White Balance

Darkroom’s white balance controls live with the other color adjustments in Adjustments tool.

White balance should be one of the first edits you make. It create a neutral starting point for your photo, every later color choice builds on top of it. Because white balance affects everything downstream, set it before you lean hard on Color (HSL), HSL Curves, or Color Grading.

The White Balance tool in Darkroom showing the Temperature and Tint sliders

Temperature and Tint

  • Temperature moves the image cooler on the left, warmer on the right.
  • Tint moves it toward magenta on the left, or green on the right.

Use small moves when you’re correcting a cast. Push further when you want a creative mood — warmer golden-hour feel, cooler evening light, or a stylized grade that starts from a deliberate white-balance choice rather than a neutral one.

RAW Kelvin

For RAW photos, Darkroom shows a Kelvin values for the temperature control, and sets the starting point for the temperature control based on the camera’s as-shot value.

Auto White Balance

Auto analyzes the current the photo and looks for plausible neutral regions. It deliberately ignores very dark pixels, clipped or strongly colored areas.

When an image contains usable neutral information, Auto gives you a neutral starting point. In sunsets, stage lighting, heavily colored scenes, it may make only a small correction, or a wrong one.

White Balance Picker

The color picker lets you tap a neutral area in the photo and use that as the reference for the whole image. Auto and the Picker use the same color model as the renderer, so their results stay consistent with manual Temperature and Tint.

Good targets:

  • A detailed grey wall or card, something like concrete or other near-neutral surfaces.
  • An off-white shirt that isn’t clipped white, or a paper with visible texture.

Avoid:

  • Very bright, or even clipped, light sources.
  • Reflections and specular highlights, or very dark or strongly colored areas.

Working with the histogram

When making white balance edits it can be very useful to use the Histogram to follow how Temperature and Tint affect the balance of the red, green, and blue channels. For a natural result, check that neutral subjects, such as a grey card or white clothing, look free of unwanted color casts. Auto or the Picker can provide a starting point, which you can then refine to suit the light and mood of the photo.

Compatibility

Auto White Balance, and the Neutral Color Picker are only available for photos. For video, use Temperature and Tint manually. White Balance was updated in Darkroom 7.4. Edits made in earlier versions keep their original white balance adjustments and rendering, preserving the look of your existing work.

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