How to get rich colors like Emmett Sparling?
p.1 #1How to get rich colors like Emmett Sparling?
Hello all,
One of my primary inspirations for photo editing is a guy named Emmett Sparling who does a bunch of travel photography. What I love about his photos is that he does not shy away from color when so many other photographers tend to desaturate things nowadays. Most of his photos are very rich in color. For some he has a primary color with the others desaturated, but for others there are numerous colors that work well together. I’m wondering how to achieve this look in Lightroom. You would think that it would be as simple as cranking up saturation in the HSL tab, but when I do that I don’t get nearly the same results. I know he uses Lightroom to edit and uses top sony cameras and glass (which I’m fortunate to use as well). Any tips would be appreciated!
https://www.instagram.com/emmett_sparling/?hl=en
https://www.emmettsparling.com/travel
Some examples of his work and the colors:
Screenshot 2025-11-09 at 6.10.08 PM by John Smith, on Flickr
Screenshot 2025-11-09 at 6.07.36 PM by John Smith, on Flickr
Screenshot 2025-11-09 at 6.07.02 PM by John Smith, on Flickr
Screenshot 2025-11-09 at 6.06.18 PM by John Smith, on Flickr
Screenshot 2025-11-09 at 6.06.07 PM by John Smith, on Flickr
Screenshot 2025-11-09 at 6.09.39 PM by John Smith, on Flickr
Edited on Nov 09, 2025 at 07:20 PM · View previous versions
One of my primary inspirations for photo editing is a guy named Emmett Sparling who does a bunch of travel photography. What I love about his photos is that he does not shy away from color when so many other photographers tend to desaturate things nowadays. Most of his photos are very rich in color. For some he has a primary color with the others desaturated, but for others there are numerous colors that work well together. I’m wondering how to achieve this look in Lightroom. You would think that it would be as simple as cranking up saturation in the HSL tab, but when I do that I don’t get nearly the same results. I know he uses Lightroom to edit and uses top sony cameras and glass (which I’m fortunate to use as well). Any tips would be appreciated!
https://www.instagram.com/emmett_sparling/?hl=en
https://www.emmettsparling.com/travel
Some examples of his work and the colors:
Screenshot 2025-11-09 at 6.10.08 PM by John Smith, on FlickrScreenshot 2025-11-09 at 6.07.36 PM by John Smith, on FlickrScreenshot 2025-11-09 at 6.07.02 PM by John Smith, on FlickrScreenshot 2025-11-09 at 6.06.18 PM by John Smith, on FlickrScreenshot 2025-11-09 at 6.06.07 PM by John Smith, on FlickrScreenshot 2025-11-09 at 6.09.39 PM by John Smith, on FlickrEdited on Nov 09, 2025 at 07:20 PM · View previous versions
Nov 09, 2025 at 11:02 AM
p.1 #2How to get rich colors like Emmett Sparling?
Swimming_trouble_718 wrote:
Hello all,
One of my primary inspirations for photo editing is a guy named Emmett Sparling who does a bunch of travel photography. What I love about his photos is that he does not shy away from color when so many other photographers tend to desaturate things nowadays. Most of his photos are very rich in color. For some he has a primary color with the others desaturated, but for others there are numerous colors that work well together. I’m wondering how to achieve this look in Lightroom. You would think that it would be as simple as cranking up saturation...Show more →
I don't see "his photos are very rich in color" in the true sense of what "very rich in color" might be expected to display.
There seems to be some systematic and deliberate shift of blue to magenta, in the sky.
I have the suspicion that he might be using a relatively flat color profile to begin with, and then make the colors more prominent by adjusting these locally, on the subjects, via masking.
In general, my feeling is that for better colors one may want to have a good starting point - a reasonably flat color profile. If this is your feeling that you are not happy with the colors you are getting, I would suggest trying alternative available color profiles. Explore what is available for LR, but also consider going outside of LR, and possibly try the color profiles in Capture One (I admit am biased in this regard, as I came to like one particular profile in Capture One, Leaf LF5 LF5 Landscape).
Here are two examples of colors from Capture One, from raw files from a FF and a m43 camera.
Hello all,
One of my primary inspirations for photo editing is a guy named Emmett Sparling who does a bunch of travel photography. What I love about his photos is that he does not shy away from color when so many other photographers tend to desaturate things nowadays. Most of his photos are very rich in color. For some he has a primary color with the others desaturated, but for others there are numerous colors that work well together. I’m wondering how to achieve this look in Lightroom. You would think that it would be as simple as cranking up saturation...Show more →
I don't see "his photos are very rich in color" in the true sense of what "very rich in color" might be expected to display.
There seems to be some systematic and deliberate shift of blue to magenta, in the sky.
I have the suspicion that he might be using a relatively flat color profile to begin with, and then make the colors more prominent by adjusting these locally, on the subjects, via masking.
In general, my feeling is that for better colors one may want to have a good starting point - a reasonably flat color profile. If this is your feeling that you are not happy with the colors you are getting, I would suggest trying alternative available color profiles. Explore what is available for LR, but also consider going outside of LR, and possibly try the color profiles in Capture One (I admit am biased in this regard, as I came to like one particular profile in Capture One, Leaf LF5 LF5 Landscape).
Here are two examples of colors from Capture One, from raw files from a FF and a m43 camera.
ILCE-1 E 20-40mm F2.8 A062 lens 20mm f/7.1 1/160s 100 ISO 0.0 EV
OM-1MarkII LEICA DG 10-25/F1.7 lens 15mm f/2.8 1/3200s 200 ISO -0.3 EV
Nov 09, 2025 at 12:42 PM
p.1 #3How to get rich colors like Emmett Sparling?
Swimming_trouble_718 wrote:
Hello all,
One of my primary inspirations for photo editing is a guy named Emmett Sparling who does a bunch of travel photography. What I love about his photos is that he does not shy away from color when so many other photographers tend to desaturate things nowadays. Most of his photos are very rich in color. For some he has a primary color with the others desaturated, but for others there are numerous colors that work well together. I’m wondering how to achieve this look in Lightroom. You would think that it would be as simple as cranking up saturation...Show more →
Yes Emmett is good. You don't need latest and greatest ( you can watch photos of many good photographers from 10 years ago ... they did use old equipment and were good already... Marc Adamus, Daniel Kordan, Max Rive ....and many others
You can watch some videos from this guy
Or learn from him https://www.janwegener.com/lightroom-masterclass
Hello all,
One of my primary inspirations for photo editing is a guy named Emmett Sparling who does a bunch of travel photography. What I love about his photos is that he does not shy away from color when so many other photographers tend to desaturate things nowadays. Most of his photos are very rich in color. For some he has a primary color with the others desaturated, but for others there are numerous colors that work well together. I’m wondering how to achieve this look in Lightroom. You would think that it would be as simple as cranking up saturation...Show more →
Yes Emmett is good. You don't need latest and greatest ( you can watch photos of many good photographers from 10 years ago ... they did use old equipment and were good already... Marc Adamus, Daniel Kordan, Max Rive ....and many others
You can watch some videos from this guy
Or learn from him https://www.janwegener.com/lightroom-masterclass
Nov 09, 2025 at 12:53 PM
p.1 #4How to get rich colors like Emmett Sparling?
If you really want to understand color, consider visiting and subscribing to Blake Rudis at f64 academy.
Nov 09, 2025 at 02:23 PM
p.1 #5How to get rich colors like Emmett Sparling?
Swimming_trouble_718 wrote:
Hello all,
One of my primary inspirations for photo editing is a guy named Emmett Sparling who does a bunch of travel photography. What I love about his photos is that he does not shy away from color when so many other photographers tend to desaturate things nowadays. Most of his photos are very rich in color. For some he has a primary color with the others desaturated, but for others there are numerous colors that work well together. I’m wondering how to achieve this look in Lightroom. You would think that it would be as simple as cranking up saturation...Show more →
You might already know this yet Emmett sells Lightroom presets that he uses in his work (see attached links). That said, you always need a good starting image as post processing cannot make up for a poor starting image. Here are the links;
https://www.instagram.com/direct/inbox/
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cy59qJjOLWT/
https://www.emmettsparling.com/shopyflow-products-1/violet-collection
https://www.emmettsparling.com/shopyflow-products-1/sparling-pro-collection
I bet the $30 presets would give you some pretty good insights to his approach.
You can also glean some feel for what is being done (not specific presets) by looking at the luminance, Hue, and Saturation components separately
Here is an example image:
Here is the liminosity. Note distinct tone zones:
Here is the Hue component and notice relatively smooth gradients over a narrow range of Hues
And here is the saturation component. Whiter tones is more saturation and close to black is low saturation. Note that his images are not cranked up in Saturation.
I hope the BBcode links work and that the info helps
John Wheeler
PS - not the blocking you see in the Hue and Sat components are artifacts of the JPEG compression and not part of the original image before moving to JPEG
Hello all,
One of my primary inspirations for photo editing is a guy named Emmett Sparling who does a bunch of travel photography. What I love about his photos is that he does not shy away from color when so many other photographers tend to desaturate things nowadays. Most of his photos are very rich in color. For some he has a primary color with the others desaturated, but for others there are numerous colors that work well together. I’m wondering how to achieve this look in Lightroom. You would think that it would be as simple as cranking up saturation...Show more →
You might already know this yet Emmett sells Lightroom presets that he uses in his work (see attached links). That said, you always need a good starting image as post processing cannot make up for a poor starting image. Here are the links;
https://www.instagram.com/direct/inbox/
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cy59qJjOLWT/
https://www.emmettsparling.com/shopyflow-products-1/violet-collection
https://www.emmettsparling.com/shopyflow-products-1/sparling-pro-collection
I bet the $30 presets would give you some pretty good insights to his approach.
You can also glean some feel for what is being done (not specific presets) by looking at the luminance, Hue, and Saturation components separately
Here is an example image:
Here is the liminosity. Note distinct tone zones:
Here is the Hue component and notice relatively smooth gradients over a narrow range of Hues
And here is the saturation component. Whiter tones is more saturation and close to black is low saturation. Note that his images are not cranked up in Saturation.
I hope the BBcode links work and that the info helps
John Wheeler
PS - not the blocking you see in the Hue and Sat components are artifacts of the JPEG compression and not part of the original image before moving to JPEG
Nov 09, 2025 at 03:49 PM
p.1 #6How to get rich colors like Emmett Sparling?
One small practical point:
To retain rich saturated colors when exporting to jpeg, export with an embedded Display P3 or Adobe RGB color profile. Don't export to the conventional sRGB.
To retain rich saturated colors when exporting to jpeg, export with an embedded Display P3 or Adobe RGB color profile. Don't export to the conventional sRGB.
Nov 09, 2025 at 10:25 PM
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p.1 #7How to get rich colors like Emmett Sparling?
ruthenium wrote:
Swimming_trouble_718 wrote
Hello all,One of my primary inspirations for photo editing is a guy named Emmett Sparling who does a bunch of travel photography. What I love about his photos is that he does not shy away from color when so many other photographers tend to desaturate things nowadays. Most of his photos are very rich in color. For some he has a primary color with the others desaturated, but for others there are numerous colors that work well together. I’m wondering how to achieve this look in Lightroom. You would think that it would be as simple as cranking up saturation in the HSL tab, but when I do that I don’t get nearly the same results. I know he uses Lightroom to edit and uses top sony cameras and glass (which I’m fortunate to use as well). Any tips would be appreciated!
https://www.instagram.com/emmett_sparling/?hl=en
https://www.emmettsparling.com/travel
There seems to be some systematic and deliberate shift of blue to magenta, in the sky.
I have the suspicion that he might be using a relatively flat color profile to begin with, and then make the colors more prominent by adjusting these locally, on the subjects, via masking.
In general, my feeling is that for better colors one may want to have a good starting point - a reasonably flat color profile. If this is your...Show more →
Thanks for your reply! His editing style has changed over the years but I linked some examples of what I’m talking about to my original post above. These are the colors that I’d love to emulate or at least learn how he does it.
I’ll have to try a flat color profile. I could see how starting with a flatter profile would allow you to boost the right colors without the whole thing looking overstated. I’ve never thought of it that way. I’ve historically used adobe color or camera standard that matches Sony, but I’ll have to try others.
Also great colors on yours!
Nov 10, 2025 at 09:50 AM
p.1 #8How to get rich colors like Emmett Sparling?
PIOK wrote:
Swimming_trouble_718 wrote
Hello all,One of my primary inspirations for photo editing is a guy named Emmett Sparling who does a bunch of travel photography. What I love about his photos is that he does not shy away from color when so many other photographers tend to desaturate things nowadays. Most of his photos are very rich in color. For some he has a primary color with the others desaturated, but for others there are numerous colors that work well together. I’m wondering how to achieve this look in Lightroom. You would think that it would be as simple as cranking up saturation in the HSL tab, but when I do that I don’t get nearly the same results. I know he uses Lightroom to edit and uses top sony cameras and glass (which I’m fortunate to use as well). Any tips would be appreciated!
https://www.instagram.com/emmett_sparling/?hl=en
https://www.emmettsparling.com/travel
You can watch some videos from this guy
Or learn from him https://www.janwegener.com/lightroom-masterclass
Thanks for your reply. I checked out those photographers you referenced and their stuff is great, however their colors are different than Emmett’s. I’ve tried to find editing tutorials for his stuff but there aren’t any. I’m wondering if there’s other photographers that have very similar colors who have tutorials online. I can seemingly find tutorials for every other editing style online, but can’t for his. I’ll also look into that master class
Nov 10, 2025 at 09:55 AM
p.1 #9How to get rich colors like Emmett Sparling?
Swimming_trouble_718 wrote:
One of my primary inspirations for photo editing is a guy named Emmett Sparling who does a bunch of travel photography. What I love about his photos is that he does not shy away from color when so many other photographers tend to desaturate things nowadays. Most of his photos are very rich in color. For some he has a primary color with the others desaturated, but for others there are numerous colors that work well together. I’m wondering how to achieve this look in Lightroom. You would think that it would be as simple as cranking up saturation in the HSL tab, but when I do that I don’t get nearly the same results. I know he uses Lightroom to edit and uses top sony cameras and glass (which I’m fortunate to use as well). Any tips would be appreciated!
https://www.instagram.com/emmett_sparling/?hl=en
https://www.emmettsparling.com/travelI don't see "his photos are very rich in color" in the true sense of what "very rich in color" might be expected to display.
There seems to be some systematic and deliberate shift of blue to magenta, in the sky.
I have the suspicion that he might be using a relatively flat color profile to begin with, and then make the colors more prominent by adjusting these locally, on the subjects, via masking.
In general, my feeling is that for better colors one may want to have a good starting point - a reasonably flat color profile. If this is your feeling that you are not happy with the colors you are getting, I would suggest trying alternative available color profiles. Explore what is available for LR, but also consider going outside of LR, and possibly try the color profiles in Capture One (I admit am biased in this regard, as I came to like one particular profile in Capture One, Leaf LF5 LF5 Landscape).
Here are two examples of colors from Capture One, from raw files from a FF and a m43 camera.Thanks for your reply! His editing style has changed over the years but I linked some examples of what I’m talking about to my original post above. These are the colors that I’d love to emulate or at least learn how he does it.
I’ll have to try a flat color profile. I could see how starting with a flatter profile would allow you to boost the right colors without the whole thing looking overstated. I’ve never thought of it that way. I’ve historically used adobe color or camera standard that matches Sony, but I’ll have to try others.
Also...Show more →
Send me a PM, if you would like me to process 1-2 of your raw files in Capture One, for comparison with what you get in LR.
I don't mean to imply that LR isn't capable of processing raw files to perfection. Merely that different tools may have different strengths.
ruthenium wrote
Swimming_trouble_718 wrote
Hello all,One of my primary inspirations for photo editing is a guy named Emmett Sparling who does a bunch of travel photography. What I love about his photos is that he does not shy away from color when so many other photographers tend to desaturate things nowadays. Most of his photos are very rich in color. For some he has a primary color with the others desaturated, but for others there are numerous colors that work well together. I’m wondering how to achieve this look in Lightroom. You would think that it would be as simple as cranking up saturation in the HSL tab, but when I do that I don’t get nearly the same results. I know he uses Lightroom to edit and uses top sony cameras and glass (which I’m fortunate to use as well). Any tips would be appreciated!
https://www.instagram.com/emmett_sparling/?hl=en
https://www.emmettsparling.com/travel
There seems to be some systematic and deliberate shift of blue to magenta, in the sky.
I have the suspicion that he might be using a relatively flat color profile to begin with, and then make the colors more prominent by adjusting these locally, on the subjects, via masking.
In general, my feeling is that for better colors one may want to have a good starting point - a reasonably flat color profile. If this is your feeling that you are not happy with the colors you are getting, I would suggest trying alternative available color profiles. Explore what is available for LR, but also consider going outside of LR, and possibly try the color profiles in Capture One (I admit am biased in this regard, as I came to like one particular profile in Capture One, Leaf LF5 LF5 Landscape).
Here are two examples of colors from Capture One, from raw files from a FF and a m43 camera.
I’ll have to try a flat color profile. I could see how starting with a flatter profile would allow you to boost the right colors without the whole thing looking overstated. I’ve never thought of it that way. I’ve historically used adobe color or camera standard that matches Sony, but I’ll have to try others.
Also...Show more →
Send me a PM, if you would like me to process 1-2 of your raw files in Capture One, for comparison with what you get in LR.
I don't mean to imply that LR isn't capable of processing raw files to perfection. Merely that different tools may have different strengths.
Nov 10, 2025 at 02:16 PM
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p.1 #10How to get rich colors like Emmett Sparling?
Those look like Nikon SOOC shots, OP 
Emmett clearly has an eye for complimentary colors (see below) and does a good job at really limiting the number of colors in any of those scenes so that you don't get overwhelmed. There's nothing special happening outside of that.
Emmett clearly has an eye for complimentary colors (see below) and does a good job at really limiting the number of colors in any of those scenes so that you don't get overwhelmed. There's nothing special happening outside of that.
Nov 10, 2025 at 03:15 PM
p.1 #11How to get rich colors like Emmett Sparling?
Swimming_trouble_718 wrote:
One of my primary inspirations for photo editing is a guy named Emmett Sparling who does a bunch of travel photography. What I love about his photos is that he does not shy away from color when so many other photographers tend to desaturate things nowadays. Most of his photos are very rich in color. For some he has a primary color with the others desaturated, but for others there are numerous colors that work well together. I’m wondering how to achieve this look in Lightroom. You would think that it would be as simple as cranking up saturation in the HSL tab, but when I do that I don’t get nearly the same results. I know he uses Lightroom to edit and uses top sony cameras and glass (which I’m fortunate to use as well). Any tips would be appreciated!
https://www.instagram.com/emmett_sparling/?hl=en
https://www.emmettsparling.com/travelYes Emmett is good. You don't need latest and greatest ( you can watch photos of many good photographers from 10 years ago ... they did use old equipment and were good already... Marc Adamus, Daniel Kordan, Max Rive ....and many others
You can watch some videos from this guy
Or learn from him https://www.janwegener.com/lightroom-masterclassThanks for your reply. I checked out those photographers you referenced and their stuff is great, however their colors are different than Emmett’s. I’ve tried to find editing tutorials for his stuff but there aren’t any. I’m wondering if there’s other photographers that have very similar colors who have tutorials online. I can seemingly find tutorials for every other editing style online, but can’t for his. I’ll also look into that master class
Watch some videos from Irene and practice, practice and practice... People learn Photography, LR and Photoshop for years. There are not magic presets which will work with one click most of the time.... different lenses, different starting point, exposure, WB, colors etc, Adobe Color, Camera Neutral, Adobe Portrait, Camera Landscape and many more ...all of this has massive impact on photos
https://www.irenerudnykphotography.com
https://www.youtube.com/@IreneRudnyk/videos
PIOK wrote
Swimming_trouble_718 wrote
Hello all,One of my primary inspirations for photo editing is a guy named Emmett Sparling who does a bunch of travel photography. What I love about his photos is that he does not shy away from color when so many other photographers tend to desaturate things nowadays. Most of his photos are very rich in color. For some he has a primary color with the others desaturated, but for others there are numerous colors that work well together. I’m wondering how to achieve this look in Lightroom. You would think that it would be as simple as cranking up saturation in the HSL tab, but when I do that I don’t get nearly the same results. I know he uses Lightroom to edit and uses top sony cameras and glass (which I’m fortunate to use as well). Any tips would be appreciated!
https://www.instagram.com/emmett_sparling/?hl=en
https://www.emmettsparling.com/travel
You can watch some videos from this guy
Or learn from him https://www.janwegener.com/lightroom-masterclass
Watch some videos from Irene and practice, practice and practice... People learn Photography, LR and Photoshop for years. There are not magic presets which will work with one click most of the time.... different lenses, different starting point, exposure, WB, colors etc, Adobe Color, Camera Neutral, Adobe Portrait, Camera Landscape and many more ...all of this has massive impact on photos
https://www.irenerudnykphotography.com
https://www.youtube.com/@IreneRudnyk/videos
Nov 10, 2025 at 04:09 PM
p.1 #12How to get rich colors like Emmett Sparling?
Try also
- take photos around golden hour
- use CPL filter for water and autumn scenes
- use long lenses for people or ultra wide for dramatic shots
- use masks in LR for color separations and saturation
- take photos around golden hour
- use CPL filter for water and autumn scenes
- use long lenses for people or ultra wide for dramatic shots
- use masks in LR for color separations and saturation
Nov 10, 2025 at 05:14 PM