In today’s lesson, I will teach you how to detect and avoid over saturation in your color images. Saturation is like salt, it’s necessary for colors to pop, but too much of it or used in the wrong place and you can ruin your images rather quickly.
We are going to talk about a new technique I developed that uses the Vibrance Adjustment layer and the Difference Blend Mode. With this technique, you can assess your colors and use it to modify your saturation PERFECTLY! Strap yourselves in, you are in for a treat!
►Chapters◄
00:00 Introduction
00:30 Blake’s Superhero origin story
01:07 The technique
02:57 Deep dive look at the technique
03:24 Difference Blend Mode Explained
05:19 Vibrance Slider Explained
06:58 Analyzing Saturation
09:18 Portrait Demo
11:29 Breakdown of Technique
For Blake, it's all about the art and process synergy. He dives deep into complex topics and makes them easy to understand through his outside-the-box thinking so that you can use these tricks in your workflow today!
wow, after watching that I feel like I put a battery in my mouth, as always, mind blowing.
This is probably one of the most useful and simple techniques I’ve seen! Thanks so much for putting this together!
crazy simple, huh? I love this.
Bammmmm!!!! Most excellent, yet so simple.
🙂
Did you really put that battery on your tongue ? Did your brother ever try the electric fence trick on you??
Thanks Blake a great tip.
Yes and Yes
You only get that reaction when you actually stick it on your tongue, lol
The fence thing… well, our dog growing up had a shock collar and we had one too many beers one night and tried to run through the invisible fence with it around our leg. Not a good idea… But why did he proceed to do it after I did and he saw the reaction, I will never know haha
Great tip. I always worry about whether I’ve done too much or not enough especially with the sky. I’ll be using this tip right away.
Blake, I thought you had taught me everything I ever needed to know with your F.64 Elite courses, and you come up with this. Thank you for all you do for us. You are definitely one of the best educators available.
Thanks so much for your support. But sick around, I’ve got so much more for you ?
Thanks! Now maybe I can let my wife off the hook of viewing an image & telling me if I’ve gone to far… & I still check 9v batteries by connecting to my tongue…quicker than finding the battery tester!
Awesome! Thank you, I don’t think I have ever noticed and certainly never used the Vibrance adjustment. Your insight never ceases to amaze me.
Clever, and simple to implement.
Great technique Blake – will definitely use it to check colours before they become too saturated,
Years ago, our local TV repairman (remember those?) used to test the EHT supply to the CRT (remember those?) by touching the knuckle of his pinkie to the terminal. The muscular reaction would kick his finger away, but the knuckle was scarred by years of that practice.
Great idea, Blake, many thanks.
Thanks Blake for this simple technique. I never trusted myself with the amount of color, so I’ll use this tip from now on.
Will this work on an old hdr image??
I assume so.
Try it ?
I know that sounds like a jerk response, but theres nothing that makes me happier than when someone sees the video and technique and instead of asking me if it works, reports to me that it does. It shows that you watched it, comprehended it, put it into practice and learned. That is my favorite type of comment.
Thank you for this useful info.
How fun. Setting up an action for this for MyPalette2! I will use this in astrophotography quite a bit. Nice to have to test some older landscapes I’ve wondered about, too.
Fantastic technique! Simple but very effective.
Thanks so much!
Vinny
Hi Blake,
If I understood you, this is a good technique if you have an image that you believe needs more saturation but don’t know how much is more is enough. However, this is often not my problem. My problem is, as you eluded to, in the course of processing, I oversaturate without realizing it and can’t tell I’ve created circus vomit until later. How can this technique be used as a last step to determine if I’ve already oversaturated?
I apologize if I’m just missing the boat, but it seems like this technique only tells you if your image can withstand further saturation and to that end, how much – not if you’ve already gone too far. Am I missing the boat? I would love to have a check to see if I’ve gone too far in the moment, not days later.
As usual, you are the master teacher!! Thanks so much.
John
Sure thing. Look at the third example I used here, same image one was over saturated the other, same image, was under saturated.
It’s all explained in that example, but essentially if it’s oversaturated you’ll see color pop through immediately as you move the sliders.
Blake, you’ve posted some great tips over the years, but this one is so simple and the results are spot on! I’ve struggled trying to get the color “just right” and usually end up backing off of the saturation to be on the safe side. But then the photos tend to be a bit blah. I’ve been going through a ton of my photos finding that I can pump up the vibrance without experiencing that 9V jolt! Thank you!
I’d love to see the answer to John Meo’s comment Blake – I’m in the same boat – but than, I use your “selective color” layer, and self correct. Thanks Blake – J
I answered it ?
I wonder what is the difference or what is the advantage of this technique versus just using the Vibrance and Saturation adjustment sliders directly on an image in ACR?
You probably achieve the same results but the black mask in this technique can serve as a guide?
Great question. I would also like to hear Blake’s response. Thank you for the tip.
YEs, this serves as a guide. You can use those sliders in ACR, sure, but you have no guide. The point of this technique is to give you driection.
Blake, am I correct in believing vibrancy and luminance are related. i tried the Deference Blend Mode to check my saturation on photos I shot at sunset. I noted a definite boost of detail in the darkest areas of the photo. Overall it seemed to me the photos were brighter – more vibrant than my originals.
Thanks much for this tip.
I wouldn’t think so. Maybe saturation and luminance, but vibrance is kind of a made-up name from Adobe that refers to colors that are not as saturated as others. However, with a saturation increase, you will see a luminance increase because as the color gains intensity it also gains a perceived brightness. While they are two very different things in context to image editing, luminance is a side effect of increased saturation.
When I proof images for print using the paper ICC profile, I have learned a long time ago that the Vibrance slider is the one and most likely only slider that I can adjust out of gamut (over saturated) colors with and stay within the paper gamet. I can usually adjust up to 65% or so with it. Great video lesson.
Blake,
What a wonderful tip. My only problem is that almost every time you say “see the color starting to come through”, I never see it. I do not know if that is my eyes problems, or if my iMac is not accurate enough. I’ll certainly be trying to prove my photos are not oversaturated with this technique. Thank you for all your training.