The Color Balance (HLS) effect alters an image’s levels of hue, lightness, and saturation. It’s intended only to provide compatibility with projects created in earlier versions of After Effects that use the Color Balance (HLS) effect. For new projects, use the Hue/Saturation effect, which operates the same as the Hue/Saturation command in Adobe Photoshop. You can convert a movie to grayscale by setting the Saturation to –100.

This effect works with 8-bpc and 16-bpc color.