About balancing color
The color balance tool enables you to adjust the amount of different hues in an image by choosing between thumbnails of color alternatives (red, magenta, blue, cyan, green, yellow).
The Alias Color Balance window is not the same as Photoshop’s Variations window, which adds and subtracts color based on the HSV color wheel that can cause undesirable color clipping problems. Alias uses a more complex algorithm that improves hue shift while maintaining the integrity of the image.
About the Color Balance Window
This window is split into two horizontal regions: the preview area and the control area.
By default, this tool modifies the color of all the pixels in the active layer unless a global or local mask provides protection. The amount of color added can be adjusted using the Adjustment Type options, Color Balance Factor value and the number of clicks made on the sample hue thumbnails.
About the Preview Area
The preview region shows the original image and the current adjustment values that will be applied to the active layer. This technique allows you to see exactly what color changes will be made without the need to remember how the image looked prior to color adjustment. This window region also allows you to zoom and pan into the area of interest; all preview icons update to show the current viewing area.
About the Adjustment Area
About the types of adjustment
You can:
- Select what to adjust in the image: All Color Tones, Shadows, Midtones, or Highlights to indicate whether you want to adjust the dark, middle, or light areas.
- Add hue to Gray Scale Areas. This option allows you to only color balance areas of the image with color and will exclude gray (white>black) areas of the image. When turned on, the color adds hue to the complete image.
- Drag the Color Balance Factor slider to determine the amount of each adjustment.
- Adjust the Color Thumbnails. To add a color to the image, click the appropriate color thumbnail. Once clicked, the adjustment value is applied to the preview image on the left and the adjustment thumbnails update to display the next possible color selection. You may repeat this process any number of times, or click Clear at the bottom of the window to restore the original image.