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The importance of Flow control

In Capture One Pro 9 we added a couple of new features for drawing Local Adjustment masks.

These were Flow amount and Airbrush mode.

In this particular blog post we will take a closer look at the Flow setting in the Brush Settings dialog. It’s really important if you want to ‘dodge and burn’ (Selectively lighten and darken parts of the image) and will lead to better results in a shorter space of time.

That’s got to be good!

Lower flow, more brush movements

In Capture One Pro 8 (where there was no flow control) you can liken that to a setting of 100 in Capture One Pro 9. But what does that actually mean?

First of all, it helps to think of Flow as a movement based setting. So with a flow set to 100, one single pass of the brush onto the image will deliver a mask to the maximum set Opacity (in the example above that would be 100).

With the Flow set to 50, it would take two passes to reach an Opacity of 100.

So in conclusion, the lower the Flow, the more brush movements it takes to reach the maximum set Opacity. This is why you should also consider Opacity settings when thinking about experimenting with Flow.

So, what’s the benefit?

With no Flow control, it becomes much more difficult to make gradual controlled changes of a mask. In Capture One Pro 8, if you want to build up or reduce a mask, you have to lift the pen or mouse in-between every brush stroke with a very low Opacity set. It does work, but the control and speed of the result is somewhat diminished.

Therefore, using Flow is particularly handy for dodging and burning as mentioned earlier.

Selective Lightening and Darkening (Dodge and Burn)

Here is a simple shot, currently with one Layer named ‘Sky’, which is adding a small Luma curve to the blue areas of the image.

I want to experiment with bringing down the exposure on parts of the building and sky a little, and the easiest way to do this is with a Local Adjustment.

Before doing anything, I make a new Layer called ‘Selective Darken’.

New Layers are created in the Local Adjustments tool by clicking the + icon

As you can see in the above image, I have also reduced the exposure by 1.5 stops. The image, of course, does not change as there is no Masking on that layer as yet – remember, changes on each layer only show on the masked areas.

Next, I need to adjust my Brush Settings to allow a gradual and controlled build up my mask.

I choose a really low Flow (8 in this example) and also a low Opacity (30 in this example). You might be wondering why I don’t simply start with a less drastic Exposure correction, and this indeed could be a valid approach. But, it also gives me another level of adjustment to play with, as once I have applied the mask, I can increase or reduce its overall effect by playing with the Exposure slider.

With these settings, I can use my pen and tablet to ‘paint’ over the image. The more I brush in one particular area, the more the image darkens. I don’t have to lift my pen off at any point, I just brush away. Concentration in one area means the mask will build up gradually to my final desired look. Briefly brushing over a different area will be just a subtle effect.

Its important to add that I don’t have the mask showing when I’m drawing as I want to see the result on the image in real time.

Link Brush and Eraser Settings

If I feel like I have gone too far, I just press E on the keyboard to choose the eraser. Make sure the check box Link Brush and Eraser Settings is checked in the Brush Settings tool so that the Eraser and Brush share the same settings.

After masking, I settled on an Exposure value of -1.26 to reduce the effect a little.

You can see the before and after below:

Oh, and to finish the image I also used a repair layer to get rid of the tree branches in the lower left hand corner.

Don’t forget, if you want to selectively lighten, the process is exactly the same, just use a positive Exposure correction.

The Airbrush checkbox adds an additional component: Time. The mask will build up simply by clicking and holding with the mouse (or pen). Higher flow rates will lead to the mask building up faster. I haven’t yet found a way to use the airbrush function in my own work. If you have, I would be interested to hear in the comments!

I hope you find this useful on your images. Dodging and Burning can be a fun way to add another dimension to your images and also save a step in Photoshop. Working on the RAW file gives a better result… as always.

All the best,

David Grover

Cityscapes with the Phase One A-series

Peter Marshall, cityscape photographer and technical supporter at Phase One, recently visited China to hold the first POCP courses (Phase One Certified Professional) in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. As a cityscape photographer, he jumped at the opportunity to photograph some of the most iconic skylines in the world with the Phase One A-series and IQ280 digital back. Read on to hear his firsthand account of shooting cityscapes in high traffic areas and difficult weather conditions.

“When I go out to shoot, I like to keep it simple and lightweight. For this trip, I used the Phase One A-series and an IQ280 digital back. I love the process of using this camera; physically dialing in my settings. It has a fantastic analogue feel, supported by some of the world’s best sensor technology. Everything about the design and production of this camera is done to perfection – from the quality of the lenses to the feel of the grip. And although the IQ280 would not have been my first choice for the hot conditions and long exposures, as it lacks the long exposure mode that other Phase One digital backs feature, I was still amazed with the results it produced.

The first night in Hong Kong, I quickly learned that conditions here were very very different to other locations I have photographed around the world. The outside temperature was around 38 degrees Celsius, and humidity hovered around 70%. But the difficult part was the drastic change in conditions from the air-conditioned hotels, taxis and trains to the hot and humid outside air. Taking my cold camera out in the heat instantly covered everything in moisture, rendering the camera unusable. After that experience, I started carrying a towel and more lens cleaning equipment. This helped me dry off the moisture on the outside caused by heat change, and also ensured that my lenses were as clean as possible before exposing – problem solved!

I also underestimated how busy the fantastic locations my translator and local photographers found for me would be. Many times, I had to fight my way to the waterfront for the best spot for the image. Often, I had to balance my tripod on bins, rails or hang it over the water. This is when having a small, high quality system that I could rely on was a lifesaver. And with the manual controls, I could physically feel when my settings were in the right place instead of relying on a screen – which was sometimes out of view.

Although I shot many different locations during my trip, my favorite shot was the Shanghai skyline across the water. I have seen hundreds, if not thousands, of photos taken of this, and knew I wanted something a little different. I put on the super wide 23mm lens to isolate the other side of the river almost as if it were an island. After the first shot, it started to rain – a lot! As the other photographers ran for cover, I stayed out to get a few more shots. Although the system is not weatherproof, I knew I could rely on the quality build of the Alpa body and lens as well as the IQ Digital Back in these conditions nonetheless. Staying out while others took cover proved to be a great decision, as I found exactly what I was after. The lights mixed with the rain on the lens gave some great natural flare in my final image, and having the IQ280 allowed me to shoot at super low ISO. As my black frame started, I grabbed my camera and ran for cover with the others. The black frame helps reduce noise by capturing a second exposure to help map out noise when it is processed in Capture One. With some other systems, I would have to shoot this manually by covering the lens for the second exposure and apply it in postproduction myself. By shooting with the A-series and processing in Capture One, all of this is done automatically for me.

Looking at the photo while sheltering from the rain, I knew it was the one.

Peter Marshall

Learn more about the POCP Program that Peter teaches

Second to None Color with Pratik Naik

According to high-end retoucher, Praktik Naik, photographers spend a lot of money investing in gear such as cameras, lenses and lightning. However, they seem to forget the RAW processing stage, which is the most crucial element in photography, if you ask Pratik.

Personally, Pratik prefers to use Capture One Pro 9 for his RAW processing. His explanation is that it contains reliable tools that offer richer colors, compared to all other RAW converters on the market. Watch his video about Capture One Pro 9 to learn why he thinks this is so essential to your photography:

Would you like to try Capture One Pro 9?

Download free 30-day trial

Stay on top of your game

If you are interested in getting to know more about Pratik’s work with Capture One Pro 9, watch the BTS-video from his shoot with professional photographer, Jonas Jensen:

“Fashion photographers on set, they’re using it on a day-to-day basis because it’s industry standard, I mean.. If you’re using something else, you’re probably not on the top of your game”. – Pratik Naik

New to Capture One Pro?

If you’ve never tried Capture One Pro, you can download a free trial here:

Download free 30-day trial

Check out Pratik Naik’s new tutorials for those who want to learn Capture One Pro:

http://rggedu.com/products/the-best-tutorial-for-capture-1-101-for-photographers-with-pratik-naik

Top 10 reasons to switch to Capture One Pro 9 – Part II

Still not convinced that Capture One Pro 9 is right for you? Read on and check out my top 5 reasons for why you should make the switch to Capture One.

5. Levels

Photographers with a wide Photoshop background are usually quite skeptical about Levels tool. In Photoshop, Levels is truly not the main tool, you can do almost all the same actions in Curves.

In Capture One, Levels is a much more important tool.

The main purpose of Levels is to edit black and white points – if you have a faded image, Levels may improve it dramatically.

You will also have all the control over Output black and white points, it’s really useful for pre-print editing.

Moreover, Levels has one not so obvious, but absolutely amazing feature which is level corrections of Red, Green and Blue channels.
Have you ever seen an image with a strong color cast, which couldn’t be fixed with any of the regular tools?
Then it’s a turn for the correction of R, G and B channels. With those tools, you can set black and white points for each color channel separately.

In that case, you’ll get the most accurate and correct color, which may completely change your image:

And the best thing is that Capture One can process it automatically!

Channel level correction allows you to get the true and realistic color at the first RAW-editing stage.
Viewing professional portfolios, have you ever thought: “How did they achieve such a clear color?”. Well, that’s how they do it.
And it’s only one of the tools from Capture One’s armory.

4. HDR, Color Balance and Clarity

All of these tools, in one form or another, are available on the most popular RAW-converters. The difference is that in Capture One they work much more accurately and smarter.

HDR:

Since its first release in Capture One 6, High Dynamic Range tool was drastically updated several times. Today it provides an amazing quality of Shadows/Highlights zones correction.

Here are some examples: Capture One 9 High Dynamic Range on max and Lightroom CC (2015.5.1) Shadows/Highlights on max for the same images.

Color Balance:

Color Balance is all about color toning, a great tool to gain some atmosphere or to set the mood for your image.
It works equally well for portraits, landscapes and sometimes even for technical color corrections.

The main advantage of Capture One’s color toning is that Color Balance works not only with Highlights and Shadows but with Midtones as well. It gives you many more editing possibilities.

By the way, with workspace customizations, you may create a separate tab and place different Color Balance modes on the same screen.

Clarity:

When I was talking to my colleagues, I noticed that many of them really enjoy Clarity tool, but at the same time, they are a little bit wary of its effects.
The reason is that in most popular RAW-converters Clarity tool is just a single slider without any additional settings.
That’s why sometimes it may work great, or it may ruin your image as well.

In Capture One, Clarity tool has four different modes, and each of them provides a unique effect.
For example, Punch mode works harder and seriously affects color. On the contrary – Natural mode is very accurate with your image and almost doesn’t touch color.

Capture One’s Clarity tool also has one additional slider – Structure.

It’s a really useful tool when you’re editing images with stone, wood or any other texture materials.

3. Local Adjustments and Retouch tools

Local Adjustments is a quite common feature for modern RAW-software, but Capture One’s approach has a number of strong advantages.

First of all – Local Adjustments in Capture One is a separate tool with easy-to-use layer management system.
You can name layers, quickly switch between them, copy and invert layer masks.

Of course, there are all the regular tools: Brush, Eraser, Gradient, and Auto Mask. You can also set mask’s Opacity, Hardness, and Flow. If you’re working with a pen tablet, there is a pen pressure option available.

But what is really important, is that almost all the Capture One tools are able to work with layers : Curves, Color Editor, White Balance, Exposure, Contrast, Saturation, Brightness, HDR, Clarity, Sharpening and Noise Reduction, Purple Fringing and Moiré.
In practice, that will completely change your editing process: after a few weeks in Capture One, you will think layers.
Layers in Capture One are not an add-on to the main workflow – they are an inseparable part of the workflow.

Another amazing feature is creating masks from Color Editor selection.
In Capture One, you can select any color on the image and create a mask from it in just one click.

Create a mask of the model’s skin color or clothes, mask the sky on your image – all these tasks will only take a few seconds. No more meticulous work with the brush and eraser.

Yes, that’s how professional gear works – it saves your time.

In Capture One, you will also find excellent tools for image retouching: Heal and Clone layers.
Clone layer works like a Clone Stamp tool in Photoshop, it simply copies the selected area. Heal layer is smarter, it also changes saturation and lightness to blend images more smoothly and accurately.

With those tools, you can easily remove and replace objects in the frame and perform quite a complex retouch.

2. Curves

Curves are one of the main tools for professional image editing. It allows you to get the full manual control over image’s contrast and color.

Besides all the common features like per-channel work, Capture One’s Curve tool also has several amazing unique features:

A) Layers support

Curves in Layers open a whole new dimension of image processing possibilities.

First of all – using Curves with masks from Color Editor you would be able to change any color of the image completely:

The second useful case is a local color correction, it’s absolutely irreplaceable for wedding and portrait photography.

Third unique feature – black and white points correction in layers. It’s not quite evident, but you can set local black and white points for each layer with Curves.

If you’re a landscape photographer, I’m pretty sure you’ll love this tool.

B) Luma Curve

RGB Curve correction has some limitations, and the most common problem is that it also affects image saturation.
To avoid that issue, Capture One has created an additional type of Curve called Luma. It affects only luminance of the image and works the same way as L-channel in LAB does.
For example, Luma Curve is an excellent tool to add some contrast to, without ruining image colors.

C) User-friendly interface

Curve is a considerably complicated tool in itself and it is really important to have a convenient interface to use it.
In Capture One, you can change the size of your Curve tool or create separate tools for each channel:

And don’t forget to use a handy built-in preset with 5 standard points on the Curve.

1. Color Editor

Above the great color rendering, Curve and Levels tools stands Color Editor – the main tool for color correction in Capture One.
It’s a real game-changer that makes professional work with color at times easier and faster.

Color Editor allows you to select and to work with any color on the image. What is really convenient is that you may see where on the image the selected color is located.

For example on that image, I would like to correct shirt’s color hue without affecting the skin tone.

It’s tough because skin and shirt colors are quite close, however, in Capture One, you can easily select only the necessary color.

But what do you do, when few objects in the frame are absolutely the same in color? Turn on the layers!

Color Editor works great with masks, it allows you to process local color correction of any object in the image.

Now you see, why I put Color Editor on the first place, it’s a really amazing tool. But it has one more feature that every portrait photographer would love.

Color Editor has a special Skin Tone mode for detailed portrait color correction. In Skin Tone, you can select a color and unify its hue, saturation, and lightness to a chosen color.

In the end

As you’re reading this article, you might think, that I’m quite blind to limitations of Capture One. This is not true: I totally agree that it would be great to add some sort of History tool and radial gradient to Capture One and to make dozens of other small improvements.

But I have seen how everything was changing. The first time I tried Capture One version 3, it was a completely different application. Year after year, update after update it became better and stronger.
I would understand if you have tried Capture One 6 or 7 and didn’t find enough reasons to switch. 5-6 years ago Capture One’s main advantage was a clear color rendering and tethered shooting capabilities.

Things have changed and after many years of evolution Capture One can beat any other software not only in color but with a mass of unique editing features.
Today there is only one reason not to try a new gear – admit to yourself that your old 18-200mm lens was and will always be good enough.

Best regards,

Alex Svet