Saturation refers to the intensity of a color. The Hue/Saturation adjustment is found in most image editing applications, and offers one of the best ways to change colors both globally and selectively. Let’s see what the photo would look like if the vibrance and saturation were set to +50: As saturation goes down, black or white are added to a hue to make it appear soft and muted. Lower saturation results in muted colors, while higher saturation increases the photo’s vividness. The desaturated version (left) has less color. Quick Tip: On the other end of the spectrum, if you have a color that sticks out in a way that’s not pleasing to the eye (or feels ‘loud’), you can decrease its saturation for a more balanced photo. Vivid primary colours are highly saturated, while pastel colours are unsaturated. Saturation (or ‘chroma’) defines the intensity of a hue. Monochrome (black and white) prints are totally de-saturated since they lack colour intensity. This is precisely why the color wheel artists use is often referred to by folks in the scientific community as the subtractive color wheel. Light Blue and Dark Blue The “L” in HSL: Luminance Saturation makes colors more vivid (less black or white added). Saturation is calculated as a percentage value between 0% and 100%. This can result in clipping (over saturation of certain colors which results in loss of detail in those areas) and over saturation of skin tones leaving them looking too orange and unnatural. Think of it as a gray sponge dipped in a bucket of paint. Saturation is how pure the hue is. Saturation is a destructive process as far as drawing and painting is concerned. This made certain colors, like the leaves and dog fur, look a bit too saturated. Saturation enhanced every color regardless of how muted or colorful it was. Lightness / Brightness. The higher the saturation of a color, the more vivid it is; the other hand, the lower the saturation of a color, the closer it is to gray. In Photoshop, the Hue/Saturation tool has three adjustments: Hue (color balance), Saturation (the intensity of color) and Lightness (a combination of contrast and brightness). Saturation refers to the idea of how intense a color looks. Saturation is a uniform bumping up the intensity of all colors in your shot, regardless of the starting point of the colors. A full saturation means that the pure base hue is used. Lightness (or brightness) is the amount of white or black mixed in with the color. In photography the term ‘saturation’ describes the depth or intensity of color present within an image. What is saturation in photography. The higher the saturation, the further it is to gray and the more vibrant it appears on the image. But the result would look much better if the saturation were less intense. It makes your image look more vivid. 0% saturation will always be black. Saturation is also referred to as ‘chroma’; The more saturated an image is the more colorful and vibrant it will appear, less color saturation will make an image appear subdued or muted. Value. “White is the lightest; black is the darkest, and all colors fall between those two,” Marcie explains. Like the example above. Original color image (center). Desaturation makes colors more muted (more black or white added). Once you mix two colors together you have automatically decreased the saturation of the original colors. Simply put, value (or lightness) measures how light or dark a color is. You will sometimes find the term chroma used to refer to saturation in the context of photography. Saturation. Base hue is used precisely why the color ‘ chroma ’ ) defines the intensity of hue... The subtractive color wheel artists use is often referred to by folks in the scientific community as subtractive! 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