M'Lady says my brights should be brighter: I'm working on it

[JBW]

ISO 100 ~ 1/6s ~ F/16, natural light

[Wavelength]

very nice ...and your lady said it right

[JBW]

very nice ...and your lady said it right

she often is

[Shadowman]

Nice shot.

[mugge]

Brian, background is good. M'lady is right.
Cheers Ole

[JBW]

Brian, background is good. M'lady is right.
Cheers Ole

so she keeps telling me

[Manfred M]

Brian - I believe I've said something along those lines to you in the past. This is the old "white point" issue again. Set it to where the data starts ramping up and you will get those colours and the contrast you are looking for (in your postings about long exposure images).

[DanK]

Nice composition. However, when I blow it up in the litebox (lytebox? light box?), it seems oversharpened. There are some halos around many of the edges, and it looks a little crunch in places.

[JBW]

Nice composition. However, when I blow it up in the litebox (lytebox? light box?), it seems oversharpened. There are some halos around many of the edges, and it looks a little crunch in places.

I might have gone over the top in sharpening but what is 'crunch'?

[JBW]

Brian - I believe I've said something along those lines to you in the past. This is the old "white point" issue again. Set it to where the data starts ramping up and you will get those colours and the contrast you are looking for (in your postings about long exposure images).

Yes you have but you're not near as pretty I am working with the white point more.

[DanK]

I might have gone over the top in sharpening but what is 'crunch'?

People often use the word "Crunchy" to refer to the odd, harsh and exaggerated textures one can get with too much sharpening. I am taking a break at work and don't have software here, so I can't send you an example. However, when I look at yours in the litebox, I think I see this in several places on the petals toward the left.

This is one reason why most people recommend adjusting sharpening at 100% (although I start there and go down to 1:2). At that enlargement, one can easily see halos and crunchiness as they appear and decide how much of them, if any, one is willing to accept.

[DanK]

Since your wife raised the issue of brightness: why not select the flower and brighten it? here's a try--just a slight brightening using a curves tool after selecting the flower. What do you think?

[JBW]

Since your wife raised the issue of brightness: why not select the flower and brighten it? here's a try--just a slight brightening using a curves tool after selecting the flower. What do you think?

Exactly what I did..... but you did it better

[JBW]

ISO 100 ~ 1/6s ~ F/16, natural light

I gave it another shot

[Dave Humphries]

Last one has gone too green Brian

[JBW]

Last one has gone too green Brian

I knew there was something cutting down the bright. I'll try again.

[DanK]

Brian,

I wonder if you are trying to do more than you need to. There is no reason why brightening should change the color. Just select the flower and then do one of two things:
--use a curves adjustment, and pull the upwards somewhere around the middle. You can play with where you pull, but the main issue is how far you pull.
--use a levels adjustment, and move the midpoint.

There are fancier things one can do, but either of these will brighten the image without changing color. I used the first for my edit.

Dan

[JBW]

Brian,

I wonder if you are trying to do more than you need to. There is no reason why brightening should change the color. Just select the flower and then do one of two things:
--use a curves adjustment, and pull the upwards somewhere around the middle. You can play with where you pull, but the main issue is how far you pull.
--use a levels adjustment, and move the midpoint.

There are fancier things one can do, but either of these will brighten the image without changing color. I used the first for my edit.

Dan

I am trying to refine my work flow and I'm experimenting with Capture 1 10.2

[DanK]

I am trying to refine my work flow and I'm experimenting with Capture 1 10.2

Brian,

I'm going to make a general suggestion. I hope you find it helpful.

If I recall, you have posted a number of comments like this one, focusing on the software package. The issue here is not the specific software package. The main contenders do differ in some respects, but the core, basic editing approaches are similar and in some cases identical from one package to the next. There are some differences, of course, but these aren't the issue here.

In this case, there are two essential steps:

1. Select the area on which you want to effect changes--either create a mask or apply adjustments locally in some other way.
2. change the tonality (brightness)

Regardless of the software, these changes should not change the color balance.

I don't use capture 1, but I just googled, and it includes the same conventional tools for #2 that I used in Photoshop: a curves tool and a levels tool. (Lightroom lacks a levels tool, but you don't use that anyway.) I assume that Capture 1 has selections or masks, or some other way of making local adjustments.

So I think for the purposes of this thread--not for many other questions--the choice of software is really a bit of a distraction. The question you posed is about brightness, and you can adjust that in similar ways regardless.

Dan

[Manfred M]

+1 to Dan's comments, Brian. You are doing something other than just adjusting the brightness here as there is definitely a bit of a colour shift.

As for what Dan mentions with regard to the different software packages; Capture One is a bit different than ACR / Lightroom as it is purely driven by ICC profiles, as part of the underlying design. This comes a bit from the "roots" of Capture One; it is developed by the Phase One company that is well known for its digital backs and cameras that are largely used in the publishing market, so supreme colour fidelity for what was largely a paper print based industry flavoured its development. This adherence to ICC profiles restricts how edits are handled..

As an occasional Capture One user (mostly because it does tethered capture better than other software), the only thing I miss is the "Clarity" slider found in ACR / Lightroom. Everything else is well aligned with other editing packages, although its user interface takes some time to get used to.