Super Saturation

Examples of improved gamma correction quality

Now first of all want to stress that i think Photoshop is a great piece of software. The reason for this filter and web page is to prove that image manipulation is a bit more tricky than most people realize, and even a simle thing like making pictures brighter or darker can be done in several ways.

Below is a series of images where i have only changed the brightness using the so-called Gamma correction method, that leaves black as black, and white as white, but affects all the mid-tones.

In Photoshop you can change the gamma by going to Levels and changing only the top middle value. In my plug-in you do the same thing by changing the Gamma value.

This is the original image:

After being brightened in Photoshop using the gamma correction slider (the middle value in Levels) it loses color:

After being brightened in Super Saturation using the Gamma the colors are still vivid:

When darkening the gamma in Photoshop certain colors become unrealistically saturated because it operates in RGB mode internally:

This is not the case with Super Saturation:

Real life examples

Next i will try to display some more real-life examples on ordinary images to display how this looks on more typical images, like the ones you'll encounter if you take pictures or draw graphics.

Again, in all these examples i've only messed around with the brightness using the gamma correction in Photoshop (middle columne) or my own plugin (right column).

Original: I want this image brighter to get a cartoonish feel, and to make her skin and hair look more smooth.	Photoshop: Photoshop makes her pale and exaggerates the color in the shadow.	SuperSat: Super Saturation maintains the colors in her skin and clothes, without boosting the color in the shadow too much.
Original: Again a scene that i had to photograph rather darkly to avoid over exposing the bike.	Photoshop: Photoshop makes the bike pale.	SuperSat: Super Saturation retains the colors on the bike without exaggerating the green color on the bushes.
Original: The dark part of the building is almost drowning in darkness.	Photoshop: Photoshop takes the blue away from the sky and adds too much color to the brow parts.	SuperSat: With Super Saturation the colors get much closer to what this motives actually looked like to the naked eye.
Original: This image is not really too dark or bright, but i'll try changing it anway, for demonstration purposes.	Photoshop: Notice how the color of her shirt is unnaturally over saturated, and at the same time she has lost some color.	SuperSat: With Super Saturation color amount is prevailed.
Original: This is one of the tricky images. Exposing anymore would have killed details in the carpet. But the kittens are almost completely black. Again, gamma correction is the solution.	Photoshop: Photoshop pulls out more color in the floor - too much in the top part if you ask me. The more yellow/orange color is nice though.	SuperSat: Hair detail in the fur is much more natural here though.
Original: Portraits with high contrast are also a challenge.	Photoshop: The difference between the two images are not that obvious.	SuperSat: The sunlight keeps more of it's original warm color, which corresponds with the actualy sitation. The image is taken at sunset.
Original: Now this last image also didn't really need being made brighter, but again i'm doing so to show what would happen if i did.	Photoshop: The green color is boosted - especially in the shadows. Now this could be a matter of taste. The sky is somewhat pale now.	SuperSat: The trees are less green, and you might prefer them to be more colorful. Of course, this could be achieved by increasing the saturation. For these examples i wanted to use the gamma only, to display the difference.

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