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Highlights and Shadows at Loch Harport

I am not sure if I have the correct workflow, but it seems to work well for me. My approach is to expose for the highlights and let Capture One bring out the shadows.

Now, up front I have to emphasise that there is a problem with this technique, and that problem lies in the shadow areas. If I am underexposing my image to ensure the sky doesn’t clip (isn’t overexposed), then darker areas in the image might be receiving very little exposure. This isn’t necessarily a problem if I want to leave these areas dark in the final rendition, but if I want to lighten them, then the really dark areas may lack the quality I desire if I lighten them too much.

However, when using a medium format digital back with a wide dynamic range, I find that I can comfortably lighten up the shadows without too many problems, most of the time.

This would not necessarily be the case with a DSLR camera which has a narrower dynamic range. If using a DSLR, I would be better off bracketing my exposures and using a better exposure to lighten up the dark areas. I also bracket with my medium format back as well, as insurance, but I find I don’t need the lighter file very often.

This photograph of a dingy in Loch Harport on the Isle of Skye is a case in point. The original exposure is very dark in the foreground, but the sky is just about right. The camera wanted to give the image a little more exposure, but I used the exposure override to keep the histogram under control. I am always looking at my histogram for this type of work.

Using a Local Adjustment, I brushed in the foreground and lightened it. At this size and looking at a low resolution file, it shouldn’t look too bad. There’s lots of detail to be found and, as I still want to keep some blacks in this area, I’m comfortable with the result. However, as noted above, I could possibly improve the quality of this area by using another exposure which better accommodated the shadow areas, and stripping it in. But that’s a lot of work unless I plan to turn the image into an exhibition print. For book reproduction (where this image was used), the current workflow approach is more than adequate.

The late afternoon light was relatively colourless, so I added in a second Local Adjustment and helped the dingy out with a little more colour. I generally don’t change the colours that are already there, finding that an increase in colour saturation is often enough, but for the dingy I preferred the result when I also warmed up the hue. Bringing out the yellows and reds helps.

Warm colours come forward, cool colours recede, so I added in a third Local Adjustment and made the water and clouds a little blue. This adds to the mood a little and removes a little bit of the murkiness, plus creates more of a separation between the dingy and its background.

And the final step, as shown in the opening photo, was to add one more Local Adjustment and lighten up the dingy itself, giving it a subtle ‘spot light’.

Peter Eastway is a professional photographer and photography magazine editor based in Sydney, Australia. To see more of his photography, visit www.petereastway.com. Peter also offers an online Landscape Photography MasterClass. It contains articles and videos, outlining his camera and post-production techniques. Details can be found at www.betterphotography.com.

A Shortcut to the Ultimate Image Quality

Capture One has a multitude of keyboard shortcuts that can facilitate fast navigation around the software. These normally perform functions that would otherwise have to be done with the mouse or by selecting menu items. Shortcut keys can be a real time saver in day to day use of the software and spending time to learn them or create your own set can be very worthwhile.

Editing keyboard shortcuts

Capture One comes with a default set of keyboard shortcuts, however, you may wish to edit these shortcuts to fit with your own familiarity of shortcut keys. This is easily achieved in the Keyboard Shortcuts editor.

Within Capture One, go to Capture One>Edit Keyboard Shortcuts and the following menu will appear:

Begin by Duplicating the current set of shortcuts as the Default set cannot be edited.

Choose a name for the new Shortcut set, and now you can begin to edit the available shortcuts.

Just expand a subsection of shortcuts and double click on the shortcut you want to edit.

Then, simply press the desired keyboard shortcut. If the new shortcut is currently in use by another action, a warning is displayed at the bottom of the menu, but the selection of this new shortcut is not prevented.

Press Enter on the keyboardto save the shortcut.

If you want to change back to the default set, simply choose Default from the drop down menu.

Working the Workspace

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

Workspaces in Capture One are an easy way to customise the interface so that it makes the most sense to you. This could include elements such as:

– Making your favourite tools easily accessible

– Changing the layout and content of the toolbar

– Making different workspaces for different tasks (Importing, Editing, Shooting, Focus Checking)

By streamlining the interface, your favorite functions and options can be found quickly and easily. Different tasks will also require focus on different parts of the software. For example, whilst selecting images from a shoot, it is not necessary to have the Tools on display, thereby creating more screen real estate for image viewing.

Building and Saving a Workspace

The default workspace in Capture One Pro 6 looks like this:

Many elements of the Workspace can be changed – among others:

– Contents of the Toolbar

– Adding / Removing Tools from a Tool Tab

– Changing the position of Tools in a Tool Tab

– Adding / Removing Tool Tabs or Creating Custom Tools Tabs

– Creating floating windows

– Position of the Browser and Tools

Customizing the Toolbar

Right-Click on the Toolbar and choose Customize Toolbar.

This will bring up the following menu:

Then you can simply drag and drop the required icons from the available selection into the toolbar to match your needs.

Customizing Tool Tabs

To add a new Tool Tab to the interface, right-click on the Tool Tab Area and choose Add Tool Tab. A list of the Tool Tabs that have not yet been added will be shown in the menu.

Choose one of the available ones and it will be added to the Tool Tab area.

Note – the Tool Tab area can also be increased or decreased in size by click dragging on the edge of the Tool Area.

You can also change the order of the Tool Tabs to fit your unique workflow. Just Cmd-click and drag the icons to change the order of the Tool Tabs. If you want to add a tool to the currently open Tool Tab, you can Right-Click on the Tool Tab itself and choose Add Tool.

Finally, when you are happy with your new Workspace, choose Window>Workspace>Save Workspace.

The Workspaces can be accessed from the same menu or by using the Workspace icon on the toolbar.

Fixing Heavy Burn-Outs with the Color Editor

A camera with a large dynamic range will allow you to better retain the details in both the shadows and highlights at the same time.

Not all camera manufacturers have realized the importance of having a large dynamic range, and images shot with these cameras are more likely to show clipped highlight details.

When working with a RAW file you do have the possibly to recover some of the clipped highlights details as all three color channels typically do not clip data at the same exposure level.

As you get to know your camera, you will learn how much overexposure an image can handle while it is still possible to recover all details. The benefit of doing this is to get brighter shadows and more headroom to open up the deep shadows without showing noise.

Sometimes, you end up with images where the highlights are too blown out and all attempts to recover the clipped data leads to strange looking colors close to the burned-out areas. Capture One Pro 6’s Color Editor can be the only solution to fix such false colors.

The image above was shot with a camera with a limited dynamic range. To the left, you can see the image straight out of the camera where the highlights are clearly burned out. To the right, you can see the image after the highlights has been recovered and the false colors fixed with the Color Editor.

Capture One’s High Dynamic Range tool is the tool to start with when fixing the burned-out highlights. As the image was shot with a camera with a limited dynamic range, there is very limited headroom for the highlights. I can barely recover the details and I get some false greenish color in the recovered zones.

To fix the false color, I’ll use Capture One’s Advanced Color Editor. I’ll make the correction in an Adjustments Layer as I don’t know for sure whether the false color also appear as a natural part of the image.

1. Add a new adjustments layer in the Adjustments Tool by clicking the ‘+’ icon.

2. Invert the mask as you want to make sure that you work on the whole image while setting up the right parameters for the tool.

3. Pick the false greenish color with the color picker.

4. Adjust the selection by checking the “View selected color range” on.

5. Reduce the Smoothness slider and turn the hue a little towards the green color in order to isolate the false color.

6. Uncheck the “View selected color range” and adjust the hue to a more yellow/brown tone.

7. Invert the mask and brush in the color corrections.