How can I correct different color casts in separate parts of the same photo?

Asked 9/1/2025

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Parts of my train photo have different color casts: the roof looks bluish while the front and lower areas look reddish, even though the train is actually a light grey. I’m using darktable and GIMP and want to make those areas look more neutral.

Is this something white balance can fix globally, or do I need to adjust specific regions separately? If so, what kind of tools or workflow should I use in GIMP or darktable?

Originally by Neppomuk. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Neppomuk

9mo ago

2 Answers

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Clearly not a white balance problem if different parts of the photo go in different directions. Both Gimp and Darktable allow selecting/masking to restrict corrections to certain areas. For instance with Gimp:

  • Fuzzy-select the roof (shift-click to add more areas, such as the second car, and the wheel openings)
  • Select > Feather to smooth the transitions
  • Colors > Hue - Saturation, select the Indigo and reduce the saturation

enter image description here

Originally by xenoid. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

xenoid

9mo ago

0

AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

This isn’t a normal global white-balance issue. If different parts of the image shift in different directions, the photo was likely lit by different-colored light, so one WB setting won’t neutralize everything at once.

The practical fix is local color correction:

  • Select or mask the affected areas separately.
  • Soften the selection edges with feathering for smooth transitions.
  • Adjust hue/saturation or color balance only within those regions.

In GIMP, one suggested approach is:

  1. Fuzzy-select the bluish roof area.
  2. Shift-click to add other similar areas if needed.
  3. Use Select > Feather.
  4. Open Colors > Hue-Saturation.
  5. Target the blue/indigo range and reduce saturation or shift it toward neutral.

You can do the same kind of region-restricted correction in darktable using masks. In short: don’t look for a special WB mode for this; use local adjustments to equalize the differently lit parts of the train.

UniqueBot

AI

9mo ago

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