Colour Saturation
Content
Colour Saturation
We are sometimes mesmerized by the eye-popping, rich and deeply saturated colours of images that are presented in flyers and advertisement. Just pick up the next colour brochure and see how the image jumps out of the page for attention with vibrant colours. You’d be surprised to know that some of these images start out as mediocre photos right out of the camera. Advertising agencies employ psychological techniques to entice and create a certain perception of products. Colours and how it affects the mood of the viewer is a strong point for consideration. Thus digital images always go through a rigorous editing regime before it goes to print. We can apply some of these techniques to improve the final image we get from our cameras. Do note that almost all consumer digital cameras comes with saturation settings. If you do not want the hassle of post-editing, you can use this feature to get it right out of your camera. Of course if you have the option, you should to set it to a neutral setting and edit it after you’ve taken the shot. "The saturation of a color is the degree to which the color departs from neutral gray of the same brightness. You can think of it as mixing black, gray, or white paint with a colored paint, thus diluting the color." Things to watch out for when tweaking colour saturation levels
Watch out for blown out colour highlights. This happens when you over saturate your picture and the colours in your picture becomes a single patch of the same colour. This is a similar problem to blown highlights.
Fake skin tones. Skin colours do not lend very well to highly saturated picture as this can clearly be seen as being too unrealistic.
Check your White Balance (WB) Setting. Before tweaking saturation level, it’s important that you check and correct the WB level of your image. Otherwise, your picture may be saturated but with the wrong colour tone.
RAW Editing : For this example, this image taken in the RAW format was used. The settings above shows the original levels and colour rendition of the image right out of the camera.
Saturated Colours : The image was then adjusted by increasing saturation levels, brightness, shadow detail, contrast as well as a slight correction in temperature levels. This results in a punchier image with rich details and pleasantly interesting without oversaturing colour details. You can do the same with similar tweaks on JPG images by using your photoediting software.
You can also saturate colours by adjusting the contrast level of your picture. It’s not always necessary to reach for the saturation button as by adjusting your contrast, you are essentially making adjustment to all the three primary colours, Red Green and Blue (RBG) altogether. Hazy, cloudy or dusty environment can result in muted colours. You may notice how your surroundings seem more fresh and rich in colour right after a rain shower. This is another reason for you to adjust your colour saturation, to show a realistic representation of the colours of a scene. Of course having bright colourful pictures is not just as a result of what you can do during post-editing. It’s just as important to have a good eye out for the colours that exists around us. Having a mix of contrasting colours will make your picture more interesting and makes a good source for post-editing. One of the differences between day and night shots is the source of the illumination. During the day, sunlight gives overall illumination. The light that bounces off different coloured surfaces thus gives accurate colour rendition. Of course during sunset and sunlight, warm colours are cast due to atmospheric level. So, tweaking
saturation level for daylight shots is not really difficult. Night time photography is considerably trickier due to the use of artificial lighting for illumination. Odd colour casts are created by different types of lighting such as tungsten, fluorescent and multi-coloured LED lights. Colours of surfaces will also appear looking unnatural and surreal.
Another problem with night photography is also the fact that it plays havoc with your camera’s built-in Auto White Balance. Your camera may go back and forth between two different settings if fluorescent and tungsten lights are both in the picture. Setting your WB manually here is the best option. Despite these problems, shooting at night can give you a lot of unique opportunities to shoot bright and interesting mix of colours. In contrast to daytime pictures where a boost of colour saturation can make the picture seem more realistically vibrant, doing this to night pictures can exaggerate and sometimes event create alien-like, surreal lighting effects.
We are sometimes mesmerized by the eye-popping, rich and deeply saturated colours of images that are presented in flyers and advertisement. Just pick up the next colour brochure and see how the image jumps out of the page for attention with vibrant colours. You’d be surprised to know that some of these images start out as mediocre photos right out of the camera. Advertising agencies employ psychological techniques to entice and create a certain perception of products. Colours and how it affects the mood of the viewer is a strong point for consideration. Thus digital images always go through a rigorous editing regime before it goes to print. We can apply some of these techniques to improve the final image we get from our cameras. Do note that almost all consumer digital cameras comes with saturation settings. If you do not want the hassle of post-editing, you can use this feature to get it right out of your camera. Of course if you have the option, you should to set it to a neutral setting and edit it after you’ve taken the shot. "The saturation of a color is the degree to which the color departs from neutral gray of the same brightness. You can think of it as mixing black, gray, or white paint with a colored paint, thus diluting the color." Things to watch out for when tweaking colour saturation levels
Watch out for blown out colour highlights. This happens when you over saturate your picture and the colours in your picture becomes a single patch of the same colour. This is a similar problem to blown highlights.
Fake skin tones. Skin colours do not lend very well to highly saturated picture as this can clearly be seen as being too unrealistic.
Check your White Balance (WB) Setting. Before tweaking saturation level, it’s important that you check and correct the WB level of your image. Otherwise, your picture may be saturated but with the wrong colour tone.
RAW Editing : For this example, this image taken in the RAW format was used. The settings above shows the original levels and colour rendition of the image right out of the camera.
Saturated Colours : The image was then adjusted by increasing saturation levels, brightness, shadow detail, contrast as well as a slight correction in temperature levels. This results in a punchier image with rich details and pleasantly interesting without oversaturing colour details. You can do the same with similar tweaks on JPG images by using your photoediting software.
You can also saturate colours by adjusting the contrast level of your picture. It’s not always necessary to reach for the saturation button as by adjusting your contrast, you are essentially making adjustment to all the three primary colours, Red Green and Blue (RBG) altogether. Hazy, cloudy or dusty environment can result in muted colours. You may notice how your surroundings seem more fresh and rich in colour right after a rain shower. This is another reason for you to adjust your colour saturation, to show a realistic representation of the colours of a scene. Of course having bright colourful pictures is not just as a result of what you can do during post-editing. It’s just as important to have a good eye out for the colours that exists around us. Having a mix of contrasting colours will make your picture more interesting and makes a good source for post-editing. One of the differences between day and night shots is the source of the illumination. During the day, sunlight gives overall illumination. The light that bounces off different coloured surfaces thus gives accurate colour rendition. Of course during sunset and sunlight, warm colours are cast due to atmospheric level. So, tweaking
saturation level for daylight shots is not really difficult. Night time photography is considerably trickier due to the use of artificial lighting for illumination. Odd colour casts are created by different types of lighting such as tungsten, fluorescent and multi-coloured LED lights. Colours of surfaces will also appear looking unnatural and surreal.
Another problem with night photography is also the fact that it plays havoc with your camera’s built-in Auto White Balance. Your camera may go back and forth between two different settings if fluorescent and tungsten lights are both in the picture. Setting your WB manually here is the best option. Despite these problems, shooting at night can give you a lot of unique opportunities to shoot bright and interesting mix of colours. In contrast to daytime pictures where a boost of colour saturation can make the picture seem more realistically vibrant, doing this to night pictures can exaggerate and sometimes event create alien-like, surreal lighting effects.
