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Color Balance

Node icon
Color

Shifts colors independently in shadows, midtones, and highlights, similar to film color grading.

Color Balance adjusts the color cast in three tonal zones: Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights. Each zone has three sliders: Cyan–Red, Magenta–Green, and Yellow–Blue. This lets you warm up highlights while cooling shadows, or add a green tint to midtones without affecting the rest.

Preserve Luminosity keeps the overall brightness stable as colors shift, which is usually what you want.

Parameters

Section titled “Parameters”

Pins

ImageImage
InputRequired
MaskMask
InputOptional
ImageImage
Output

Color

ZoneChoice
Default: Midtones

UI-only zone selector for which tonal range's CR/MG/YB sliders are shown

  • ShadowsAdjust colors in the darkest areas of the image.
  • MidtonesAdjust colors in the middle brightness range — affects most of the image.
  • HighlightsAdjust colors in the brightest areas of the image.
Shadows Cyan - RedNumber
Default: 0 Range: -100–100

Shadows: cyan/red bias

Shadows Magenta - GreenNumber
Default: 0 Range: -100–100

Shadows: magenta/green bias

Shadows Yellow - BlueNumber
Default: 0 Range: -100–100

Shadows: yellow/blue bias

Midtones Cyan - RedNumber
Default: 0 Range: -100–100

Midtones: cyan/red bias

Midtones Magenta - GreenNumber
Default: 0 Range: -100–100

Midtones: magenta/green bias

Midtones Yellow - BlueNumber
Default: 0 Range: -100–100

Midtones: yellow/blue bias

Highlights Cyan - RedNumber
Default: 0 Range: -100–100

Highlights: cyan/red bias

Highlights Magenta - GreenNumber
Default: 0 Range: -100–100

Highlights: magenta/green bias

Highlights Yellow - BlueNumber
Default: 0 Range: -100–100

Highlights: yellow/blue bias

Preserve LuminosityToggle
Default: true

Restore original luminance after color shifts

Mask

Mask FitChoice
Default: None (native size)
Mask connected

How the mask is sized when it doesn't match the image. None: center at native size, no scaling. Stretch: scale to exactly match image dimensions. Fit: scale to fit inside image, preserving aspect ratio. Fill: scale to fill image, cropping overflow

  • None (native size)Center the mask at its native size — no resizing. Unmasked regions are unaffected.
  • StretchStretch the mask to exactly match the image dimensions. May distort the mask shape.
  • Fit (letterbox)Scale the mask to fit inside the image, preserving aspect ratio. Letterboxes where needed.
  • Fill (crop)Scale the mask to fill the image, preserving aspect ratio. Crops edges if aspect ratios differ.

Usage Tips

Section titled “Usage Tips”
  • Warm highlights + cool shadows is a classic cinematic color grade.
  • Shift midtones toward teal and highlights toward orange for the “teal & orange” Hollywood look.
  • Keep Preserve Luminosity on to avoid unwanted brightness changes from color shifts.
  • Connect a mask input to apply the color grade to only part of the image for selective grading.
Section titled “Related Nodes”