Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Photos that have rich, vibrant colors definitely have their appeal (that's why
professional landscape photographers got so hooked on Velvia film and its
trademark saturated color), and although Lightroom has a Saturation slider for
increasing your photo's color saturation, the problem is it increases all the colors
in your photo equally—while the dull colors do get more saturated, the colors
that are already saturated get even more so, and well…things get pretty horsey,
pretty fast. That's why Lightroom's Vibrance control may become your Velvia.
More Vibrant
Step One:
In the Presence section (at the bottom
of the Basic panel) are two controls that
affect the color saturation. I avoid the
Saturation slider because everything gets
saturated at the same intensity (it's a very
coarse adjustment). In fact, I only use it
to remove color—never to add it. If you
click-and-drag the Saturation slider to the
right, your photo gets more colorful, but
in a clownish, unrealistic way (the over-
saturation won't show up as much here in
the printed book because the photos get
converted to CMYK for a printing press, so
however clownish this looks here, double
it for the web or a print). Go ahead and
try it—drag the Saturation slider to the
far right and you'll see what I mean. Now,
return to 0.
Step Two:
Now try the Vibrance slider—it affects
dull colors the most, and it affects already
saturated colors the least (like the fall trees,
which are already pretty colorful), and lastly,
if your photo has people in it, it does its
best to avoid affecting flesh tones altogether,
so as the color gets more vibrant, the skin
tones on your people don't start to look
weird (although that doesn't come into
play in this particular photo). This gives a
much more realistic-looking color saturation
across the board, which makes this a much
more usable tool. Here's a before/after of
the same photo using the Vibrance slider
instead. The clouds, trees, and water look
much more vibrant, but without looking
“clowny” (I bet that word throws my spell
checker for a loop).
