Matching the tones is the most challenging part of creating composite images. You may find numerous tutorials on the Internet about matching tones and smooth blending of the composite elements, however this technique by Antti Karppinen is the best I’ve seen so far as it even helps with blending images that are shot under different lights.
Karppinen is an award-winning international photographer and retoucher from Finland. He has been creating visual stories for a long time, and recently he started to share his tips and techniques on YouTube. In his latest video, he explains the color matching technique which he uses: hue and saturation maps.
He uses a 50 percent gray filled layer with luminosity blend mode for creating the hue and saturation map over the layers to see the tonal difference between the colors. Then, he boosts the saturation on the gray layer to make the color transitions and differences more visible, and then the second part of his technique starts. He uses selective color to finely adjust and match the tones of the front and background elements.
What do you think of Karppinen’s technique? If you have your own tips and techniques about matching tones in composite imaging, please share in the comments section below.
excellent tip !!! thanks
Thank you for sharing!
Helper layers are fantastic. I use them but this one is new to me. Excellent tip even for non composite images.
Gold
Very helpful.
Great tip! thnx
An excellent tip. Thank you, well done.
Starting up on photoshop with that nice tip!
This is certainly the best technique I've seen. It is so simple yet effective.
Brilliant technique. Thanks for sharing.
Wow...I have a new hero. This is such a great tip, massive thanks for sharing .
brilliant, thank you!