Gradient exposure mask following photo orientation upon copy

Morton

• January 21, 2015 11:51

I've been searching for documentation on this, without finding a solution, so posting here in the hope that someone can point out to me how to solve this in C1 - or in the case that it isn't easily solved, that this can be picked up as a feature request.

I have several portraits shot alternately in portrait/landscape orientation, and would like to apply a gradient expoure adjustment mask to all of them as a rough compensation for the light falling off gradually from above before tweaking the finer details in Photoshop.

When attempting to copy the gradient mask from a portrait orientation photo to a landscape orientation photo, the gradient is flipped - as if it is ignoring the auto-rotate metadata embedded in the photos or something (everything shot with a Canon 5DmkIII with auto-rotation in camera set to on).

This behaviour of C1 may be perfectly logical as a cold hardware-based kind of logic, but seems rather illogical from my perspective as a user. I would normally prefer the gradient to auto-rotate with the photo itself, so that the gradient continued to compensate for the light fall-off regardless of the image orientation being landscape or portrait. The same would normally hold true if I used the gradient to compensate for a bright sky in a landscape photo. This is, if memory serves me correctly, also how Lightroom handles this (but of course Lightroom's conversion quality isn't half as nice as C1 which is why I'd prefer to sort this out in C1).

Advance thanks to anyone that can offer some advice here. 😊

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  Paul Steunebrink

  • January 21, 2015 11:58

  A suggestion for a workaround from the top of my head - not tried and tested - is that you bring all image in the same orientation, for example the portrait orientation are made landscape (change the fewest images).
  Next, apply a gradient mask correction in a layer, and copy the layer adjustments. Last, you revers the orientation for the images you rotated (using color tag or star rating would come in handy).
  
  My assumption is that the layer mask rotates with the image now.

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  SFA

  • January 21, 2015 17:53

  Interesting observation with respect to your shooting workflow.
  
  I'm not sure that the approach used for the defining the gradient in C1 will readily adapt for swapped orientation. I can see that it should work for a square image the central point of the shot provided that remains the same. ( But then why would you want to change orientation!)
  
  If you want to make this an official feature request your best option is to create a Support Case so that the idea is added to the list of ideas and specific request from users that the Capture One team maintains using their support system.
  
  I think one problem might be that the current fill, if I understand it correctly, is measured and positioned relative to a starting point on an image. Creating this in one orientation may not map usefully to an alternative orientation using absolute positioning and measurements. It might work usefully if the measurements were proportionately adjusted to allow for the revised dimensions. (Perhaps it already is but I suspect not based on what you have seen.)
  
  HTH.
  
  
  Grant

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  Morton

  • February 19, 2015 10:01

  Thanks both Paul and Grant for the suggestions - and explanations.
  
  I believe it is probably true as suggested that C1 uses absolute and LR maybe relative positioning, which may explain the different behaviour/philosophies. I believe they are both valid depending on what you want to do/achieve, so probably not a case of either or, but rather "can we have both please" 😊
  
  The reason why I brought this up is that I'm quite sure I've done this quite effortlessly in Lightroom before; copied the gradient from the first image to the rest of the image series, and just dragged the mask in the subsequent images so the mask would fit perfectly with the subject matter/composition in the rest of the photos if necessary, which was a great timesaver for my editorial needs. Not necessarily the right approach for a more carefully rigged product shoot though, so not saying C1's current approach is wrong, it just doesn't work as well for what I'm trying to do.
  
  Think I will repost as a feature request 😊

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  SFA

  • February 19, 2015 12:45

  [quote="mbrakes" wrote:
  
  Think I will repost as a feature request 😊

  Make it a Support Case with "Feature Request:... " in the title.
  
  
  Grant

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