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How to do radical color changes in your images

In the Color Editor’s Basic Tool tab you’ll find a simple interface allowing you to do gentle but still quite effective color adjustments on your image.

Do radical color correction

In the Advanced Color Tab you have a much more powerful tool with more options – allowing you to do very specific color correction. For both the Basic and the Advanced Tool you can change a color in Hue, Saturation and Lightness, but in the Advanced Tool you can also make very narrow color selections and you are not restricted to work on only 6 colors as in the Basic Tool.

With the Advanced Color Tool you can really do radical color changes like turning a green able into a blue apple. So if you want to be creative with colors this is the tool you want to get to know.

Example: Changing an apple into any color

I will now show how I can change the sliced apple into any color by using the Advanced Tool in the Color Editor.

Setting the White Balance:

When doing color adjustments in the Color Editor it is important to adjust your White Balance first as all colors are defined from the White Balance. If you start doing color adjustments and then later change your White Balance, you risk having to redo all your corrections.

I start by making sure that the white plate is as neutral as possible. I pick the white balance from the edge of the plate using the white balance picker. I do this to make sure that the plate itself does not have any color. There will only be some green reflections near the apple giving a little greenish tint.

Masking the Apples:

As the brown color on the knife and the yellow/green color of the apple are close to each other on the color circle, I will make a mask that only contains the apple and the greenish reflection on the plate. I use the “+” to create a new adjustments layer. I make sure to use hardness 0 to ensure that my changes will blend as smoothly as possible into the background layer. The more drastic changes you make, the more important is it to use hardness 0.

Changing the Color:

In the Advanced tab of the Color Editor I select the Advanced Color Picker. I pick the color of the apple and the selected color now shows up in the list below the adjustments sliders. I now change the hue all the way to -30. You will notice that it doesn’t change the hue that much as the tool is optimized to do realistic color changes. So in order to change the hue from green to red I will have to add more Color picks on the apple.

For each of the color picks I have made I change the hue all the way. Once I am near my desired color, I use both Hue, Saturation and Lightness to achive the desired color.

In this example I have done a really drastic color change. I have had control of my colors and color transition as I have only the green color in my mask. But if you do your own creative color changes, you also have to make sure that your color transitions still look good. You may have to add more adjustments layers to achieve you goal.

All the best,

Niels

Add drama and creativity without compromising detail

When photographing art for Wright Auction House, no matter how dramatic or creative the shot, it is still very important for me to represent the piece of art that I’m shooting with the highest level of accuracy.

In other words, each image must faithfully represent the object. Capture one Pro 7 allows me to do this quickly and effectively.

An exceptional challenge

This sculpture in particular, a tree form by Harry Bertoia was an exceptional challenge. Nearly fifty years old and made of a special alloy, this tree form has a patina that is a large part of its aesthetic appeal, and a testament to its age, authenticity and the level of craftsmanship of the artist.

I built a fairly dramatic lighting scenario for this piece in order to create a shot that would be paired with the less-romanticized view in the catalogue. But the mid-tones and some of the purples and oranges in the patina were not standing out as much as they do when one is in the presence of the piece.

Post production

To bring those out and really convey the dimension of the form, I increase the clarity – which primarily adjusts mid-tone contrast allowing many of the colors and values – that the digital back has already recorded – to be emphasized.

I moved the sliders to the right until the results match how the sculpture is perceived in real life – from zero to 16 and 17 in clarity and structure respectively.

Click on images to enlarge

The nodules at the top of the sculpture are also a bit too bright and are loosing detail. As I really like what is already going on in the rest of the image, instead of correcting this problem by adjusting my lights, I will use the High Dynamic Range Tool to restore some of the detail in those ends.

Lastly, I will use the Curve to bring down the black values in the background to really make this piece appear like it is emerging from the darkness.

By lighting a little brighter than what I want my end result to be, and take full advantage of the dynamic range of the Phase One P30+ digital back, I am able to adjust my values and tonal curves so that the image not only is as accurate as possible, but achieves the desired dramatic effect with out loosing or compromising any detail.

The final image looks stunning next to the more traditional shot in the catalogue and really helps to sell the idea of the object.

A few powerful tools in Capture One Pro 7 allowed me to really refine this image into the feeling I was looking to achieve while still maintaining an accurate representation of the object. I hope this helps inform your own photographic endeavors. Please feel free to post any questions and comments below.

Best regards

Ross

Images Courtesy of Wright

This image appeared in the Wright October 2013 Design catalogue available for viewing online. More information on our Catalogues and Auctions

Ross’ work can be viewed at www.rossfloyd.com

Increase your productivity

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

A Style is simply a collection of different adjustments stored as one selectable function. So a Style could contain one, two or several different adjustments that are available in Capture One Pro 7.

A Preset simply saves the setting in a particular tool. Like a certain curve shape or sharpening value.

Both Presets and Styles have their uses and I will look at both of them in this blog post.

Most importantly, good use of both of these features will save you time and introduce you to another of the many great features Capture One Pro 7 has.

First we will look at the basics of creating a Style and a Preset.

Creating a Style

It’s very simple to create a Style. First choose an image on which you wish to create a basic style. I’ll use the lead image in this blog post. Here it is, as a colour version.

I want to try to make a default Black & White look that I can use with all my images. Basically, a good starting point from which I can explore further.

Before I start, I make sure I create a Variant, by choosing ‘Image > New Variant’ so that I have a virtual copy of the image to play with, without disturbing the adjustments I have already made on the colour version of the image. Read more about Variants here.

So after converting to Black & White and adjusting the Contrast, Curve, Clarity and Vignetting I arrive at this result.

Also with two Variants displayed like so in the Browser.

For my Black & White conversion I was careful not to adjust Exposure, for example, as this will be unique to individual images. It will be just a starting point to speed up the initial conversion of an image to a Style, before making individual corrections to each image.

To save a Style, browse to the Adjustments Tool tab, indicated by the orange circle.

By default, Styles and Presets are the first tool, in this tool tab. Click on the drop down menu and choose ‘Save User Style’.

The ‘Save Style’ dialog will open and indicate what adjustments are part of your style. To leave any of those saved adjustments out of the Style, simply deselect it. For example, in the window below, we could simply deselect ‘Contrast’, if we did not want that as part of the Style.

Click ‘Save’ at the bottom of that dialog and then choose a name for your style.

Your saved Style will then appear in the drop down menu in the Styles Library section. Simply click on it, to apply that style to the current image.

You will also see in the Styles Library that there are a number of built-in styles. You might like to experiment with those too, or use them as a starting point to move on from.

Creating a Preset

Most tools in Capture One Pro 7 allow you to save a predefined adjustment, which you can recall at any time, much like a Style, but just for an individual tool.

For example, if we wanted to save our current sharpening parameters as a Preset, I just need to click on the Manage Presets icon (indicated by the orange circle) and choose ‘Save User Preset’.

Again, you can choose if you want to include all or some of the parameters of a particular tool.

Finally, choose a name for your Preset and click Save in the next dialog. Now, you can select and apply your Preset to the current image, from the same pull down menu.

Using Styles to Improve Workflow

Let’s go back to my original selection of images.

I have selected all of them, except for the lead image, which I created the Style with. Again, I want to keep the original colour conversion, so I’ll create a new variant again in the same way as I did before, by choosing ‘Image > New Variant’. I will now end up with this.

There is a second Variant for every single image in my collection. Capture One Pro 7 has also kept them selected, so now it is very easy to apply my Black & White style, by choosing it from the Styles and Presets Tool.

Notice that simply by hovering on any Style will give an instant preview to the thumbnails in the browser.

This is great for a quick look at several different styles to choose the most suitable one.

So now all of my second Variants have the Black & White Default Style applied. One more smart action I can do, is to hit the star key (*) on my keypad, which will colour tag them all as Yellow. I tend to use this tag to indicate a Black & White image, but you could use a different colour tag or perhaps even a keyword.

Then I can filter the collection in the Filters Tool, to just show me the Yellow tagged images, thus the Black & White images only.

Now, I have a great starting point to continue working with in Capture One Pro 7. To use a Preset, it is very similar to before. I have selected all of my images and chosen the Preset I made earlier.

If we check the pull down menu once more, we can see that we have one Style and one Preset applied to each image.

Other Uses for Styles and Presets

Styles and Presets can also be applied on Import and also during tethered capture. In the Import window, look for the option in the ‘Adjustments’ section.

Here we can apply any Style or Preset as we import the images. This can be a huge time saver as I often use a Style to add some default corrections I like for specific cameras (notice the Panasonic GF1 Style in the above screen grab), and a Preset to add some basic Metadata.

This saves having to apply those parameters when the import has completed, saving you time in post production.

If you are capturing tethered, first choose ‘Defaults with Styles’ from the ‘All Other’ drop down menu in the ‘Next Capture Adjustments’ Tool. Then select a Style, Preset or both from the ‘Styles’ drop down menu.

This way you can instantly show your preferred style to your client as the images are loaded into Capture One Pro 7.

Best regards,

David

Add Punch to Your Portraits

It’s amazing what you can accomplish with an idea, a few talented people, and some incredible tools.

I wanted to create a vintage-inspired image of a boxer and was able to enlist the phenomenal talents of make-up artist Jen Brown (http://www.jenbrownmakeup.com) and my mustachioed friend Stephe.

For this shoot I was working with a P30+ and Phase one 645 DF+ and we built a small corner of a boxing ring in my studio that we lit with three Profoto acute heads.

I selected this image out of the bunch we shot, because of the aggressive cinematic feeling of the crop, his expression and the way the smoke behaved behind him. Right from the start we would then have a well-exposed slightly dramatic photo that we could push even further to achieve the dramatic results I was looking for.

Creative use of adjustment layers

Immediately I can tell there are things I’d like to emphasize and some distracting elements I’d like to tone down. Most of those adjustments will be made using the Local Adjustment Tools and the masks.

Creating a new layer and selecting the Gradient Mask Tool, I click, drag, and pull a mask for the bottom fourth of the frame.

By pulling the Exposure Slider to the left I bring the exposure down in the area occupied by the mask, reducing the glow of his bright red shorts.

Next I use the Brush Mask Tool to draw a mask over the ropes of the ring – as they are a bit too bright and distracting.

I prefer making this adjustment in Capture One Pro 7, as I can take full advantage of the wide dynamic range offered by the RAW files generated by the P30+.

The strategy I like to employ when I need to work quickly is to check the “Auto Mask” check box in the Brush Settings.

Capture One Pro 7 will actually help refine your mask when this setting is applied. Then you can go back and fine-tune even more with the Erase Mask Tool.

This additive/reductive technique is especially useful in allowing me to create more emphasis on his face.

I draw another a Gradient Mask from the top of the image, just like I did before with the bottom the image, only this time I move the Exposure Slider to the right as his head is a bit darker than his torso and I’d like to increase the exposure.

This makes too much of the image brighter. To maintain the dramatic effect of the image, I erase parts of the Gradient Mask.

This makes the adjustment more believable and draws more attention to the fighter’s face.

I also want to bring up the clarity a bit to emphasize the tremendous amount of detail that we have in this image, so I will make another layer and paint a mask over the top two thirds of the image, leaving the ropes and his torso unaffected by the Clarity Tool.

Before using the Clarity Tool

After using the Clarity Tool

Now that our overall image is looking fairly good, I am going to create a Variant so I can give the coloring of the image a final touch to manipulate the mood and emphasize the fantastic FX work of Jen Brown. Learn more on using Variants

I locate the Styles and Presets Tool, and apply a Color – Cross Blue to the entire image, then back off the saturation until the skin tones, although now cool in color, they are still looking natural and the red of his cuts really stands out.

His bruises also look darker and deeper as well.

With a little wood, a few lengths of rope and some fake blood, excellent colleagues and Capture One, I was able to achieve the exact image I had envisioned. I hope you have found techniques I have shared useful to you in your own work.

Best,

Ross