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Automatic tonal adjustments
Hello
I am working for a broadcast TV where i am tasked to create images that act as backgrounds. These are then displayed on a LCD screens in a studio environment. So there are studio lights, clothing of the person standing in front of said backgrounds, camera values and final image control. All of these interfere between each other so LCDs are set to a darker tone which distorts tonal values of projected backgrounds.
My question is, is there an automated way in Photoshop to bring a picture to fixed, pre-calculated tonal value for a specific environment. Something that would set brightness levels and RGB values before saving. Preferably in one click :). Looking for plugins, add-ons, scripts, extensions, etc.
Thanks in advance
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3 Replies
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The question is, how would Photoshop know the conditions in the environment you’re bringing the image into?
There’s only one reliable way (that I know of) to achieve this, which is to get a video color calibration test image which includes any critical tones you plan on including (like skin tones) and go to the place where the image will be displayed along with a laptop (which has Photoshop on it) with the same reference image looking like you want it to look and actually project the image under the same conditions as it will be in real life. Then create versions of the image with adjustment layers (a single Levels adjustment layer is the simplest approach) and re-project, comparing the result to your unaltered reference image (on the laptop screen) until you are as close to the reference image as the projection system allows. Then you will have the needed adjustment layer(s) that you can add to the top of the layer stack in the image when you’re ready to export.
If you’re generating the image on a different computer (not the laptop you’re using for matching) you also have to make sure the image on laptop looks as close to the original on the source computer before doing the above.
Kalleheikki Kannisto
Senior Graphic Designer -
Thank you for your anwser. I havent thought about a reference monitor but i think it would work well because you cant simulate studio lightning, light falloff etc.
Values would be calculated in testing phase(trial & error). I was hoping for something that wouldnt allow pictures to exceed certain values (example: Color red: ff0202 to bright, b50101 acceptable value). -
I believe you can save the result as a lookup table for easier access.
I would expect that you need to push the values up rather than pull them down to make the LCD screen look acceptable in a brightly lit environment, but I might be wrong, never having tried to do this. My experience is more in the print production size of things where the problem is being able to see on the monitor how something will look printed.
Kalleheikki Kannisto
Senior Graphic Designer
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