Get smooth skin tones using negative Clarity

March 14, 2013 by 1 Comment

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The Clarity Tool in Capture One 7 can be used with both positive and negative slider values.

Typically positive values work great for enhancing landscape images where the tool makes all larger elements in a picture stand out and improves the perceived sharpness of details at normal viewing distances.

When using negative values for the Clarity Tool, it can be used to decrease local contrast in an image. This is particularly effective for creating smooth looking skin tones.

By using the Local Adjustments Tool you can apply the negative Clarity precisely where it is needed in a portrait image.

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The image to the left is directly from the camera. The image to the right has been adjusted using a Local Adjustments layer with negative Clarity.  The Adjustments layer has only been applied to the cheeks, nose and chin. The negative Clarity gives the skin tones a softer and more pleasing look.

How to make soft skin tones:

In the Local Adjustments Tool tab, I add a new adjustments layer by clicking the “+” button.  I name the layer “Skin tones”.

Using the Draw Mask Cursor Tool, I draw a mask over the area of the face where there’s too much structure. In this case the cheeks, nose and chin.  To set the radius and hardness of the brush, I select the Draw Mask Cursor Tool and right-click. I set the hardness to 0 to ensure, that the correction I make, will fade smoothly into the background layer.  I adjust the radius instead of the hardness.  It’s not important to be that accurate as you can modify the mask later.

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Using hardness 0 and a fairly large brush size, I can’t avoid drawing a little bit into the eyes and the lips, which is where I want maximum sharpness.   To correct the mask, I select the “Erase Mask” Cursor Tool.  This time I will use a hardness of 20 to 50%, as I will be working close to the outline of the lips and the eye. I want a fairly soft transition, as it will look much more natural than if you use a hard edge with Hardness 50 -100 %.

The part of the mask covering the dark shadow around the nose also needs to be erased, as this shadow will lose contrast when applying negative Clarity correction. In this case I set the hardness of the eraser brush to 0 ensuring a smooth blend between the correction layer and the background layer.

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When the mask is finished, it’s time to apply the negative Clarity correction.For a portrait like this, I use -100 for both Clarity and the Structure.  I will use the Method called Punch.  The method can only be set at the background layer, as it needs to be the same for all Adjustment layers. Punch makes a minor local saturation change.  When used with negative values, this saturation difference is less visible which is a desired effect for skin tone reproduction.

All the best,

Niels

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The shot I almost didn’t take, Elgol, Scotland

October 4, 2012 by 6 Comments

Persistence pays.

Travelling with fellow photographer David Oliver, he wanted to find a stretch of stony beach at Elgol because the surrounding cliffs looked pretty interesting. I was working on a calendar project, so I was also keen, but I wasn’t convinced the weather would be dramatic enough for what I had in mind.

As it turns out, the shot I had in mind wasn’t the photo that I loved. Even more remarkable, I almost didn’t take it!

Elgol is on the Isle of Skye and, being mid-winter, there were very few people around – just the locals and some road workers. As we came into tiny Elgol, the road down to the beach and harbour was blocked by a couple of large trucks effecting maintenance works. There was no way to get around the truck and the workers didn’t seem to be moving anytime soon.

We did what all experienced photographers do and retired to a local café a few hundred metres up the hill. I can remember the wonderful pumpkin soup and the steaming scones and jam, polished off with a cup of tea. It was hard to move back out into the Scottish cold and the weather looked like it was closing in. We wondered if we would even bother going down to the beach.

But something inside us said we should, just in case. After all, we’d come all this way, the food was good, so who knows what we might find!

The photo we had in mind was good, but the breakwater creating a tiny harbour looked more interesting. Walking out to the end of it, I had a great view looking back onto the beach with its small school (it’s not visible in my image). What a great place to be educated!

The breakwater also revealed some grassy fields above the cliffs and movement in the distant clouds was creating some interesting light. This seemed to be the better photograph!

To get the milky water, I used a 4.0 Neutral Density with the 28mm Phase One lens, allowing a 30 second exposure. The 28mm has a very large front element, so it’s not easy to put a filter in front. Instead, there’s a small holder in the back of the lens which takes gelatine filters. Now, gelatine filters are okay, but the 4.0 ND has a slight colour cast to it as you can see in the original file.

I took the file into Capture One and with a couple of clicks using the White Balance picker tool, I had the colour looking pretty natural. I also cropped the image down and lightened it a little.

From here I used the Local Adjustment layers – I love this aspect of Capture One. The first step was to darken down the sky because it is a little bright in the original. Our eyes tend to go to the light parts of the image first, but I didn’t want them to go straight to the sky. Solution: darken it down a tad.

Next I added another Local Adjustment and this time used the Advanced Color Editor to add some blue into the sea. Never mind the sky is still grey, I wanted a blue sea. I know this doesn’t look completely real and I am happy with that.

To take the eye towards the cliffs, I used another Local Adjustment and, again using the Advanced Color Editor, tweaked the grasses. I gave them additional color saturation and contrast. Now the photo looks a little closer to the holiday brochures we had seen!

And for the final image (shown at the beginning of the blog), I added a fourth Local Adjustment, and with a quite large brush dragged it through the middle of the image and lightened this area. It gives the image a little more life by lightening up the middle – where I want the eye to travel.

So, for someone who had eaten too much for lunch, it turned out to be a productive afternoon. No, the photo didn’t run in the calendar, but it was one provided to the client for their short list. No accounting for taste, of course!

Peter Eastway is a professional photographer and photography magazine editor based in Sydney, Australia. To see more of his photography, visit http://www.petereastway.com. Peter also offers an online Landscape Photography MasterClass. Details can be found at http://www.betterphotography.com.

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Removing Color Moiré with Capture One 6

May 10, 2012 by 3 Comments

Capture One Pro 6 includes a powerful tool for fixing color moiré. It can be used both globally on an image and in a local adjustments layer.

Many cameras will, once in a while, show color moiré if high frequency patterns are part of the image.

Most DSLR and Micro Four Thirds cameras use antialiasing filters to avoid or minimize the appearance of moiré. However, many new cameras use lower strength antialiasing filters, or have no antialiasing filter at all in order to prioritize sharpness.

When using these cameras with the kit lens, typically you would hardly ever experience problems with moiré because these lenses are not sharp enough to provoke moiré on high frequency patterns.

But, if you use high quality primes to achieve really sharp images, you also run the risk of getting moiré.

The image on the left is shot with a mirrorless camera using a sharp prime lens. The high frequency pattern on the balcony fence shows strong color moiré. The image on the right is after fixing the color moiré in Capture One Pro 6.

When you suspect a moiré problem in one of your images, you need to zoom to 100% in Capture One’s viewer to verify that there is a real moiré problem – sometimes it is only the low-resolution preview that shows moiré.

Once you have located a real color moiré problem, like in the example below, select the Detail Tool Tab where the Moiré Tool is located.

Color moiré can be removed globally from an image but when you remove color moiré, you risk color bleeding in other parts of the image that you may not pay attention to. Therefore, it is better to apply the color moiré correction in a Local Adjustments Layer.

Step by step guide to remove color moiré:

1. Add a new Local Adjustments Layer

2. Inverse the mask. This is only an intermediate state. By inverting the mask, we work on the whole image which is necessary when setting up the parameters for the Moiré Tool.

3. Set the pattern size to maximum to make sure that the color moiré filter covers a whole period of false colors.

4. Now drag the amount slider until the color moiré disappears. You should use as low a value as possible to remove the moiré.

5. Reduce the pattern size to the minimum size that still fully removes the moiré. Now we have found the minimum values required to remove the moiré. This is important, as it will minimize the risk of unwanted color bleeding.

6. We only want to use the values locally, so invert the mask again.

7. Select a suitable bush size and brush away the color moiré.

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Working with graduation filters in Capture One Pro 6

February 17, 2011 by 3 Comments

You can easily make a Local Adjustment Layer in Capture One Pro 6 that will work similarly to a physical graduation filter.

Graduation filters can often be used to improve landscape images. Typically, the sky is too bright compared to the foreground and in a normally exposed image this will lead to loss of color intensity in the sky as well as loss of definition of the clouds.  A graduation filter can balance this out in a pleasing and natural looking way.

A Local Adjustment Layer in Capture One Pro 6 can be copied to other images.  A graduation type Local Adjustment Layer will often work equally well for similarly composed images, and the ability to paste the local adjustments to other images can speed up the enhancement process dramatically.

The image on the left has come straight out of the camera. It is a typical landscape example where the sky is too bright compared to the foreground and the haze makes the blue sky look muddy. The image on the right has been corrected in Capture One Pro 6 with a graduation filter like Local Adjustment Layer.

How to make a graduation filter in Capture One Pro 6

To make a graduation filter in the Local Adjustments Tool, you start by adding a new Adjustments Layer.

The secret in making a graduation like adjustments layer is to set the Hardness to 0 and to select a brush with a large Size. The effect of the graduation filter needs to blend into the image very softly in order for the image to look natural. When adjusting for the right Brush size, I place the Brush cursor almost in the upper left corner of the image. I adjust the size until the circle fills approximately 80 % of the height of the sky. Then, I draw the mask by moving the curser parallel to the upper limit of the image all the way from the left side to the right side of the image.

We have now established the graduated mask for the local adjustment layer. Now it is time to set up the needed adjustments. For this example, I bring down the brightness to around -20 to -30.  It helps a lot but the sky still has a muddy blue color and an additional correction in the Color Editor is needed.  I pick the color of the muddy blue sky and make a correction of the Saturation by +23 and Lightness by -15.

Often, I add a second graduation filter like adjustments layer to optimize the foreground.  The principles are the same as before but this time the graduation is for the bottom and up: Set Hardness to 0 and adjust Size until the outer circle covers about 80% of the distance from the bottom of the image to the horizon.  Again, draw the mask parallel to the edges of the image but this time along the bottom of the image.  Often I bring up the brightness a bit and add some Color Edits.

Once you master the basic ideas of the graduation filter it is easy to experiment to see what works best for you.  I often try to optimize the graduation for a better match to the actual split line between the sky and the landscape. Instead of drawing the mask straight parallel to the edges of the image I try to largely follow this split line. If you do so, then make sure that you apply the mask fully at the edges of the image. Remember that if you optimize the graduation mask for a specific image then it should only be used for this.

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