Take a look at this image.

Lindisfarne Castle

1. Original

 

It follows some of the rules of composition with a lead in line provided by the fence, the subject (Lindisfarne Castle) sits nicely in the left upper third of the image following the composition rule of thirds. Exposure is OK, neither under or over exposed although that may be subject to opinion.

But it lacks something. That’s one of the problems with digital photography. Unlike photos taken on film which have saturation and contrast characteristics built into the film. CMOS or CCD sensors simply record what is there. You can change various settings in camera for contrast and saturation etc. but once they are made and the changes processed in camera you can’t really undo them if you don’t like the result, unless you shoot in RAW of course. What this image really lacks is punch. So let’s see what we mean by punch and what we can do to improve it to give the image that Fuji Velvia look.

In this case the image needs more contrast and a boost in colour. Unfortunately, these are two things that are likely to add noise to your finished image, especially when you increase the colour saturation.

Lindisfarne

2. After curves adjustment and increasing saturation by +10

For the second image I have increased the contrast using curves (Image>Adjustments>Curves) and increased the saturation by +10 (Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation). Great! But on closer inspection it reveals that some noise has been introduced. And the more the saturation is increased, the more noise is introduced, especially if higher ISO settings are used. This image was taken at only ISO 200 on a Canon 30D. The 100% crop below shows the noise particularly in the sky.

100% Crop

3. 100% crop showing noise after adjustment

For comparison, here is a 100% crop before adjustment using curves and boosting saturation. As you can see, there is significantly less noise.

100% crop before adjustment

4. 100% crop before adjusting

OK we could get rid of that noise in image 3 using noise reduction software but isn’t it better not to have it in the first place to retain as much detail and quality as possible?

So here is one quick and easy way to get a similar boost in contrast and colour without degrading the image as much.

Duplicate the image into a new layer. Select the new top duplicated layer and select soft light for the blending mode.

softlight.jpg

5. Duplicated layer. Blend = Soft Light

 

Immediately you will see that the image has increased contrast and the colours appear much richer and deeper. If the effect is too strong then use click on the arrow next to opacity and reduce the opacity using the slider until it looks how you want it.

 

Adjusted using softlight layer

6. Adjusted with duplicate layer and soft light

 

As you can see, the finished image is every bit as effective as the first technique but with less degradation to the image.

 

Crop after layer adjustment

7. 100% crop after layer technique.