Removing Unwanted Color Shading Using Color Curves and a Overlay Track

While this image has good levels and the right amount of contrast it also has a unwanted blue tint. Adjusting with Color Curves and a Overlay Track is one solution. Unlike the previous example where Color Balance was used to remove a minor shading which was the method of choice because the color balance was only off a tiny amount and only objectionable in a relatively small part of the image. This time the entire image has a bluish tint so you generally will get a better result by removing the offending tint by adjusting the curve for the color you're removing.

Begin by dragging Color Curves and dropping on the event you're working on. Now instead of using the default RGB combination channel, select ONLY the channel for the color cast you're trying to remove. In this case the blue channel. Add a control point near the center and drag in a arc down and to the right slightly until the offending color cast is removed.

Why not simply use Color Balance? Not a good idea because you'll need to do a fairly large adjustment and doing that you could shift pixels in the shadow and highlight areas where the color cast isn't that severe and doesn't really need adjustment. By using color curves in a gentle arc you mostly will effect the midtone area only where the problem shows up the most. If necessary you may want to drag a second color curve and select the opposite channel, in this case red, and drag the curve in the opposite direction to warm up the image further if necessary. Results of applying curves shown in image two.

We've made a fairly good correction and have successfully removed the blue tint, but the image is still a little on the cool side. What the image needs is a little bit of yellow to warm it up as shown in image three. If this was a still image and you had Photoshop or a similar graphic package, you could use Color Balance and move the slider from blue to yellow just a tad. However the color balance filter in Vegas Video is limited to Red, Green and Blue none of which can help us in this situation, so what can we do? Use a overlay.

Begin by clicking on Insert, then select Video Track and move it above the video track occupied by your video. Under Text /Background tab, select Solid Color, pick yellow. Drag to new track which we'll use as a overlay track. Click on the right edge and drag to align with the event you wish to adjust. Now move your cursor near the very top of the Overlay track and hover until the cursor turns into a hand. While holding down your left mouse button drag the Opacity control down (a thin line that will appear once you grab on to it) until you are very near the bottom of the track and you get the effect you want on the underlying main video track. I settled for a opacity setting of 5%.

If you aren't happy with the result or you just want to get more creative you can play with the Red, Green and Blue sliders in the Solid Color filter box which combined with the opacity setting of the overlay layer and the proper application of correcting color curves can give you very precise adjustments.