Rasters in mosaic looks different then the raster itself

[ModyBuchbinder]

I have two tiff rasters 3 bands true color. One of them is a little darker than the other (Mean pixel about 110 and 125 for the other one).

When I just display them in ArcMap there is a little different in the display.

When I build a mosaic dataset on them (with no overviews) the rasters are displayed differently and the difference in color is bigger.

I am aware that the default display for mosaic and rasters are different.

I checked all the properties in the display and symbology tabs for the layer properties to be the same.

Both are displayed with none stretch, same gamma, same resample method etc.

It still looks different, why?

What is the best way to give a smooth look in this case?

Should I use color balance? Should I change the Mosaic operator to bland? Should I add a function for brightness to the dark rasters?

I cannot share screen shots, sorry.

Thanks

[JayantaPoddar]

Have you checked the color correction in ArcMap?

Color correcting a mosaic dataset—Help | ArcGIS for Desktop

[PeterBecker]

When you add a raster dataset directly to ArcMap, by default the image layer properties are set to do standard deviation stretch based on the statistics of the raster dataset. If there are no statistics then ArcMap estimates the statistics by reading a portion of the central part of the image. In this case each image is being adjusted separately and so the difference in average is less apparent.

When you add the two rasters to a mosaic dataset no stretch is applied to each individually. When the mosaic dataset is displayed a stretch is applied to the mosaic of the two images. The difference in the two images is therefore apparent. If you want the same effect, you can select the rasters and then use Batch Edit Raster functions and add a stretch to each of the rasters. (Alternatively change Raster Template when using Add Rasters). This stretch will then be applied to each raster before the images are mosaicked together.

[ModyBuchbinder]

Hi Peter

Thanks for the response, as always I can learn new stuff from your answers.

I understand that the function that should give the best solution is the stretch function (I tried the contrast and brightness).

Is there any reason to apply the function only on some rasters (with Batch Edit Raster) and not on all the rasters?

Can I just apply a stretch function on the entire mosaic or do I have to insert it on every raster separately (with the same parameters)?

I understand that if you apply stretch with the same parameters it will stretch each raster in a different way but all of them will have more or less the same histogram on the output (so they look similar).

The mosaic is already built but rasters are going to be added later on. I could not find Raster Template in AddRasters but I found a stretch option in the raster type. What is the best way here?

Thanks

[PeterBecker]

Mody

Typically if you get a set of rasters that have been previously enhanced you do not want additional enhancements being made on each individual image. You might want to just do some enhancement to the mosaiked image to make it say lighter or darker. When adding raster datasets to a mosaic dataset you will see in the 'Raster Type/Properties/General' that the processing type is 'Default'. If you check the 'Functions' tab you will see that Default does nothing. There is though a 'Stretch' option and in the function tab you can define the type of stretch to apply. By default this is set based on the stats of the dataset. You could use this if you the image that you get have not been enhanced and you want each image to be enhanced based on its statistics. You can also set it to Dynamic Range Adjustment in which case it will apply different enhancements to each individual image before mosaicking the images together, based on the pixels that contribute to the current display.. This is an interesting option if you have imagery that varies significantly and you want each image to be individually enhanced. It can result in some strange results though especially if you have clouds etc.

So you can add such stretch (or other functions) when the data is added or as a post process using the Batch Edit Raster functions. If you want to just enhance the result add the stretch as a service level (IE after the mosaicking)

[MUHAMMADFAHAD]

Thanks, Mr. Peter for the solution.

I am also having the same problem but unable to solve the issue. Can you please elaborate more or write the steps to follow for mosaic color correction, please?

Thanks.