellow, I'll wash out the shadows of the couch making it look very flat. Even if I click on the Colorize checkbox and apply the proper Hue
and Saturation adjustments, you will still end up
with the same problem when you adjust the Lightness. By splitting the components
into two layers, you have complete control
over the color and brightness, and you don't lose
the shadows on the couch, you can control them independently. Now that you know
how to match colors in Photoshop, go ahead and try this
color matching technique on your photos.
