Lightroom - vibrance and saturation

ancient_mariner

ancient_mariner

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Toni
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Generally I try to keep colours as natural as possible and saturation levels looking natural. However I've been exploring the effect these 2 sliders have when worked in opposite directions recently: it's been interesting and I wondered if anyone else did it?

Working with Nikon nef files, if I reduce vibrance by around 25-50 units and boost saturation to compensate then yellows & greens come to the fore while blues drop away, while keeping the image neutral. If I do the opposite and reduce saturation/boost vibrance to compensate then blue tones tend to come to the fore and yellow-greens drop back. The interesting thing about this is that it seems to simplify the colours a little, drawing the shades together. Examples:

Vib -52 Sat +40
Vibsat examples-9688 by Toni Ertl, on Flickr

Vib +21 Sat -26
Vibsat examples-9688-2 by Toni Ertl, on Flickr

It's not something I would use very much, but sometimes the effect can be interesting. I don't know if raw files from other camera types will behave in the same way.
 
From what I've read and experienced, +Vibrance seems to boost the less saturated colours more than the highly saturated colours. +Saturation just boosts everything. What you're experiencing above kinda makes sense.

For me - I tend to use Lightroom's HSL panel for individual colour saturation control over the the respective colours. Much finer degree of control.
 
Thanks Dave, good to know it's not just nef's that it works with, and that I'm not alone.

Harlequin565 said:
From what I've read and experienced, +Vibrance seems to boost the less saturated colours more than the highly saturated colours. +Saturation just boosts everything. What you're experiencing above kinda makes sense.

For me - I tend to use Lightroom's HSL panel for individual colour saturation control over the the respective colours. Much finer degree of control.
Click to expand...

I do that too, but this has a different, certainly less focussed effect.
 
Last edited:
I am learning HER photography and I like to overdo some of mine as I love the effect that they have.
 
Tatum said:
I am learning HER photography and I like to overdo some of mine as I love the effect that they have.
Click to expand...

HDR? Overcooking the right image is probably OK, and it's well loved on Facebook, but generally HDR done in a way that isn't obvious is preferable.

So it is with what I've shown here, I hope. Either of these images could pass for natural colours, but it's a subtle shift to enhance that I was suggesting, rather than an extreme effect that shouts EFFECT!
 
I do a similar thing with these sliders but really just to restore some of the apparent depth of colour visible when actually taking the shot (but not to the extent that a CPL filter would). I do agree there does seem to be a trend these days to overcook this sort of thing.
 
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Vibrance(as well as others) does not exist in may converter
and I never use saturation and some others.

The better results I've obtain at this point are through mid-
tones taming which will take care additionally of the micro
contrast, micro saturation and render quite better sharp-
ness without the need for extra steps and sliders.
 
ancient_mariner said:
a little different in the steps
Click to expand...




Yes, you're right Toni, less less steps = only the
essentials and far more precise, more powerful
where it counts and lots more flexibility in studio.

…an other ball game!
 
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