How do I tell Capture One Pro to Automask this Building?

Brent Schumer

• August 21, 2018 00:08

So I am learning photography with an A6000 and Capture One Pro for Sony. My white whale is proper capture of the nighttime vistas around the JKO reservoir in Central Park. These gorgeous stately buildings sit in contrast to the trees and water in a way that truly brings me peace, and I want to share that view with the world. It's what drove me to pick up a camera in the first place.


My current lens (the 18-135mm Sony zoom) isn't great in low light, but with a tripod and 10s exposures I can grab a RAW image with the detail that I'm looking for:
https://i.imgur.com/Y1dbXwj.jpg
My plan is to bring out the hidden RAW file detail while preserving the original ambiance with three masks:
-Sky: lower brightness
-Building: Use the HDR/Shadow slider to reveal detail
-Trees: Use a greater amount of the HDR/Shadow slider to reveal detail

But when I try and mask the buildings with Auto Mask, this happens:
https://i.imgur.com/pTSee8y.jpg

Per the online Masking Tutorial, I tried to "Refine Mask" with no effect. Does this image lack the contrast for the automask function? Is there a step that I'm missing? Thank you!

Edit:
This building worked better, but the sky mask and darkening looks rather amateur! Any tips?
https://i.imgur.com/NNduZWX.jpg

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  WPNL

  • August 21, 2018 05:39

  Automasking can be helpful sometimes but I think the only way to create the mask you want exactly is to paint it yourself. Though it works quite well in the right situations it is not as intellegent as you are 😉
  Take your time to zoom in and evaluate every detail. That's the best way...

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  C-M-B

  • August 21, 2018 05:51

  Automask works best with a decent contrast between the things you want to mask. Here it seems like there's not enough contrast between the pixels to automatically create a mask.

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  cdc

  • August 21, 2018 06:17

  Some masks need to be made manually, that said if you brighten the image by raising the exposure you can use the color editor tool to select the color of the buildings, adjust the selection on the color wheel, and then create a masked layer from selection. That should give you a layer with a mask that has a majority of the buildings outlined against the sky, the beginnings of what you're looking for I think. You'd have to manually erase the clouds, and paint in the windows/lights of the buildings, & foreground.
  
  This only works because all of the buildings happen to be similar in color which is not the color of the sky, Not a solution for every image, maybe not even a solution for this image, but perhaps a start.

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  Brent Schumer

  • August 21, 2018 10:47

  The color editor mask idea works quite well, thanks for the tip! Now I have to figure out how to paint all the tiny details and how to make the editing appear less artificial with less of a "hard" border between the sky and raised shadows.

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  Ian Wilson

  Moderator

  • August 21, 2018 13:53

  

  Less of a hard border is easy enough. Experiment with the refine mask and feather mask options.
  
  Ian

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  Chad Dahlquist

  • August 21, 2018 22:03

  IMHO this is what PS is for 😊 do the exp you need for both and bring into PS use some luminosity masking

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  Gustavo Ferlizi

  • August 21, 2018 23:09

  For this specific image, what Chad said is the best bet. Extract multiple exposures of the RAW file (Shadows, Midtones, Highlights) and mask them together in Photoshop.
  
  In hope of not sounding negative, none of this will look as good as finding the right time of day and right time of the year that gives the right light/contrast.
  
  You're probably better off trying to make daytime (lighter dusk maybe) look like nighttime.
  
  Don't be discouraged, but pictures of dark things in the dark can only go so far.

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