All too often, you will get footage that is not lit that well, or which has a color shift. And not everyone is skilled at color correction. So you can be forgiven for occasionally reaching for a plug-in that promises an automatic solution.
Some of the oldest ones in Adobe After Effects are Auto Color, Levels, and Contrast, all based on their Photoshop counterparts. Do they work? More importantly, how do they work? We cover that in the two movies below from our old Insight Into Effects course:
Auto Color versus Auto Levels:
https://youtu.be/uUEXS0Y_eS4
Auto Contrast versus Auto Levels:
https://youtu.be/-x4LrIbJHcQ