Don’t get discouraged! I’ve attached some screen captures that should get you started with this image. I assume the image was taken in raw format. This is the case you should adjust the white balance accordingly to achieve proper color balance. The first image shows the control settings for the background layer, the second image shows the dehaze settings used, while the third is the settings for adjustment layer 1, a filled layer.
The Capture One videos are very well done but their approach to image processing is not that of a wildlife photographer. I would encourage you to use layers liberally. A general game plan for wildlife photography would be to:
- Create a mask for the animal you are photographing.
- Create a second mask by copying the animal mask and inverting it. This is effectively a mask of the background.
Then proceed with your adjustments optimizing each of these layers for the desired effect. Tools such as Clarity, Structure, and Sharpening should be applied to the animal and generally avoided in the background as each of these tools creates noise. The background mask is not the object of interest and introducing any noise will degrade the quality of your image. One technique specific to Capture One that I have found useful is to increase the Noise Reduction Luminance to very high values on the background. This will create the appearance of a mild blur to the background allowing the viewer to more readily focus on the animal and significantly reduces noise. Obviously, this technique should not be applied to every image but I have found it more applicable than not.
One thing they don’t emphasize in the Capture One videos is how to effectively use the levels control. Let’s focus for a minute on the black level adjustment located at the lower left of this control. Any photography book will tell you to move this control to the right to where the histogram begins to rise. They caution that further adjustment will clip the blacks. This is true but over a short-range increasing this control to the right will increase contrast, increase color saturation, and increase sharpness. This is an important concept in optimizing your images. Use your eyes to optimize your image using the histogram only for guidance.
One last comment on the Capture One videos. They tend to obsess that the viewer depicts the scene exactly without introducing or significantly modifying colors. This may be a good rule to follow for some commercial photographers to follow, but that’s not everyone by a long shot. All sorts of color modifications are introduced into commercial photography on a daily basis by fashion and glamour photographers to achieve the desired effect. It’s true that many amateur photographers have a heavy hand with color saturation, but in the end, it’s your image and if it pleases you that’s what counts!
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