The Sayings of Wotan

Muted Color

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I like Velvia. From Bold Color to Vivid Color, and many abandoned recipes along the way, I’ve used this one quite a bit. I always boost the saturation to +4 when I create a recipe. I decided to try something different, this time.

Muted Color is based on Velvia, but with the saturation reduced to -4. This gives me the palette but in a more easily controlled way. One issue I frequently encounter in my pictures is clipped blues. Life under the subtropical ridge, whether at home in Southeast Texas or the deserts of Southwest Texas, means I frequently have bright days with clear, or mostly clear, skies. The blue in the skies is frequently clipped in the highlights, and if the clipping is too severe, I wind up with a very unnatural-looking sky, and not in an aesthetically pleasing way. The problem is compounded by increasing the saturation. Furthermore, I usually boost the blues in the white balance settings. I like vivid skies (and water, when at the beach).

Muted Color doesn’t adjust the blue; the Velvia palette quickly takes on different hues that I don’t like when I reduce the blue. That helps a little, but reducing the saturation is more beneficial.

I posted this image in my Pro Color recipe, so I thought I would use it as an example here to illustrate the differences between these two desaturated recipes.

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Although the greens wind up being similar, Muted Color still has a more brilliant blue sky than Pro Color does.

I’m not sure this will be a long-term member of my current rotation; I still would like to create another B&W recipe to complement my Cleancros recipe. If I am able to create one that I would like, it is probably going to be this or Pro Color that gets replaced.

Here is the album for the full set of examples:

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And now the recipe:
Muted Color


Film Simulation: Velvia
White Balance: Auto R: +2 B: 0

Dynamic Range: Shoot in DR-P Strong, adjust using in-camera conversion or Raw Studio
Highlights: - (Adjust using in-camera conversion or Raw Studio)
Shadows: - (Adjust using in-camera conversion or Raw Studio)
Color: -4
Sharpness: +2
Noise reduction: -3
Grain Effect: Weak
CC Effect: Strong
ISO: Auto
Exp. Compensation: as-needed

This recipe is licensed: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)