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what in the world could this all black
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layer teach us about the saturation in
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our photographs well
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i'm about to show you working with color
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especially saturation can be a difficult
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thing to handle in any genre of
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photography especially when you're first
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starting out many of us seasoned
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photographers have been doing this for a
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while can just look at an image and say
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that color is too oversaturated and the
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person who produces like wait a sec i
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like how beautiful that color is how do
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you know it's oversaturated and we just
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say well i can just tell is that really
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helping someone who doesn't understand
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color no i've got this really weird
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physical thing that happens to me with
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color hear me out and don't try this at
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home please i did this when i was a kid
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as a kid my brother dared me to take a
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9-volt battery and stick both ends on my
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tongue and see what happens i got this
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kind of jolting shock
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well that's what happens when i see
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images that are a little over saturated
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is that a superpower that i gained from
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a 9 volt battery as a child i don't know
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but what i can tell you is that when
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colors in an image are over saturated it
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makes me physically feel something that
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i don't like all jokes aside not
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everyone has that superhuman ability so
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let's take a look at how this works
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first i'm going to show you this
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technique that i've just developed and
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i'm going to show you why it works and
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why it can be helpful to you this will
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give you data as to how an image is over
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saturated and i think you're really
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going to appreciate it so take a look at
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this image it doesn't appear as if the
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colors in the image are over saturated
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at first glance it might seem as if
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maybe the greens are a little bit on the
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saturated side but our magentas and our
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blues and our purples and even some of
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our yellows are not quite there yet so
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this technique i've developed you go
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down to the adjustment layers you put a
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vibrance adjustment layer on there
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now we're going to change the blend mode
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to the difference blend mode you should
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see an all black image
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now as you move the saturation up
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you should start to see colors start to
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appear here we might have to look really
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closely at this i'm going to zoom in you
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see how blue starts to appear here the
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color blue is not important in this case
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what is important is seeing what colors
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are
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poking through this black layer think
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about this like a mask okay when you put
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a mask on something and you make it all
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black the things that you reveal through
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there with the color white or even gray
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for that matter are the things that are
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going to receive the effect of whatever
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it is that you're doing so in this case
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as we increase the saturation we start
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to see a color kind of popping towards
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us that's not actually the color blue if
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we make this the normal blend mode
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and then turn this on and off you can
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see it's these colors here that are
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starting to get a little bit over
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saturated i'm going to change that back
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to the difference blend mode here okay
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we'll zoom back out
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and now if we increase the vibrance you
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can also see other colors in the image
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that are starting to get a little bit
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more saturated up here in the sky
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changes to the normal blend mode
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congratulations we have a successfully
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saturated image but we have no idea what
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we just did or what any of that means to
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get it to this point so let's take a
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deeper dive into this i'm going to use
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this test image here
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first off we're going to be using the
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vibrance adjustment layer i have
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experimented with this with the hsl
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adjustment layer and it does not work
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the same way
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not the same way at all so we're going
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to want to use the vibrance adjustment
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layer okay
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with the vibrance adjustment layer we
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are going to change that to
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the difference blend mode
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now before we talk about vibrance and
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saturation the difference between the
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two let's talk about the difference
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blend mode in consulting with the
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helpx.adobe.com
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blog which i frequently use anytime i
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need a detailed explanation about what
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is happening in photoshop the difference
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blend mode it looks at the color
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information in each channel and it
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subtracts either the blend color
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from the base color or the base color
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from the blend color depending on which
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has the greatest brightness value
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okay blake explain that
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all right so what's happening here when
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we set this vibrance to the difference
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blend mode essentially what's happening
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is it's creating a copy of all of the
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things that we have in the background
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layer here
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that's what this vibrance adjustment
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layer is it's basically think of it like
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a carbon copy of everything that's
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happening underneath it that's when it's
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set to the difference blend mode it is
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subtracting all colors all light to make
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it black so remember here it says
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subtracts either the blend color from
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the base color or the base color from
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the blend color depending on which has a
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greater brightness value at this point
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neither of them have a greater
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brightness value and that's because
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they're both the exact same thing but as
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we increase the saturation in this you
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can start to see that something is
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getting brighter
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in this case the colors are getting more
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saturated which does actually bring on a
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little bit more brightness with that
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color as well
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so what this is telling us is that as we
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increase the saturation
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anything that is remaining black is not
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as saturated as the colors that are
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pulling through and popping forward
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so when we look at this we can see in
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our test image here that these colors
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because they are the purest form of
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saturation
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even as we barely adjusted this we
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started to see that these colors were
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popping through why because they're
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already the full potency of that color
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they can possibly be they're already
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full 100 saturation okay now what
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happens we increase the vibrance as we
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increase the vibrance you'll see that
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these colors remain the same
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what the heck is happening here
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this explains what vibrance is
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vibrance is a very unique slider that
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adobe has included in many of their
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applications to include lightroom and
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adobe camera raw what vibrance is again
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consulting with the helpx.adobe.com
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it adjusts the saturation so that
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clipping is minimized as colors approach
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full saturation
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this adjustment increases the saturation
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of less saturated colors more than
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colors that are already saturated
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vibrance also prevents skin tones from
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becoming over saturated we will
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definitely talk about how this technique
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can help portraits in a minute here but
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what we're seeing here with this
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technique that i'm laying out for you
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now the difference blend modes sets the
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base for us the base color or base
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colors are what's underneath this
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vibrance adjustment layer the blend
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colors are what's inside this vibrance
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adjustment layer so now we're doing here
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let's go ahead and reset all of this
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okay we have just made a direct copy of
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everything that's below that's what an
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adjustment layer does until you make an
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adjustment to it it's just a carbon copy
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of everything that's underneath it
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we're subtracting all colors out
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as we increase the vibrance you'll see
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the colors that are not very saturated
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in the background that are starting to
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become more saturated
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we can use this as a checks and balance
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system when we change this back to the
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normal blend mode you can see here that
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our blues are definitely more saturated
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now and so are yellows
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and that's only with the vibrance
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adjustment layer
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what's happened here is that those are
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the colors that were not as saturated as
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the other colors in the image therefore
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as we increase the vibrance they get
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more saturated
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why do we need to use this difference
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blend mode then blake well with this
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technique what it does is it gives us a
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baseline to show us
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how much saturation we can give
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something before it gets oversaturated
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let's use this as an example here what
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i've done with this example is i've made
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the exact same image of behringer winery
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on the left hand side was the original
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on the right hand side as an over
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saturated maybe someone who went a
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little heavy a lot heavy-handed with
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their saturation
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let's see what this means here
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if we turn on this vibrance adjustment
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layer that is set to the difference
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blend mode you'll notice that everything
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is black and then you'll scratch your
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head and say wait a second blake
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you just told me in this example
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that when this was set to the difference
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blend mode the things that were more
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saturated started to pop through why is
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this not doing that how can i use this
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as a checks and balance system well this
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is doing exactly what the difference
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blend mode is supposed to do it's taking
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all the base information which is below
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and subtracting it from the blend
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information which is happening here so
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we're getting black
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but watch what happens as we start to
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increase the saturation
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ah this is where things get a little
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interesting
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you can see here in this image here
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we're starting to get some artifacting
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in the colors here the blue in the
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foreground it's not even blue it's
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actually the inverse color of that which
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is yellow but that color is starting to
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get very bright but in the image on the
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left it actually looks okay and almost
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pure black if we zoom in here we can see
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the difference here between what's
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happening in this sky area there's a
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little bit of haze right here of blue
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but then this has a lot okay what this
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is telling us if we take a look at the
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normal blend mode on this change it from
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difference to normal is that this is
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clearly getting oversaturated
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using this method as a base right here
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we can see that this image on the right
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doesn't need this much saturation
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so as we increase the saturation on this
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if you start to see color poking through
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a little bit more than a faint amount of
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color that's that's where you're going
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to have your stopping point on the
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saturation level now why i'm moving
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saturation up vibrance here i'm trying
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to set the baseline of the most potent
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color
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and increasing the saturation of that
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most potent color and then i can use
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vibrance to increase the saturation of
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the less potent colors that are around
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it
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if i don't want to increase the potent
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colors at all i just drop the saturation
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down and use vibrance as my adjustment
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and then when i change this to the
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normal blend mode you'll see that
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especially if we look at the image on
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the left we get a boost of color that is
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again appealing and not off-putting
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let's look at this one more time but on
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a portrait image
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this woman looks like she is ready to go
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to target i'm just kidding if my wife
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went to target like this i think i would
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ask her where she was actually going but
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i'm going to go ahead and put a vibrance
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adjustment layer on here i'm going to
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change this to the difference blend mode
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why i chose this image is because it's
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got skin tones in it and from what we
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recall from the vibrance adjustment it
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increases saturation while preventing
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skin tones from becoming oversaturated
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so let's see how this works with the
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difference blend mode with this checks
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and balance system that we've created
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here for increasing our saturation
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without blowing out our viewer's
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eyeballs okay so watch what happens i
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increase the vibrance you'll start to
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see here that we get this faint outline
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of the face but what colors are starting
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to pop through
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the colors on her fingernails the color
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of her makeup that is really starting to
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pop through
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her skin tone is not popping through as
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much it clearly is not as potent as what
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we see on her makeup on her face her
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lips and her fingers but as we increase
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the saturation it is not going to
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account for that skin tone there it's
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just going to say brighten all the
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colors
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this is where you need to play this
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healthy game of balance
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balance between vibrance and saturation
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we'll use the saturation adjustment to
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increase all of the colors equally
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regardless of their potency and we'll
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use vibrance to only increase those ones
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that we want to get a little bit more
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potent but leave the higher saturated
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ones not necessarily alone but don't
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have them increase as much it's kind of
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like a governor that is set on your most
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saturated colors in your image
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so if we change this to the normal blend
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mode you'll see the difference between
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saturation
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how it's boosting all the colors plus
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the colors in her face
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and vibrance how it's definitely
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boosting the colors in her face
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but it's making sure that the colors
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that are around her face boost more
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prominently and more powerfully than the
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skin tones in her face but if we move
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this vibrance up and it only made all of
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the colors more saturated except for the
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skin tones this would look really odd it
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would almost make her face look pale and
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ghostly so there's a slight amount of
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boost that is in that is given to skin
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tones within the vibrance adjustment
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layer this technique is incredibly
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simple and easy a vibrance adjustment
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layer with the difference blend mode
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that's it
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then as we increase the saturation
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increase the vibrance we can see our
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colors as they get more saturated
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it gives us a checks and balance because
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we can't always see the colors by
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themselves getting bright in our face
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especially if we sit here and work on it
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long enough those colors will lie to us
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our brain will lie to us and it'll start
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to make all those colors appear normal
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it's not until we walk away and come
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back that we're like oh my gosh what was
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i thinking this looks like circus vomit
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and i put it on instagram i want to
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prevent you from circus vomit saturated
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colors this is a quick clever technique
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let me show you one more time on this
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image okay so i'm gonna go and add a
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vibrance adjustment layer set this to
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the difference blend mode
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now i want this image to be a little bit
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more potent but i don't want it to be
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over saturated so i'm gonna start with
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my vibrance because that's the colors
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that don't quite have that i'm gonna
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stop once i start to see those colors
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poking through i can see them kind of
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poking through this little black mask
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here i'll zoom in so you can see that
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okay
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and then i'm gonna increase my
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saturation just a little bit
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that's it once i start to see colors
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start to poke through this black veil
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that we have here i've gone far enough
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i'll turn this back to normal and you
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can see the difference
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beautiful color saturation every time in
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a foolproof method i absolutely love
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color theory i talk about all the time
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on my channel here if you want to see
00:12:54
more videos on color theory go ahead and
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click on this playlist right here if you
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haven't done so already please consider
00:13:00
subscribing i like to take difficult
00:13:01
things in photoshop make them seemingly
00:13:03
simple so you can use them in your
00:13:04
workflow today
