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Automate Dropbox and speed up your workflow

Recently I was lucky enough to be present on this shoot with Sarah Silver. I learnt many things that day but also a new idea of how to use Capture One Pro 8 with Dropbox, or any other similar cloud sharing service.

At the start of the shoot everyone present on set (who needs access) is added to the days’ shared Dropbox folder, then any selects from the shoot are placed in there, so everyone can see the final images. This is a very simple way of collaborative sharing in a studio if you don’t need the advanced features of Capture Pilot.

In this case, a specific Process Recipe is created in Capture One Pro 8 that outputs directly to the shared Dropbox folder. So at any point, this can be selected and certain images processed directly there.

Therefore I wondered if there was any way to automate Dropbox to do other tasks? For example posting to Social Media. A quick web search supplied me with what I was looking for: Wappwolf.

Wappwolf can apply certain rules to a Dropbox folder. There are many options but the ones I was more interested in were automated uploads to services such as Facebook, Flickr and Google +.

Wappwolf is also compatible with other cloud services like Box and Google Drive, so it is not restricted to Dropbox alone.

Here are the actions that can be added to a Dropbox folder:

Click on images to enlarge

As you can see there are quite a few options, but I’ll create a simple one that could upload an image immediately to Facebook or Flickr.

First of all, let’s handle Capture One Pro 8 and build a Process Recipe to upload an image directly to a Folder on Dropbox and at a suitable size for Facebook. Facebook recommends images to be either 720, 960 or 2048 pixels across, so it makes sense to pick one of these resolutions to avoid Facebook resampling the image.

To create a new Process Recipe, click on the + button in the Process Recipe tool and choose a suitable name.

Now in the Process Recipe tool, decide on the parameters for the output. Again Facebook recommends a JPEG file with the sRGB profile.

Facebook will compress JPEG files, so if you want to ensure maximum quality you could consider using PNG files instead. Capture One Pro 8 can process to both.

So let’s build that in with the correct dimensions. Notice the Scale has been set to Width with a length of 2048 pixels. This means Capture One Pro 8 will automatically resize the width of the image to 2048 pixels.

The File tab has a crucial option that will make this process much easier. In the Root Folder drop-down menu, I have set the folder on my Dropbox that I want to automate. So, to clarify, I first made a folder on the Dropbox called Facebook Upload, and then chose that in the Root Folder drop-down menu.

This simply means, that when selecting this Process Recipe, images will always be saved directly into this folder.

You could explore further options in the other tabs if you wish, like adding a watermark to your image, like your copyright information or company logo.

Test the recipe by selecting an image and choosing File>Process, and make sure the image goes to the Dropbox folder.

Next we need to automate the process. Browse to wappwolf.com and Login/Sign up.

You will be taken through the process to connect Wappwolf to your Dropbox.

Once Wappwolf and Dropbox are connected, you simply go through a process of choosing a folder on your Dropbox and what you want to happen when a file arrives there. You can see below the folder Facebook upload.

After selecting that folder, you can then decide on the automated process. You will need to connect to other services (i.e Flickr, Facebook, Google + etc) to be able to continue.

For my automated process, I can also make a new Album and apply some rules to a comment if necessary.

Once the automation has been set, you will see a summary of it and any other automations you have created.

Now to upload an image to Facebook, all I have to do is select one or more of them in Capture One Pro 8, choose the Facebook Auto Upload Process Recipe and process out! Don’t forget CMD-D or CTRL-D is a handy shortcut for that.

Here is an example:

It could be very useful to have automated features like this in the cloud. If you know of any more, please comment! It would be extremely easy to setup different Process Recipes for other automated actions.

Best regards,

David

No more White Balance compromises!

In Capture One Pro 8 it is also now possible to change the White Balance in a Local Adjustments layer.

The ability to change the White Balance locally in an image can be very useful for instance when shooting architecture images at dusk time. Here the difference in color temperature between the outdoor dusk light and the lighting in the buildings can be quite big, resulting in unnatural-looking colors.

New opportunities with your images

But even in landscape images it can be beneficial to work with different White Balances as there can be quite a big difference between shadow areas and areas with sunlight. Often if you open op some shadow areas in a landscape image, it becomes even more obvious that the shadows typically get their main light from the deep blue color of the sky. With the ability to change the White Balance individually between the areas with direct sun and the shadow areas you get entirely new opportunities with your images.

Straight from the camera Shadows opened Local White Balance applied

3 versions of the same image

Above you see three different versions of the same image. For all three images the White Balance for the background is the same. The image has been exposed to ensure details in the sunlit cliffs in the background leaving the foreground quite dark.

The left image is straight out of the camera. For the image in the middle the shadow areas of the foreground have been opened by using the shadow slider in the High Dynamic Range tool. It is quite obvious that the foreground gets very bluish because it is primarily lit by the deep blue sky. You first notice this after the shadows have recovered.

For the image to the right a local White Balance has been applied to a Local Adjustments mask covering the cliffs in the shadow areas. By doing this it is possible to balance the color of the foreground to match the colors of the background giving a much more realistic and pleasing image.

In the Local Adjustments tool you will by default see all the tools that can be used in a Local Adjustments layer and in Capture One Pro 8 you will also see the White Balance tool.

Let’s look at another example with an architecture image shot at dusk time. The image was shot using White Balance set for Tungsten. This is often a good starting point as the sky typically gets deep blue and the indoor light doesn’t get too far off.

Architecture image at dusk time captured using tungsten White Balance.

It is quite obvious that the indoor lighting looks quite ugly. The lights in the big central office areas have a green cast while the most other offices get a slightly orange cast.

Here the new feature of being able to change the White Balance locally can be a big help. I would like to preserve the nice deep blue sky but I would also like to change the color of the indoor lighting to a more pleasing warm tone.

I am actually quite satisfied with the color of the blue sky so I will leave the White Balance for the Background layer at Tungsten. I can at any time later fine-tune the White Balance for the background layer without changing the White Balance for any of the adjustments layers I make.

Making an Adjustments Layer for a local White Balance

I start by adding a new adjustments layer by clicking on the + button at the button of the Local Adjustments tool. I create a layer for the central office in the building with the green cast and a mask for the other offices.

Press the “+” button to add a new adjustments layer

For both layers I draw a mask using hardness of 0 and opacity 100. Only if you use opacity set to 100, you can adjust the White Balance in an Adjustments Layer and the background layer independently of each other.

Layer 1 Layer 2

With the brush cursor tool selected you can use “M” to toggle between showing the mask or not.

I start focusing on the mask for the center office with the green cast by selecting Layer 1. I will start using the White Balance picker to neutralize the light. I simply pick on the white office ceiling. Setting the Local White Balance this way immediately removes the green cast, but I would also like to add a warm yellow tone to the light. I will do so by dragging the Kelvin slider towards higher values until I get a tone I like.

Original value Picked White Balance Changed Kelvin value

The images above show the steps for toning the light in the central office of the building. The first image is without a Local White Balance. In the center image I have used the White Balance picker and picked on the sealing of the center office. This neutralizes the light and gives me a good starting point for toning the light warmer. In the image to the right I have used the Kelvin slider to tone the light to a warm yellow tone.

Next I will tone the light for the rest of the offices in the building. I will simply repeat the steps I did for the Layer 1.

Layer 1 optimized Layer 1 and 2 optimized

You may need to tweak both the Kelvin and the Tint slider in the White Balance tool to match the tone of the light in the center office to the rest of the offices.

Looking at the optimized image it becomes obvious that I also need to fix the tone of the light reflection in the water.

I could make another Adjustments Layer for the reflection but I will just add it to one of the masks. For the reflection it is just a matter of toning it away from the green/blue color into something warmer so it doesn’t matter, which adjustments layer I use. What is important though is that I only use an opacity of around 30 to 50 and a large brush with hardness 0. This gives me a nice warm tone that blends nicely into the blue reflections of the sky and the blue light on the ground floor of the building.

Wrong reflection in the water Reflection in the water fixed

Finally let’s compare the original and the fixed image.

Original image Fixed with Local White Balance

The ability to work with different White Balances in the same image gives me in this example the possibilities to turn this image into a much more interesting image of a modern office building. Who would like to work in a building with green light ?

All the best,

Niels

Dodging & burning in Capture One Pro 8

In my last blog post I used some of the new features in Capture One Pro 8 to work on an image by David Goldman.

This time I have another really well executed action shot from Allan Mørch at animal-print.dk. Allan wrote in his email that as a sports photographer he doesn’t often get to choose the ideal place to photograph, and in this case it has resulted in the image being a little backlit.

Introducing lighting into the image

However, with dodging and burning techniques, much like that we did in the darkroom, we can introduce some lighting into the image to reverse that effect.

Fortunately the image is well focused and exposed, so no work to do here. Working with the RAW data in Capture One Pro 8, we will be able to enhance what Allan has captured in camera already.

Here is the image with no adjustments in Capture One Pro 8.

What I would like to try and do is make the horse and rider stand out a little more from the background and see if we can enhance the water spray as well. Finally I think I will try to remove the photographer in the background with the new Repair layers!

Enhancing the water droplets

As I mentioned in the introduction, I can make certain elements stand out more by using a dodging and burning technique with the Local Adjustment tool. But before getting onto that, I will do a couple of basic corrections to the overall image.

First, I will add some Natural Clarity to the image and some Structure. I am hoping the Structure will help to enhance the water droplets as well.

You can see the top image here has some Clarity and Structure applied and it has really helped enhance the water spray. I have used the new Natural method in order not affect the color saturation and to not overwork the image.

Incidentally, no changes have been made to the White Balance, it looks pretty good out of camera!

Make elements stand out more with dodging and burning

The next task is to begin dodging and burning. The first thing to do is to go to the Local Adjustment tool and make two new layers by clicking the ‘plus’ button and calling them Dodge and Burn respectively.

The Burn layer is set to -2 stops and the Dodge layer (not shown here) is set to +2 stops. This will allow us to selectively lighten and darken areas of the image.

The crucial part is how we use the Local Adjustment brush to do this, most importantly, the Opacity setting. Select the Draw Mask Brush by hitting ‘b’ on the keyboard or selecting it here.

Right-click anywhere on the image and drop the Opacity to less than 10. This will give us a really subtle effect to the dodging and burning.

Now, with repeated brush strokes, I can ‘burn-in’ the exposure around the horse and rider. By using a low opacity, the effect is much more subtle and allows you to vary the strength of our -2 stop correction. More brush strokes in the same area will have a greater effect and vice versa.

I also find using a large soft brush helps as well. So after a bit of time brushing, I can drop the exposure of the surroundings to a level I like. I also darkened the water a little below the horse, as there is a nice reflection there too.

A similar technique can be used for dodging. As the horse and rider is backlit slightly, I can make a few subtle brushes on the horse’s body to lighten it a little, not forgetting to switch to the dodge layer.

I have made the brush smaller too, to be more suitable for the horse’s body. Watch this short YouTube clip to see the effect of the dodge layer:

http://youtu.be/uC5URHfn2FA

To finish with Local Adjustments, I will add one more layer with a graduated filter on the bottom of the image to darken the foreground a little. I have chosen the Gradient Mask brush (hit ‘g’ on the keyboard) and draw a small gradient from the bottom of the screen.

Now I just need to darken this area a little by pulling the Exposure slider to the left.

Two final jobs remain: One, to remove the troublesome photographer in the background and secondly to tighten up the crop.

Click and hold on the ‘plus’ button in the Local Adjustments tool, to make a new Repair layer.

In this case Heal will be the best function.

To select the source for repairing a section of the image, hold down the ALT key and click…

and then mask over the area to be healed.

Our photographer has vanished leading to a cleaner background. Here is the final image, with a tighter crop.

and finally shown with the original image…

The effects are subtle but I think it enhanced an already good image.

Best regards,

David

Film Grain, the right photorealistic way

Capture One Pro 8 has introduced a new Film Grain tool. With this tool you can add film grain to your images in an extremely realistic way, giving the same look and feel you see in prints created from film (you remember film right?).

You can also use the tool to add texture to the surfaces in your images however you like without having any preconceived notion about emulating a film “look”.

Mimics the behavior of traditional silver halide films

The film grain options you can apply in Capture One Pro 8 are generated by an algorithm. This process mimics the behavior of different traditional silver halide films and maintains a natural feel rather than simply stamping a mask over the image as some softwares do.

The Capture One Film Grain will add texture to your images while still preserving the all-important detail and structure in the image, just like film does.

You can find the Film Grain tool in the Details Tool tab of Capture One 8.

The Film Grain tool in its default location of the Details Tool Tab. Here the type “Silver Rich” has been selected with an Impact of 100% and a Granularity of 80%.

There are three different controls for the Film Grain tool, Type, Impact and Granularity:

Type: When choosing ‘Type’ you are selecting the “technology” of the film you want to simulate. The Fine Grain option is not actually a film grain but the standard “grain” that you may have used in previous versions of Capture One. So to successfully emulate a film look you should choose among the following methods:

Silver Rich
Soft Grain
Cubic Grains
Tabular Grains
Harsh Grain

The Type that you choose will change the look of the grains by having different properties applied, which will change the shape, distribution and size of the grains.

Silver Rich is a very good starting Type when it comes to exploring the Film Grain tool.

Impact: With the Impact slider you can determine how strong you would like the effect of the film grain to show on your image. In a way it is similar to determining the opacity of the grain. If you want to simulate real film you should use maximum Impact of 100%.

Granularity: With the Granularity slider you determine the amount of grain per pixel. So to simulate a fine grain film, use low values of Granularity between 0 and 30. If you want a real strong visible effect, use values up to 100%. This adjustment can be thought of similar to the speed of the film used, when comparing the adjustment to the use of Film.

Viewing the grains:

The best way to see the Film Grain effect is to zoom into the image 100%. Only at these resolutions will you see the actual effect of the adjustment. If you zoom out, for instance, Capture One Pro 8 will simulate the grain look in an approximate manner but be aware that this is primarily used for you to see that grains have been added. You should not judge the film grain adjustment when zoomed to “Fit” as the results may not be 100% accurate to your final processed file.

100% zoom

Granularity =20 Granularity =30 Granularity =60

For all three images the Type “Silver Rich” with an Impact of 100 have been used.

Preserving details:

Full image 100% zoom – No Film Grains 100% – With Film Grains

In the third image above I’ve added a Film Grain with relatively strong Impact. Still you can easily see all the important details in the image that are present without the Film Grain adjustment.

The Film realistic look of the Phase One Film Grain

In the silver halide film process, a single grain would turn black after the film is developed, should it have been exposed to a proper amount of light. This means that the more light a film was exposed to, the more film grains would turn black after developing.

This kind of behavior can also be seen when using the Film Grain tool in Capture One Pro 8. Due of this film like behavior of the tool you will see pure blacks and pure whites without Grains and a super realistic tonality in between. Remember, fully exposed grains would be pure black on the negative and thus pure white on the print, and vice versa.

In this image I have clipped the histogram to ensure that I get real deep blacks and pure whites. The results meant to properly emulate a “film” look.

A 100% zoom into the deep black areas of the image. Notice that the clipped deep black appears without Grain. Just as film would.

A 100% zoom into the bright part of the image. Notice that the image goes totally white simulating that all the film grains have been exposed. Again, just as we would find in film.

The Film Grain in Capture One Pro 8 will adapt to any adjustment change you do to your image ensuring beautiful and realistic Film Grain effects.

Grain designed for print

The Film Grain tool is designed very cleverly to generate Film Grain that, in print, will give the same look whether you use an image from a high-resolution camera or a low-resolution camera, as long as you print the image at the same size. As a consequence a 100% zoom into for instance a 80M pixel Phase One IQ280 image with Film Grain added will look a little different compared to a 100% zoom into for instance a Canon 5DMKII image.

Determining the right Granularity for a print

How visible the grain will appear in the final printed image depends on how large you print your image – exactly like using real film. So it is strongly recommended that you do some test print at your normal print sizes with different values of Granularity, but with fixed Method and Impact.

Once you have a clear idea of what settings you prefer for different print sizes it’s a good idea to create your own Film Grain Presets for instance:

Medium Grain A3
Medium Grain A4
Medium Grain A5

Scaling an image with Film Grain:

The film grain in Capture One Pro 8 is added to the image at the full size of the images. So if you process the image to a size different from 100% you should be aware that the grain will be scaled accordingly and thus it will look different. As a rule of thumb you should increase the Granularity by approximately 30 points if you downsize the image by 50%. This should be followed in order to achieve the same size grain-look seen at 100% in Capture One.

100 % zoom

Size = 100 % Size = 50 % Size = 25 %
Granularity = 30 Granularity = 60 Granularity = 90

The same image is processed to different sizes using the Film Grain tool. To achieve the same visual effect of the Film Grain when viewed at a 100% zoom rate, I’ve compensated with an extra 30 points of Granularity every time I reduce the image size by 50%.

Adding Grain after retouching in Photoshop

If your workflow normally involves retouching in Photoshop, you can still use the Film Grain tool in Capture One Pro 8 as it works the same when applied to Tiff and Jpg files. In this case you start processing the RAW file without using the Film Grain tool and then add the Film Grain to the resulting Tiff file after you have finished the retouching.

All the best,

Niels