Saturation, Entry 1.

Saturation.

Saturation is essentially the measurement of vividness of a hue. The range of saturation runs from the absolute 'pure' Hue all the way down to neutral grey, which is fully desaturated.

Saturation is often used to create contrast in a manner similar to the application of value (covered in Value, Entries 1 to 3) in that a very saturated colour is placed adjacent to a very desaturated colour.

A good (if slightly obvious) example of saturation contrast is the infamous use of red in 'Schindler's List.'

Here we see a little girl wearing a red coat, against an otherwise completely desaturated background. The film is about the holocaust and there are very in depth analysis of the film out there online, I'm not going to make a massive post detailing the use of colour and its meaning here, I simply want to show how drastic the use of saturation as contrast can be.

The above image of course is a clear example of both major uses of saturation, in that not only does it show how saturation levels can contrast themselves for effect, it also shows how saturation is used to create focal points within a scene.

Here's an example.

This is from the video game 'De Blob'. We our attention is immediately commondeered by the only colourful aspect of the scene, the character of blob himself. The game itself happens to be entirely about a colourful character restoring vibrancy and saturated colour to an otherwise grey world. Interestingly, this can also be turned on its head.

(Forgive my hokey Photoshop)

We can see that the effect is the same with a singular or small use of desaturation in an otherwise colourful composition, the item that does not conform stands out clearly.

With the concept of saturation and how it is used summarized, I can begin some entries to study the usage of saturation in composition by some professionals.