Obliterating Dust - How to remove sensor dust and other crud using Capture One Pro

[@charlieross-BRM]

You nailed it in one for me. I impulsively took a time lapse sequence of a sunrise because I couldn't sleep, then carried on my day doing table top product photography for a few hours. When I later ingested all of that to Capture One is the first I saw of a "flock of pigeons" up in the sky where you would expect a flock of pigeons - except they were suspended in the same position for over 20 minutes LOL. My product shots were all fine so it was a going to need some sleuthing and you were spot on (no pun intended). The time lapse was run using f22 (not sure how i came to that choice) and the product shots were f9 to f11 like usual so I didn't suspect sensor dirt until I watch this segment. Well done!

[@emilvonmaltitz]

Aaaargh, that feeling when you think you might have a 1000 frames to clean 😱 really happy the tutorial was useful. Thanks for commenting!

[@edbaak5786]

If you go to the hamburger menu in the curve tool there is a Dust Finder 'style' as the first option that serves the same purpose. I have first seen Paul Reiffer demonstrate this and I assume C1 have picked up this suggestion and implemented it. Basically you select this style, remove the dust and then of course remove the style again. I assume you could even assign it to a hot key if you wanted.

[@emilvonmaltitz]

I did not know that! I tend to have an aversion to baked in styles so didn’t even think to look for it. Ah well, the video at least shows how C1 makes it’s own style then 😂 and yes, you can assign it to a hotkey combination.

[@edbaak5786]

Agreed on the baked in styles. What I like about your solution is that you can see what c1 replaces it with whereas with the extreme colour shifts created by the c1 style you can’t so there’s value in both

[@charlieross-BRM]

@@edbaak5786 I have not figured out the application of styles yet but I did bring up that tool and it circled a multitude of spots, none of which were my "flock of pigeons" described in my post of today. I will persevere; C1 is hard for me to get used to but I know it will be worth it and I'm the weak link.

[@micheljodoin531]

Very useful ! Thanks !

[@emilvonmaltitz]

It’s a pleasure

[@micheljodoin531]

One silly question: I am on a Mac, trying to create de Custom style (Crud). I did a Heal Layer 1, then a filled adjustment layer. When I try to Save custom style, even if a click on Layers, the Heal Layer 1 is still with an exclamation mark and do not provide a grayed check. Is there any reason for that ?

[@emilvonmaltitz]

I haven’t come across that problem myself. I’ll fiddle with it and see if I can replicate and how to fix

[@emilvonmaltitz]

Bizarrely I can create the Heal layer as a Style with my Mac Mini M2 pro running the next to most recent update, but NOT my Macbook Air M1 running the most recent update… so my suggestion would be to create the ‘crud layer style’ and as soon as you select the healing brush and use it on the image it will automatically create a Healing Layer, so the visualise spots shortcut will still work.

[@micheljodoin531]

@@emilvonmaltitz You are right. For my setup I use an iMac M3 with latest Capture One version. Visualise spots shorcut is still very convenient and useful, as selecting healing brush already create the healing layer anyway. Thank you for your cooperation !

[@derekgillan7314]

Best way to stop dust spots, don't buy a mirrorless camera, avoid zoom lenses.

[@emilvonmaltitz]

Both valid points, but even if you only shoot primes and religiously change lenses indoors as opposed to outside, dust spots still happen. But you’re right that mirrorless cameras and zoom lenses (particularly the superzooms and long telephoto zooms) are an invitation for dust.