Saturating colour clearly moves an image away from a purely accurate portrayal of natural tones to something that deliberately looks unnatural. It exaggerates primary colours in particular but distorts more subtle tones such as greys and browns. Using Adobe Photoshop’s hue and saturation tools the balance of colour can be adjusted to give a retro feel from the days of Kodachrome when colour photographs were often more vibrant than nature intended.
The benefit is to liven up photos taken on a dull or even damp day emphasising the often hidden colours in flowers, gowns and make-up. The richness of colour created will bring an element of drama and excitement to photographs which might otherwise appear toned down. Reversing saturation can also have another affect and that is to tone down colourful images to become dream like and softer. Skin tones change with saturation. Too much and the skin becomes orange, lips dark red and eyes hollowed out. Too little and skin can become greenish blue. In the late afternoon light skin naturally looks different from its natural colour so saturation can give a feel of that orange light you see on a summer’s evening.
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