AI Masking

Capture One 16.3.0 introduced new AI Masking techniques, including Subject Masking, Background Masking, AI Select, and AI Eraser. In Capture One 16.5.0, People Masking was added, allowing you to quickly mask specific areas of a person with a single click using AI.

These tools allow for easy and precise masking of images, with features like automatic identification of subjects or backgrounds, easy selection and removal of specific objects or areas. With the release of Capture One 16.4.0, AI Masking utilizes the GPU if it’s powerful enough, resulting in significant performance improvements

AI Masking features support Next Capture Adjustments, Styles, Adjustments Clipboard, and Keyboard Shortcuts (Mask Subject, Mask Background, Mask People, AI Select, AI Eraser).
Styles, Adjustments Clipboard, and Next Capture Adjustments apply and recalculate the mask for each image.

Contents

• Subject and Background Masking
• People Masking
• AI Select & AI Eraser Cursor Tools
  • Click Method
  • Rectangle Method
• AI Masking and Styles
• AI Masking and Copy AI Masks Between Images
• Use AI Masks with Next Capture Adjustments
• Additional Information

Subject and Background Masking

Capture One has the ability to automatically identify and mask the subject or background in your images, thereby creating a new layer with a high-quality edge-refined mask. This method of masking can be incorporated into Styles, providing a convenient way to mask and apply adjustments simultaneously, and can be used on multiple images at once.

Also, the Background Layer is now referred to as the Image Layer to avoid confusion between subject and background layers.

Click Subject or Background in the Layers & Masks Tool to create a mask and a new layer.

To use AI masking on multiple images at once, select images in your collection (Cmd/Ctrl+A to select all or Cmd/Ctrl+Click to select individual variants) and then click Subject or Background from the Layers & Masks tool. Ensure that you have Edit All Selected Variants enabled. 

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People Masking

Introduced in Capture One 16.5.0, People Masking lets you quickly mask specific areas of a person in a single click using AI. These areas are body skin, face skin, pupil and iris, sclera, eyebrows, lips, and hair. Pupil and Iris, as well as Sclera options, were introduced in Capture One 16.5.2.

People Masking supports Next Capture Adjustments, Styles, Adjustments Clipboard, and Keyboard Shortcuts (Mask People). Styles, Adjustments Clipboard, and Next Capture Adjustments apply and recalculate the mask for each image.

The People drop-down button in the Layers & Masks Tool lets you select the area you want to mask:

The Create Mask button or the People button itself creates a new layer and masks the selected areas.

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AI Select & AI Eraser Cursor Tools

The AI Select and AI Eraser tools simplify masking specific objects or areas in images. They support click and rectangle methods for adding or removing masks as needed, with a complementary color preview of the mask overlay.

You can find AI Select and AI Eraser in the toolbar and in the Layers & Masks Tool (Adjust Tool Tab).

Hold down Alt/Option key to toggle between AI Select and AI Eraser.

Capture One takes a few seconds to prepare the AI model for each image. This process is repeated when zooming in for high-quality masks of smaller objects.

Click Method

With the click method, hovering over an image displays a preview of the expected mask area. Clicking an area of the image will add a mask (and create a new layer if none exists).

Starting with Capture One 16.4.0, a short animation will appear when clicking with the AI Select Cursor Tool to provide visual feedback, regardless of mask visibility settings.

Hold down Alt/Option to remove masked areas.

Rectangle Method

The rectangle method is useful for complex objects. Dragging a selection rectangle over the object with the AI Select or AI Eraser cursor displays a preview of the expected mask area. Like the click method, this either adds to or removes from the selected layer, or creates a new one if none exist.

Zoom in to your image to select facial features or smaller objects in your scene.

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AI Masking and Styles

Save AI masks as part of a Style for future use across other images.

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Copy AI Masks Between Images

Since Capture One 16.3.4, you can copy unchanged Subject Mask, Background Mask, and People Mask (16.5.0) Layers to other images, and Capture One will automatically re-calculate it.

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Use AI Masks with Next Capture Adjustments

In Capture One Pro 16.3.4, AI Masks are now supported in Next Capture Adjustments, recalculating as new images come in.

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Additional Information

• AI masking analyzes the original image without considering Healing/Cloning or other adjustments.
• AI masking works with all supported image files.
• You don’t need to be online to use AI masking.
• You can manually modify an AI mask with a Brush or Eraser.
• If there are more than one subjects in an image, Capture One should select them all.
• The mask will carry over while you tether if it’s a part of the Style selected in the Next Capture Adjustment Tool.
• There is no option to turn off the AI if it slows down performance as AI mask calculation is active only if you select AI Brush.
• Keyboard shortcuts are available to enable Subject and Background. The default ones are B and E, but you can adjust them according to your preferences.
• It’s possible to combine an AI mask with a Linear Gradient one by making a linear gradient, rasterizing it, and adding to it with AI Select. Otherwise, it will replace the existing mask.
• AI Masking tools should work pretty well without any limitations on monochrome files as they do on color files.
• Capture One 16.5.2 will not increase the total number of layers from now 16 to more at this moment.
• It’s not possible to export these masks to Photoshop.
• There is no way to refine only specific areas of the mask currently, you can only refine the whole mask, not its parts.
• Subtracting one mask from another is not currently available.
• AI Masking is more aimed to masking a subject that you can further color correct rather than remove. You can try Healing/Cloning as an option instead.

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