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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High-contrast scenes at Ormiston Gorge, Central Australia

February 14, 2013 by 22 Comments

Hero_630_CROrmiston Gorge isn’t as big as the Grand Canyon, nor as deep or as wide, but it does have a spiritual presence. The age of the rocks, the ruggedness of the terrain, the light spinifex grasses and the white trunked gum trees create an enchanting landscape. Around two hours west of Alice Springs, it’s not far from Glen Helen Gorge where we were staying for the night and we planned to be there for the morning shoot.

We awoke at a reasonable time, 5.00 a.m. which was an hour or so before sunrise. A short trip in our vehicle and we found ourselves at the mouth of the Gorge. From the car park, you can take a level stroll around a dry river bed and into the gorge itself. There are several deep pools locked by towering rock walls, but to walk further requires a more agile state of mind and some rock hopping. We went this way on a PODAS a couple of years ago with Kevin Raber, Ken Duncan and Jeff Schewe.

Tree_630_CR The other option is to climb up a path. There’s a great gum tree up the top of the rise and it can be photographed from a point half way up, or up at the tree itself. I went all the way to the top and spent a magical hour watching the light intensify, the sun rise and the light snake its way from the top of the gum tree down to the bottom of its trunk.

Just being up and out at this time of the day is wonderful enough, taking a few great landscape shots even better!

Across from the tree, a finger of land pushes into the Gorge, requiring it to dog-leg around. As the sun rises, its rays skim across the top of this land, lighting up the trees and grasses, but I’m also seeing the strong reds come through in the rock faces below and behind. To my eye, it’s a strong composition, but it requires a telephoto to make it happen. Although many people think landscape photography is best approached with a wide-angle or a panorama camera, I find a lot of my shots work better by simplifying the scene with a telephoto.

The accompanying image is photographed with a 110mm Schneider Kreuznach, so it’s only a mid-telephoto, but long enough to crop the scene and eliminate the sky behind. By removing the sky, the image has the feeling that the rock face behind goes upwards forever, plus it reduces the number of compositional elements to deal with.

And while I might be teaching most readers to suck eggs, when shooting into the light, it’s important to not only use a lens hood, but perhaps shade the lens hood with a cutter or your hand as well. It’s essential to keep any unwanted flare under control.

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Post Production

In Capture One, the processing was relatively simple, especially with the new High Dynamic Range algorithms running around inside.

However, to start I struggled with the colour balance a little. The natural or ‘correct’ colour was a little yellow to my eye and I wanted there to be more contrast between the colour in the sunlight and the colour in the shade. The camera had set the Kelvin at around daylight, which was very sensible, but I found by dragging the Kelvin slider down to 4600-4700 that I was able to produce a little coolness in the shadows, and this contrasted well with the warmth of the sunlight on the yellow grasses.

Screenshot1_630The exposure was pretty right, so next step was to increase the contrast and give the image some guts. This worked well, except in two places. The highlights on the grasses lost detail and appeared too light, while the shadow areas in the bottom left became a little muddy. No trouble, the High Dynamic Range tool is the answer.

Using the Shadow slider, I lightened up the shadows without going overboard. I still want this to be a dark part of the image, but I want you to be able to see what’s in it. Similarly, the Highlight slider allowed me to return detail and colour in the grasses up the top.

I find when using the High Dynamic Range tool that I have to return to the Contrast slider in the Exposure tool and, usually, add in a little more contrast. Not always, of course, but if you’ve been using the High Dynamic Range tool and struggling a bit, try using it in combination with the Contrast slider and between the three controls, Capture One Pro 7 is remarkably powerful.

Photo2_630_CRSitting back and looking at the image, I then increased the colour saturation (I like colour), cropped the top of the sky out of the image completely, added in a vignette to darken the edges and, finally, added a Local Adjustment to darken down the rock wall in the distance. This helps to emphasise the separation between it and the finger of land in sunlight.

Cheers,

Peter

Peter Eastway is a professional photographer and photography magazine editor based in Sydney, Australia. If you would like to accompany Peter and Tony Hewitt on a seven day Central Australia ‘Adventures in Oz’ workshop in August 2013, click here for more information.

And if you’d like to see a short movie explaining in more detail how Peter processed this file in Capture One, click here.

To see more of Peter’s photography, visit www.petereastway.com. Peter also offers an online Landscape Photography MasterClass. It contains articles and videos, outlining his camera and post-production techniques. Details can be found at www.betterphotography.com.

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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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