Help with Getting Bold Colors

[BYoung]

Here is what I did to it in under 10min in CS4. Curve, saturation, vibrance. Then the beige was way yellow so I made yet another layer and dodged only the yellow till it came back closer to beige.

I like my pics to be on the darker side and this is what I came up with.

 

[Dwig]

I'm just getting started in this hobby and I'm shooting with a Canon XSi and stock IS lens. I'm having a hard time getting the bold colors to come out like I see in more experienced photographers photos. I've noticed I can get good color when I have a ton of light but most of the time the color is just dull. Is this because my lens doesn't let in enough light or do I need to make some adjustments within the camera?

The main things to do when shooting are (in order):

1. Expose accurately. Don't rely on making any significant exposure adjustment in post processing.
2. Make sure the lens is impeccably clean, both the front element and the rear.
3. Don't use any filter that isn't necessary; UV filters are never necessary unless there is blowing sand and/or grit.
4. Use a lens hood.
5. Use the lowest ISO possible. Raising the ISO more than 2 stops from your cameras lowest ISO should be avoided.
6. Calibrate your editor's image display so you know what your are really getting in your images.
7. Understand that you may need to adjust color saturation (if using Photoshop, Vibrance also) along with Curves in post processing to get the results you want.

Since you are getting what you say is good color when shooting in bright light, I think your primary issue is with #1 and #5. High ISOs are a problem because noise suppression often reduces color saturation as part of its method to reduce chroma noise (color noise).

You will also find that having to make excessive White Balance adjustments (e.g. balancing light that is below 2800-3000K) will result in poor, uneven color saturation and correcting in post often leaves undesirable artifacts.

Calibrating your display doesn't have to be excessively precise for non-critical work. Simply download good examples of images you think look correct in your browser and view them in your editor and in your OS's native viewer (e.g. Windows' Preview). If they look good in your browser and Preview but don't look the same in your editor you need to investigate how to adjust your editor's color display (good editors will have some control, usually by applying "profiles").

 

[forzabrian]

The Burn/Dodge tool is your friend!

 

[burstintoflame81]

Here is my take. I tried to be a little more subtle than some of the other attempts. I left the golden color cast to the picture because I thought it was what you were going for.

This took about 5 minutes in Photoshop CS4. All I did was some contrast adjustments using Levels and Threshold layers and then adjusted curves in LAB mode to get the saturated colors without the typical RGB bleeding over saturation.

 

[KmH]

This shot was made for a Circular Polarizing Filter (CPL):

• The Sun was less than 30° above the horizon
• was approximately 90° (perpendicular horizontally) to the lens axis
• would have deepened the blue in the sky
• made the clouds whiter
• and saturated the green foliage, just right.

A CPL can't be imitated in image editing software. Most outdoor, scenic photos benefit nicely from a CPL on the lens at any time of the day.