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How to use gradient masks in Capture One to improve outdoor shots

August 21, 2013 by Rod Lawton

Capture One provides a system of internal adjustment layers so that you can make localised adjustments to your pictures. These aren’t directly compatible with the adjustment layers in Photoshop and Elements – they just share the same name – but they are saved with your images in the Capture One library, so you can go back to them later and change or remove them if you want to.

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I’m going to use two adjustment layers to fix the picture below. It’s a common problem – you’re shooting on a sunny day, so you’ve got a bright sky in the background, but your subject is partly in shadow, so it comes out too dark.

Capture One gradient mask

01 Switch to the Local Adjustments tool tab

Capture One gradient mask

You open the Local Adjustments tool tab by clicking the paintbrush icon in the row of tool tabs at the top left of the Capture One window. To add a new adjustment, click the ‘+’ button (1). This creates a new adjustment layer (2), and you can type in a name to help you identify it later.

02 Select Gradient Mask

Capture One gradient mask

Up on the main toolbar at the top there’s a drop-down Mask menu. I need to select the Gradient Mask option.

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Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3

Filed Under: Capture One, TutorialsTagged With: Graduated filters

Life after Photoshop is owned and run by photographer and journalist Rod Lawton. Rod has been a photography journalist for nearly 40 years, starting out in film (obviously) but then migrating to digital. He has worked as a freelance journalist, technique editor and channel editor, and is now Group Reviews Editor on Digital Camera World. Life after Photoshop is a personal project started in 2013.

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