Amazing Highlight Recovery with Capture One Pro 7

November 29, 2012 by 3 Comments

In Capture One Pro 7, we have introduced a new processing engine improving the image quality on a number of different parameters such as the way the software now deals with extreme highlights and data close to being clipped.

These aspects have been dramatically improved and now have:

  • Larger range for how much overexposure that can be recovered
  • Color precision is greatly improved in recovered areas
  • Much smoother transition to clipped data
  • More detail in the highlight areas

JPG                                                                Capture One Pro 6                                Capture One Pro 7

The image above shows three different versions of the same shot. The left side image is the JPG that was generated in the camera. The center image is the result of recovering highlights in the raw file using Capture One Pro 6. The image to the right is the same raw file but now processed in Capture One Pro 7.

Using Capture One Pro 7 it was possible to recover almost all the detail and color tones in the overexposed areas of the swan by using only the Highlight slider in the High Dynamic Range tool.

Visit the blog to see more examples of the improved ability to recover highlights

Below is another example of the new and improved processing engine’s ability to recover color and detail by using Capture One Pro 7 on a raw landscape image.

JPG                                                                Capture One Pro 6                                 Capture One Pro 7

With the JPG file, it is not possible to recover any color and detail in the sky. By processing the raw file in Capture One Pro 6, you can recover most of the sky, but the color information is wrong and the missing color information will show with hard transitions. With Capture One Pro 7 however, it is possible to recover both the detail in the clouds and the color of the blue sky in a natural and pleasing way.

For both raw files, the High Dynamic Range tool was used to recover the highlight detail. Some global saturation was also added.

When shooting landscape images using natural light, it can sometimes be quite challenging to control the highlights as you cannot control the light source. And even when you can control the light, you may still need the ability to recover highlights.

Many of us have tried shooting a portrait in the studio only to misadjust the flash just as the expression was just perfect, like in the example below.

Raw file – way overexposed                                                     Capture One Pro 6 recovery

This image is totally overexposed due to a human error with the flash and even though Capture One Pro 6 can recover a majority of the image, it will still require many hours of retouching to save it.

However, with Capture One Pro 7 it is possible to recover all the highlight detail.  The image above has only been adjusted by using the Exposure tool globally as well as the Exposure tool in a Local Adjustments mask in Capture One Pro 7.

All the best,

Niels

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

Fixing heavy burn-outs with the Color Editor

June 7, 2012 by 6 Comments

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.

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Photography through the lens cap

April 1, 2012 by 8 Comments

A Phase One IQ back on a medium format camera has an extremely large dynamic range allowing you to open up really deep shadows while still retaining the highlight details.

This extraordinary dynamic range makes for really extraordinary photos!

No matter how skilled we are, we all make mistakes and so did I the other day. I was shooting with my favorite lens which is marked with the “focusing sweet spot” (See my tip about finding the focussing sweet spot here) and I forgot to remove the lens cap. I noticed it after the first shot, and removed the cap. When I got home, I imported all the images, including the shot with the lens cap still on, to Capture One.

Out of pure curiosity, I tried to see if anything was actually captured in the image with the lens cap. To my big surprise, the extreme IQ180 back had actually captured some information. Naturally, the colors did not look anything like the normal visual spectrum but I still managed to get a quite interesting image with colors that remind me of IR photography. Some heavy noise reductions were needed but then I got this image:

The left image is the original capture shoot with the lens cap still on. To the right is the same image after opening up the shadows in Capture One Pro 6.

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Open up the deep shadows with Capture One’s Levels Tool

March 28, 2012 by 4 Comments

Capture One comes with several tools for dealing with high dynamic range images, such as the High Dynamic Range tool, the Local Adjustments Layers tool and traditional tools like the Levels and Curves tool.

Despite having these different tools, opening up shadow details while retaining highlights and mid tones can sometimes be quite a challenge when you go for an overall natural and pleasing look.

For some images, the “Mid tone” slider in the Levels tool is the right tool to use.

The “Mid tone” slider works mainly on the mid tones for minor changes, but it increasingly prioritizes the darker tones in larger adjustments.

The left image is without any adjustments. The image is exposed to ensure that the clouds do not clip. As a result, the castle ruin, cliffs and the coast are underexposed and almost without details.  The image to the right has been adjusted in Capture One.  The “Mid tone” slider in the Levels tool has been used to open up the deepest shadows, and this has been combined with some highlight recovery and color edits on the blue sky.

In a previous blog post, I showed a trick about how the LCC tool can be used to deal with images with a large dynamic range. This LCC trick will often lead to fantastic results, but sometimes it causes a problematic halo effect around hard contrast edge as is the case with this picture.

On the image to the left, it is easy to see the halo effect on the castle ruin. The LCC has been used to open op the shadows, but because the images contains such a high contrast between the edges of the hill, the ruin and the bright sky, a strong halo appears. Therefore, another method to correct this image is required.

By using the “Mid tone” slider in the Levels Tool, I primarily brighten up the darkest part of the image. Naturally, using the “Mid tone” slider also brightens the mid tones and highlights. To counter this, I also apply some highlight recovery with the Highlight slider in the High Dynamic Range tool and some negative exposure compensation. The result is much better details in the shadows without the halo effect.

If I need still more details in the shadows, I try to use the curve tool too. The curve preset “Shadows -Brighter” is a good starting point as it is specially designed to open the deepest shadows in an image.

Finally, I add some saturation and set the highlight slider in the Levels tool to ensure that the final image utilizes the full data range.

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