Adjusting colors
The Colors filter lets you adjust the white balance, change the overall saturation or the saturation of selected colors, convert image to monochrome (black and white, sepia or else) and change brightness of the selected colors.
White balance
The sign of the wrong white balance is that colors look unnatural - either too cold or too warm.
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| Too warm colors | Correct white balance | Too cold colors |
The Color Temperature slider
The fastest way to correct the color temperature is to use the Color temperature slider. By moving the slider, you compensate the white balance mistake that was made when shooting the image. Move the slider to the right to make the colors look warmer and to the left to make them look colder. The color temperature is measured in Kelvins.
As you move the color temperature slider, you can see that the RGB sliders move simultaneously. This means that changing the color temperature is analogues to changing the intensity of RGB channels.
The drop-down menu can help to set the white balance automatically.
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If your image looks yellowish like if it was taken under the tungsten light, select the Tungsten option here and the program will apply the automatic correction. |
Typicaly, we get the wrong white balance, if the camera setting is wrong or the lightning conditions are complex. For example, you take a picture in a room with daylight, but the camera's white balance setting is "tungsten". Then the camera tries to compensate the tungsten light and makes the image colors colder than they should be. If the camera's white balance setting is "Auto", it is still possible that the camera makes a mistake which results in unnatural colors. This typically happens under complex lightning conditions, like in a dark room or outdoors at night or when there are several light sources at once.
You can correct the wrong white balance by making the color temperature higher or lower.
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Original image - too cold colors |
Color temperature: 9700K (6500K - default value ) |
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| Original image - too warm colors | Color temperature: 4250K (6500K - default value ) |
The White Balance button
The White Balance button allows you to "tell" the program which area on the image is in reality white or grey. This enables the program to correct other colors accordingly.
Click on the White Balance button, the cursor turns into the eyedropper, then you click in the area which is white (or grey). The program will make the pointed area white (or grey) and will compensate other colors accordingly. This can help to correct the white balance. It is a very good method if you have a white or a grey object in scene.
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| Original image with Eyedropper tool | The same image after correction |
As you apply the white balance correction with the help of the eyedropper, you can notice that the RGB sliders move. This means that changing the white balance is analogues to changing the intensity of the RGB channels.
Memory Colors
The memory colors tool can be used to correct the white balance. The idea behind memory colors is that you create a collection of colors from objects that appear in a number of images, such as the skin color, for example. You add the correct color to the collection and then use it to adjust the white balance of other images in which everything, including the skin, looks too warm or too cold.
The memory colors workflow is described below.
STEP 1 Remember a color |
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1. Choose a photo where you like the skin color. 2. Click the button and point to the skin color you want to remember. |
3. When the Memory Colors dialog appears, click the button, enter the name (for example, "My skin, normal") and save the color. | ||
STEP 2 Use the normal skin color to correct the white balance. |
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Here the skin color is more orange than it should be; the other colors are also too warm. 1. Click the button and point to the skin color you would like to correct. |
2. When the Memory Colors dialog appears, click at the color that you saved before ("My skin, normal") or click the button next to this color. 3. The program will correct the skin color and adjust other colors accordingly. |
As a result, the colors are more natural in the whole image. |
The memory colors can also be used to convert images to monochrome. When you convert an image, you can choose a single color: black, sepia, or any other color from the memory colors collection.
The Ignore brightness checkbox means that the selected memory color will be applied exactly as it was saved. If the checkbox isn't selected, the selected memory color will be applied after the brightness of the target image is taken into consideration.
The Color Map and RGB (Red Green Blue) sliders
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| Color Map | RGB sliders |
The color map and RGB sliders give the full control over the white balance. Just drag the RGB sliders until the image has the desired hue. Or point the desired hue on the color map.
See also, RGB sliders, Saturation, and Spectral Sensitivity - What Is the Difference?!
Black & White
Tick this checkbox for making your image monochrome. By default the image will become "black & white". But you can choose any color from the collection of Memory Colors.
Click the button 
and select the color.
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| Original image | Monochrome B&W image | Monochrome sepia image | Monochrome blue image |
Show exposure warnings
Tick this checkbox to see the overexposed and underexposed areas of the image. These areas will change in the process of transformations which you make to the image, so it is a good idea to control them periodically. The red areas are overexposed, the blue ones are underexposed.
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| Exposure warnings are off | Exposure warnings are on |
Saturation
The Saturation equalizer allows controling saturation of different colors individually and the Saturation slider changes the saturation of all colors at once. As you see from the example, the opposite for satuated color is grey.
The white vertical line on the equalizer (as you move the cursor over image) points to the color in the current cursor position. Move the cursor over the image and observer how the "white line" moves. Then click on the color which you would like to saturate and you will see the black vertical line which marks the color of the last click. This instrument helps you to find the exact color which you would like to saturate or desaturate.
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| Original image |  |
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| Saturation increased only for violet | All colors saturated at once | Saturation increased for violet, minimized for other colors; this allows making interesting selective-color-images |
Right click the equalizer (or the slider) to reset the changes. See also, RGB sliders, Saturation, and Spectral Sensitivity - What Is the Difference?!
Spectral Sensitivity
Spectral sensitivity allows changing brightness of one selected color. The sliders allow changing only red, green, or blue separately and the hisogram allows selecting more specific hue, fx. orange or violet.
The white vertical line on the equalizer (as you move the cursor over image) shows the color in the current cursor position. Move the cursor over the image and observer how the "white line" moves. Then click on the color for which you would like to change brightness; you will see the black vertical line which marks the color of the last click. This instrument helps you to find the exact color which you would like to make brighter or darker.
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| Original image |  |
Original image |  |
| Spectral sensitivity (brightness) of blue decreased, of red increased | Spectral sensitivity (brightness) of green increased |
Right click the equalizer (or the slider) to reset the changes. See also, RGB sliders, Saturation, and Spectral Sensitivity - What Is the Difference?!
RGB sliders, Saturation, and Spectral Brightness - What Is the Difference?!
In brief, the RGB sliders change the hue, the Saturation changes color intensity, and the Spectral sensitivity changes brightness.
| RGB sliders | Saturation | Spectral sensitivity | |
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| Original image | The Red slider was moved to the right Red hue, you can notice that white light between the leaves got the red hue |
Saturation for red was increased with the help of the Saturation equalizer |
Spectral sensitivity (brightness) of red was increased with the help of the "red slider" |
Selection Brush
The Selection brush selects some area of an image. After you have some selection you can return to the Colors filter and apply any transformation either only to the selection or only to the rest of the image. Learn more about selection brush and it's parameters here.
Colors Brush
The Colors brush allows picking a color and painting with this color on the image. This is useful when retouching faces. Read more here.
Saturation Brush
The Saturation brush allows changing saturation of a selected area on the image. This is also mainly used for retouching faces. Read more here.
Red-Eyes Brush
The Red-Eyes brush allows fixing "red-eyes". Read more here.