Unnatural border between saturated and unsaturated areas

[Peter Glass]

I photograph in RAW using Canon 5D Mark II and Mark III cameras. I've been highly saturating some of the colors in my portraits using Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop. Sometimes, the border between an area I've saturated and the unsaturated area appears as a well-defined dark or colored or light unnatural-looking line. I'd like to remove that line. I've had some success using the Blur Tool or the Healing Brush Tool in Photoshop, but I wonder if anybody has a better suggestion.

I have attached two JPGs that have this problem. For both images, the problem can be seen on the models' left hands.

Thank you

[Peru Bob]

I've moved this from the Using the Community forum (which is the forum for issues using the forums) to the Photoshop forum so that proper help can be offered.

Scroll down here to see a list of the forums:
https://community.adobe.com/

[Peter Glass]

Thanks, Peru Bob.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Did you involve masking (either in ACR or PSD)? 

Could you please post screenshots taken at View > 100% with the pertinent Panels (Toolbar, Layers, Options Bar, …) visible? 

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Are you working in 8bit or 16bit? 

[Peter Glass]

Hi CP, 

I just posted to you, but I don't think it went through.

I'm working in 16bit. I thought it would be more productive to send you the RAW image. I've attached the CR2 and xmp files for my image entitled lsv1ef174. The image also has an acr file, but this program won't send it.  However, even without the acr file, the issue I referred to in my original post can be seen in her left hand and on the upper sleeve of her right arm.

[Peter Glass]

Hi CP,

I tried sending you a RAW image, but I guess the program won't allow that. So I have enclosed two JPGs showing the issue. You can see the problem on the girl's neck, just below her shower cap and on the right side (from the viewer's perspective) of the woman's legs.

I know I'm over-processing the images, thus causing the problem I mentioned in my original post. However, except for that problem, I'm happy with how the picture looks. I know how to avoid the problem, but my question is really about how to remove that unnatural line if it does appear in the picture.

Hope this makes sense.

Thanks.

[D Fosse]

As c.p. asks: what kind of masking are you doing here?

First off - what you're doing is legitimate and can be a striking effect. I think it works well here. BUT - you need to be careful. For something like this, I would either put a lot of work into the masks, making sure they are precise and appropriately blurred/sharp as needed - or I would use very soft masks.

And this is precisely the reason. Every color/hue has an inherent brightness. If you're going from low saturation to high saturation, you're also moving along a brightness gradient.

Hue/Saturation is risky if broadly applied over tonal gradients. It very quickly disrupts the pixel structure. Handle with care.

In addition, there's jpeg compression artifacts, and if you then sharpen on top of all that - well, this is what you get.

[Peter Glass]

Hi DF,

I wanted to let you know that I just posted to CP.

Thanks.