How to Fix Color Casts

^{Photo by Atikh Bana on Unsplash}

Learning how to fix color casts is a simple process. This is fortunate because color casts are extremely common, so correcting them takes just a few moments.

Before we explore how to fix color casts, it’s necessary to understand what color casts are and why they occur.

What is a Color Cast?

^{photo by borchee via iStock}

The simplest color cast definition is this: a color tint that results from incorrect white balance or contaminated light. In the image above, the snow is blue, not white as it should be. This is a color cast.

^{photo by anton5146 via iStock}

As another example, color casts can result from colored light (like the blue light in the image above) or neutral light that bounces off a colored surface, like a yellow color cast that results from light bouncing off a yellow wall.

Color casts often appear throughout an image, though they are much easier to identify in lighter areas.

To determine whether a color cast exists, examine an area of the shot that should be white or gray (like the whites of the model’s eyes in the image above). If that area is not white or gray as it should be, you’ve got a color cast problem.

^{Photo by Jonatan Pie on Unsplash}

Of course, color casts can be used as a creative tool for impact.

While accidental color casts are unwanted, purposeful color casts can add a lot of drama to a photo, as shown above.

In this case, the greenish-blue tint of the image adds a surreal and mysterious vibe to the photograph.

Learn More:

Mitigate Color Casts by Shooting in RAW

^{photo by IlyaOreshkov via iStock}

Fixing color casts begins by selecting the appropriate file type.

By shooting in RAW rather than JPEG, you empower yourself to have more leeway when editing your photos.

Because RAW files retain far more data than JPEGs, you have more information with which to work in post. This includes white balance details about the image, which are rendered as metadata in a RAW file as opposed to it being applied to the pixels in the shot, as is the case with a JPEG.

^{photo by HRAUN via iStock}

As a result, you can make pinpoint adjustments to the white balance of your images and do so without impacting the original pixels when you shoot in RAW. This means that RAW files are the best of both worlds - you can easily correct color casts due to white balance issues, and you can do so without degrading the quality of the image file.

Quick Tip: Another advantage of shooting and editing RAW files is that the corrections you make are much more precise. That is, the adjustments are not made to the image you see on your computer screen. Instead, a new image file is created based on the settings you select. When making similar adjustments to JPEGs, the effect is much more diminished and is also not as accurate.

How to Fix Color Casts

Fortunately, fixing color casts is a simple, straightforward procedure in post-processing.

To demonstrate how to fix color casts, let’s use Exposure by Alien Skin Software.

In Exposure, you can utilize just one tool - the white balance adjustment - to correct color casts and make neutral tones appear normal once again.

As demonstrated in the video above, this tool is ideal for use in images in which there is just one type of light illuminating the scene.