Photoshop CS4 Vibrance vs Saturation

Jane P 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.

Anyone have any clearer explanation?

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)

Jane P 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?

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

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.

On Sun, 21 Jun 2009 11:30:27 +0200, Johan W. Elzenga in alt.graphics.photoshop wrote:

Jane P 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

S. Fishpaste wrote:

On Sun, 21 Jun 2009 11:30:27 +0200, Johan W. Elzenga in alt.graphics.photoshop wrote:

Jane P 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.

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

S. Fishpaste wrote:

On Sun, 21 Jun 2009 11:30:27 +0200, Johan W. Elzenga in alt.graphics.photoshop wrote:

Jane P 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.

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.

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

all google groups messages filtered due to spam