JPG image enhancement question

I am PPing some raw files and need to bring up the saturation to emulate JPG in-camera enhancement. Generally speaking (and a guestimate is fine) when a camera such as a 30D or 5D process jpg images, what level of saturation increase is applied? Is it smallish such a 1, 2, 3% or something more substantial such as 8, 9, or 10%

My saturation adjustments depend greatly on the subject, usually ranging from 3-4 up to 16-20. This assumes no saturation adjustment in RAW conversion.

Maybe i'm crazy, but I adjust the slider until the image looks how I want it to look.

I guess the amount of saturation on your jpegs is directly related to the Saturation setting in your camera (found with the Contrast and Sharpness settings).

I'm sorry, I don't know how camera saturation relates to Photoshop saturation. I guess that a bit of experimentation would give you an answer.

In my opinion, those three settings (Contrast, Saturation & Brightness) should be set to nil, unless you're doing some "Quick, just shoot and print, no time for enhancement" kind of work. You and Photoshop can apply saturation much more carefully than the tiny computer in your camera can.

Any answer would also be dependent on the Picture Style applied to the jpg since Standard and Landscape, for instance, push up saturation.

Thanks, tzalman. I didn't know about that.

I apologize. I stated the question poorly, but thank all for the replies because I think it's been answered.

What I meant to ask was this: I shoot in raw. The client has said the pictures are a "little dull" and has asked the pictures be made to look "normal." Normal to them is how pictures look when it comes out of a camera set in a high resolution jpeg mode, with no styles applied, and no tweaking of settings.

I realize I can saturate raw's in photoshop until they look good, but I have been specifically warned not to over-saturate.

I just figured that a camera in normal, untweaked jpeg mode would have an algorithm that would add a static amount of saturation to each picture and that I could emulate that percentage in photoshop. Sorry for the misunderstanding. /Dan

You have two options:
- Educate the customer/client, tell them they're essentially digital negatives, and aren't meant to be printed as-is (unless they are), or
- Batch process, add some contrast, sharpening, and vibrance (or saturation) in the RAW converter, and give them that disk.