The A/B demo of the glass/brick building really shows what this saturation/contrast detachment looks like. I see your point, now.
But do you really think that looks good? Or do you like to make images that follow colorimetrically accurate to scene renderings?
Tim, that is actually a good question for the topic of this thread. Let me put it this way: Almost all images we produce (unless they are reproductions, converted with a specially made linear camera profile) are not colorimetrically accurate. On top of that nobody stops us from adding our own creative touch, but at least we can start from a relatively predictable starting point.
That makes it easier to see the differences. If I add contrast, or reduce it, because the subject benefits from that, I won't have to ask myself how much of the Saturation and resulting color I see is due to the subject and ambient lighting, and how much was from the contrast change. What I see is what came from the subject and lighting, and if I do not like it, I can change it knowing that if I later decide to modify contrast again, I won't have to worry about the saturation and color all over again, because it will not be significantly affected. IOW, it's a much more robust way of editing, more predictable.
I would not want to make a print of those colors.
No problem, you don't have to. Again, besides personal preferences and subjects, there are countless way that images can be rendered and they may look all fine in their own special way. The images that I posted were more a demonstration of the effect of Contrast changes. Surprising to some, it can change just that, Contrast, and still give an impression that Saturation was affected, which it hardly did.
But the thread is more about the distraction in the editing process, that Saturation changes when we actually wanted to change something else, Contrast.
Without that distraction, it's not too difficult to further tweak the image in a very predictable way. Some images are hard enough to get right, because nature already challenges our Camera response enough, like with the attached eagle-owl that has such saturated irises already that the captured blue channel is zero, or the already very saturated reds of the wild-water rafters. Any change I make to adjust the Contrast, will leave that Saturation mostly untouched.
Cheers,
Bart
