How to make the most of the High Dynamic Range Tool

April 18, 2013 by 4 Comments

Tip713 image1 fullWith the High Dynamic Range Tool (HDR Tool) in Capture One 7 you can optimize images with a high dynamic range and extract details and regain otherwise lost colors in both shadows and highlights.

The tool has individual sliders for controlling recovery of highlights and of shadow details.

If values over 70-80 are needed in one of the sliders, it can be a very good idea to use the Exposure Tool to bring in the exposure as a first step. As a second step, use the HDR Tool to extract the desired details and colors in both highlights and shadows – now with lower slider values. When lower and more similar values of the shadow and highlight slider are used, you will typically achieve a more realistic and pleasing image.

Tip713 image2 fullThe image to the left is directly out of the camera. The high dynamic range of the scene makes it difficult to see details and color in the shadows, but also the sky has lost some color. The image to the right has been optimized in Capture One 7, primarily with a combination of the Exposure Tool and the High Dynamic Range Tool. Finally the Keystone Tool has been used to correct the perspective.

To illustrate the effect of using the slider in the Exposure Tool followed by the High Dynamic Range Tool, I have shot a series of test images with different exposures.

Tip713 image4c fullThe first image is exposed with clipping of only the extreme highlights. This exposure gives a perfect definition in the bright elements in the scene, but all the shadow details are barely visible. For the last exposure, we have a reasonable amount of details in the shadows, but the highlights are overexposed and you can hardly see the large red poster on the building in the background.

Let’s start with the first image, which is exposed with good highlight details, but with very dark shadows. To bring back the shadow details, I could use the shadow slider in the High Dynamic Range Tool.

Tip713-image5-fullUsing only the shadow slider in the High Dynamic Range Tool, I need a value of 90 to open up the shadows. However by doing so, I won’t get a natural looking result.

To achieve a more natural looking result, I will use the exposure slider to open up the shadows first. This will lead to overexposure in the highlights, but this can easily be fixed with the highlight slider in the High Dynamic Range Tool.

Tip713-image6-fullThis is the same image as before, but now I am using the Exposure Tool to generally open up the image and the High Dynamic Range Tool to bring in the highlights and the shadow details. Note that I have the same value for both the highlight and the shadow slider. The image now looks much more natural.

Having this idea in mind, I will correct the last of the 4 images, which was the one exposed with EV +2.

Tip713-image7-fullInstead of only using the highlight slider in the High Dynamic Range Tool, I start out by using some negative exposure compensation in the Exposure Tool and then use the High Dynamic Range Tool. Once again I use similar values for the shadow and the highlight slider, and I achieve a natural looking image with a good balance of shadow and highlight details.

Tip713 image8b fullBy using this technique it’s possible to adjust all 4 images to give the same natural looking result. An amazing result given we have a 2 f-stop exposure variation from the left to the right image.

All the best,

Niels

Filed under Capture One Tips & Tricks, Capture One Workflow Tagged with , , , , ,

The Secret HDR Tool

January 13, 2011 by 37 Comments

 

Used in the right way, the LCC Calibration feature in Capture One’s Lens Tool can be used to create beautiful HDR images.

The LCC feature is designed to calibrate and compensate for unwanted Lens Color Cast as well as Light Falloff in the lens. It is the Light Falloff compensation feature we will demonstrate here.

For HDR purposes, the trick is to use the file you want to work with as the reference file for the LCC Calibration.  In this case, the LCC Calibration file generates a gain map of the different lightness variations in the image. Bright parts of the image will not be gained, but dark areas will get a high gain factor.  When the LCC Light Falloff compensation is set to 100%, the system tries to even out the lightness differences in the image.  Of course, this does not make sense, but if you set the Light Falloff compensation to something between 10-35%, you will achieve a very useful effect.

Combine this with some negative Exposure compensation and you can achieve some really amazing HDR images.

 

Create Beautiful HDR Images

The image on the left has come straight out of the camera and shows a too wide dynamic range. The foreground is much too dark, and the sky is almost blown out. The image on the right is the result of applying a LCC Light Falloff compensation of 35% combined with some negative Exposure compensation. Surely a stunning improvement of the image.

 

A step by step instruction:

Step 1:

Create a LCC Calibration file in the Lens Tool.  Use “Exclude Dust” as dust in the image is inappropriate here.

The Color Cast and the Light Falloff check boxes are both automatically checked after the LCC Calibration file has been generated. 

Step2:

Uncheck the Color Cast check box and adjust the Light Falloff slider to somewhere between 10% and 35%.

With Light Falloff at 35%, the image looks much more natural with plenty of details in the originally dark foreground.

Step 3:

In order to recover the highlight details and to restore the original twilight feel of the image, I add some negative Exposure as well as some Saturation.

Two more examples of how the LCC tool can be used as a very efficient HDR tool:

Capture One also has a specially designed High Dynamic Range Tool, which is used to handle images with High Dynamic Range.  Normally, I will try to see if I can achieve what I want using this tool.  However, sometimes I find that I can do even more dramatic corrections by using the LCC feature or by combining both techniques.

Filed under Capture One Tips & Tricks Tagged with , , ,

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 760 other followers

%d bloggers like this: