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BTS video from Cuba: A photographer’s dream

NOTE: This article discusses an outdated version of Capture One.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

When I’m asked “How was Cuba?”, unlike most countries I’ve visited, it’s pretty simple to explain the cool cars and architecture. What isn’t easy is to explain the people, fashion and culture. It’s an explosion of race, age and color. Upon landing in Cuba for the first time, I didn’t feel a sense of danger or the need for steadfast movement like I had in Africa and India. We were met with open arms and welcomed like superstars. I was instantly enthralled with the untouched Cuban history and culture.

Cuba: A dream coming true

It all started when I got a call from the Publisher of The Voice Of Louisville regarding a project in Havana, Cuba for Blue Equity, LLC who had established some business roots in Havana. The project consisted of capturing a twenty page fashion editorial as well as a large feature on the rich culture, communist government and beautiful society. The production called for two five-day trips. The first mission would be to scout locations, meet and cast talent and lock down hanging details.The second trip would be the actual production; game time. When it comes to these types of travel scenarios, I’m skeptical until the flights are booked, but I knew this was the real deal. This was a dream situation that doesn’t come around often for editorial photographers, if ever.

I was in the dark for much of the time leading up to our first trek down to the island. I usually have a great idea of what the target and end goal was for the production. But, a great deal of trust had been placed in my lap on behalf of The Voice Of Louisville, the Government of Cuba and Blue Equity, LLC. I had to own it, I had to deliver, no matter the obstacles that stood in the way.

Visual paradise

Upon arrival in the Havana airport, we were met with a breath of hot weather, but a bleak overcast sky. I quickly learned that Cuba was a visual paradise. The color, texture, automobiles and landscape was overwhelming, I didn’t know where to focus. The sun began to peak through the clouds and set into the horizon, which covered everything with a red-orange blanket of color.Over the course of the next few days, we worked hard during the day and played hard at night. But, my camera stayed by my side at all hours of the day.

Occasionally, a photo opportunity presented itself and I took advantage of the moment. Other times, it was production meetings and finding the best possible locations to photograph the fashion. I switched back and forth from “production photographer” to “street photojournalist” in an instant to guarantee I gained the proper content and knowledge we needed. Throughout our time in Cuba, I was able to really start building the foundation required to create this piece.

The gear

For this shoot I brought a Phase One 645DF with a IQ250 digital back along with a Schneider Kreuznach 40-80mm f/4 zoom lens and a Schneider Kreuznach 110mm f/2.8 static lens.

In consideration of using this setup, we made the executive decision that tethering to Capture One was essential. Thanks to my friends at Tether Tools we created the most mobile, small scale, on location tethering system possible. I knew we would be jumping from location to location and we didn’t have the time for an immense amount of setup.

For the majority of my career, I had been using a device called “CamRanger”, which provides a client preview directly to an iPad. The device was perfect for location shooting, however it didn’t show the initial color vision and didn’t represent the final product. I wanted more, so I ventured into using Lightroom, which I determined to be far too slow for location tethering. It felt clunky and my options were limited. When the project in Havana, Cuba come to fruition, I felt the need to give Capture One a shot, especially since I would be capturing the editorial with a Phase One IQ250 digital back.

The tether was quick, painless and efficient. After numerous tests and experimentation, we felt this was the right software for the job. The color adjustments are clear, clean and easy to use. We needed something that would work for us in a strenuous situation and Capture One soared over all software I’ve used in the past. It was a crucial element for my workflow and more importantly my client who was battling the hot Cuban sun to preview the imagery they had hoped for.

This shoot was a heavy burden on my back. I had a lot to deliver and a lot of hype to live up to. I mentally prepared for a tough few days and made sure Zach was briefed on the logistics of the production. Zach had to work twice as hard as anyone else. Not only was he responsible for the equipment, he was also responsible for language translation and behind the scenes.

The next morning, we hit the ground running. The sun began to soak the city like a warm bath, which designed beautiful lines and shapes on the city streets. Despite a few last minute audibles by the Government Of Cuba and their choice of locations, we adapted to the scenario and landed at our first location, right in the heart of a military base whom had not been advised of our production. We were left to setup, while the rest of the team made sure the hair, makeup, designers and models were moving. Within twenty minutes of setup, we were faced with a series of guards who shut it all down. Fortunately, Zach was able to speak some broken Spanish and make sure everyone remained calm.

By late-afternoon I was pretty beat and my forearm felt like rubber. The sun was record-breaking hot and my camera was heavy. With all the accessories, it was close to fifteen pounds, which can add up after ten hours of lifting and holding. Although the team stopped for lunch, we decided to keep moving. Each set required about thirty minutes of time with setup and pre-lighting. The models were rolled out like products on a conveyor belt, it was an extremely productive process and very essential. But, it was a challenge to capture models in the right lighting and include the surrounding environment. We wanted the people, we wanted the bustle and we wanted the noise. Sometimes, that required the right amount of patience. We waited for the right moment and the right timing for the story to form.

And, fifteen looks later; we were still shooting and I was completely bushed. We wrapped the day on the rocky shoreline with our backs to the Malecón and a crowd of people. I was excited, confident and ready for a cocktail.

Check out more of Clay’s work

Partner of choice: Digital Transitions

Creating in a whole new light

I started shooting photos as a creative outlet while touring as a member of the band Ladytron. Since 2001, we’ve released five studio albums and toured the world – North and South America, Russia, China, Europe, Australia, Hawaii. I also have commercial clients that I make music for, and as you can see, I’m also exploring what I can do with a camera.

For me, the camera is another creative tool. What I’m trying to do with it is to create a vision – exploring ideas of perception and imagination and memory: the idea that your vision when you see something could be different from a photographic capture. A lot of what you remember is imagination. I’m fascinated by inner perception, taking a painter’s point of view, going from the inner eye to a vision that I can share, display to people.

I sometimes see traditional landscape photography as an ‘exercise in futility’. As an artist I want to be more creative with what’s in front of me. When you see a landscape it’s always lit by moon or sun …… we know what it looks like. It’s so familiar. So what if we were able to reframe that scene and not use the sun at all? Or the moon? Not use natural light, but just use artificial lighting, as you might do with a studio portrait. In other words lighting scenarios that add tension, drama, your own unique lighting.

For the kinds of grand and vast visions I can imagine, it would have been possible before only with a helicopter or a crane. But now, technology lets you equip a drone that will go places that allow you to put familiar things in a whole new light.

I’ve always been seeking those images that haven’t been seen before. From the start, I would take a 100 km hike just to be the first one to take photos there with a camera which was never designed to be taken out of a studio. Traveling with different film formats in these incredibly unique places can be challenging. My favorite is medium format because of the quality it offers.

I come from a film background. My first experiences were shooting film on a twin lens reflex, and a Mamiya RZ67. I also really enjoy the ritual of using a camera like that. I enjoy being able to look through a waist level finder. At heart, I guess, I’m a thing person … my educational background was in product design, before I went into music and then photography and the video stuff I’m doing now.

I’ve always been very interested in getting into medium format digital, but I was aware of issues with those systems’ capability to do low light and long exposures. So I was just using full frame 35mm digital, which has been my general-purpose format of late. But then, when I had an opportunity to work with a Phase One camera, it was a revelation to see for myself what it was capable of. With its new medium format CMOS sensor, I wanted to take it out under the same conditions I’d been shooting in and see how it fared.

It was spectacular. Just being able to have that medium format shooting experience combined with being able to see exactly what was in focus (via liveview) and see if it was exposed correctly – something you don’t have when you’re shooting film – was amazing.

The Phase One camera and Capture One Pro 9 together produce files that are exactly like having instant drum scanned film (which takes hours) coming straight out of the camera. Capture One comes with the camera, so I’ve been using it to process the photos and then exporting them as tiff files, importing into Adobe Photoshop where I build the various lighting positions that I’ve captured with the camera using layers. I keep the lighting bits that I want and eliminate the ones I don’t. It’s a great way to control the final image. I don’t worry about it while shooting, but when I’m back in the studio, I’m able to look at it all with a calmer outlook.

I would like to do more commercial work, because I think it’s time for a change — I’d like to shake up the commercial world a bit. I’d take things that I love from the more artistic side, and create a radically different result. I really enjoy shooting humans as part of the landscape or featuring machines or architecture … they provide a story, a point of scale or familiarity in whatever scene I’m creating. There are so many potential avenues, for example, using lighting in ways that help people see outside their habitual ways of seeing.

This most recent series of night landscapes took a couple of months to produce, and a ton of research. I spent time with the Phase One in California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. Next, I’d like to mount an exhibition of all this work – I really want to print these images large, because they have so much personality. They need to be six feet tall! Maybe back lit so for the viewer it’s very experiential and immersive.

Key to this kind of work is being on top of your equipment – especially in difficult environments. You have to know your gear really well. That’s why, when I had the chance to use the Phase One, I thought, “I can’t go out the second day and be able to shoot with this!” But it was very easy, intuitive really. The live view and touch screen were very useful in the environment that I was working in. I was expecting it to be complicated, but it wasn’t. It was like shooting on a very smart camera. Like shooting with my old Mamiya, but with extra magic.

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Special thanks to Fiilex for the collaborative effort. Reuben’s tools: XF 100MP Camera System. AL250, 3DR Drone.

Colorist meets Color Editor

Welcome to part 2 of Color Grading with Capture One Pro 9! This time, we’ll attack the powerful Color Editor. If you have missed the first part about the Color Balance tool, you don’t necessarily need to read it to understand this article… but I suggest you give it look before continuing. It’s right here waiting for you:

Colorist POV: Color grading in Capture One Pro 9

Color Editor tool

The Color Editor tool is really what impressed me the most when I explored Capture One Pro 9. As a colorist working mainly in advertising, I use secondary adjustments A LOT. The Color Editor tool, in combination with the Local Adjustments, is similar to secondaries. It’s as if they combined the saturation and hue curves with a color keyer. It’s not perfect and not as advanced as a professional video color grading software, but it gives me much more control than the tools currently available in Lightroom.

How it Works

There are three tabs in the Color Editor tool: Basic, Advanced and Skin Tone.

Basic Tab

The Basic tab is similar to the HSL tab in Lightroom. It lets you adjust the hue, saturation and lightness of a set of predefined color ranges. Here’s how it looks:

You can either choose a color at the bottom or use the color picker (bottom right of the color wheel) to know which predefined color is closest to your pick. The smoothness slider is truly helpful. It’s pretty much like blurring your color key in case your predefined color creates weird edges after adjusting it. This feature was lacking in Lightroom. But on the other hand, unlike in Lightroom, you cannot drag directly on the image to change a specific parameter.

Advanced Tab

The Advanced tab lets you pick any color you want on your image and has more masking options. It’s a GREAT tool.

In the bottom right corner, you’ll see four new icons that weren’t available in the Basic tab. The first one is by far the most useful. It lets you invert your selection, just like an outside mask in any video color grading software. The second one lets you expand the saturation of your selection (it’s more of a shortcut than a tool). The “+” adds a new selection and you’ve guessed it the “-” deletes a selection. The “View selected color range” checkbox in the bottom left corner displays your current selection just like a “show matte” would do. Now that’s a feature that makes a colorist happy!

Skin Tone Tab

Because I rarely (never) shoot typical fashion portraits, I unfortunately won’t cover this section. I have of course a few portraits of friends I could use to demonstrate the Skin Tone Tab’s features, but I don’t think they’ll let me photograph them anymore if I show close-ups of their skin on my blog! Still, I encourage you to watch David Grover’s excellent video here to witness how the Skin Tone uniformity slider works. For myself, it isn’t very useful because of what I usually shoot, but from a colorist’s standpoint, especially in the advertising domain, it is extremely handy. I even wish that this feature was available in the video world. I often get asked to work on skin tones in commercial, and a neat tool like this would save me a lot of time.

Now, on to the serious stuff:

Precise Selections

Precision is key when retouching, and Capture One Pro 9 delivers. Here is the image I chose to test precise selections inside Capture One Pro 9:

Shot on a 5D Mark III using a 28mm 1.8 lens in Valley of Fire, Nevada, this image is ideal to demonstrate the potential of the Advanced Color Editor tab. The goal is to select the rocks, sky and bushes.

Using the custom color picker, I will isolate different colors and modify them separately. As you will see, it is possible to make very precise selections in Capture One Pro 9.

The following images show the matte view (the “View selected color range” checkbox) and my color selection on the color wheel. What comes out black and white isn’t part of the selection. Just to be clear, I’ve wrote the values I’ve changed for each selection, but they aren’t applied yet.

Rocks Selection, Step 1

Let’s start with our main subject, the rocks. This color key is quite broad; it covers almost all of the reds and some of the yellows too. This selection will help me shift the overall hue of the rocks to bring out the reddish earthy tones.

H: -13.4 S: -3.2 L: -9.8

Rocks Selection, Step 2

The rocks seem like they are only one color, but I climbed these rocks and remember noticing distinct yellow and red tones. To emphasize this natural phenomenon, I want to isolate the yellowish tones and slightly shift their hue to create a rich color separation. This selection has to be very narrow and sharp since I didn’t want to alter the red earthy tones from my previous selection. I’ve included a zoomed in screenshot of the key to further illustrate Capture One Pro 9’s precise color isolation tools.
H: 26.4 S: 22.6 L: 0

Sky Selection

I like how the sky came out naturally blue in the original picture, but it popped too much for my taste and felt a bit cartoonish. After isolating it (quite easily in Capture One Pro 9 I must say!), I want to shift it towards cyan and lower its saturation so that our attention is focused on the rocks. Cyan is close to the opposite of red on the color wheel, so it’ll also create a nice color contrast.
H: -30 S: -47.6 L: -1.5

Bushes Selection

I could’ve left the bushes alone… but for the purpose of this exercice, I keyed them with a sharp selection (almost no smoothness at all) and lowered their saturation to once again further emphasize the rocks.
H: -13.2 S: -50.8 L: 0

Alright, now that I have everything selected and labeled (yes, you can label your selection, which is a must when things get complicated), it’s time to apply the changes. And voilà… here’s the final result:

Smooth transition from Aperture to Capture One Pro 9

I was one of those Aperture users who was set adrift by Apple. And not only did I have to find a new home for my photo library, I had to figure out how to help others do the same.

After all, I’ve led so many to Aperture in years past. I was the founder of the InsideAperture website for O’Reilly Media. I authored numerous Aperture trainings for lynda.com. And I even had an entire section of my website, thedigitalstory.com, dedicated to the application.

So when everything went boom, I felt obligated to find a suitable alternative for serious photographers. My research and testing led me to Capture One.

If you’re reading this, you probably don’t need me to sell you on Capture One Pro 9. But I do want to say that I’m thankful for a legitimate alternative to Lightroom. I’m not knocking Adobe’s photo management app. But it’s not for everyone. Myself included.

Once I made the decision to start 2016 with Capture One Pro 9, there was the sticky business of figuring out how much of my Aperture library I’m willing to migrate to Capture One.

How to import into Capture One Pro 9

There’s an excellent import tool in Capture One Pro 9 that makes it easy to bring master files, metadata, and even some image edits over from Aperture. It’s the best Aperture import tool that I’ve seen. But it’s still not perfect.

This is why a test library is important. Nearly every email I receive from a photographer in distress during migration is because he was attempting to bring over his entire library or catalog in one pass, and something went wrong.

Something always goes wrong. It’s the nature of mapping one system to another.

By creating a test library that mirrors the characteristics of your Aperture library, but on a much smaller scale, you can make note of the bumps in the road, then try smooth them out.

You can work quickly from one iteration to another because the import of a small library takes virtually no time. And you can modify your test library based on the findings from the previous attempts.

Once you’ve refined the transition procedure, then all that’s left is to decide how much of your Aperture or Lightroom catalog to bring over.

I thought about this a lot in 2015. My decision was to bring over specific projects that were still in progress, my 4 star images, and some shots that had personal meaning. Everything else is staying in Aperture, at least for now.

Even though Apple has discontinued improvement of the app, it still runs just fine on Mac OS X El Capitan. So if I need an image from 2014, I open Aperture, find it, and export to my desktop.

When Aperture is no longer supported by the OS, then I’ll have some new decisions to make. Most likely, I’ll freeze a computer at El Capitan, and keep it as an archive machine.

Speaking of which, I do recommend keeping copies of both Aperture 3.4 and Mac OS X El Capitan on a backup drive. Up the road you may need to restore failed hardware.

How to set up the test library

If this approach sounds reasonable to you, then I suggest you download my free eBook from Rocky Nook publishing, Rocky Nook’s Guide to Moving to Capture One Pro. It’s written for both Aperture and Lightroom users, with specific sections for each. I describe in detail how to set up your test library, then provide tips for making the transition.

Download free e-book

When you’re ready to dig in to actually navigate the application for organizing, editing, and output, you’re ready for the book, Capture One Pro 9, Mastering Raw Development, Image Processing, and Asset Management by Sascha Erni. Right now you can get a 35% off the ebook, paperback, and bundled versions of the product. All you need to do is visit the Rocky Nook website, add the product to the cart, go to checkout, and apply coupon code CPRO935.

Claim discount now

And finally, have you attended any of the free webinars offered by the Capture One crew? If not, they’re really good, and very helpful. Sign up here.

Now that I’m using Capture One Pro for all of my work moving forward, I’m happy with the choice I made. This is an excellent application. And if Apple hadn’t discontinued Aperture, I may have never given Capture One Pro 9 the chance it deserves.

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