Out of GAMUT

bside

• 5. Oktober 2009 15:10

Hello,

At some time or other we are all subject to making photographs with sections “Out of Gamutâ€.

With Capture One v4.8.3 we can solve this problem easily and elegantly in either of two ways. By using the HIGHLIGHT slider in HDR or by moving the top HIGHLIGHT arrow in LEVELS.

Is there any distinct advantage in using either method?

Ciao,

Tom Burnside

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  Paul Steunebrink

  • 5. Oktober 2009 18:07

  The tools you mention have different purposes and differ in the way they work, but might show in day-to-day use a more or less similar result. Note that you can even combine both. This is how I think it works (and love to exchange my explanation for a better one).
  
  For the ease of explanation I introduce the INPUT and OUTPUT terms. The HDR tool work on the input side. It affects the curve that translates raw data levels into RGB levels. Flattening the curve at the highlight side, allows for lowering highlight level values without impacting lower levels (or only to a smaller extent). In contrast, the exposure tool affects all levels equally (moving the entire INPUT histogram). This effectively recovers highlights that would otherwise have been blown out or out of gamut as you put it (I would use that term for another problem, but not important now).
  
  The TOP sliders of the level tool start with the INPUT histogram as a result of exposure and HDR and determine how a certain level (INPUT, that is) is translated in OUTPUT. By selecting the top highlight slider to less than 255, you effectively limit the maximum highlight level but you do not recover any blown highlights (in my theory, in day-to-day practice this may seem to be the case). The top sliders are for printing and pre-press purposes were the highest and lowest levels in an image are not printable at all (losing detail which is actually in the picture).
  
  The confusion Phase One is adding to this is, that in a recent thread (few days back) a request was put forward for being able to set preferred auto levels (bottom sliders) as in CO3. The answer was that the ability to set the top sliders threshold has now taken over that function.

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  bside

  • 5. Oktober 2009 21:16

  Paul,
  
  It is really interesting, after making adjustments on OUT of GAMUT photographs with either or EXPOSURE and HDR it is in our opinion using them both gets the best result.
  
  Thank you for introducing INPUT and OUTPUT. It is very helpful.
  
  Ciao,
  
  Tom

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  Paul Steunebrink

  • 6. Oktober 2009 14:18

  [quote="bside" wrote:
  It is really interesting, after making adjustments on OUT of GAMUT photographs with either or EXPOSURE and HDR it is in our opinion using them both gets the best result.

  
  Combining EXPOSURE and HDR tool to balance the result to your taste is indeed the way to go, I think. For my raw files (mainly Leica M8 and Canon 5D mkII) a HDR highlight correction of 50 I consider as the maximum value with zero EXPOSURE correction. A higher HDR value does not recover more highlights and makes the image too flat. With a exposure correction of -0.20 for example, I limit the HDR highlight correction to approx. 30 (and so on).

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