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How to fix permanent hot pixels

NOTE: This article discusses an outdated version of Capture One. To learn more about our latest version, click here.

All image sensors used in digital cameras, regardless of make, model, manufacture or intended application, will have a number of defective pixels. This is not a problem, however, as these errors are mapped and accounted for when the camera is manufactured.

Special algorithms then take care of replacing the invalid content of the defective pixels so the image appears as though the sensor is perfect.

When do hot pixels occur then?
When exposing an image at longer exposure times, from around a second and longer, a varying number of pixels may act differently from those around it and display much larger values than the average pixels. These pixels are called “hot pixels”.

Why do hot pixels occur?
The number of hot pixels is close related to the length of the exposure and the temperature of the sensor. In Capture One Pro 7 these hot pixels will typically be removed automatically.

It happens that a sensor, after a period of time, may start showing some more stubborn or seemingly permanent hot pixels, even in images shot at short exposure times.

This happened for one of my cameras after it had captured around 15000 images. With another camera however, it happened after just a few hundred images. This change can be caused by cosmic background radiation (EMR) hitting a pixel on the sensor and, unfortunately, it is simply not something you can avoid.

If you mainly shoot in bright daylight you may never notice these defective pixels. However, if you have a really dark area in your image, it suddenly becomes quite easy to spot such pixels. But not to worry, with Capture One Pro 7 it is very easy to remove such hot pixels.

How to fix these single pixels behaving strangely
In the details Tool tab in Capture One Pro 7 you’ll find the Noise Reduction Tool. The third slider in the Noise Reduction Tool is named ‘Single Pixel’. This is a tool specially designed to deal with single pixels behaving strangely, which typically happens with higher ISO settings and at longer exposure times.

Capture One Pro 7 will automatically apply a certain amount of Single Pixel noise reduction depending on the exposure time and ISO. Normally when using a camera at low ISO in daylight it will be set to a value of ‘0’.

The Noise Reduction Tool in Capture One Pro 7 with the
default settingsfor a low ISO image exposed in daylight.

When zooming into the above image, I noticed a permanent hot pixel. This was very easy to remove though, by using the Single Pixel slider in the Noise Reduction Tool. On the image to the left the Single Pixel noise slider is set to ‘0’. In the image to the right I moved the slider until the hot pixel disappeared, which in this case happened at a value of ‘15’.

The algorithm behind the tool is designed so it can distinguish between defective pixels, like hot pixels, and real image information such as tiny light spots and reflections. If we zoom into the water surface we see some real image information in the form of small reflections. As you can see, using the single pixel noise slider doesn’t remove the true optical reflections, regardless of their size.

Single pixel = ‘0’ Single Pixel = ‘80’

Real image information is maintained even with the Single Pixel noise slider set to ‘80’.

The tool works like this: For values between ‘1’ and around ‘50’, it removes primarily single pixel defects but does it with more and more strength. Between ‘30’ and ‘80’ the tool will also look for single pixels that are adjacent to each other. Above ‘80’ the tool looks for even larger clusters of defective pixels. Using the tool with values up to ‘80’ will hardly ever remove real information from the image so it’s safe to copy even such a high value to another image.

All the best,

Niels

Bright and Brilliant images with Levels

In this first post regarding the Levels and Curve Tools I’d like to emphasize the versatility of these tools. The use of these tools in a raw processing workflow cannot be overstated. In this post I will focus on the basic Levels functions.

Let’s look at this medium contrast image.

The weather was cloudy when I saw this rose on the beach. Low contrast light conditions are fine for close-ups. The water is reflecting the sky and there is some backlight, but that does not make it shine as I intended.

Before using Levels

In my trainings I refer to the Levels Tool as a histogram tool. It takes a histogram as input. Because of this I first apply necessary adjustments that will affect the Levels histogram. For example, I first crop the image; adjust the Exposure, High Dynamic Range (HDR), and Clarity Tool. In the screenshot below, I show you the tools Base Characteristics with film curve, Clarity and Vignetting and their settings.

Black and White Point

Medium and low contrast images do not use all the brightness values, or the full dynamic range of the camera. As a result they look a bit dull because the tonal scale is reduced. There is no real dark or bright area.

The histogram before adjustments with the Levels Tool

The histogram after adjustments with the Levels Tool.

The histogram for the image fits easily within the 0-255 range of the Levels Tool. Too easily, actually, and it reflects the lack of both real highlights and deep shadows.

Auto Adjust or manual?

The Levels Tool Auto Adjust is a great start for adjusting the Black and White Levels but you can also set it manually by dragging the markers or use the eye-dropper. The black level sets which level in the raw file will be the new darkest area and the white level for the brightest area on output.

Input vs. Output Levels

To be more precise on what the Levels Tools actually achieves here, let’s clarify the distinction between input levels and output levels. Input levels are found on the bottom of the Levels Tool and represent the values in the raw file. You can see that I did use the range of 11-243 in this image.

Input levels are converted to output levels, which can be found at the top of the Levels Tools.

The input level of 11 is converted to 0 (zero) in the output and input level 243 to 255. Output levels of 0 and 255 represent the maximum black and white respectively. Optionally, you can adjust the output levels as well if it serves your needs, like with printing, to 5 and 250 for example.

The image now has a better tonal scale and therefore more punch.

Darken or Brighten

Setting the black and white levels will change the overall image brightness. This can be corrected with the mid tone marker in the Levels Tool. Modest use has little effect on the endpoints of the histogram. In other words: little risk for clipping or losing data. Positive values open up shadows and reduce the impression of contrast.

A ‘full’ histogram from end to end

Technically the biggest advantage of setting the black and white point plus the mid gray with the Levels Tool in Capture One Pro 7 is that it creates a ‘full’ histogram from end to end on output. This will smoothen gradations without banding (in contrast to setting levels in a processed image).

Also, using Levels precedes the use of the Curve Tool, which I will discuss in my second blog.

High contrast images and Levels

In general, you do not need to set black and white points on high contrast images, which tend to clip at one or either side of the histogram. However, you can still benefit from the Levels mid tone adjustment to make modest brightness adjustments without the risk of clipping. I prefer this to the use of the Brightness slider in the Exposure Tool. Or, as we will discuss in another post, you can also use the Curve Tool for that purpose.

Watch in-depth tutorial on how to use the Levels Tool.

Best regards,

Paul

My Raw Processing Software of Choice

I’ve always been a big supporter of using your free time to shoot personal work to keep your portfolio and your skills fresh. In fact, it’s my personal work that fills most of my portfolios.

Back to West Virginia

Recently I took my Phase One 645DF+ with the IQ140 back to the West Virginia
farming countryside to take portraits of a lovely model, Cari Funkhouser. The camera
performed fantastically to capture the model and the sky detail in one shot thanks to the
dynamic range on the IQ backs.

Capture One Pro 7 is my raw processing software of choice. I use it to easily color
balance, bring out detail from the highlights and shadows, correct lens flaws, and
sharpen my images with great ease and efficiency.

Most of the shoot was accomplished with only 1 light. There was a great moody sky and the Phase One’s 12.5 stops dynamic range captured all of that beautiful detail. Below is the image before and after post production in Capture One Pro 7.

Much like you’d see on the camera’s screen, Capture One Pro 7 has focus masking (in green) and highlight over-exposure warning (in red). I use these features to quickly identify which images will be sharp up close and not too over-exposed and worth editing.

On a normal setup, I may take 25-75 images. From those, I can easily choose the 5-10 images within acceptable focus and exposure range using the focus and exposure masks in the thumbnails as you can see in the screen shot above. From those 5-10 images, I would process the raw files and edit with greater detail. Doing this saves a lot of time opening up each huge raw file just to check to make sure it’s in focus.

I quickly double-checked my focus and added a little sharpness. I normally add about 30 sharpness to the “Amount” to most of my images. I find that this helps add a slight fine edge that I like to see in my photography. Of course, if I really like an image, but the focus is a little soft, I can add more sharpness. As you can see on the left in the screen shot of our image below, it looks super detailed!

Next I start making global exposure and color adjustments.

The colors in the image straight out of camera were really great due to the custom-made ICC profiles in the software.

But I wanted to just make the colors of the sky and grass stand out a little bit more, so I increased the saturation and the contrast to 4 just to mark the difference between the foreground and background (see screen shot below).

As far as I can see, the image processing engine makes recovering details from the highlights and the shadows very easy without losing information. I’ve never seen another program perform so effectively in doing so. I’ve had shots that were captured accidentally 1 stop over or under and you wouldn’t know by seeing the final images.

Making adjustment layers and masks is very easy. As you can see below, I created different
layers to bring out detail and color out of the clouds and grass independently.

In the shown layer (see screen shot below) I used a mask to increase Clarity and Exposure in order to highlight the clouds in the image.

It took me a couple of weeks to find the right workflow that suits me best, but after getting comfortable with how Capture One Pro 7 works with all of its customizable functions, I’m able to bring more out of my RAW files.

Worth the learning curve

It also took me a bit to really learn and trust what the software could do in regards to recovery of highlights and shadows and sharpness, but it really is fantastic and worth the learning curve. Everything you saw me do above in the blog post can be accomplished in about 5 minutes, depending how in-depth I go in the edit, from open to exporting of the final file.

Best regards,

Douglas

Dramatic Still Life with Capture One Pro 7

As a new Phase One 645DF+ and IQ280 user, I’m continually marveled by the amount of detail I can achieve in my food and still life images.

With 13 f-stops of dynamic range, everything is there, and sometimes I need to gently coax the viewer into areas that I want them to see, as well as parts I don’t want to draw attention to.

Rich detail even in the shadows

Nowhere do I see this more than with dark dramatic shots that maintain full, rich detail even inside the shadows. For this personal project of dark, moody still life images, I utilized some pretty powerful and basic features of Capture One Pro 7 to edit and process this series. Let’s take a look, shall we?

This shot of tea and snacks (with a few camellias from my garden tossed in for good measure) was shot overhead with just one light source (a big giant window with diffusion material over it).

My exposure is exactly where I wanted it to be, and I like the shape and direction of the light. However, I’m seeing some things I want to see and missing a few other things I’d like to minimize. Image photographed at ISO 100, 1 second, f/8, 80mm.

Food photography is all about details

My first plan of action is to get the shot where I’d like it in terms of density, shadow, and color. These are all super quick and easy in Capture One Pro 7, and I’m able to see things in subtle ways making minute adjustments. With food photography it’s all about details, and I rarely need to make massive, over-the-top adjustments to a file.

First, I wanted to bring out some color in the distressed zinc farm table. I selected the color in the Color Editor and boosted saturation (see screen grab above). Next I increased my contrast just a bit by 6 while decreasing my overall saturation by -25 (screengrab below).

That might seem counterintuitive considering I just boosted my blues a step earlier, but I prefer to get individual locations of color in the right hue before affecting the overall shot. Also, in the High Dynamic Range I increased shadows by 6 just a tiny bit so that I could see some detail of the table in the shadows. Not much, just a bit.

With color and exposure exactly where I want it, my last stop before processing involved opening up certain parts of the image. Since this was a tea story, I wanted to be able to show the various loose teas in the stoneware bowls, and this is where Local Adjustments come in handy!

I created a new layer called “Tea Layer” (screen grab above) so that I could select just the tops of the bowls and lighten just a bit.

Moving the exposure slider all the way allows me to see exactly what will be affected. In this case it’s way too much but still nice to see before dialing it back down (screen grab below).

The tea is now visible, and it’s subtle and in line with the rest of the image (screen grab below). I should also note that while there is tea in the other vessels but I don’t feel it necessary to do the same process to those. And overhead shot of liquid in a dark cup won’t reveal much detail anyway, no amount of editing can change that.

My second shot involved more camellias from my tree, their date-of-expiration and browned leaves paired well with the texture of the table and dark ceramic plate. Image photographed at ISO 100, 1/8s, f/2.8 with a 80mm lens.

It looked good to me, but was missing a bit of drama and punch. Like my previous shot above, I saturated the blue in the table for added depth in color.

Next I went to my exposure panel and bumped up contrast by 7, removing overall saturation by -20, and adding a bit in High Dynamic Range (shadow, 6). I followed that up by adding a tiny amount of vignetting (screen grab below).

Now that I’m done, I simply process out in a good size so that I can print for promotional materials and my portfolio. Easy!

Best regards,

Matt