This paper presents a modified alpha-rooting method for color image enhancement utilizing a two-dimensional quaternion discrete Fourier transform (2-D QDFT), which processes all color channels simultaneously, unlike traditional channel-by-channel methods. The proposed method is quantitatively evaluated using a color enhancement measure estimation (CEME) and optimization via a genetic algorithm, demonstrating improved representations of real colors in enhanced images. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm compared to conventional enhancements using traditional 2-D discrete Fourier transform (DFT).