Capture One has many virtues but the odd shadow. For example, it is impossible to drastically change one color for another. We can always play with the Hue to modify an adjacent tone, but can you add a complementary or opposite tone?
Capture One does everything a classic photographer could do in the darkroom with extremely precise control. There is nothing ahead of you in this regard … But things change when we want to do things that were not possible in the chemical world.
Each new version improves on the previous one. But there are things with which there is no choice but to go to Adobe Photoshop. And one of them is to change the color drastically. Play with opposite tones. We can always adjust the adjacent colors but there is no direct way to turn red into blue, for example.
We can always adjust the adjacent colors but there is no direct way to turn red into blue, for example.
But it is always possible to look for shortcuts to get it. And this is what we are going to see today. It’s a long process. It is not complicated but it requires a little patience and many layers. So if we have many layers accumulated we will have no choice, if we want to make a radical change, than to work with copies of the original modified file.
Radically change color in Capture One Pro
As I pointed out at the beginning, Capture One is perfect for changing the color of objects. But as long as they are adjacent colors. Within the color wheel, we can only adjust the color before or after the one chosen with the Hue parameter.
This is perfect as long as we have monitored the color during the shot. If we want to highlight the harmony we have chosen, just adjust the three color parameters (Hue, Saturation and Brightness) and we will have exactly what we want.
But imagine that we have been confused. We don’t like the flesh color of the shirt and we want a green shirt. We have no choice but to go to Photoshop to finish the image … Unless we use this trick:
- We revealed photography in Capture One.
- We create a layer in the menu Layer> Add empty adjustment layer.
- With the Draw mask tool (B) we paint on the girl’s shirt. There are other methods but this is the simplest.
- With Layer> Refine mask we adjust the selection to the maximum by raising the Radius.
- If we see it necessary, we clean the selection later with Delete mask (E).
- And now comes the change. In the Color Editor> Advanced tab, mark the Select color correction tool and click on the shirt. No further adjustments are necessary because we are working on a selection.
- With the Matiz parameter we take it to one side or the other depending on the direction we want to follow in the color wheel. In this first layer, I take it to the right to change shade.
And how do we get to our goal? Very easy. Now we only have to repeat three steps as many times as we need.
- We create a new empty layer in Layer> Add Empty Adjustment Layer.
- Next, we go to Layer> Copy Mask From> Adjustment Layer 1.
- And we go back to Color Editor> Advanced, mark the corresponding tool and change the Hue again in the same direction… And as many times as necessary…
It is more laborious than doing it in Photoshop, but if you do not want to exit the program it is the best option. Then you can play with Saturation and Lightness to achieve the color you want … You will tell us what you think about this method.