Do you enjoy eye catching, bright and vibrant images? It’s no secret that I do!!! Here are my 5 best tips for colorful images!!
1: Capture in the largest color space your camera is capable of. Most modern cameras can capture in AdobeRGB. This will ensure that you capture nature’s most vivid colors.
2: Make sure you’re not ‘clipping’ any of the RGB channels in camera. Almost all modern cameras have the ability to review the images RGB histogram in camera. Even when the luminosity or brightness of a scene doesn’t require bracketing, the color channels can. I.e. vivid sunsets with large amounts or red variations contain many red pixels and can easily exceed the red channel of the histogram. Likewise with blue during winter sunsets and sunrises.
3: In your raw converter of choice, like Adobe Lightroom, you should have the ability to saturate the color channels. Usually the blue channel will more naturally saturate the image when raised. Understand that ALL of the pixels in an image are made up of a combination of (R)ed, (G)reen and (B)lue and the inverse colors (Cyan, Magenta and yellow) but the ratio obviously varies. You might find that when you raise the saturation of the blue channel you have induced a color cast, this means your white balance isn’t quite accurate and your colors are a bit ‘crazy’. Try adjusting your white balance to rectify it.
4: Toning the image correctly, via contrast adjustments, will also enrich the colors and deepen saturation. Using luminosity masks to target the mid tones and using levels or curves adjustments to apply contrast you will see the colors saturate while giving body to the mid tones. If the colors start to get a little weird it could indicate that you’re over doing the contrast.
5: Selective color adjustments can really help with separating colors, saturating individual colors and removing or adding a color cast that can further help in achieving the truest of colors or by adding a color cast, bring the color palette together.