Curious about saturation preferences: the poll

[Julie H]

What people "like." Got it.

 

Here you go: Komar and Melamid's worldwide survey results.

 

And from their Web survey, almost 50% of the people prefer "more vibrant shades," see #22 in the survey.

[Supriyo]

The survey asks a blanket question without any context. The context is important. The same person who likes to wear a brightly colored dress may balk at the sight of an overly saturated landscape photo. Edited September 22, 2017 by Supriyo

[Norma Desmond]

Got it.

Glad you got it. Not terribly interested in a web survey or a more theoretical approach to this question. More interested in hearing what individual fellow PN photographers think of the different versions posted and why, which has been accomplished to some degree.

Edited September 22, 2017 by Norma Desmond

[Julie H]

Do your eyes agree with what you say this poll has "accomplished? Does look around the photo.net web site find a majority (or even a substantial minority) of modestly saturated pictures?

[DavidTriplett]

Late to the party, as usual, but I picked "A". My feelings closely reflect Supriyo's. I want to note that I agree wholeheartedly that there is no "right" answer. What works for any one image by any particular photographer has everything to do with artistic intent. However, a photographer who has a message to share will select the saturation, or any other effect, that is most likely to have the intended response in his/her audience. Expecting a highly saturated image to communicate the same message as a B&W landscape is wishful thinking.

 

As I've pointed out in other threads, I choose saturation intentionally as an artistic effect. I can use higher saturation to communicate the nature of light in a sunset, or B&W to diminish the impact of otherwise distracting background colors. There will be as many answers to this as there are photographers and photographs.

[Julie H]

What works for any one image by any particular photographer has everything to do with artistic intent.

I agree. See my earlier posts.

 

I choose saturation intentionally

But how do you choose it? On what basis, or rather, from what base?

 

Tim raised what I think is a very interesting question: how do you calibrate your eye? On what basis, or from what base?

 

If you say "color memory" I would dare you to go to any paint store and pick out the color of the room walls in which you've lived for the last umpteen years. Buy a can of paint from your memory color: take it home and tell me if it even comes close to matching what you've lived in for decades.

 

On photo color, I would speculate that most people who aren't into art photography calibrate their color saturation expectations from National Geographic magazine and/or commercial advertisements. Then add a little bit more ...

 

What I think is overlooked is that both that magazine and commercial work start with content (very purposely) that is itself strongly colored: they don't force it or introduce it.

[DavidTriplett]

But how do you choose it? On what basis, or rather, from what base?

As you so sagaciously point out, no two sets of eyes will perceive color the same way. I choose what works for me, It may or may not work for you or anybody else. It is, as is true for so much else as well, an issue of personal aesthetics. There is probably some nominal range we might define as the center 50% of the acceptability curve, or some such, but I'm not sure it makes a difference. My experience is that my brain/eye system tends to see colors as more saturated than does my factory-default digital camera system, so an adjustment is in order if I want others to see in my photos what I saw in situ. Again, this is a matter of interpretation, rather than objective reality.