Sharpening and Noise Reduction
Lesson 23 from: Get The Most Out of Your Photos with Capture One Pro 10David Grover
Sharpening and Noise Reduction
Lesson 23 from: Get The Most Out of Your Photos with Capture One Pro 10David Grover
Lesson Info
23. Sharpening and Noise Reduction
Lessons
Introduction
08:11 2What's Possible with Capture One: Quick Edit
06:50 3Capture One Versions: Installation Basics
02:19 4Interface Introduction and Customization
27:16 5The Power of Keyboard Shortcuts
09:27 6Image Management Basics
10:38 7Organization Best Practices
09:53 8Building your First Catalog
19:47Image File Management Automation
06:42 10Advanced Catalog Organization
17:41 11How to Add Meta Data
12:42 12Searching and Filtering Techniques
11:31 13Further Catalog Strategies
07:09 14Basic Selecting, Rating and Culling Techniques
15:31 15Advanced Selecting, Rating and Culling Techniques
20:54 16Basic Composing Techniques: Cropping, Rotation, Straightening
09:29 17How to Correct for Perspective
12:35 18Basic Tool Behavior
11:04 19Tool Basics Part 1
22:44 20Tool Basics Part 2
06:34 21Converting to Black and White and Adding Grain
10:13 22How to Apply Image Adjustments Globally
08:02 23Sharpening and Noise Reduction
09:58 24How to Create and Save Styles and Presets
07:40 25Why Should You Shoot Tethered?
02:26 26How to Set-Up Your Tethered Hardware
02:15 27How To Set Up A Tethered Photoshoot Project
11:07 28Basic Session Workflow Organizing And Making Selects
21:45 29Basic Session Workflow Exporting
05:44 30Advanced Session Workflow
15:00 31Creating Selections With Smart Albums
06:20 32Advanced Exporting
09:03 33Saving Session Templates
03:14 34Collaborating On Set With Capture Pilot
17:45 35Using The Color Editor Basic Color Adjustment
15:26 36Skin Tone Adjustments
09:30 37Color Grading Using The Color Balance Tool
12:54 38Image Processing Demo Perfecting Color
08:11 39Create Masks for Local Adjustments using Brushes & Gradients
12:31 40Advanced Local Adjustments using Masks
17:15 41Dodging and Burning in Capture One
11:30 42Creating Local Adjustments with the Color Editor
07:15 43How to Use Local Adjustment Masks for Color Editing
03:43 44How to Remove Objects in your Image
09:07 45Image Processing Demo: Local Adjustments
05:57 46Exporting with File>Export
08:07 47Export Strategies and Proofing Previews with Process Recipes
11:49 48How to Export for Social Media
05:11 49More Clever Tricks with Capture One Pro 10
05:57 50Final Q&A
13:11Lesson Info
Sharpening and Noise Reduction
If we look at, let's just grab... This is a good example, this image. Again in the details tab where we found our film grain and our focus tool, we've also got the sharpening and noise reduction tools. I'm gonna reset this image so it's all back to defaults, just rotate that - so this is the image all on defaults. And when you're looking in the sharpening tool - move that across - you'll see these four different sliders and there will be some kind of values in those sliders and the same goes for noise reduction as well. Now for every camera that we profile as well as making the color profile, which we spoke about earlier, we also have different sharpening values for every camera that we support. Across the ISO range as well. So even now on this particular shot from whatever camera this is, if you open up one of your shots, or if I grab a different image, you might see different sharpening values. That's cause we tune the sharpening to the specific cameras that we support. Now generally...
those defaults are actually pretty good and pretty on-the-money, but we'll talk about what those sliders do in a second. For noise reduction, and we'll talk about what those sliders do as well, you will always see 50/50/50 but, depending on the camera model, and the I.S.O. that we're shooting at, there might be some different stuff going on under the hood. But the default is always 50/50/50. So let's zoom out and then zoom into this image itself and then see what the sharpening does. Let's float the tool so we can see as much of the image as possible. So we've got four different sliders. Amount, radius, threshold, and this is halo-suppressant, is what that's short for. So the amount really, is, the amount, the strength. "How much sharpening do I want to apply on this image?" So the more I drag this to the right, and you can see it updates pretty much in real time, the image gets sharper and sharper. The radius is really the kind of width of how many pixels that we're attacking at once. So with a greater radius, you'll see that the sharpening becomes more aggressive and I'm pushing that quite hard of course. So generally you want to keep the radius relatively low and as I said the default's normally doing a pretty good job on the camera. If you need to increase the sharpening, you've got a really useful slider at the bottom called halo suppressant. So what the halo suppressant does when you start to kind of be a bit more aggressive with your sharpening, if we just zoom in even closer, what you'll see this kind of halos, or dark shadows, especially if the radius is up high. You can see as we make the radius greater, then our halos get bigger. So if you really need to sharpen something up, let's go back almost to 100, then the last slider halo suppressant keeps the sharpening on the image but reduces the halos and you can actually push that quite hard. So if you do have a heavy amount of sharpening, bring up the halo suppressant and that takes those halos down but gives you a really nice sort of super sharp image underneath. So if we preview what's going on there, if I just option-click, that's how it came out of camera with the defaults, and then with that additional sharpening it looks really nice and super crisp now, but it doesn't look ugly; it doesn't look over-sharpened. But without halo suppressant, it's harder to push that sharpening, so that's a really really nice addition. Again, there is no "How much sharpening should I put on my images?" There's no kind of magic bullet or sort of exact figure that you should apply to it, it's what looks best. And in laser lessons, what you'll also see, remembering what we're looking at here, is that how we can accurately proof an output in a process recipe, and see exactly the result of the sharpening that it's gonna have on the end result. So just hold that thought and then in the later lesson remember what we've seen here and then how we can really see exactly what the sharpening is going to do to the output. So different images need different levels of sharpening of course. For example, this is a much older camera so I threw this one in here just to look at, and it's got much greater noise so the potential of being able to really realistically throw in more sharpening is kind of limited as such. So noisier files, softer focus files, aren't going to sharpen up as much as, you know, lovely, sort of crisp high resolution files like so. So it can be very much independent. But I would say stick with the defaults, have a quick look at sharpening if you think you can improve on it, but as I said, later with the process recipes you'll really be able to see exactly how to proof an output. If we think about noise reduction, as I said, similar principle applies. So if we take our more sort of noisy, older image as such. Let's just zoom out a touch. Let's stick with 100, then it's easier to see. So I picked this image just cause it's an older camera, it's got a bit more noise to it, and we have these three sliders, luminance, details, and color. So luminance is really that sort of grainy, noisy aspect that you see. So if we have more luminance, as you see, that helps to soften off that noise. If I just do an option click preview, let's just go into 200 percent, if you option click preview, you can see it helps to just reduce that general graininess noise down but at the potential cost of, expense of a loss of detail. You know, sometimes it's playing off what's the advantage. That I have more noise reduction, have a smoother image, but at the expense of losing some detail. The detail slider is like a bias. Do you want as much details as possible potentially showing more noise, or do you want as less noise as possible but potentially showing sort of more detail? So if we bump the detail slider up you can see we get a bit more kind of definition here for example, but at the expense of more noise. So again that's a bias you can play with to see what looks best. This slider, color, is probably the one that you won't really necessarily play around with so much cause the default has pretty much got it on the money, most of the time. So what the color slider does. Let's see if we can find a better example. So let's go up here in the shadows. If we have no color adjustment, you can start to see very sort of gradual mottling, color effects and generally on the default Capture One does a pretty good job, so it's unlikely that you'll have to deviate off that to be honest. But luminance and details might be worth a try. Now single pixel. I think we might be able to see an example here, potentially. So what single pixel does is, if I zoom into, let's go even closer, so single pixel helps to remove hot spots like this. It's almost become a thing of the past on modern-day cameras but sometimes on high ISO cameras or longer exposures if anyone does long exposures then you start to see hot spots like, popping up on the image. So what single pixel does, if you drag this to the right, it helps to try to reduce those kind of little single pixels you saw there. So if we just click on this, those hot spots then it just takes them away like so. Generally you might find that you don't really have to adjust this, but if you do see some hot spots, then it's worth just giving that a try. But it's, you know, noise reduction, it's becoming much less prevalent because cameras these days, like this is an older camera, an ISO 500, and it's kind of really noisy. If we look at this shot, this is ISO 1000, and while it's got some noise in it, it's really not sort of offensive and the defaults generally do well. So the more modern or new your camera is or better sensor technology, the less likely it is you're gonna have to pull around noise reduction. What we will see in later lessons with local adjustments is that noise reduction and sharpening can also be applied locally. So you can really think about what parts of the image need sharpening, what parts of the image need noise reduction, and just kind of brush or paint that on which is kind of better than just a blanket throw over the whole image as such.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials
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Ratings and Reviews
Stef
This is a good overview of Capture One 10. The course is well structured and presented logically and progressively with clear and concise examples. The software is intricate and the amount of details presented will benefit from a second or third viewing, along with sufficient practice. David is an excellent teacher, slow enough to follow, fast enough to keep the listener's interest. I would agree with a previous reviewer that the shooting session was uninspired but the tethered demo was thoroughly useful nevertheless for someone to become an assistant, for instance. If you have ever used LR in this role, you will appreciate the power and stability of C1 for tethering. With regards to the comment about this class being non-creative; before you can run you have to walk and this course is all about understanding how to operate the software not about what you eventually want to do with it. Capture One is well designed, speedy and its homogeneous interface makes it easy to get to a result once you have a good knowledge of its layout and principles, compared for example with LR which is all over the place with modes, inconsistent and slow operations. Likewise, the C1 color editor is miles ahead of LR color functions, in simplicity and overall efficiency. This class is about mechanics for a reason; creativity is a parallel stream. It would have been beneficial to have a module highlighting major differences with LR for people migrating to Capture One as the word on the street is that C1 is hard. I would suggest to listen in to convince yourself of the contrary. All in all, I recommend this class; it is time well invested if you want to become more comfortable with Capture One and discover its potential.
Maria Baptiste
I recently purchased Capture One because I needed a RAW converter that was more dependable and also more reliable when it came to shooting tethered. I also noticed that many of the photogs I follow really enjoy using Capture One and rave about its efficiency. After looking at a few YouTube videos I decided that I needed something more thorough and of course CreativeLive delivered. This is an excellent course and David Grover is a superb instructor. His in depth and thorough knowledge of the software is obvious but his manner of speaking and the simplicity with which he provides directions makes it easy to learn Capture One and lets you appreciate a sophisticated and expertly engineered software. If you're working with Capture One 11, layers is a little different than in version 10 but otherwise everything David discusses is the same. I thoroughly enjoyed the course and will continue to refer back to sections as needed. Thank you Creative Live and David Grover!!
user-b05602
The course is excellent and David does a nice job. However, I'm an advanced armature, not a professional. I had my own personal color darkroom, then Photoshop/Bridge, and NIK which I still use occasionally. My intention is to rely on Capture One which I purchased about 90 days ago. I would have appreciated a SIMPLE, here is how you load (Import) an image, "save" or "save as" and how to simply export an image (Variant). Yes those items are covered but, David has a tendency to casually and very quickly jump from Tool Tabs or Cursor Tools or the Tool Bar and then magically it's done and he has moved on. How did he do it. Based on David's training, I love the results I get with Capture One Pro. Yes, I know this is not Photoshop - it's much better. I never used Lightroom. I added variant to my vocabulary and I understand all the tools. I still struggle with the simple import, save, save as, and export of a image I worked on and cropped, then trying to consistently open that image as I see it in Capture One Pro. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and I don't know why. I will continue to re-review the course materials and I will figure it out. I know there is something simple I missed as David navigated the various tools and pull downs. I recommend this class but it does little for the armature. Capture One Pro is second nature to him and he knows all the ins and outs. I would help me a lot if he just add a 5 minute intro, importing an image from a folder, just crop it, then export the variant and open it in Photoshop.
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Fundamentals