So, for starters, here\u2019s the original unadjusted image.<\/p>\n
The first control I tried was Saturation.\u00a0 I set the value at a modest +25% with these results.<\/p>\n The Saturation control saturates all the colors an equal amount.\u00a0 You can increase or decrease the saturation but it\u2019s all or nothing.\u00a0 Every color is affected the same.<\/p>\n I also decreased the saturation by \u201325% with these results.<\/p>\n If you set saturation to \u2013100% you get a grayscale image.<\/p>\n Another Lightroom control for affecting color saturation is Vibrance.\u00a0 This is a very sophisticated in the way it works.\u00a0 It does two things.<\/p>\n The saturation produced by Vibrance can be very subtle.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the sunset with +25% vibrance.<\/p>\n You can also use Vibrance to decrease saturation.\u00a0 Here is the same sunset with \u201325% vibrance.<\/p>\n If you set Vibrance to \u2013100% you get this result.<\/p>\n The HSL control is the one I turn to most often.\u00a0 HSL stands for Hue, Saturation and Luminance.\u00a0 It gives you the ability to selectively control each of these three properties of color on eight different colors \u2013 Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Aqua (think Cyan), Blue, Purple and Magenta.<\/p>\n I adjusted only the Saturation property and only for Red (+40%), Orange (+21%) and Yellow (+4).\u00a0 Here are the results.<\/p>\n I like the HSL control best because it allows you to individually selectively adjust all three color properties for individual colors.\u00a0 I find myself using them all regularly.\u00a0 Maybe I\u2019ll dive into HSL in a future post.<\/p>\n![\"sunset_original\"](\"http:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/sunset_original.jpg\" "\\"sunset_original\\"")
<\/a> As you can see, the colors are really quite nice.\u00a0 But my recollection of the sunset was that they were a little more saturated, more intense.<\/p>\nSaturation<\/h3>\n
<\/a> The pinks and blues are nice but the yellows are too garish.\u00a0 What\u2019s going on here?<\/p>\n<\/a> The image appears much less interesting.\u00a0 Just as when the saturation was increased, decreasing the saturation affected yellows the strongest with the blues and pinks not quite as much.<\/p>\n<\/a> That\u2019s generally not the reason why you would photograph a sunset but grayscale works really well in a lot of situations.\u00a0 The only thing, there are much more powerful ways to create grayscale images than with Saturation.<\/p>\nVibrance<\/h3>\n
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<\/a> You\u2019ll notice that the pinks and blues are not any more saturated than the original.\u00a0 However, the yellows are just a bit more saturated.\u00a0 The effect achieved is much more pleasing than with the Saturation control.<\/p>\n<\/a> The difference between \u201325% vibrance and \u201325% saturation is very subtle.\u00a0 The more saturated pinks and blues are desaturated about the same amount.\u00a0 The less saturated yellow is desaturated a little less with Vibrance than with Saturation.<\/p>\n<\/a> It\u2019s interesting because there is still come color although it is all very pale.<\/p>\nHSL<\/h3>\n
<\/a> For my money this is the most satisfactory of the three results.\u00a0 The yellow is more saturated but not overdone and the pink clouds are more like what I recall.\u00a0 It really does capture more faithfully what I was feeling.<\/p>\n