When you assemble a composition, you often need to adjust the colors of one or more of the layers to correct their colors. Such adjustments can be for any of a number of reasons. Some examples:

• You need to make it seem as if multiple footage items were shot under the same conditions so that they can be composited or edited together.

• You need to adjust the colors of a shot so that it seems to have been shot at dusk instead of noon.

• You need to adjust the exposure of an image to recover detail from the over-exposed highlights.

• You need to enhance one color in a shot because you will be compositing a graphic element over it with that color.

• You need to restrict colors to a particular range, such as the broadcast-safe range.

After Effects includes many built-in effects for color correction. See Color Correction effects.

The Color Finesse plug-in included with After Effects includes excellent color-correction tools. For more information, see the Color Finesse documentation in the following folder: Adobe After Effects CS3/Additional Documentation/Color Finesse 2.

The Camera Raw plug-in can be used to correct and adjust still images in JPEG, TIFF, and various camera raw formats.