By carefully adjusting the saturation in specific areas of an image, the result can be more pleasing to the eye. A method I've recently started using involves creating a copy of the image in Photoshop and converting it to the HSB color mode (Hue, Saturation, Brightness). This allows for precise selection of saturation values (via the Green channel, which now contains the saturation information) and targeted enhancement of just those areas. This way, you can increase color intensity without oversaturating the entire image.
This technique is similar to using the Vibrance slider in Photoshop but takes it a step further. The Vibrance slider is known for boosting saturation in less saturated areas while being more restrained in already saturated regions. I apply this subtle method in my Photoshop action as well, but paired with an automatic saturation mask.
This might all sound a bit like magic. If you're curious, you can easily try out this technique yourself. You can download this action for free and integrate it into your own photo editing workflow.
For darker images, I recommend switching from "Soft Light" mode to "Normal." To increase saturation, raise the opacity of the layer. By default, I've set it to 39%. In the example image, I increased the opacity to 60%.

