Latest Posts

Discover the Shortcuts of the Adjustments Layers Tool

By using the Adjustments Layers Tool in Capture One Pro 7 you can do image adjustments in up to 10 separate adjustments layers.

An adjustment in an adjustments layer will only be applied to the image, where an adjustments mask has been created. You create and adjust a mask for an adjustments layer by using the cursor tools named: Draw Mask, Erase Mask and Gradient Mask.

You can use simple shortcuts to change between the different mask cursor tools and to show the mask in a layer.

Tip714 Img2 fullThe image to the left is without any adjustments.  The image to the right has been optimized in Capture One Pro 7 primarily by using the Adjustment Layers Tool. Three adjustments layers have been used:

One layer to brighten up the cliffs to the left, a second layer to bring more contrast in the waterfall and to emphasize the sunbeam through the mist and a third layer to brighten the surface of the river.  Finally the overall white balance has also been tweaked.

Once you have selected one of the mask cursor tools you can use the keyboard shortcuts to switch between them:

(b) for Draw Mask
(e) for Erase Mask
(g) for Gradient Mask

Tip714 Img3 fullTo control how you want to see your masks, you can choose the options below in the dropdown menu for the mask cursor tools:

Always Display Mask (m)
Only Display Mask when Drawing
Never Display Mask (m)

Tip714 Img4 fullOnce you have selected an adjustment layer in the layer list you can change between “Always Display Mask” and “Never Display Mask by simply using the keyboard shortcut (m).

The shortcuts explained here are using plain letters, no Cmd or Ctrl combinations.

All the best,

Niels

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Choosing the Right f-stop for Night Shots with Long Exposure

By using long exposure times for exposing water in movement, its possible to achieve a very nice silky effect. Typically an exposure time of 15-60 sec is enough to turn a moving water surface into a flat silky looking surface.  Depending on the conditions you may need to expose up to a couple of minutes.

To achieve this long exposure time for a night shot, simply by selecting a smaller aperture like f22 and f32, may not be the best solution. Lens diffraction at these apertures has a significant negative influence on the contrast and the sharpness of the final image.

Lower f-stop

You will achieve a much sharper image, if you use a lower f-stop in the range f8  f11. To ensure the right exposure time, try using high quality Neutral Density (ND) filters instead.

The image above shows a zoom into the central part of the image without any image adjustments added.  The same image is shot at both f=8 and f=22. It is obvious using f=22 decrease the sharpness and the local contrast significantly. You can hardly read the Gulf logo.

Tripod and manuel focus

Sometimes, it’s a good idea to make an aperture sweep to learn more about the behavior of a specific lens. It’s necessary to use a very sturdy tripod and manual focus in order to not be influenced by variations in the autofocus system.

The 4 images above are 200% zooms into to central part of an image.  With this zoom level we can see how the lens diffraction effect gradually decreases the sharpness of the image.  At f11 we still have great sharpness, but at f16 an obvious loss of sharpness appears. At f22 we really lose a significant amount of sharpness and local contrast.

Lets take a look at the surface of the water and observe the effect of using long exposure time for the shoot.


In this case, the 15 sec exposure gives the wanted silky look of the water surface. For the best result, I should use a neutral density filter giving a 15 sec exposure at f8 or f11. The image is shot with a wide-angle lens, so there’s be no problem with depth of field when I use f8 or even f5.6.

Clarity Tool

If I don’t have my ND filters with me, and I still want the silky water look from the f22 shot, I use the Clarity tool in Capture One 7. This will help me improve the lost local and also improve quite a bit on the loss of sharpness.

A 100% zoom into the central part of the image.  The Clarity tool from Capture One 7 has been used in the image to the right.  I use Clarity=40 and Structure=20 for this image.  These settings bring back the loss of local contrast and improve the perceived sharpness of the image.

With the Clarity tool we have been able to dramatically improve the loss of quality due to lens diffraction at f22. A better solution to achieve the 15sec exposure time would be to use a high quality ND filter and an aperture between f8 and f11.

All the best,

Niels

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Discover the Top Ten Popular Questions from Our Webinars

Art Director: Jennifer Adie – Stylist: Sonia Genders – Hair and Makeup: Cassie Steward – Digital Tech: Paul Haycock
Model – Rebecca Wharton at Industry People – Assistant H&M: Jemma Stokes

Our webinar program was launched last year and so far we have broadcasted sixteen webinars on seven different subjects, reaching 1000’s of you. We aim at making short webinars with a demonstration and a Q&A session to get you started with using the software – or inspired to try it. If you wish to have more in depth training, you can check out our upcoming events or contact your local Phase One Partner through our partner locator, as many of our partners also offer webinars as well and other training options.

We plan to continue with more webinars in 2013 and hope you can join us.  Each webinar always ends with a question and answer session and we thought you might like to see the top ten questions and answers. We hope you can benefit from this information – or maybe get inspired for your next job.

Capture One Webinars

Capture One Pro 7 was launched last October, and we started our webinar program to help everybody get acquainted with the new features and learn how to use the software quickly and efficiently.

Each webinar normally lasts an hour, with the last twenty minutes devoted to questions. Below are the top ten questions we received and the answers given.

Top Ten Questions

1. Is the actual processing of the raw files in Capture One Pro 7 different to version 6?

Absolutely!  We have completely reengineered the algorithms used to convert the RAW image to your final image.  We believe the result is a quantum leap in image quality with better detail, lower noise and more accurate colours.  This is the case for any camera that we support.

2. Should I use Capture One Pro 7 instead of Media Pro?

There are many compelling reasons why you might want to switch from using Media Pro to Capture One Pro 7, as the latter now includes asset management. If you are using Media Pro purely for image files, then think about importing your Media Pro catalog into Capture One. This can be done from the File menu in Capture One.

The asset management in Capture One 7 does not support cataloging of non-image files like PDF documents or using hierarchical keywords. Therefore, if you need those functionalities, sticking with a Capture One and Media Pro integrated workflow might be the solution for you.

3. How do I get my Sessions into a Catalog?  If I make changes to a Session is it reflected in a catalog?

First of all, remember that a Catalog and a Session are two different methods of file management.  See my earlier blog post Take control of your image organization with Sessions or Catalogs for more details.

With Capture One 7.1 we added an Import Session feature, which brings a Session into a Catalog, automatically creating a Project and holding all the Session information.  But to answer the original question, once the Session has been imported, any changes made on the Session itself won’t be changed in the Catalog.  Therefore it is a good idea to use this method for archiving completed Sessions.

4. What is the maximum number of images that can be stored in a Catalog?

There is no theoretical maximum!  However, if you go beyond 100,000 images then you might see a performance slow down.  You can keep your catalog performing nicely if you work with fast storage even if using external drives.  Capture One Pro 7 can also work with multiple Catalogs, so you might like to use more than one Catalog, i.e. one for your work from each year.

5. Can I store images in a Catalog in my own Folder hierarchy?

Yes of course.  If you import images electing to store them at their current location and including all subfolders, the Folders area in the library tool will reflect the folder structure.

6. Do you support my camera?

See a complete list of supported cameras here

7. What other ways can you help me learn Capture One?

There are several ways to continue your learning of Capture One.

1 – Visit our help site for a complete searchable instruction manual

2 – Visit our YouTube channel and watch the many Capture One Pro 7 tutorials

3 – Check out our upcoming events and webinars here

4 – Go to your local Phase One Partner for bespoke training

…and not to forget this blog!

8. Why are the noise reduction settings the same for all cameras?

Each camera we support is individually optimised for noise reduction (amongst other things).  The settings are always 50 and 50 in the Noise reduction tool but the level of noise reduction is camera dependant.  So ‘under the hood’ the level is different.  We keep it at those values so you know that this is our best choice for optimisation and you can choose to adjust it accordingly to your liking.

9. What do the new Clarity methods do?

‘Classic’ is the same process as Capture One Pro 6.  ‘Neutral’ is a new improved version for Capture One 7.  ‘Punch’ works in a similar way to ‘Neutral’ but also increases local colour saturation.

10. Are you planning to add more lenses to your profile list?

Yes. We work very closely with the manufacturers to do so.  Look out for new lenses as we release new versions of Capture One.

Future Webinars

Our upcoming webinar program can be viewed here.  There are links to sign up  for the specific webinars and there are normally two on the same day, for different time zones.

Webinars are also recorded so attendees can view them at a later date for further learning.

You will also get your chance to shape the future webinars by answering a small survey, which we also send out to the attendees.

We hope you have enjoyed the webinars so far and look forward to continuing this exciting program in 2013.  Remember, for more in-depth training; don’t forget to visit your Phase One Partner.

All the best,

Niels

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Desert Oak, Curtin Springs Station

It’s off on an adventure, down an unmarked dirt road through the Kings Creek Station and into Curtin Springs Station. It’s hundreds of square kilometres of remote outback Australia and only a handful of people have access to the track, so we see no one else for the next day until we reach the Lasseter Highway several hundred kilometres south.

Our vehicle is purpose designed for this sort of travel, yet even so we find ourselves bogged at the top of a particularly soft sand dune. No trouble! We bundle off the vehicle, grab the metal boards from the trailer and dig them under the wheels. It doesn’t take us too long to sort it out, but we do unload a few suitcases to make the vehicle lighter. Was that a good idea? Possibly not as we found ourselves carrying our suitcases along the sandy track to the rescued vehicle – it certainly made a comical picture.

Photo2_CR_sharpened

Future sand dunes were approached at higher speed and we only had one more situation to deal with. It certainly made it exciting for a bunch of people used to life in the city, although I dare say our driver Dave was a little unhappy with himself getting bogged the second time!

It’s amazing how much the landscape changes and we soon found ourselves in some beautiful parklands. We sheltered in the shade of desert oaks and set up camp well before sunset, giving us time to prepare our meals and take photographs as the light improved. We all went our separate ways, investigating the surroundings and struggling a little with the complex landscape.

However, once the sun was gone and the stars were out, we discovered a fantasy land right next to our campsite. The red embers from the fire were throwing a warm light on the surrounding trees, contrasting beautifully with the Milky Way above. We tried different exposures from 10 seconds to a couple of minutes, hoping there was not too much breeze moving the delicate leaves.

Screenshot1_630x420_sharpened
Post-Production

Between the shoot and preparing this blog post, Capture One Pro 7 has been released and it was an interesting insight to see just how much better the new version is. Look at the comparison pics below.

Comparison_CR_sharpened

I have done my best to ensure the settings in Capture One for both versions were identical so we have a fair comparison. However, there is some folly in this argument because maybe Capture One 6 (on the left) needs different settings to look its best. Even so, to my eye there was a clear improvement the moment I pressed the ‘Upgrade’ button to change to the new processing engine.

The noise reduction has been handled automatically – I haven’t knowingly tweaked the settings. I mean, this is a pretty tough image to process. Taken on an EOS 60D, I think even Canon would agree that ISO 3200 is towards the limits of the camera’s capability (technically, it can be pushed to ISO 12,800). Give your subject lots of light and the camera will perform miracles, but here the foreground and the tree are either in darkness or lit by the dying embers in a fire some 50 metres away.

Can you see noise and grain? Yep! Do I like it? Yep – I think the image has a really great painterly feeling to it. Is it technically perfect? Who cares! In terms of communicating the amazing stars you see in Australia’s Red Centre, and the enjoyment of camping out in a swag, I think the resulting image does an admirable job. So I’m happy!

Step1_CR_sharpened

There was a colour difference between the top of the tree and the bottom of the tree (see photo above), so I added in a Local Adjustment and adjusted the colour of the top of the tree to match the bottom. Not exactly sure why there was a colour difference in the first place (possibly tall grasses filtering the light from the fire), but it was easy to fix.

Step2_CR_sharpened

Next, I added a second Local Adjustment to lighten the foreground, putting in some detail that doesn’t deserve to be there. It was a 76 second exposure, so the grasses have moved in the evening breeze, but as a descriptive image, I am happy with this.

 

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