It’s difficult to read numbers in the Info palette while you are pushing curves or dragging sliders
because moving the Eyedropper tool makes numbers disappear. Instead of wasting time going
back and forth with the Eyedropper to get color readouts, ensure your color adjustments are accurate
with the Color Sampler tool.
When a client asked me to replace the
classic red of a tricycle with their corporate
color, I started by creating a chip of
the desired color next to the bike. I’ve reproduced
the image with the corporate color chip for you. To follow along, download the 3 MB tricycle.zip archive and extract the tricycle.psd file, shown at left.
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Open tricycle.psd and follow my process by selecting the
Color Sampler tool. (Press Shift-I until it
appears in the toolbox.) Click once in
the color chip to place a color sampler
point—a crosshair and a number. Press
Command/Ctrl while click-dragging
a sampler point to move it around. If
you make a mistake, Option/Alt-click
the sampler to remove it. Now click in
the flat, colored area at the back of the
tricycle seat for a second color sampler
point. (You can place up to four points in
an image.) Placing a color sampler point
automatically expands the Info palette,
and you’ll see readouts corresponding to
your two points. Notice the readouts are
in CMYK, but by clicking an eyedropper
to the left of a readout, you can change
it to RGB, Grayscale, or another option
such as Total Ink. Control/Right-click on
a color sampler point to access a contextual
menu with some additional options.
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I’ve already created a selection of
the tricycle’s red areas for you, so select
the Target chip layer, move to the Paths
palette, and Command/Ctrl-click the Red
Regions path to load it as a selection.
Create a Hue/Saturation adjustment
layer by clicking the Create new fill or
adjustment layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. In the resulting dialog
box, you’ll notice that as you drag the
Hue/Saturation sliders, the Sampler 1
readout numbers do not change. The
Sampler 2 readout displays two sets of
numbers: The original values and the
adjusted values. Your job is to bring the
values for Sampler 2 closer to Sampler 1.
Start by dragging Hue all the way to the
right, decrease Saturation to –60, and
click OK.
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Duplicate the Hue/Saturation adjustment
layer by pressing Command/Ctrl-J.
Now choose Layer > Change Layer Content
> Curves. Press Command/Ctrl-1
to access the Cyan channel. Reduce the
amount of ink by dragging the curve
down about 3/4 of the way across the
grid until the Cyan value of Sampler 2 in
the Info palette matches the Cyan value
of Sampler 1. Access the Magneta channel
by pressing Command/Ctrl-2, but this
time push up the curve until you match
the Magenta value of Sampler 2 with the
Magenta value of Sampler 1. After pressing
Command/Ctrl-3 to access the Yellow
channel, drag the curve down slightly to
match the Yellow value of Sampler 2 with
the Yellow value of Sampler 1. The tricycle
now matches the target color, but
it appears flat. To create the wider range
of values evident with metallic paint, add
a bit of contrast to the image in the form
of another adjustment layer or a slight
S-curve on the Black plate of the Curves
adjustment layer.
Make a habit of arranging the order
of your readouts the same way each
time. For example, I make Sampler
1 the target color and Sampler 2 the
color to be adjusted. When necessary,
I use Sampler 3 to evaluate light areas
and Sampler 4 for dark areas.
In the absence of a calibrated monitor
and a color management system,
matching color to a predefined color
chip is remarkably accurate. In CMYK,
the numbers don’t lie. If you have to
match a given color, find the number
of a PMS color that matches it, and
place a chip of that color in the document.
Use the color correction tools
to modify the document’s color until
it matches with the color chip.
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Simon Tuckett is an illustrator and retoucher based in Toronto.
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