Color saturation

[mhayes]

I've played around some with the in-camera color saturation features on my D80, but have not found something that works consistently. Are the color enhancing/intensifier filters better? What works for you? I'm not looking to create anything garish - just trying to reproduce what I see with my naked eye.

Mark

[bob_r]

Mark,

I'm a Canonite rather than a Nikonian, but don't think filters are the answer. You can use your image editing software to enhance the colors, although I rarely do. Have you checked to make sure your monitor is displaying the colors properly?

Would it be possible for you to display an image that you think the color is weak and needs enhancing?

Oh, and Welcome to the forum!

Bob R

[gldiana]

I agree with Bob, in-camera filters don't offer much control (not sure about Nikon, in Canon cameras you can control intensity/contrast but still not as much as I want); your best bet is with programs like Photoshop or Lightroom or other editing program. With them you have total control in the amount of saturation/brightness/Vibrance (this last one is new in Lightroom) you wish to apply.
And since I'm here, for those of you who have it, Adobe has released update 1.2 to Lightroom (my favorite Raw editing program).

[Bonish Photo]

My wife and I took one of the Outdoor Photographer seminars and both lecturers said to set your cameras White Balance to a Cloudy setting to warm the colors while shooting outside.

Not sure how to do it with a Nikon, but you might want to check out Scott Kelby's website as he gives a breif tutorial about this very subject.

For me, shooting in RAW is where it's at, and the new CS3 will allow you to make the image look exactly how it looked to my eye. If you havent used it, CS3's RAW converter is AMAZING Night and day over any other program I've used to date.

Pat
www.everymilesamemory.com

[gldiana]

Hey Pat,

not sure about the cloudy setting, frankly I'm a bit shocked that it came from pro photographers, first because it changes the whole balance to an incorrect setting (resulting in more editing at the end), second because the same can be achieved with much more freedom on an editing program.
A better way to get appropriate white balance is to print a sheet with neutral gray (chose 125, 125, 125 on RGB in photoshop and fill a page then print it) then from there you have more freedom of choice in editing and the colors are right, allowing you to get a more uniform warmer tone if so you wish.

As far as RAW editing in CS3, yes it has improved a lot since CS2, but Photoshop Lightroom is still miles ahead of it

[Bonish Photo]

I just bought Scott Kelby's book on Lightroom for beginners, and I'm currently teaching myself how to use it. So for now, its just frustrating for me.

I should probably bite the bullet and just take a one or two day seminar on Lightroom to learn it real fast, beacuse already knowing Photochop so well, I tend to go back to it just out of habit.

As for the Cloudy setting, I've heard it from a few different people, but now that I've been shooting all in RAW, I guess it dosent really matter what my white balance is set at, I just change it anyway in CS3.

Pat
www.everymilesamemory.com

[gldiana]

Hey Pat,

if you want to learn Lightroom from the Pro's try taking the online course with Lewis Kemper. Lewis has shot many times for National Geographic, he is an contributing editor for Outdoor Photographer as well as PC Photo and he is one of Canon's 60 "Explorers of Light" photographers, Canon's top photographers in the world.
I'm taking his course "Color as a Design Element " starting October 3rd. You might want to look into his other course "Lightroom - A Comprehensive Look" cost is $188. If you're interested send me your email and as a referral we both get a $20 off coupon. I'll be taking many more courses from BetterPhoto. This is the link:
http://www.betterphoto.com/courseOverview.asp?cspID=166

As for the White Balance, it is easy to change white balance to an image in CS3 as well as Lightroom, Aperture, etc. but keep in mind that the change will occur to the whole image, so getting the WB right in camera is still very important.