GIMP Version: 2.6.11
Operating System: Mac OS
OS Version: snow leopard
GIMP Experience: Basic Level

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I have seen tutorials but now I can't find them. I just want to be able to match the look of a render to the background. I try eyeballing it on my own, but I am sure the computer could do better.

I'm not totally clear about what you want. Wouldn't GIMP's color picker be what you need?

Even if gimp's color picker doesn't work accurately there are hundreds of others although I've never had gimp's to not be accurate.

what I am looking to do is to make the coloring in a render match better with the coloring in the new background picture...especially the skin tones.

If you post an example file of your render and your background, I will provide a mini-tutorial on how this might be done.

i guees 2-ton is talking about his work from the thread
'cutting out background opinion'
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5493&start=10

SHE might be Esper!! LOL

nah, im the stud in front of her

why ?

LOL

If that is the case, I don't think my automated approach would be very fruitful; the disparity is too great.

Perhaps one of the following tutorials by patdavid would be more suitable:

http://blog.patdavid.net/2012/07/gettin ... color.html

http://blog.patdavid.net/2012/06/gettin ... urves.html

yes, even better http://blog.patdavid.net/2012/07/gettin ... color.html

This isn't too hard when one notices that there are pure whites in both pictures... the tablecloths in the restaurant and the stud's shirt (which is almost pure white). So, I sampled both left and right tablecloth, evaluated an "average white in the restaurant" (216,196,172), and dragged the curves in the added persons to match:



This fixes in one move the differences in brightness and color balance (hands were left out of the selection to keep the original tones for comparison).

Of course, lighting directions don't match well, but this is another story.

i learned a lot from those articles/tutorials that saulgoode linked to, can really recommend them, 2-ton! think the one where he concentrates on skin tones might be very useful for your pictures.

akky: hehe, you should of course have used a comma ("SHE might be, esper"), but sometimes things get much more amusing without commas ...

Esper, you are correct, the processes in that thread are what I was referring to!
Thanks Saulgoode, that method looks to be my best bet. The lighting, well, I am not experienced enough to really do much about that. I have not yet learned how to use the lighting filter very well. The curves is so complicated, it's going to take me a long time to work through it, a very long time.
lol Akky, us girls have to band together!!!! anmal is right, a missing comma can cause some confusion, lol.
As for Mr. Stud, hahaha, I can only hope to get the chance to tell him that is what y'all called him!

uh oh...we have the grammar police here !!!

2-ton, you could always use the digitalcolor meter found on Mac OS X in applications/utilities...it will give you a choice of ways to get the best color, just by running the cursor over the color you want...having said that, I usually use the eye dropper on GIMP.

i remember a long time ago I ran across some tutorial that showed how to match one pic with another, color-wise..but the link is on the computer that just crashed this week. We are having it rebuilt but it is not certain that the bookmarks can be rescued. I might lose all my old pics, too. I was going to back up my files this week, but forgot to get a flash drive when I was out on the day before it crashed. Murphy's Law strikes again.

Is this the mac you are talking about???? you really should use time machine

My thought was that you could try Elsamuko's Get Curves plug-in: http://registry.gimp.org/node/24710 as colour matching is what is was created for. I don't know if a MAC version is available.

Kevin

Ooooo, I never knew about digicolor. But I am going to search for that tut I had seen, it's how you can take two pics and have one change it's colors to match the other...or something like that. But it was an easy way to do it, that is why I am looking for it. I have finally figured out how to use levels, but it's going to take a lot to learn more about curves.

Soooo can anyone tell me how to find sample points and get it to work? I see it in the windows menu but everything is greyed out when I try to use it.

*got it! Followed the Pat David tutorial frame by frame...almost. I had to use a command + click where it says to use a control + click...I forgot that there are slight differences in mac and windows! The curves method is pretty good, good enough for what I need. Thanks for all the responses!