[Pete82]

How can I make my colors pop while still having them look realistic? Colors such as in Steve McCurry's or Art Wolfe's photography for an example.
No matter how I tweak (or not) my colors in Lightroom and Photoshop they just tend to look either bland or fake. It seems nearly impossible to post process colors that I saw/felt in a way that still looks realistic.

My post processing workflow at the moment involves basic settings + RNI film profiles in Lightroom and when needed some Photoshop + NIK Collection.

Could it have something to do with how my lenses render the color? I kind a doubt it.
Would I have easier time with some other system, say Fuji? Maybe...or maybe not.

Have you found some silver bullet for your colors?
If you have, I would be happy and inspired to see some examples of your photos with perfect colors, and to hear your thoughts about the topic.

Thank you for all the input.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

[photoptimist]

First, it could be the monitor. Is it a good one? Is it properly calibrated? Is it a room with any lights or windows behind your back that reflect off the screen and kill saturation?

Second, a Macbeth ColorChecker chart is a great way to calibrate for the color effects of light sources, lenses, and sensors.

Third, if the scene has lots of bright light (sun, sky, light sources), then lenses (and filters) can kill saturation if they are hazy or don't have good coatings.

[PJ1]

I don't know much about this aspect but I always shoot with the Custom Image setting on 'bright'. From there, with a jpeg image I usually fiddle a bit with contrast sliders in Microsoft Office Picture Manager to get the image I want. I rarely adjust the colour. If working from a RAW file (where the Custom Image setting is not relevant), my only PP is Adobe Photoshop Elements (my version is a few years old). With the K-3 I usually set the Temperature at 5100, increase the exposure a bit, and fiddle with the other settings to suit my eye. Clarity might be set at 35, vibrance and saturation a little lower. I try for what I consider a 'natural' look. It is what I prefer in my images for personal consumption. Some of my images are used to illustrate magazine articles (I write occasionally for Australian outdoors publications) and the natural look works best for those as well. I do not know what it takes to get the 'pop' that a professional Leica shooter achieves in Leica advertising. But I know it is not the camera or the lens.

[Pete82]

First, it could be the monitor. Is it a good one? Is it properly calibrated? Is it a room with any lights or windows behind your back that reflect off the screen and kill saturation?

The monitor is not that good at all but it has been calibrated and I think it represents colors quite ok.
Anyway, if this monitor is able to present McCurry's colors in a way that I like, shouldn't it be also possible to post process similar colors with this same monitor?

One thing that I have already done in my home few years ago is that I changed all light bulbs to +4000K bulbs.
When I stil had warmer light bulbs, the photos that I had processed in the evenings/night looked way too warm during the daytime.
After I changed light bulbs to +4000K those issues were gone.

Second, a Macbeth ColorChecker chart is a great way to calibrate for the color effects of light sources, lenses, and sensors.

Good suggestion. I have not used any color checker charts but probably I should get one and learn to use it.

[aaacb]

For me, the way to get better colors is local edits. For example, if there's color in areas of the image where I don't want to draw attention, I sometimes use slight desaturation (and complementary saturation) in addition to dodge/burn. This creates contrast and makes the colors I care about look better, because there's less distraction from the uninteresting areas.

[Sir Nameless]

At one point I learned that "rich" colors have higher saturation and lower lightness, and "pastel" colors have lower saturation and higher lightness. My colors looked a little better once I understood that nuance and I was able to start getting what I envisioned a little better.

And also - the difference between saturation and vibrance sliders (if you have both).

[tokyoscape]

How can I make my colors pop while still having them look realistic?

Calibrate the monitor color could be a good begining, But from what I learned, the so call "realistic" is very subjective. I used to try that but care too much of what another see as realistic is not for me right now. I changed to focuse on communicating what I "feel" when I shoot that particular image via color, light and composition and I am happier now.

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Last edited by tokyoscape; 12-24-2019 at 03:54 PM.

[Pete82]

At one point I learned that "rich" colors have higher saturation and lower lightness, and "pastel" colors have lower saturation and higher lightness. My colors looked a little better once I understood that nuance and I was able to start getting what I envisioned a little better.

Great piece of knowledge that I have not thought before..
I guess this should help me to find more defined colors in some photos.

[house]

The silver bullet is good light and colour in the scene. You dont pp a good photo into existance.

[GUB]

Looking at the two artists work I can see they have maintained good control of the tones of their work especially the highlights.
If you try too hard to get bright colours it is easy to starting clipping the main colour and that allows the secondary colours to catch up which will lower the impact of the main colour.
For instance in this quick screenshot detail of one of Art's work the strongest yellows have the red values very near to full channel
I put a dropper on it in 8bit Gimp and found a RGB of about 250 230 200
If you tried brightening or increasing saturation of this once the red got to 255 it would stop increasing but the other 2 colours would keep getting brighter so overall lowering the perception of redness in your colour.
Your artists understand the cause and effect of clipping colour.

[Sir Nameless]

The silver bullet is good light and colour in the scene.

I don't disagree that you need good color and light in the scene. Good raw materials are absolutely essential. But take good raw materials and process them in a ham-fisted way, and you get clown-puke. (I know this from experience because the latter described my photo-cooking AND food-cooking skills for some time.) So yes, necessary, but no, not a silver bullet.

---------- Post added 12-24-19 at 04:24 PM ----------

Great piece of knowledge that I have not thought before..

I got that from one of Michael Freeman's books: The Photographer's Mind, I believe. Local library had it (yay free knowledge!).

[Bruce Clark]

Some comments from one who does tend to oversaturate things.

Calibrate Monitor for colour and brightness. Numerous hardware and software options are available for this.
Use an IPS monitor for colour accuracy and better viewing angles.
Operate in a slightly darkened room
I use Lightroom almost exclusively so these remaining comments relate to that program but my also apply to other applications.

• Crop, clone and level
• Adjust overall exposure if necessary
• Adjust white balance only if necessary
• Adjust overall contrast only if necessary
• Set White point
• Set Black point
• Adjust image overall brightness Note: for this and the above two steps, I follow a technique of dropping the Highlights slider to -100, boosting the Shadows slider to +100 and then setting the white and black points.
• Go easy on Texture and Clarity controls.
• Adjust Vibrance in preference to saturation slider especially with skin tones.
• Go easy on Saturation. Use this sparingly.
• Use local edits, Graduated Filter, Radial Filter and Brush to correct problem areas.
• Keep an eye on the overall image as you do any of these steps. It is easy to get carried away on one particular area.
• Noise and sharpen

Most important, walk away from the image for at least 1/2 hour, preferably overnight and look at it again with fresh eyes.
There are a great number of You tube videos with details of these techniques. Chose some presenters you like and follow their examples.

Good luck

[Apet-Sure]

+1 on shooting in 'bright' custom image setting; you get a little boost in saturation and contrast. Actually, try some of the other settings too, like 'reversal film'. Different lenses DO render colors differently. You notice this in people's comments in the lens reviews. A good quality polarizing filter can enhance colors in many circumstances. You don't have to rotate it to its full effect; sometimes a little is all you need. Different camera sensors render colors differently also. Here is a sample of a shot taken with my K10D camera. Its CCD sensor is older technology than the CMOS sensor in my K-5IIs, but it really nailed the colors of this Hydrangea. The only PP was a little sharpening.
From the front yard - Apet-Sure's Album: Nature-K10D - PentaxForums.com

[Fenwoodian]

.
Want better colors? Shoot a better lens!

To my eye, the best colors come from Leica lenses.

[Sir Nameless]

Want better colors? Shoot a better lens!
To my eye, the best colors come from Leica lenses.

I wanna try! Could you send me one? And a Leica body to go with it?