Studio 21.1.1
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COLOR FOUNDATIONS

How to fix white balance and a color cast

DaVinci Resolve Studio 21.1 · Original practical guide

White balance corrects an unwanted overall color bias. A genuinely neutral reference helps, but lighting can be deliberately warm, cool, or mixed.

Before you begin

Open Color, select the intended clip, and confirm the project color pipeline.

ACTUAL RESOLVE INTERFACEView full size ↗
Primaries: color wheels and shared correction controls
Primaries: color wheels and shared correction controls Reference example from the DaVinci Resolve 21.1 manual, page 3142. Software screenshot © Blackmagic Design. The demonstration media and selected settings may differ from your project.

Step by step

  1. Confirm the input color interpretation and choose a frame containing a useful neutral object under the subject’s lighting.
  2. Use Temperature and Tint in the Primaries controls, or camera RAW controls for supported RAW sources, to reduce the unwanted cast.
  3. Compare neutral areas in the RGB parade and inspect skin or another familiar material. Treat an eyedropper result as a starting point.
  4. Check the full shot and neighboring angles. Preserve intentional colored light rather than forcing every object to neutral gray.

Check your result

Neutral objects are plausible and the subject looks consistent with the scene’s intended lighting.

If it doesn’t work as expected

A white wall lit by a colored lamp is not a neutral reference. Choosing it blindly can introduce the opposite color cast across the rest of the picture.

BUILD THE UNDERLYING SKILL

Color: train your eye

Go deeper with the course’s explanations, exercises, and knowledge checks.

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Technical reference: DaVinci Resolve 21.1 Reference Manual, Blackmagic Design, September 2026. Screenshot page numbers refer to that manual. Independently written guidance; specific controls may vary by platform and build. Authorship & image credits.