LAB Fundamentals Part 5: Dealing with Saturation

Day 12: 25 Insights in 25 Days Holiday Marathon

Dealing with Saturation in LAB Colorspace

There have been quite a few comments in my previous Insights on LAB Fundamentals. And mostly, the question revolves around dealing with saturation in LAB colorspace.

The questions make a ton of sense. The advantage of LAB is the color separation it gives you, which you can’t precisely replicate in RGB. The disadvantage is how easy it is for those colors to over saturate. Given that problem, here are the questions we’re going to answer in this Insight:

• Can I just start with an over-saturated LAB correction and then just de-saturate in RGB (as a quick starting point)?
• Rather than just working in LAB, can we replicate those results by adding saturation in DaVinci Resolve’s RGB mixer?
• Since LAB does such an interesting job saturating an image, can we use it to desaturate an image?

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Homepage › Forums › LAB Fundamentals Part 5: Dealing with Saturation

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• December 12, 2014 at 11:19 pm #33682
  
  Patrick Inhofer

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  This is the discussion thread for the Insight: LAB Fundamentals Part 5: Dealing with Saturation

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• 
  Richard Roddman C.S.I.

  Member

  December 17, 2014 at 6:39 pm

  Enjoying this alternative way to grade using the LAB process. Do you know how this information is saved or recreated when saving the look to a LUT to pass along the workflow? Can a non-resolve system reproduce the same look from a LUT made with LAB?
• 
  Patrick Inhofer

  Guest

  December 17, 2014 at 6:45 pm

  Hi Rich! You can save these LAB moves to a LUT as long you don’t do ‘funky’ stuff with the curves, which end up becoming secondary-type effects. And even some of those could still work. I’d definitely do tests of your exports to be sure you don’t get unexpected results.

  It’s doable. But buyer beware.
• 
  Greg Greenhaw

  Member

  December 17, 2014 at 7:59 pm

  what if you used the intensity/ mix on the curves instead or the desaturaton?
• 
  Patrick Inhofer

  Guest

  December 18, 2014 at 5:48 pm

  That works. Not quite the same as desaturation but it’ll reduce the intensity of those LAB corrections.
• 
  Todd Gill

  Member

  January 20, 2015 at 12:30 pm

  Love working in this process. I’m getting better results quicker with this. Thanks for the tutorials!
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