White balance has always been a tricky thing to get just right. Getting white balance correct is the closest thing we can get to true color. If our balance is off, so are the rest of the colors. Luckily this problem is well known, and therefore has a pretty quick solution in Adobe Photoshop. Today I am going to be showing you how to correct white balance in Adobe Photoshop CC.
How to Correct White Balance in Adobe Photoshop CC (2021)
Add in a Guide Layer
- Import your image into Photoshop. I’m using an image from Envato Elements. A great subscription based stock footage marketplace.
- Go to your layers panel in Adobe Photoshop. Look for your imported footage. Click on the lock to remove it as a background layer.
- Next, go to the bottom right of the layer panel and click on the create new layer button. It looks like a plus button.
- Now, select this new layer and then go up to edit->fill. Set the Contents to “50% gray” and opacity to 100%.
- Make sure the new layer is still selected and move back to the layer tab. Go up to “blending mode” and turn it to Difference.
- Now apply an effect to the layer. To do this, use the ying yang looking symbol at the bottom of the layers. Apply the Threshhold effect.
Correct the White Balance
- Move the threshold level down to where there are solid black areas.
- Go over the eyedropper tool. Hover this tool over a black area.
- Hold the shift key and click on that black section.
- Next we will hide the layers you have added.
- Select your background image. Then go to effects->curves.
- Look for the middle eyedropper next to the curves.
- We then click on the point that was left behind. Your white balance has been set!
What we did here was use a guide layer to show us where our perfect gray was in the shot. We then use the gray white correction to click on that spot and set the white balance based off the gray. Our footage is then changed to have perfect white balance in photoshop!
Let me know if you have any questions in the comment section below, or on the video itself!
