Inverted Masks in Local Adjustments
May 19, 2011 2 Comments
When working with local adjustments in Capture One Pro 6.2, you now have the option of copying a mask from one layer to another.
Moreover, you also have the option to make an inverted mask.
When optimizing an image using local adjustments layers, you often need to do adjustments in a mask in one layer combined with adjustments in another layer based on the inverted mask.
The image on the left side has been optimized by using a local adjustments layer with a mask for the sky and an adjustments layer with the inverted mask for the foreground. The image on the right side is straight out of the camera.
First, I create a new adjustments layer for the sky by pressing the “+” button in the local adjustments tool.
With the brush cursor tool set at a large radius and hardness 0, I paint a mask for the sky. To enhance the colors and drama in the sky, I add some extra contrast for this mask.
For the foreground, I add another adjustments layer. Instead of painting a new mask for this layer, I just reuse the mask from the sky but in an inverted form.
Click on the triangle in the local adjustments toolbar to open the menu “Copy Mask from” and select the mask “Sky”.
In the same dropdown menu, you can now select “Invert Mask”
Now, I have a perfectly matched mask for the foreground. In order to open up the very dark foreground, I also add exposure compensation, brightness as well as some saturation.
Niel-
Using the color readout pins as a way to gauge color, are there guidelines for skin color, highlights and shadows?
The triangle trick… This is why I love to read these blogs. The documentation is really too superficial, I’d like to have more of these tricks that display the full power of CaptureOne. I am sure that even after using it a lot for almost a year I still know only less than half of what C1 can do.