MikeFromMesa wrote:Hi Grant,
Thank you. You must have put in some time and effort to create the file.
Some comments for others who may wish to try this.
1) The appropriate location on the Mac is /Library/Application Support/Capture One/Styles, and
2) The file needs to be saved as plain text and needs the suffix costyle,
You can then apply the style by selecting it from the Adjustments -> Styles menu.
I have tried this on some recent photos and the effect is dramatic, perhaps a bit too dramatic for my taste, and I will play around with the settings to see if I can create something with a bit less flair and pop. You have done an astonishing good job with very little time and I am very grateful. I do not want you to think otherwise or that I do not realize how much effort you put into this. As I said it is a bit dramatic for me and I will try for something more subtle but I would never have known where to go to to do something like this without your help and I thank you again.
I will pull out some old and hazy photos and see how this style looks when applied and I will post the results as well. What would be best is if there was some way to apply a style with some kind of slider so it would be possible to adjust the impact as photos vary so much and the effect of this style can be a bit over-powering on some photos. I guess that suggestion was meant for the C1 developers as something like this could be added to the product and be very useful. Perhaps there is already a way to adjust the impact of styles and that is something I will look at later today.
I first applied this to an image I took from the top of a high promontory looking over a very large valley full of trees and far mountains in the central part of Arizona (where we sometimes go to get away from the oppressive summer heat) and it certainly changed the look of the image. The haze (which was not too noticeable because this was the mountains, not the real desert) mostly cleared up and the photo popped in an amazing way but, as I said, was a bit over-powering.
Thank you again and I will see what I can do with this. I had not even noticed that there was a folder full of styles and I will also have to play around with that to see what I can do with some of my more recent photos. I am grateful for your help and for pointing me in this direction. Today should be an interesting educational experience for me.
Hi Mike,
Well, I though it might be a bit dramatic but it should be easy enough to tone it down to suit different images. Probably start with Saturation and reduce the sharpening. Then maybe reset the Auto levels. I did slightly adjust the levels balance afterwards as well iirc (the centre line in the levles tool.)
The adjustments were made to establish just how far one could take an image with relatively few adjustments. Which is why it may be a bit strong. Now I have been prompted into making a Style for this I think I will develop 3 variants with different "strengths" to offer different starting points and degrees of subtlety.
I have used it as the basis for re-visiting some challenged images from a few years ago shot using an old Canon 400D and a Samyang 14mm lens with the images taken late morning in the Blue Mountains. Very hazy partly due to the nature of the vast gum tree forest and some previous overnight rain.
Previous I put in a lot of time trying to make something of these shots with older versions of C1 and also another very adaptable application and always found them very difficult. This style just made everything pop right away. A good starting point for fine tuning ... but then when I applied a proof profile for potential printing it looked about right for what I would want to deliver.
Using the same style I looked at some more recent images shot with an old FD mount 600mm lens via an adapter using a 600D (no point in a fancy body when everything has to be manual!) In perfect conditions this old lens is excellent but conditions are rarely perfect for it and in this case I was shooting motor sport through debris fencing which , rarer often, softens the image (even when in completely accurate focus) and adds its own hazy effect more often than not.
So a totally different scenario but the style made an immediate beneficial adjustment to all of the images I applied it to. In this case, due to the nature of the shots and lighting changing second by second as clouds passed by, most images would ideally require a bit more tweaking (and I would likely do that and save as a new style or copy image to image) but in general the settings gave a solid starting point.
So, 3 cameras (including your 5D3) 3 lenses and yet usable results (subject to personal preferences) right from the point of application. I'm hopeful that means the concept and some fairly standard settings are widely applicable - which I guess is what is also required of an application delivered De-haze solution.
By the way, getting the settings to provide a decent sort of Haze recovery only took a minute or two. Playing around seeking further refinement and different approaches took a little longer but I guess I spent less than 10 minutes on it in reality. That could be considered a lot for a single image but as a tool giving potential for repeated use it didn't seem too bad at all.
HTH.
Grant
