Vibrance vs. Saturation

A June Sky, 8:50 P.M.

Some years ago, I took a Photoshop class and asked the teacher, “What is the difference between the Saturation Adjustment and the Vibrance Adjustment?” I forget her response, but I interpreted it as Vibrance increasing the contrast between colors. 

Most sources say that Vibrance enhances muted colors without overly saturating the colors that are already bright. If you increase Saturation instead, it deepens all colors, giving your picture an unnatural look if you’re not careful. 

Let’s experiment with my sky shot in the Photos app that came with my iPad. (I stopped using Photoshop when they started requiring a subscription because I don’t like recurring fees.) If I increase the Vibrance slider all the way to 100, the sky deepens and we see a pretty sunset.
 

If instead, I increase Saturation all the way to 100, the colors are brilliant, but the sky looks unnatural, especially the blue.

That looks awesome, but it’s not at all what I saw. I pulled the sliders back and then set Vibrance at 20 and Saturation at 10. The result is the first image, which is not as impressive, but it’s true to what I saw. After all, I was just walking the dog in the evening, and I wasn’t interested in waiting for the colors to possibly deepen to a stunning intensity.

Most of my pictures are fairly realistic. I’m not a big fan of overly manipulated images unless they are clearly art rather than journalistic. When I use AI or artistic filters, I’ll usually mention it. 

Most of my blog posts are journalistic in style, with the exception of the Saturday posts that I pretend are written by my dog. I like to think that everyone is “in” on that little joke.