Create Vivid Color In Digital Images

How do I create the vivid colors seen in my digital images? That is the most common request I receive from new photographers visiting my website. By default, digital images have less ‘personality’ than film. Default digital color is more accurate than film, and to most eyes, it appears duller and boring! We want our colors to pop! We are spoiled by the vivid color palettes of color slide films long used by the pros, and seen in glossy magazines.

Enhance Digital Color for Exciting Images! ⇑

In particular, Velvia slide film, the de facto favorite used by outdoor photographers for many years, has a very vivid color palette. It creates appealing, albeit enhanced colors that better convey the emotional impact of a scene. They are not accurate colors. In fact, we could call Velvia cosmetically enhanced photography. Yet, because of its widespread use, it makes the current images created by digital cameras (especially DSLR’s) seem a bit boring in comparison.

Velvia Vision ⇑

If you use the ‘Saturation’ tool in Photoshop to enhance digital images, the effect is not as pleasing as Velvia. I’ll let you in on one of my favorite digital toolbox secrets: There is a Photoshop Plug-in that to my eye does a pretty good job of coming close to the beloved color palette of Velvia. It is Velvia Vision, by fredmiranda.com. Velvia Vision allows you to enhance colors, contrast and dynamic range in ways that mimic the look of Velvia. I use this plug-in as the final step before sharpening most of my digital images. It does a great job of giving digital images the vivid color we remember from our film days. It is modestly priced ($25) and you may soon find that it becomes an invaluable addition to your digital toolbox, as it has mine!