Planet Imagery and Color Correction

Questions

• Does Planet apply color correction to its images manually or automatically?
• Does it take lighting into effect?
• Are there any color-correcting articles I can refer to?

Answer

Color correction is applied automatically only to visual images (not analytic, etc..). PlanetScope Scenes are adjusted to top of atmosphere reflectance before the color correction curve is applied which means we are adjusting for lighting  (ie. sun elevation). Planet does this in order to have optimized imagery for global consistency. 

If you wish to do this on your own, from a per-scene custom stretch, you should start with downloading the TOA Radiance product (the "analytic" asset) and then you are able to perform the correction yourself. Do not download the visual asset. 

Here is an hands on guide for color correction using Photoshop on the analytic asset (not visual): https://www.planet.com/pulse/color-correction/. 

The main goal of the article on color correction is intended to explain some of the principles of how to produce visual imagery, and details on how a custom manual color correction may be done by users. 

[MD] It is odd to have three bullet questions followed by 4 paragraphs. Do a q/a. The content doesn't really answer the questions posed. 

I.E

Question

Does Planet apply color correction to its images manually or automatically?

Answer

Color correction is applied automatically only to visual images (not analytic, etc..). PlanetScope Scenes are adjusted to top of atmosphere reflectance before the color correction curve is applied which means we are adjusting for lighting  (ie. sun elevation). Planet does this in order to have optimized imagery for global consistency.