Capture One Layers Question

[Joe94]

Evening all,

Last week after a successful trial, I made the complete switch from Adobe to Capture one and I have to say for me as someone that doesn’t require a photoshop style pixel editor, it really suited me down to ground and I’m finding it a lot better than Lightroom.

I do have one question, however I apologies in advance if it’s a silly one.... But I understand that C1 has a fully functioning layers system built in, which allows multiple adjustments such as local masking & spot healing to be applied to separate layer to enable easy change of specific local adjustments or an easier workflow ect... however currently I don’t do masking & at best the only local things I need to do is very occasionally a spot heal or two..

So my question is, do I have to use a layer for local adjustments to ensure non destructive processing or like Lightroom, can I still apply the local adjustments direct to the (base layer), but still non destructively and that layers are just an added feature if you want their benefits?

Cheers All

 

[Pietrach]

You can apply all to background layer, and these are fully reversible. But adjustments like healing, gradual filter etc must be applied on a separate layer.

 

[Pietrach]

I though I would expand my answer above a bit. Global adjustments like exposure, saturation, levels, curves etc can be applied to background layer. However, if you want to target only a specific part of the image, this is where you would add a layer. It is a beautiful system, as it eliminated Photoshop / Affinity almost completely for most users. Within layers you can separately control saturation, colours, exposure, sharpness and pretty much anything you like. I do landscapes and tend to do very little on background. Spitting your adjustments into layers, even if these cover the entire image (as opposed to a selected fragment) allows you to Name the layers and it is soo much easier to control what you did and change only the part you want.
It changed the way I work with images. If Capture One ever decided to add Stacking and Panorama then I will not need anything else.

 

[LG9K]

I watched an excellent Layers tutorial a couple of weeks ago. As a total novice with regards to editing, these videos have been extraordinarily helpful. The methodology of creating the layer, making the adjustments, and then defining where you want those adjustments to be made works extremely well.

Here's the link:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xxste-BTjc

 

[Joe94]

I though I would expand my answer above a bit. Global adjustments like exposure, saturation, levels, curves etc can be applied to background layer. However, if you want to target only a specific part of the image, this is where you would add a layer. It is a beautiful system, as it eliminated Photoshop / Affinity almost completely for most users. Within layers you can separately control saturation, colours, exposure, sharpness and pretty much anything you like. I do landscapes and tend to do very little on background. Spitting your adjustments into layers, even if these cover the entire image (as opposed to a selected fragment) allows you to Name the layers and it is soo much easier to control what you did and change only the part you want.
It changed the way I work with images. If Capture One ever decided to add Stacking and Panorama then I will not need anything else.

Hello, thank you for confirming that everything can be done on the background layer non destructively, however thank you very much for you explanation of why layers are good.

As I say for me personally at my level (mainly wildlife photography), I have never needed or wanted to use a pixel editor like PS so have never really used layers or seen the benefits, hense why iv only every applied local adjustments to the base layer; however although you say I can still do that, after reading your advice about layers, when I comes to a time again where I may need to applie a heal brush or something local, then I will definitely spend some time with layer for sure! So yeah thank you for that very helpful indeed, as I too wish to only use one program

 

[Joe94]

I watched an excellent Layers tutorial a couple of weeks ago. As a total novie with regards to editing, these videos have been extraordinarily helpful. The methodology of creating the layer, making the adhustments, and then defining where you want those adjustments to be made works extremely well.

Here's the link:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xxste-BTjc

Thank you, I too have found these videos very helpful with learning C1, but I must admit I haven’t noticed this one, so thank you I will definitely give this one a watch