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Auto adjust exposure not working

Richard Allen
If I import an image into Capture One without any auto adjustment made during the import I can then click on the 'A' within the Exposure section to get an auto adjustment.

I have imported a new set of images using a 'user style' I created (part of the style is to set the exposure to 0 and the Highlights to 80) and have the Auto Adjust box underneath this option also ticked.

Once these images have been imported the auto adjustments within Exposure and High Dynamic Range no longer work; if I move the Exposure (or Highlights) slider over one way and then click on Auto Adjustment nothing happens.

It's as if the user style has over-ridden everything else and now the auto features don't work.

Is this 'normal' behaviour for Capture One or is it a 'bug'?

Thanks
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Comments

8 comments

Date Votes
  • Paul Steunebrink
    First, I checked this and I can replay the issue. By the way, I never considered to combine a style and auto adjust on import, but why not? 😉

    Second, it is the first time I learn that a zero adjustment can be saved. So far I was aware, this was not the case.

    Third, behaviour on Mac, where I checked this too, is different. Reversed, I could say. The auto adjust overrides the style, for that part that auto adjust is adjusting. And auto adjusting per tool after import is no problem.

    The behaviour on Windows sounds more like a bug than a feature, I will Phase One on this.
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  • Richard Allen
    Paul,
    thank you for your input on this; I had contacted Capture One support and they stated...

    "This is not normal behaviour. I am guesing it is a issue isolated to your machine. Try tossing the user preferences and re-loading the file. It shoudl behave normally.

    Best regards,
    Team Phase One Support    "

    If you can get a better response than I did I'd be very grateful especially as you're getting the same result as myself especially as I have no idea what "tossing the user preferences" means... LOL.

    It seems that the Capture One support technician didn't try to replicate my problem and automatically blamed my computer.

    Regards
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  • Paul Steunebrink
    Richard,

    The issue is easy to reproduce, but on Windows only. The issue is by the way more wide-spread then the import function. As soon as I have a style applied to an image (which was already imported), the auto adjust for that image is disabled when the style contains an adjustment for that tool. As soon as you remove the style, the auto adjust value is automatically set, without your interaction!

    I suggest you respond to your case by referring to this thread. In case support needs more information, they are welcome to contact me directly.
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  • Richard Allen
    Thank you so much Paul; I've contacted Capture One and they're going to forward it on as a bug.

    They didn't believe me and it was only through yourself being mentioned that they took it seriously.

    Thanks again... 😊
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  • SFA
    Paul,

    I'm not so sure this is a bug as described.

    If you have set Auto Adjust at some point but then apply a Style that happens to re-adjusts an auto adjust setting, change your mind and remove it, would you not want things to revert to how they were after auto adjust rather than the default for that tool?

    I could see it wither way but a "Delete last action" result would seem logical rather than a partial edit reset.

    Or have I miss understood something in the procedure?


    Grant
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  • Paul Steunebrink
    [quote="SFA" wrote:
    Paul,

    I'm not so sure this is a bug as described.

    If you have set Auto Adjust at some point but then apply a Style that happens to re-adjusts an auto adjust setting, change your mind and remove it, would you not want things to revert to how they were after auto adjust rather than the default for that tool?

    I could see it wither way but a "Delete last action" result would seem logical rather than a partial edit reset.

    Or have I miss understood something in the procedure?

    Hi Grant,

    This issue is the other way round. After applying a style, you are not able to use auto adjust (at least, on Windows). That is not correct. You should be able to use it no matter what kind of adjustments you made earlier.
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  • SFA
    [quote="Paul_Steunebrink" wrote:
    [quote="SFA" wrote:
    Paul,

    I'm not so sure this is a bug as described.

    If you have set Auto Adjust at some point but then apply a Style that happens to re-adjusts an auto adjust setting, change your mind and remove it, would you not want things to revert to how they were after auto adjust rather than the default for that tool?

    I could see it wither way but a "Delete last action" result would seem logical rather than a partial edit reset.

    Or have I miss understood something in the procedure?

    Hi Grant,

    This issue is the other way round. After applying a style, you are not able to use auto adjust (at least, on Windows). That is not correct. You should be able to use it no matter what kind of adjustments you made earlier.


    OK, I understand what you are saying in terms of technical application but "a style" can mean many things some of which may, in effect, be countered by an auto exposure recalculation. In which case you would not be applying the "style" as originally intended (if there was an original intent) anyway.

    At that point it seems to me that there is a very good chance that either the Auto Exposure or the Style are irrelevant to the point where one of them should not apply - but that may depend on the nature of the Style.

    To me Auto Exposure really only has purpose on first import or view as a quick adjustment that might get closer to an "ideal" set of values. (In fact in my personal perception it may not work that well, certainly with a lot of things I shoot. I could see it might be great for other material.)

    But that is all it is, not some sort of magic that has to be applied to make an image work. There is nothing there that cannot be quickly provided by a couple of sliders in one or two tools - which one will probably resort to anyway for fine tuning. (If wanting fast adjustments to send out a few thumbnail based proof sheets the Auto Adjust would surely be a useful approach.)

    If we assume the Auto Adjust feature should take precedence (either because of what it is or simply because we might choose to have a principle that say the last used tool takes precedence) then the "Style" application should probably be removed. (Yes I appreciate it may have elements to it that are not affected (much) by the Auto Adjust but then how complicated do we want to make this?) .

    Better would be to have the option to disable the components of the style but leave it in place ready for the user re-visit it and test the results in order to see which parts of it, if any, they wish to retain. Personally I would seek to do that using a variant but I am aware that many people are not attuned to the use of variants at all. Bearing in mind that the Auto Adjustment might be used with a selection of files active the Variant approach might not be appropriate in all situations.

    Richard's original description reports a combination on import of a Style that sets specific adjustment values for Exposure (0) and HDR Highlights (80) as well as the flag for making an Auto Exposure. (I have some problems getting my head around how the software might attempt to interpret that since the two directives seem to have elements of contradiction to them.)

    So Auto Adjustment has been applied (and possibly overridden by the style). Now make anohter adjustment and then attempt to apply Auto adjustment again. But it has already been applied (always based on the original image one assumes since it is the only fixed starting point for such a process) so applying it again (and then all of the other adjustments through the Style and manual settings) probably should not be seen to change anything. Its delta adjustment values, based on the original source image, should be no different. Or so I would have thought.

    I seem to recall reading that C1 in effect "flattens" all of the individual adjustment values to give a single adjustment to the original pixel interpretation. So all individual adjustments are calculated from the base value. The order of calculation is therefore not significant.

    Another editor I use where stacked tools (with their own adjustment options) are deployed makes the adjustment for each tool in the stack based on the result of the previous tool's output. In some situations this can make a noticeable difference readily visible if one swaps tool positions in the stack. (Not something one can do with C1). Sometimes this can be useful but in the majority of situations I find that C1 produces a more rounded result more easily and more quickly. (There are more factors involved in that than just how the adjustments are calculated.)


    Does the C1 process work differently in a Mac environment?


    Grant
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  • Paul Steunebrink
    [quote="SFA" wrote:
    ...
    Does the C1 process work differently in a Mac environment?

    Processing works the same cross-platform. Allowing you to make certain adjustments in a certain order seems to be different in certain circumstances between the two platforms. 😉
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