What's Color Saturation? The Power Of Color For Great Photos
Highly saturated water fountain, illuminated at night, at Southbank, Melbourne.
Color saturation is an important tool you can use to create emotively powerful color photos. My own experiments with color saturation have greatly influenced the outcome of my photos.
Color Saturation, also called chroma, is a term used to describe the intensity or purity of color. The direction of light; the relative richness of color, inherent to the object or scene photographed; and the way the image is post processed all influence the degree of color saturation in a photo.
Many images benefit from vivid color saturation while others are better suited to a more muted or pastel color palette. The most appropriate outcome will depend upon three primary concerns:
The subject or scene depicted
What emotion, feeling or mood you want to explore
Where and how the image will be displayed and, where appropriate, the surface of the material the image is printed onto
With a better understanding of color saturation you’ll be able to employ color to make photos that will more successfully communicate your vision of the world and how you experience it.
Color Saturation In Night Photography
There’s no doubt that strong colored light is an advantage for a lot of urban based night photography.
The above photo features an illuminated water fountain which spurts straight out from the stone pavement adjacent to Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia.
The Yarra River, Melbourne Aquarium and an elevated railway bridge can be seen in the background. Walk into this area unaware and you might well cop a spray, as they say.
As the image was primarily about color and light I decided to employ my Canon 85 mm f/1.2 lens, at its maximum aperture of f/1.2, to blur any extraneous details.
Hopefully that decision helps to concentrate your attention on the lovely, abstract forms of vivid red, green and blue colored light in the scene.
Color Saturation in Lightroom
The colors in this image are generated completely by artificial lighting. The result is quite striking though the colors are extremely vivid, to the point of being over the top.
That’s the danger of overly high color saturation. It can result in near fluorescent color that appears to bleed outwards, like ink spilt onto parchment.
Color that’s overly saturated will often appear without detail and subtle separation in tonality.
In fact I've had to desaturate the most vivid colors so that, hopefully, they won't blow out on your computer’s monitor or the screen on your tablet or mobile device.
But I wanted to keep the colors relatively high in saturation to make the point.
It’s actually quite an old photo, made with my very first digital camera: a 12 bit, 12 megapixel Canon 5D camera.
Needless to say the higher bit rate and megapixel count associated with more recent versions of the Canon 5D would do a far better job at holding subtle detail and separation of tone in scenes with such high levels of color saturation.
The Psychology Of Color
If color in photography is important to you then it’s worthwhile investing some time to better understand the psychology of color and how color saturation can influence the way your photo is received by the general public.
Highly saturated colors like orange and red produce lively, dynamic images that will allow your photos to do the following:
Celebrate life
Explore potent concepts such as lust, anger and passion
Colors that are low in saturation are often referred to as muted or pastel. Often regarded as peaceful, soothing or non-threatening, pastel colors are ideally suited to showcasing the following notions:
Calmness
Openness
Relaxation
Actually any muted color can be described as a pastel.
Due to their low levels of color saturation baby blue, mauve, lavender and peach are all great examples of pastel colors.
You’ll find great examples of the communicative power of color in my blog post titled How to Photograph Colorful La Boca.
It’s based around a fantastic photo walk I undertook in the historic La Boca neighborhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Portrait reflection in a mirror made with daylight and vivid incandescent lighting.
Saturation In Portrait Photos
Generally speaking you’ll want to avoid portraits with very highly saturated colors. While clothing and surroundings can benefit from increased saturation the same is not true for portraits.
We all have color in our skin, no matter our ethnicity. What’s more as we age our skin can become quite blotchy. The skin of teenagers and teething babies can also look pretty blotchy.
This photo of a young woman and her reflection in a mirror was created with the original Canon 5D in suburban Melbourne.
Notice how she’s illuminated with a lovely, soft quality of light. It’s come through a large, diffuse window which has provided a very flattering light source that’s ideal for this kind of portrait photo.
It’s also quite a neutral or white colored light source which makes it easier to accurately record the color of her skin.
Can you see how the relative brightness of the natural light has helped draw attention to our model.
It’s also provided a great counterbalance to the orange colored incandescent light source that’s illuminating the background wall.
Actually I love the warmth and energy that the incandescent (i.e., tungsten) light brings to this image. It’s a great example of the power of highly saturated color to influence mood and viewer response.
People enjoying a drink on a wet, vividly lit street in Salzburg.
Wet Surfaces Enhance Color Saturation
Do you like vividly colorful pictures?
Have you ever noticed how wet pavements glow, particularly at night when they’re illuminated by artifical light sources?
Wet surfaces reflect the light that reaches them in a way that increases the inherent color saturation of the surface being photographed.
That's one of the reasons why wet nights provide such great opportunities for night photography.
Take a look at this photo of folks enjoying a break at an outdoor eatery in the old town of Salzburg, Austria.
The luminous yellows and vivid reds really bring a sense of happiness and energy to the image, despite the reality of inclement weather that evening.
Depth Of Field Can Enhance Color and Detail
This image is very different to the more abstract night photo of spurting water, illuminated by artificial light, at the very top of this post.
This time around I wanted my photo to showcase as much of the environment as possible.
A highly detailed rendering of the scene was called for which I achieved through a large depth of field.
Under normal circumstances that would required a physically narrow aperture like f/11.
But I was working at night, without a tripod, and I wanted to avoid both camera shake and subject movement.
I was able to achieve the impression of a large depth of field at an aperture of f/2.
Does that seem contradictory to you?
The first part of the technique called for the use of a wide angle focal length, so I employed a 24 mm focal length lens to record the image.
Next I made sure to stand a little further back from the scene than, perhaps, I otherwise would. That’s because the further back you are the easier it is to ensure important foreground and background elements are rendered sharp.
Frequently we photography scenes containing a primary subject or focal point. In other circumstances the entire composition is of relatively equal importance. Here’s a technique that could serve you well in such a case.
Think of the viewfinder as a grid and focus one third of the way, from the bottom up, into the frame.
Because of the way depth of field works, visually, you’ll find that the impression of relative sharpness extends one third of the way in front and two thirds behind where the lens has been focused.
This fact allows you to achieve a relatively large depth of field at a physically wider aperture than you otherwise would be able to.
Employing a wide angle focal length will allow you to produce a similar depth of field at an even wider physical aperture.
The advantage of working this way is that a physically wider aperture, for example f/2 compared to f/11, let’s in a lot more light. In many cases that will allow you to minimize camera shake and produce a relatively sharp picture without the use of a tripod.
That’s how I was able to make a sharp, highly detailed photo on a rain soaked evening in the old town of Salzburg, Austria handheld without a tripod.
Depth of Field seems like a black art to most enthusiast level photographers. But it’s really easy to understand and implement the depth of field you want for your portrait, architecture and landscape photos once you know how.
I’ve produce a comprehensive post titled Depth Of Field: The Ultimate Guide which I’m sure you’ll find to be incredibly empowering and may be just what you need to create more emotive and visually dynamic photos more often.
The Importance Of Color In Photography
Is your photography all about making photos in camera or are you keen to develop your skills in applications like Adobe Lightroom?
Either way, to make great color photos color needs to be at the forefront of your decision making process.
You need to compose your photos around color and consider the following:
Should your image be composed around harmonious, complimentary or monochromatic color?
Is a saturated or more pastel color rendition appropriate to the mood you’re wanting to explore?
I created a resource to help you improve your own color photography. It’s titled How to Make Great Color Photos and I’m sure you’ll find it really useful.
Saturated scene of a statue reflected in a crucifix, La Recoleta Cemetery.
Conclusion: Improve Your Photos Through Color Saturation
Making the most of color saturation (e.g., neutral, vivid or pastel) will make a significant difference to the communicative power of your photos.
Whether working with muted or vivid colors, paying attention to color saturation has become a critical, creative element in my own travel photography endeavors, both on the road and on the desktop.
Take a look at this image of an angel statue, reflected onto and above a cross, on the front of a tomb at the magnificent La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
While the angel statue and cross are primary focal points it’s the vividly saturated blue sky reflected inside the cross and on the wall of the tomb that drew my attention.
That and the contrast between the cool blue and warm stone colors within the image.
As one of the most easily accessible creative tools color saturation is well within your reach.
So what are you waiting for?
Are you happy with the photos you make or have you lost confidence in how to use your camera?
Has the joy of photography deserted you?
If you want to be able to quickly improve your photography you can do so through highly targeted training that’s designed around your own camera and your very own creative needs.
Surely, that’s the best way forward. For a minimal commitment you’ll reap incredible rewards.
If you live in or near Melbourne, Australia feel free to reach out and we can talk about how, in a single three hour session, I can set you on the road to making better color photos more often.