Now that you’ve been patient and endured the why, we will move onto the how. Emphasizing dank weather conditions such as rain, mist, or fog.Images that work well with desaturation include but are definitely not limited to: Still, more often than not, photographs that benefit the most from desaturation are those which carry an underlying sense of brooding. The purpose of desaturated, or muted tones, is not to dampen the spirit of a photo, but rather to enhance the mood. Not to say that all less saturated images have to be melancholy or less cheerful, most times it is quite the opposite. In the end, saturation adjustments apply themselves to all colors no matter their luminance.īright colors lend themselves to photos when the intent is to bring an upbeat or more cheerful feel to the image. Also, saturation can be controlled selectively, to only certain areas of the image, by using the filter and brush tools. How intense the colors are in an image can be controlled globally (affecting the entire photo) in multiple ways such as: the saturation slider, HSL panel, and tone curve. Technically, saturation can be viewed as how far a color differs from pure white in the color spectrum.įor our purposes, saturation is the depth of colors present within a photograph. It might seem to be one of those “It goes without saying” type of situations, but have you ever really thought about what saturation means, or how it can impact your images? As it relates to photography, saturation is the overall intensity of a color. But first, a little bit of knowledge that you need to understand before we get started processing our photos. It’s extremely easy, and will help you add a unique look to your images. In this article I will walk you through all the steps needed to process a moody, desaturated image in Lightroom. That being said, there is more to making a strong desaturated photograph than simply working with the saturation and vibrance sliders in Lightroom or ACR. As counterintuitive as it might seem, removing some color saturation can be more effective than adding it in some situations.
The old expression “Less is more” can be applied to many aspects of photography, and it is especially true when it comes to dealing with colors.ĭesaturated images are becoming more and more popular, especially with nature, landscape, and street photographers. But, this may not always the best route to take. Often times we occupy our processing time with thoughts of what can be added to our images in order to make them more impactful more sharpness, contrast, or color.