The TLR Vibrance action set provides an effect similar to the Photoshop CS4 Vibrance command. This gives users of Photoshop versions from Photoshop 7 through Photoshop CS3 a similar capability. Photoshop CS4 users will also have more control over the effect with the actions in this action set than they will with the Photoshop CS4 Vibrance command. They can even add a more powerful Vibrance-type effect with these actions.

The effect is accomplish with three masks.

• Skintones mask
• High saturation mask
• Vibrance mask

The vibrance actions start with a skintone mask. This reduces the likelihood that skintones will take on an ugly red or yellow cast. A large number of skin-colored patches from African, Asian, and Caucasian subjects were used to create the skintone mask.

The high saturation mask is used to mask out highly saturated colors to prevent them from clipping. This prevents unwanted color shifts and protects important photographic details.

The vibrance mask combines the skintone mask and high saturation mask.

There are five levels of effect to choose from. Since adjustment layers are used, the effect is easily modified. The adjustment layers are set to 75% opacity by default to provide more control over the effect.

Below are three samples of a test target from Bruce Lindbloom. His site is a great resource for learning about colorspaces. The top is the unadjusted version of the test target. No effect has been applied. The middle photo is TLR Vibrance (Level 3). It applies a +40 saturation boost that is restricted with the vibrance mask. The bottom photo is a +40 saturation boost without a vibrance mask. You can easily see the difference between the vibrance effect and the classic saturation effect.

Test targets are helpful. But here's a more practical example. Again, three photos. Pre, vibrance, saturation.

This snapshot demonstrates how the TLR Vibrance actions protect skintones from taking on an ugly cast. The same saturation boost with the Photoshop Hue/Saturation/Brightness command unadorned with a vibrance mask provides a pronounced color cast to the skin and the cap becomes over-saturated and loses details as a result.

Enjoy!

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