If your video looks too blue, too yellow, grey or just slightly “off”, you don’t always need to spend ages color correcting it. There is a very quick white balance tool inside Adobe Premiere Pro that can fix a lot of footage in seconds.
I use this when I’m editing content for social media, working with footage that was shot quickly, or simply don’t want to spend ages doing a full color grade. It’s not going to replace proper professional color correction, but if you need to quickly fix white balance in Premiere Pro, this is one of the easiest places to start.
Why Does My Video Look Blue or the Wrong Color?
Sometimes you look at your footage after filming and immediately realise something isn’t right.
The image might look: Too blue; yellow or orange; Grey and washed out, green or magenta.
Unnatural around skin tones
This often happens because the white balance was incorrect when the video was recorded. I originally demonstrated this using an older video I had filmed very quickly. I wasn’t properly prepared when I shot it, and the footage ended up looking slightly blue and grey.
The biggest problem was the skin tone. It simply didn’t look natural. Rather than manually adjusting loads of different settings, there is a much faster way to get the footage closer to where it should be.
For more hacks and tips, get my Premiere Pro PDF guide.
How to Fix White Balance in Premiere Pro
Open your video in Adobe Premiere Pro and select the clip you want to correct. Then open the Color workspace.
You can also access the Lumetri Color panel by going to:
Window > Lumetri Color
Inside Lumetri Color, open the Basic Correction section. This is where you’ll find the White Balance controls, including Temperature, Tint and the WB Selector. The WB Selector is the eyedropper next to White Balance. And this little eyedropper can save you a surprising amount of time.
Use the White Balance Selector
Click the WB Selector eyedropper. Now look at your video and find something that should actually be white or neutral. This part matters.
Don’t simply click on the brightest object in the shot. For example, in my footage there was an extremely bright area caused by the sun. Even though it looked almost white, it wasn’t a good reference point.
Instead, I found a lamp in the shot that was much closer to a proper white reference. I clicked it with the WB Selector.
And that was basically it. Premiere immediately adjusted the white balance and the footage looked significantly better. Adobe Premiere automatically changes the Temperature and Tint values based on the white or neutral area you selected.
How to Choose the Right White Area
The WB Selector works best when you give Premiere a useful reference.
Look for something in the frame that you know should be white or neutral.
That could be:
- white wall
- white shirt
- piece of paper
- lamp
White furniture
A neutral grey object Try to avoid extremely bright or overexposed areas. Also, remember that something looking white on your screen doesn’t necessarily mean it was actually white in real life.
If you click the wrong area, Premiere can give you some very weird colors. Fortunately, you can simply reset the adjustment and try another part of the image.
Check the Skin Tones
After correcting the white balance, one of the first things I check is skin. Faces are incredibly useful when judging whether a quick color correction has worked. If someone’s skin suddenly looks blue, green, grey or extremely orange, something is probably wrong.
After using the WB Selector on my example footage, the difference was immediately noticeable. The overall image improved, but the skin tone was where I could really see that the correction had worked. This doesn’t mean every person should have exactly the same skin tone. Obviously not.
You’re simply looking for skin to appear natural for the person in the shot instead of being affected by an obvious color cast from incorrect white balance.
Compare the Before and After
Whenever you make color corrections in Premiere Pro, compare the corrected footage with the original. Turn the Lumetri Color effect on and off and look at the difference.
It’s easy to keep adjusting a video until you lose track of what the original footage actually looked like. Sometimes that first simple white balance correction already fixes most of the problem. If it does, you might not need to do much more.
You Can Fine-Tune the Color Afterwards
The WB Selector is only a starting point. Once Premiere has corrected the basic white balance, you can continue adjusting the image manually.
Inside Lumetri Color, you can change things such as:
- Temperature
- Tint
- Exposure
- Contrast
- Highlights
- Shadows
- Whites
- Blacks
- Saturation
You can also go further into Curves, Color Wheels, HSL Secondary and other Lumetri Color tools if the footage requires more precise work. But that isn’t always necessary.
If I’m creating a quick TikTok, Instagram Reel, YouTube Short or another piece of social media content, I don’t necessarily want to spend ten minutes color correcting every single clip.
Sometimes I just need the footage to look right. That’s where this method is especially useful.
Quick Color Correction vs Color Grading
It’s also worth separating color correction from color grading. Color correction is primarily about fixing problems and making the footage look natural and balanced.
Color grading is where you start creating a particular visual style or mood. If your footage is blue because the white balance was wrong when you filmed it, that’s a correction problem.
If your footage already looks natural but you want to give it a warmer, darker or more cinematic style, you’re moving into color grading. For quick social media editing, I would usually fix the obvious problems first before worrying about creating a specific look. If you need more help with your content, you can work with me.
Can Premiere Pro Automatically Fix White Balance?
Yes. The WB Selector inside Lumetri Color can automatically adjust the Temperature and Tint of your footage based on a white or neutral reference point in the image.
Premiere Pro also has Auto Color, which can make broader automatic corrections to areas including exposure, white balance and contrast. However, I like the WB Selector when the main problem is an obvious color cast because I can tell Premiere exactly what part of the image should be neutral.
What If the White Balance Selector Makes It Worse?
Reset it and choose another reference point. Seriously. The result depends heavily on the part of the image you click. If you choose something that isn’t actually neutral, Premiere may compensate for a color that shouldn’t have been corrected in the first place.
Try a few different white or neutral areas and compare the results. You can then fine-tune Temperature and Tint manually if Premiere gets you close but not quite where you want to be.
Do You Need Lumetri Scopes for Basic Color Correction?
Lumetri Scopes are incredibly useful if you want to properly analyse exposure and color. They can help you evaluate your image using tools such as waveforms, RGB parade and vectorscopes instead of relying entirely on what you see on your monitor. But for this particular trick, you don’t need to understand Lumetri Scopes before you can fix basic white balance.
If you’re in a hurry and editing a simple social media video, the WB Selector can give you a very fast starting point. For professional work or more complicated footage, I would definitely go further than this one-click correction.
The Fastest Way to Fix White Balance in Premiere Pro
So if your Premiere Pro footage suddenly looks blue, grey, yellow or generally unnatural, try this before spending ages moving sliders around. Open Lumetri Color. Go to Basic Correction. Select the WB Selector eyedropper. Find something in the video that should be white or neutral.
Click it. Then check the result, especially the skin tones. You can continue adjusting Temperature, Tint, highlights and the rest of the Lumetri Color controls afterwards if necessary. But sometimes? That one click is all the footage needs.
And when you’re editing a pile of social media videos and just need to get the content finished, I’ll happily take the shortcut.
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