Photo color correction with a live preview

Guide updated October 26, 2026 · Maintained by flreey.

A practical order for correcting a photo

Start by deciding what is wrong with the original: a dark subject, a color cast, weak contrast or overly strong color. Correct one problem at a time. Changing every slider at once makes it difficult to see which adjustment helped. Keep a neutral object in view, such as a gray wall or white shirt, and compare it with the original after each change. The purpose is a believable result for this photograph, not a preset that makes every image look identical.

Begin with exposure, then balance the color temperature and tint. Refine shadows and highlights before adding contrast or saturation. These controls work together, so revisit exposure if the result becomes too bright. The preview is useful for composition, but inspect the downloaded image at its actual size before sharing. A small preview can hide noise, blocky compression and abrupt color changes.

What each color control changes

• Exposure: changes overall brightness. Try a small increase for a dark subject, then inspect bright clouds, skin and reflective surfaces. The control runs from −3 to +3; the extremes are not a recommended starting point.
• Temperature: shifts the balance toward warmer or cooler colors. An orange indoor light may benefit from a cooler setting, while a blue-looking photo may need warmth. There is no automatic gray-card measurement here.
• Tint: adjusts the green-to-magenta balance. Use it only after temperature looks reasonable. Large changes can make skin, grass or neutral objects look unnatural even when another part of the image improves.
• Shadows and highlights: refine darker and brighter regions. Lifting shadows can expose noise already in the file. Lowering highlights cannot restore texture that was recorded as solid white.
• Contrast: changes separation between light and dark tones. Extra contrast can add definition, but too much can hide shadow detail and make bright areas look flat.
• Saturation: changes color intensity. Check reds, skin and brightly colored signs first. More saturation does not fix incorrect white balance and can make a color cast more obvious.

Reproduce the editable example

The built-in example starts with exposure at 0.5 and shadows at 15. These are also the settings used by Brighten. Compare the original and result before changing anything, then move exposure closer to zero to see how much of the change comes from overall brightness. Next, adjust shadows independently while watching darker detail. This gives you a concrete reference for what the controls do without uploading a personal photo.

Brighten, Warmer and Cooler are starting points, not additional layers. Selecting one resets the other adjustment controls to their defaults before applying that preset. Warmer sets temperature to 20; Cooler sets it to −20. If you have already fine-tuned contrast and saturation, record those values before choosing another preset. Moving an individual slider after a preset lets you refine that starting point.

Common failures and a better next step

A bright window remains a white patch: reduce exposure or highlights to make the overall balance less harsh, but expect the patch to remain featureless. The tool edits the pixels in the supplied file. It cannot recover camera information that was discarded before the image reached the browser. Use a less exposed original if you have one.

A face looks better but the background looks wrong: this page applies color changes to the whole image. Mixed lighting can require separate local corrections that these controls do not offer. Aim for a moderate compromise or use an editor with adjustment masks. Do not keep increasing saturation to compensate for conflicting light sources.

Dark areas become noisy: back off the exposure and shadow lift. If the remaining noise is distracting, save the corrected result and try Reduce noise in Sharpen Image. Compare texture as well as smoothness: stronger noise reduction can erase hair, fabric and fine detail.

Check resolution and export before you finish

The workbench shows its processing dimensions. Large accepted images are reduced to a maximum long edge of 2000 pixels, so color correction here is not a full-resolution camera workflow. Keep your original file if you need a large print or a later professional edit. The download is a PNG and preserves input transparency; it is a finished image, not a file containing editable slider settings.

Wait for processing to finish and download with the current settings. Open the file locally, check its dimensions and compare representative bright, dark and neutral regions. If you need JPEG, WebP or a smaller delivery file, use Image Converter afterward. Keeping a PNG between editing steps avoids an unnecessary lossy conversion. See the photo editing workflow for choosing an order and checking the final export.

When this tool works best

These controls adjust existing RGB pixels. They do not recover clipped highlights, colorize black-and-white photos with AI or manage camera RAW files.

Your downloaded file

A PNG with input transparency preserved. Large accepted images are reduced to a 2000 px long edge; the working size is always shown.

Your image stays on your device

Processing runs in this browser. No image upload, account or remote AI service is required. Original images are kept separate from edits; failed processing keeps the original available. Downloads use your current settings; previews update automatically where supported. Open-source notices