Color Saturation Question

[Hawg Hanner]

Please look at the photographs below and tell me if there is too much color saturation. Several weeks ago I calibrated my monitor and ever since then colors on my computer seem very saturated.

My tendency is to saturate colors a bit, but these are starting to look just a tad bit too saturated. I would be interested to know if any of you agree.

http://static.flickr.com/112/305793473_45e2f5176f_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/115/303435020_e01e191f86_o.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/115/303876008_07a7f2ee1d_o.jpg

Thanks!

[MagicallyDelicious]

They look perfectly alright to me.

My monitor isnt calibrated though.

[picturecrazy]

I dunno, they seem ok to me too. My monitor is calibrated.

[sugarzebra]

They look fine on my very non-calibrated office monitor...and the third shot is very good!

[Picture North Carolina]

I have a calibrated lcd, and it is a pretty good 8-bit display. The portrait is not oversaturated - perhaps even a little light. The carnival ride seem over saturated to me. The landscape is under satureated in some areas, but that appears to be done in such a way that it was the intent of the artist to achieve the look. Hope that helps.

[CyberPet]

They look good on my calibrated monitor, but then again I want photo's to have a bit saturation in them, so it might feel too much to some and too little to some. To me this is perfect, not too much and not too little.

[Jettin]

On my monitor -
1. Red is too strong
2. Oversaturated
3. Good

??

[jfrancho]

I opened all three in Photoshop. Calibrated or not, the numbers don't lie. The first is the only image with no clipping. Whether it has a reddish cast or not depends on monitor calibration, viewing conditions and personal taste. I think it looks fine. The second has significant clipping in the red channel. That wouldn't be that alarming if it was in the painted parts of the ride, but what is alrming is that it's actually clipping on the skin of the people - not good, but not too bad considering there isn't much detail to be seen at that size. Again, it's a saturated look, some will like it, some won't. In the last all three channels are clipped, and no amount of pulling the sat back will restore the detail. In this case it doesn't really matter that much in that the blowouts are in the sky portion - a common occurrance when exposing for subject detail. That is assuming the boring, whispy cloud isn't the subject ;). All three are fine. If you are going to print large, I'd think about backing off by 10-15%. It really isn't that hard to add a bit of saturation, but taking it away while leaving a balanced image can be tricky. It's mostly subjective, but whatch the numbers. Most decent image editors have a per channel view of the histo and a RGB color sampler tool. If you're worried about it, check it.

[picturecrazy]

It's all about how it looks and the impression it gives. I end up clipping a lot of stuff but I don't care as long as I'm getting the look I want. If we always followed a set of mathematical rules, all our pictures would be boring.

FWIW, I think all the pictures look great, whether they are clipping or not.

[Reefbone]

I noticed that your saving your pics to flickr... what are you using for post processing?

My photos color shift so bad from CS2 to flickr I hate to even share them. Yours look good to me.


Also your EXIF info is maintained.. mine isn't. See here (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=244997)

[Jonny]

They look good to me.

[Hawg Hanner]

I also use Photoshop CS2. I do notice very, very subtle shifts in color from Photoshop CS2 to the posted version on Flickr, but not enough for me to care...and that may be more a product of looking at the smaller sizes on Flickr. The larger versions are fine.

I also photograph in Adobe RGB and process in sRGB, if that makes a difference.

[DLUKE94]

What settings were your camera on on photos 1 and 3?

[Scottes]

On my monitor -
1. Red is too strong
2. Oversaturated
3. Good

??
Ditto.

[Hawg Hanner]

I didn't do much to the first photograph at all--except adjust the colors using a curves adjustment and selective color and adjusted the contrast slightly. The first photo was taken with my Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM at an aperture of 1.6. ISO 640, and a shutter speed of 1/50s.

In the third photograph I made similar adjustments to color/contrast as described above and softened it also using Photoshop CS2. I used the Diffuse Glow feature in the Filters section. I created a new layer, adjusted the grain, glow and clear settings until I was happy with the results, and adjusted the opacity of the top layer until it was perfect. The third image was taken at 35mm, aperture of 2.8, ISO 100 and 1/2000s.