Is there a technique to increase saturation in high ISO?

[This question assumes JPEG shooting, with minimal post processing.]

In an unavoidable situation, you have to jack up the ISO. High ISO, however, comes with price - noise and washed-out color, among others. Is there a technique that can increase the saturation in high ISO? (I'm asking about "shooting technique", so I'm not interested in changing in-camera settings, such as increasing saturation or using something like "vivid" setting. These settings may be applied on top of a different technique.) Or is desaturated color something you have to live with in high ISO?

Answer

I can see two possibilities that aren't related to post-processing either in or out of camera.

First, increase the light, either through changing the scene or by using wider aperture and longer shutter — and thereby lowering the required ISO. This doesn't seem exactly in the spirit of your question, though.

So, second: let the darker scenes be themselves. Our night vision depends more on cells in our eyes which don't distinguish between colors, which means that a decrease in saturation as the scene darkens is part of our natural visual language. Why fight that? You may even want to decrease saturation further in post-processing, which also works in your favor with low-light shooting, as chroma noise is usually regarded as uglier than luminosity noise. You might even consider going all monochrome.

That might be not quite what you wanted to hear either, so I'll sneak in a third: buy a better camera or wait til a few years as sensor technology continues to improve. Better high ISO capability continues to be in demand and will be a focus of research for the foreseeable future.