What is Saturation?

What is Saturation?

            Color saturation refers to the intensity of color in an image. In technical terms, it is the expression of the bandwidth of light from a source. The term hue refers to the color of the image itself, while saturation describes the intensity (purity) of that hue. When color is fully saturated, the color is considered in purest (truest) version. Primary colors red, blue and yellow are considered truest version color as they are fully saturated. As the saturation increases, the colors appear to be more pure. As the saturation decreases, the colors appear to be more washed-out or pale. (Janssen, 2010)

            Color saturation determines how certain hue will look in certain lighting conditions. For example, a wall painted with a solid color will look different during the day than it does at night. Because of the light, the saturation of the wall will change over the course of day, although it is still the same color. When the saturation is zero, what you will see is a shade of gray. (Janssen, 2010)

 In graphics and imaging, color saturation is used to describe the intensity of color in the image. A saturated image has overly bright colors. Using a graphics editing program you can increase saturation on under-exposed images, or vise versa. (Staff, 2015). For example: 

Figure 1 : The difference of low saturation and high saturation

Figure 2 : Sample colors from 100-0% saturation

Figure 3 : Example of saturation (red+white)

Figure 4 : color determines saturation level for the layer

            According the figure above it shown the two sides of our blended layer have very different effects on the base image. Black and white desaturated the image completely, while the rainbow on the right side pushed the saturation to the limit. (Dinardi, 2006)

Bibliography

Dinardi, M. (2006). Saturation. EmptyEasel.com.

Janssen, C. (2010). Color Saturation. techopedia.

Staff, W. (2015). Color Saturation. Webopedia.