Photoshop CS4 Vibrance vs Saturation

Jane P

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Jun 21, 2009, 12:04:46 AM6/21/09

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Hi,
I'm trying to work out exactly what is the different between the Vibrance
and Saturation adjustments in CS4. I have been using them in Camera RAW for
a while now, and I see Vibrance is now an adjustment in CS4's menu.

I'm yet to find anyone who can give me a satisfactory answer as to the
difference. Saying that vibrance is just saturating those colours that don't
get saturated makes no sense to me.

Anyone have any clearer explanation?

Rob

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Jun 21, 2009, 2:41:21 AM6/21/09

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have a look at whats happening through Bridge when camera raw is used to
open up a file.

there has been some good tutorials as to all the functions when using
camera raw in bridge. (google)

Johan W. Elzenga

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Jun 21, 2009, 5:30:27 AM6/21/09

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Jane P <fara...@gmail.com> wrote:

That does indeed make no sense, and that's not what Adobe says either.
Vibrance increases the saturation, but not for all colors to the same
extend (as Saturation does). It increases unsaturated colors more than
saturated colors, and it tries to preserve skintones in the process.
Does that make sense?

--
Johan W. Elzenga johan<<at>>johanfoto.nl
Editor / Photographer http://www.johanfoto.com

botox

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Jun 21, 2009, 12:12:14 PM6/21/09

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The easy version:
You can increased the saturation of all colors across contrast ranges or
only the colors within a limited contrast range, in this case sort of the
mid-tones for Vibrance.
How useful the Vibrance tool is for you is, of course, a matter of taste.
Color ranges that correspond to, ahem, Caucasian flesh tones, can be
numerically excluded. Nikon NX has this feature also.
There are other ways to amplify the midtones, including a well documented
trick using Lab color mode.

S. Fishpaste

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Jul 10, 2009, 2:43:52 PM7/10/09

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On Sun, 21 Jun 2009 11:30:27 +0200, Johan W. Elzenga in alt.graphics.photoshop wrote:
> Jane P <fara...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>> I'm trying to work out exactly what is the different between the Vibrance
>> and Saturation adjustments in CS4. I have been using them in Camera RAW for
>> a while now, and I see Vibrance is now an adjustment in CS4's menu.
>>
>> I'm yet to find anyone who can give me a satisfactory answer as to the
>> difference. Saying that vibrance is just saturating those colours that don't
>> get saturated makes no sense to me.
>
> That does indeed make no sense, and that's not what Adobe says either.
> Vibrance increases the saturation, but not for all colors to the same
> extend (as Saturation does). It increases unsaturated colors more than
> saturated colors, and it tries to preserve skintones in the process.
> Does that make sense?

Like the OP I wondered about the difference to (although I didn't look hard
at it). Thanks for the explanation, which _does_ make sense.

--
Regards,
S. Fishpaste

Paul Furman

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Jul 27, 2009, 8:51:35 PM7/27/09

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I just tried on an urban scene with blue skies, orange & red signs and
gray paving of subtly different colors. I set up a history sequence to
toggle back & forth, vibrance made the sky crazy dark blue, saturation
boosted the reds. The asphalt barely changed, the sidewalk happened to
be kinda flesh toned & didn't change at all. Pale blue-white signs
turned dark blue. So maybe another simplified explanation is it brings
out blues without going overboard on reds.

--
Paul Furman
www.edgehill.net
www.baynatives.com

all google groups messages filtered due to spam

Paul Furman

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Jul 27, 2009, 9:02:16 PM7/27/09

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I saw a Lightroom tutorial that added 'snap' to an expanse of boring
road & gray building in an otherwise nice photo. I never really use it
though I tried.