iPhoto Adjustments - Saturation, Temperature & Tint
This article is part of a series where I will cover the image adjustment features of iPhoto. Many users do not make full use of the adjustments offered by iPhoto. With iPhoto 08, Apple has introduced image adjustments that were usually only previously found in professional image editing applications.
Saturation, Temperature & Tint
The Saturation, Temperature & Tint controls are focused upon adjusting the image colors.
Saturation - Saturation describes the richness of the color in your photo.
Temperature - Temperature describes the coolness or warmth of the colors in your photo. Temperature is also used to define white balance in RAW images.
Tint - Tint describes an overall color cast in your photo.
For most image editing requirements, these adjustments should provide you with a very complete set of color adjustment tools. It should be noted that these tools operate on the whole photo. I have been in situations where I only wish to adjust a part of the image. In these cases, a more advanced image editing tool, such as Apple Aperture or Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop is required.
To display the image adjustments HUD (Head’s Up Display) in iPhoto, either of the following will work.
- Select a photo in the browser and click the ‘Edit’ button in the toolbar at the bottom, or
- Double click a photo in the browser and then select the ‘Edit’ button in the toolbar at the bottom
To demonstrate the effects that the Saturation, Temperature & Tint adjustments have on a photo, we will be using the following photo of the Sydney Opera House with a couple of passing Sydney Ferries. The image Adjustment HUD is shown to the right. Adjustments can be made in either windowed or full-screen mode.
The Saturation, Temperature & Tint adjustments also change the tone curve displayed, similar to the adjustments detailed in the other articles in this series, Levels, Exposure & Contrast and Highlights & Shadows.
Each color is represented in a value between 0 and 255, and are represented on the graphs scale as between 1 and 100%.
High Saturation Adjustment
The Saturation values can be adjusted between 0 and 100 in increments of 1, with 50 being the default initial value.
Saturation describes the richness of the color in your photo. Increasing the saturation increases the intensity of the overall image color. In the example image, the water becomes a deeper green and the sky a deeper blue. The tone curve moves to the left as you increase the saturation, which explains the darkening of the colors.
Increasing the saturation too much can quickly cause the image appear fake and digitally processed (too deep greens being an easy giveaway), so it is recommended to only increase the saturation in small increments.
Low Saturation Adjustment
The Saturation values can be adjusted between 0 and 100 in increments of 1, with 50 being the default initial value.
Saturation describes the richness of the color in your photo. Decreasing the saturation decreases the intensity of the overall image color. In the example image, the image appears to be black and white, as the majority of the color detail have been removed.
Decreasing the saturation too much can quickly cause the image to appear very gray, so it is recommended to only increase the saturation in small increments.
High Temperature Adjustment
The Temperature values can be adjusted between -100 and 100, with 0 being the default initial value.
Temperature describes the coolness or warmth of the colors in your photo. Increasing the temperature makes the image colors appear warmer. In the example image, the yellow color has been intensified, which corresponds to the increase in warmness.
Small increases in temperature can add a softness to a photo. However, increasing too far can cause the image to appear sepia, with a distinctive worn look.
Low Temperature Adjustment
The Temperature values can be adjusted between -100 and 100, with 0 being the default initial value.
Temperature describes the coolness or warmth of the colors in your photo. Decreasing the temperature makes the image colors appear cooler. In the example image, the blue color has been intensified, which corresponds to the increase in coolness.
High Tint Adjustment
The Tint values can be adjusted between -100 and 100, with 0 being the default initial value.
Tint describes an overall color cast in your photo. Increasing the tint gives the image a green tint. In the example image, this has increased the green tone curve (it has moved to the right) and decreased the red and blue curves (they have moved to the left).
Low Tint Adjustment
The Tint values can be adjusted between -100 and 100, with 0 being the default initial value.
Tint describes an overall color cast in your photo. Decreasing the tint gives the image a magenta tint. In the example image, this has decreased the green tone curve (it has moved to the left) and increased the red and blue curves (they have moved to the right).
Summary
Adjusting the Saturation, Temperature and Tint of an image can have dramatic effects on the overall image. Be careful to only make subtle adjustments at a time. I found the following tip when researching my iPhoto Adjustment articles.
When you are adjusting an image using the Adjust HUD, if you press the Shift key, iPhoto will display the original image before the adjustments were made. This is a really quick way of previewing your changes and seeing what changes they have made to the original photo.
As with all adjustments in iPhoto, it is possible to reset the changes if you over adjust an image. If the ‘Edit’ -> ‘Undo’ option will not undo all of the changes, you can revert the image to its original using the ‘Photos’ -> ‘Revert to Original’ option. When using RAW images, the ‘Photos’ -> ‘Reprocess RAW’ option should be used.
Saturation, Temperature and Tint can be a powerful and effective way of making adjustments to your photos. In subsequent articles, I will cover the Sharpness & Reduce Noise image adjustment features of iPhoto.
Tags: iPhoto, Photo Adjustment
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