The difference between the saturation and vibrance sliders might seem small or even imperceptible at times, but the two have distinct purposes and functions that make them useful for separate applications. This fantastic video tutorial will show you the differences between vibrance and saturation as well as how to use them to improve your photos.
Coming to you from Aaron Nace with Phlearn, this great video will show you the difference between saturation and vibrance in Photoshop and Lightroom. Though they produce seemingly similar results, the two have two fundamentally different foundations. Saturation increases the intensity of all colors simultaneously, but on the other hand, vibrance increases hues that are less saturated more than those that are already fairly saturated while simultaneously trying to protect skin tones and avoid the appearance of posterization due to maxing out any colors. In this sense, vibrance is like a smarter version of saturation. Nonetheless, vibrance is still a global adjustment that works on all colors, so if you want to make more precise changes in specific areas of an image, you will need to grab an adjustment like the HSL sliders and combine it with a layer mask for that extra level of control.
Check out the video above for the full rundown.
