Capture One Pro Tips - Brightness and Exposure Tools & Warnings

[@drshisslerphotoart3929]

A very helpful video as are all of your excellent videos. Thank you Paul.

[@OrlandoCeleiro]

Thanks Paul. Best explanation ever seen on this topic. Suscribed.

[@darcybrown7369]

just about to buy C1 and these great tutorials are a big factor in deciding to and in what I hope to be able to do

[@Paulreiffer]

Glad to hear it Darcy - enjoy!

[@jerrypollatos7935]

Excellent explanation of exposure and brightness in Capture One, thank you!

[@ovidijuspocius6336]

My post-work getting better with every video I watch, I bought some tutorials like Lynda or Udemy, but yours are different levels. thank you, sir.

[@steveatesh]

Superb explanation Paul, I have always used shadow slider as my go to for brightening, I'm weaning myself off that in response to your great teaching. Cheers .

[@AndyTychon]

Excellent explanation Paul, thank you.

[@JDFloyd]

Paul, as I mentioned to you on the live demo of 20.1 on May 18th 2020, you have given the best explanation of not only "how" to use Capture one, but "why". This explanation of the difference between Exposure & Brightness has not been done elsewhere, including Capture One's proprietary demos. Thank you for being so detailed.

[@Paulreiffer]

Thanks J.D. - Glad they're helping, and don't worry - there's lots more to come!

[@JDFloyd]

@@Paulreiffer - Cool!

[@dennisvanmierlo]

Exactly! Not only the “how” but more importantly the “why”!

[@moritzathaher]

Very good explanation

[@robrosiebeenhakker2030]

Your videos on C1 are just the best. Keep them coming, please.

[@keithpinn152]

Hi Paul: I am just in the process of moving from LR to Capture One and this video has been very timely and beneficial in my understanding of the Brightness & Exposure Tools. Thank you so much for creating and sharing this information. Regards, Keith

[@stevemallett6952]

Brilliant. Somebody finally clearly explained brightness and when/how to use it.

[@Paulreiffer]

Cool! - They're actually both very important, and easy once explained (I guess, as with all things in life!)

[@ThatGuyInVegas]

Excellent presentation!

[@andyplatt6729]

Only just descovered your channel and am finally starting to understand Capture one a little better and I now realise how powerful this program really is. Thank you Paul for your brilliant way of explaining things.

[@Paulreiffer]

Glad I could help Andy!

[@MichaelSeneschal]

Wow. Every now and then I come across a simply amazing KZbin Channel, this is definitely one of them. You’re a fantastic teacher and explain things in such an organized and professional way.

[@danbrowning2418]

That was the best instruction on the use of the histogram and its components (brightness, shadows, exposure) that I have ever seen. Thank you.

[@Paulreiffer]

Aww - thanks Dan - Glad it was helpful!

[@fauland_photography]

I guarantee you a trillion Photographers using C1 for years say "What the f..." now :-) Pushing Exposure left and right seems the "natural thing to do" .... Brightness is your secret weapon ;-) BIG THANKS for putting those super-useful tutorials together.

[@Paulreiffer]

Ha ha! There’s a reason every tool exists 😉👍

[@pdvelasco]

Paul, your tutorials are exceptionally interesting, educational and empowering. Please keep creating them! Thank you.

[@Russet_Mantle]

Dude, I really love your intro music. It's so DOPE!

[@dennisvanmierlo]

Hi Paul, I am learning new things every time I watch your videos. You explain everything so well and complete. It gives a good understanding in knowing how to work with Capture One. Much appreciated and lot’s of greetings, Dennis 🇳🇱

[@_Name_]

Have to mention, that the video very easy to understand and can can be interesting even not for beginners. The examples are quite representative and the hole explanation is simple and logical, on my opinion. And one of the reasons is clear and easy to understand English pronunciation. So, keep going, Paul! Subscribed.

[@meyou58]

Superb explanations from the best C1 Pro instructor! Great in-depth tutorial!

[@richard281150]

Thank you for a great video on editing; I've now gone back to some of my images and using your information greatly improved them. The tutorial was put together so well and was easy to understand. You're the first person I've come across to explain the reason those numbers were above the image and how they're used. More please... :)

[@Paulreiffer]

Great to hear Richard - and don't worry, more on the way ;-)

[@MichaelLobischDelija]

Thanks a lot - very systematic, clear and concise, hence very helpful!

[@Paulreiffer]

Glad it was helpful Michael!

[@DaveStern2]

Fantastic, once again! Thanks so much for all of these tutorials!

[@geoffreybassett6741]

Thank you for this great deep dive into these two settings. I've avoided brightness in the past, great to know when to use it appropriately.

[@Yalelax]

I agree with Dan and others Paul...nicely done, perfectly explained...keep these videos coming.

[@lookforbeauty1964]

Very useful. Thank you so much, Paul.

[@brenshaw]

Amazingly helpful video. Like a couple others on here I have avoided brightness but this helps to show when to use it and what its actually doing.

[@dianecotton9531]

Wow! This is such a great video! Absolutely love this. It's like a revelation! Thanks so much Paul. Duly liked and subscribed.The best explanation I've seen on exposure anywhere. I was always wondering why my highlight warnings would come on when things weren't blown out even though I had it set at 255. Great explanation of brightness. I never used this much either because I wasn't sure what it did.

[@Paulreiffer]

Thanks Diane, more to come - and maybe catch you at our live sessions!

[@fraserhalscheid7777]

Great video. Well explained. I never understood this and explanation with hist makes it very clear

[@arminloacker9173]

Thank you Paul, once more a great video over C1. My english is bad so i can't always follow your explanations. i have two questions. When would you change the slider for the target values ​​in the preferences? Why is exposure warning not activated by default in C1?

[@Paulreiffer]

Hi Armin, If it helps (sometimes the written form is easier?) - there should be the option for subtitles on the bottom of the stream? They're not 100% accurate, but can help when I use some words too fast.. (sorry!) On sliders, I'm not quite sure what you mean, but yes - the values that can be changed are held in Preferences. (Not all tools have variables that can be set). For exposure warning - mostly because it's a representation of if the *output* is over-exposed, and only one or more of the channels. So, for example, if I shoot a blue illuminated sign at night (correctly) - it'd potentially be maybe R30, G40, B255. Is it "over exposed"? Nope - and especially not if my camera raw data actually allows me to drag that down to 253/254 etc. But the warning would cover that area. So for me, it's a guide - but not essential - and if people rely on it too much, they might make some bad decisions. It's always there as an option to enable, but just like the focus mask - it's an assistant/guide, not really a tool? Of course, that's just my opinion - others may disagree! ;-)

[@arminloacker9173]

@@Paulreiffer Hi Paul, thank you for your ultrafast answere! I use the default settings for the exposure and can handle them. I would only have been interested in why C1 did not tick the depth warning by default. The second possibility to activate the target tone values ​​for RGB channel and separately red, green-blue channel or not is not clear to me either. But if even C1 and you don't activate that by default, I can live with it. Thank you again for your effort and continue to have great videos.

[@Paulreiffer]

So on the separate RGB for Levels - there's a reason. In many photos, the separation can be a good thing (where the RGB levels are *broadly* similar...) But for others, it can result in huge colour-shifts, if you Auto-Levels based on independent R G and B values. So the default of RGB combined is "safer" - to not shift any one channel more than the others. (But, as you know, you can switch to the individual channels if you're happy with that too)

[@thomaswhitmore5095]

Thanks, Paul. Great content. I have been re-processing some old files (lock down!). These are 11 year-old raws made with a first gen Olympus 4/3. The specific files were taken in bright sun in central Utah, so there was lots of blown out red rock. To maintain the overall brightness feel, I looked at the little numbers as you taught us and saw that only the red channel was off the scale. So I went into the color tab selected that spot (highlighted by the exposure warnings), and very slightly reduced the brightness or saturation of only that color. Works great even in old files with not the best dynamic range to bring back a bit of texture in those spots.

[@Paulreiffer]

Nice use of the pointer read-out Thomas! Hopefully they’ll all come out better than they would have done 11 years ago! 👍😎

[@jimmitchell8244]

Extremely fine lesson. Going for all of them!

[@VictorLipp]

Paul thanks for your good instructions, this is entirely off the last tutorial; is there anyone in your organization who can give me step by step instruction on adding text to an imagec

[@Paulreiffer]

Other then for editing notes in annotations, or watermarks on export - there's not really a way to add text in a raw editing system...

[@gratefulhealth]

wonderful job of teaching.

[@davidl5469]

Really great tutorial. Thanks a lot.

[@RichRahalla]

Enjoyed and learned. I subscribed

[@Paulreiffer]

Glad to hear it Rich! :-)

[@pianoman1973]

great explanations ! really top quality - kudos !

[@wiriadinata]

awesome explanation !

[@Paul_anderson_creative]

Superb, again. It would be great if C1 let you select a pair of images for comparison and then assigns the 'before/after' as an image 1/image 2 comparator in that use case... Thanks.

[@Paulreiffer]

Yeah - it's not there yet, but I can see the list of people asking for that feature growing...! :-) Of course - you can still compare variants - check out the Before/After video in Pro Tips, as it also shows how to do that.

[@AmorLucisPhotography]

And now, I understand! Thank you! Do you have any use for the exposure evaluation tool in assessing the room you have to balance exposure vs. brightness adjustments? In other words, to assess, the dynamic range we have in the image to play with?

[@Paulreiffer]

So the way I personally look at it, it's a good "quick check" for the overall exposure - but it's a very basic indicator, and with time, you'll be able to see just as quickly by taking a glance at the histogram. Remember, the exposure evaluation tool will always show the input metering, and is unaffected by adjustments. Same with the histogram shown in Levels and Curves palettes - so they can all be used as a guide to how much latitude there is in the image, and disclose more detail than the evaluation alone. (Example: 90% of image sits in the shadows, 10% at 254. The evaluation tool will show underexposed, but you don't actually have any room to push to the right, due to that 10% already sat in the top end.)

[@josediazh3890]

Muchas gracias.

[@gbee8888]

I don't see the logic of C1 showing an exposure warning for a single 255/0 (or user preference) color value. Surely there should be an option in Preferences for the warning to apply to only all three channels being 255/0?

[@Paulreiffer]

Well, technically, the second any of the channels hits 255 you're losing *some* data - regardless of whether it's affected all of them - so it does make sense.

[@my2004rt]

Great explanation.

[@almostgreen9498]

Curious why you have both the histogram and the levels tool on your screen. Can’t you see what you need to by looking at the histogram in the levels tool?

[@Paulreiffer]

The "Levels" histogram shows you your input values (from raw - it doesn't react to any changes you make). The upper "Histogram" tab is showing your *output* values (so, the result of all your changes). You need to compare both to do it right, and make sure the output is correctly exposed :-)

[@almostgreen9498]

Paul Reiffer - Photographer Got it. What a gift these videos are!!! Best out there.

[@CaptainJack63]

Where can I find that brightness-chart.tif file so I can follow along in the lesson? :)

[@Paulreiffer]

Hi Captain Jack, I hadn't intended to include it, but no harm in doing so - if you check the description of the video now, you'll see a WeTransfer link to the file :-)

[@CaptainJack63]

@@Paulreiffer Thank you very much! I tried googling for it but failed. 😄

[@Paulreiffer]

Ah, yeah - it's one I pulled together quickly in Photoshop :-)

[@Spinlayer]

Can you tell me please with wich camera did you took this photo? Edit: I saw the IIQ!!!

[@Paulreiffer]

Yup, depending on what image you’re talking about, either an iQ3/100 Trichromatic or the iQ4/150MP 👍

[@DB-wx1zs]

Hello, I’m having an urgent problem with capture One. Everytime I import a raw file into Capture one the exposure of the image looks 1-2 stops brighter than it actual is. I know it must be capture ones problem because I imported the same photos into Lightroom and Photolab and I don’t see the same problem in those softwares as I do in Capture one. Is there some setting that is on that automatically brightens the photo upon import into capture one? Please help!

[@JDFloyd]

A bit of humor... Some of your explanation reminded me of "...crank it up to 11!".