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Quickly remove a color cast

The Fast Color Corrector and the Three‑Way Color Corrector effects have controls to quickly balance colors so the white, grays, and black are neutral. The adjustment that neutralizes the color cast in a sampled area is applied to the entire image. This can remove the color cast in all colors. For example, if an image has an undesirable bluish cast, when you sample an area that should be white, the White Balance control adds yellow to neutralize the bluish cast. This yellow adjustment is added to all the colors in the scene, which should remove the color cast in the entire scene.

  1. Select the clip in a Timeline panel and apply either the Fast Color Corrector or the Three‑Way Color Corrector effect. See also Adjust luminance using levels.
  2. In the Effect Controls panel, click the triangle to expand the Fast Color Corrector or the Three‑Way Color Corrector controls.
  3. (Optional) Select the Show Split View option if you want to view a before and after comparison of your adjustment in the Program Monitor. You can specify whether the split view is horizontal or vertical by choosing from the Layout pop‑up menu. You can also adjust the relative proportion of the before and after views.
  4. Select the White Balance eyedropper and click to sample an area in the Program Monitor. It’s best to sample an area that is supposed to be white.
    If you only want to affect one color or a specific range of colors in the clip, use the Secondary Color Correction controls in the Three‑Way Color Corrector.
  5. (Optional for the Three‑Way Color Corrector only) Do any of the following:

    • To color balance by neutralizing a medium‑gray area of the image, select the Gray Balance eyedropper and click an area that’s supposed to be a medium gray.

    • To color balance by neutralizing a black area in the image, select the Black Balance eyedropper and click an area that’s supposed to be black.

    The Gray Balance control adjusts the sampled area to become a neutral gray and the Black Balance control adjusts the sampled area to become a neutral black. Like using the White Balance control, these adjustments affect all the colors in the clip.

    Note: You can also click the color swatch next to the eyedroppers and use the Adobe Color Picker to select a sample color.