System and Process for Color-Balancing a Series of Oblique Images

An image processing method for color-balancing oblique images, comprising:

• dividing, with a computer running image processing software, an oblique aerial image into a plurality of sections, wherein a first section of the plurality of sections has a first color distribution and a second section of the plurality of sections has a second color distribution, the first color distribution differing from the second color distribution, and wherein each of the first section and the second section has pixels, each pixel having a Red color band, a Green color band, and a Blue color band;
• choosing, with the computer, a first reference aerial image, having a consistent color distribution, for the first section by automatically matching at least a portion of geographic information of the first reference aerial image with at least a portion of geographic information of the first section;
• color-balancing, with the computer, at least one pixel in the first section of the oblique aerial image, such that the first color distribution of the first section matches the consistent color distribution of the first reference aerial image, by performing the following for each of the at least one pixel in the first section:
• creating a first color-balancing transformation for the Red color band;
• creating a second color-balancing transformation for the Green color band;
• creating a third color-balancing transformation for the Blue color band;
• and
• combining the first color-balancing transformation, the second color-balancing transformation, and the third color-balancing transformation into a single pixel color value.