How can I fix a yellow color cast in Lightroom, and apply it to many photos at once?
Asked 7/10/2013
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2 answers
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I shot a series of portraits under poor lighting and many of the images have a strong yellow/orange cast. I’d like to correct the white balance in Lightroom and, if possible, batch-apply the correction rather than brushing each image individually. What’s the best way to do this, and are there cases where one global white balance won’t fully fix the photo?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
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The other answers here are correct that this is a white balance issue, but they have not answered your specific question, i.e. how to batch repair the white balance. Assuming that they were shot under similar lighting (which appears to be the case) the first step is to find the correct color temp in Lightroom. You can do this by either using the sliders and your personal preference or the eye dropper tool on a neutral color (white or gray).
Once you find the temp and tint values you want to use, you can then copy the settings (under the Settings menu, select Copy Settings or press Shift-Command-C [Mac] or Shift-Ctrl-C [Windows]) and pick just the white balance option (I also always use process version). Last step in the Library module select all the photos you need to adjust and then select Paste Settings (under Photo, Develop Settings, Paste Settings or Shift-Command-V [Mac] or Shift-Ctrl-V [Windows]) and they will be all fixed as a batch.
Depending on the lighting you may need to fix different photos in groups or tweak individual images, but this should help quite a bit.
Originally by user20982. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user20982
13y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes—this is mainly a white balance problem. In Lightroom, start by correcting one representative photo:
- Use the White Balance eyedropper on something neutral (gray, white shirt, etc.), or adjust the Temp and Tint sliders by eye.
- If you shot RAW, this will work best because white balance is more flexible.
Once one image looks right, copy just the white balance settings and sync them to the other photos taken under the same lighting.
A global correction works well only if the lighting was consistent. If the scene contains mixed light sources—such as warm indoor light plus daylight from a window—one white balance may fix the subject but leave other areas looking too blue or too warm. In that case, a single batch correction can improve the set, but some images may still need local adjustments or separate groups with different white balance settings.
So: correct one image first, then batch-sync white balance to similar shots, and expect mixed-light scenes to need extra work.
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