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Consider two outdoors photos taken with different cameras and different cities. You want to include both in the same photo series and therefore need to re-touch them with identical color profiles and effects as much as possible.

With photo #1 and photo #2 open in your software editor, how can you colorize (Hue/Saturation, etc) the lake in the first so that it has the same color as the sea in the second?

Obviously neither the lake and sea have only one color throughout, but encompass a tightly-defined range of blue or teal. Rather than winging it by eye, which can turn out very wrong, is there some sort of color-dropper tool procedure to match and verify that both are being re-colored to the identical color range while colorizing when adjusting the hue, saturation, etc in tandem?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Does this answer your question? Do I always get the same colours when I set the white balance correctly? \$\endgroup\$
    – Michael C
    Dec 27, 2021 at 5:18
  • \$\begingroup\$ Thanks, but white balance is good for adjusting for lighting situations. In the present case, the sea and lake will by nature have different hues and saturation than each other, but making their colors match seems a bit more complex than just balancing light \$\endgroup\$
    – user610620
    Dec 27, 2021 at 8:41

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Several parts here.

  1. The most important part is planning. It is pretty obvious that it will be very hard to adjust two photos in very different lighting situations, one on a sunny day, and another in the sunset.

  2. You probably have a misconception about the color profile. That is as simple as assigning it to both photos, but it does not tell anything amount the colors included in the photo.

  3. To solve the real issue, you should use a color chart, for example, a color checker as a first step to a calibrated workflow.

  4. And for the grading, as it is an extensive process, let me put a link to a tutorial that might guide you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epPOrHG6SnE This tutorial explains the use of color gradients and color maps. Look for more tutorials on color grading, including the word "match".

In this case, it will be only a step because you need to adjust more things like perspective and overall adjustments. Use the curves for that.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ A color chart/table for image #1's lake and a color chart for image #2's river sounds helpful. But I haven't seen such a tool in Gimp or Photoshop. Only for picking colors, not for what is present in an image. Color checker is what you're calling it? \$\endgroup\$
    – user610620
    Dec 26, 2021 at 21:54
  • \$\begingroup\$ letmegooglethat.com/?q=what+is+a+color+checker%3F \$\endgroup\$
    – Michael C
    Dec 27, 2021 at 5:24
  • \$\begingroup\$ The video link you included is called "Steal the Color Grading from Any Image with Photoshop" which really sounds like it does correspond to my question! Could you summarize the steps the tutorial follows in your answer? And could you link a similar video like it but pertaining to Color Charts? Both procedures described together seems to be the best answer, the answer just hasn't been written here yet \$\endgroup\$
    – user610620
    Dec 28, 2021 at 10:56

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