Affinity Photo Capture One

Window Start menu Settings Apps Default apps Choose default apps by file type scroll to your file type that you use in capture one click on the icon to the right Choose Affinity Photo when the Choose An App contextual window popup then you are done. Go to capture one and check it out in 'Edit with' and 'Open with.' Capture One is an image editor developed by Phase One. Initially, it was oriented on tethered photography, but later was upgraded with more image processing features. Nowadays, the Capture One photo editing software includes features and tools for RAW photos processing, picture cataloging, local adjustments, layers, keystone settings and the support for more than 500 cameras. Professional Plugins for Capture One. Every photographer wants the best in class editing software for their workflow. ON1 Professional plugins now work with your Capture One workflow at a level of integration no other plugin does, including working with multiple photos in editing.

Editing star trails can be complex. I walk through using Capture One, StarStax and Affinity photo. We start with a pile of RAW files and end up with an edited star trail.

Editing Star Trails

Editing Star trails seem complex. Lots of things have to go right for them to come together easily. Often those things do not go 100% correct so the image requires a lot of post processing work. This video gives you a high level taste of what it is like to shoot a star trail and then edit it. The basic process used is almost always the same:

Find your scene, setup and focus the camera.
Start taking frames as close together as possible, either with an intervolometer or with a simple release and continuous mode.
Process all the RAWs in a batch.
[optional] Review the individual images making any touch ups on them needed, removing any “jokers” that would ruin the final result.
Retouch the stacked image in a pixel editor like Affinity Photo.

Star Trails Exposure Settings

One of the questions I get asked frequently is why 1600 ISO, f/4, 30s as a starting point for star trails. The answer is: experience. It is a pretty sane starting point star trails in moderately light polluted areas that works with most cameras and triggering systems (i.e. simple remote vs external intervalometer). Depending on the level of sky glow (light pollution), I may have to adjust the factors. The key for star trails is to realize that the time of the exposure (30s, or 4 minutes, or 15s) doesn’t affect the stars much. They are moving so shortening or lengthening the exposure makes the distance they travel in an individual frame shorter or longer. The brightness of the stars (assuming the exposure is long enough for their motion to be apparent) is only affected by the instantaneous sensitivity of the camera system, that is, by the ISO and aperture.

Controlling Star to Sky Contrast

We exploit this relationship (the fact that the exposure of the stars is not affected by time but the foreground and background sky are). The brighter the sky (the more sky glow), the shorter the exposure needs to be to maintain contrast between it and the stars (so the stars are bright and the sky is dark). Knowing this (and with lots of batteries, large memory cards, hard drives and time) it is possible to shoot a stacked star trail in the middle of a city. You simply take a lot of really short exposures. You won’t have as many stars because a bright sky overpowers all but the brightest, but you will have some.

In very dark areas you can extend your individual exposure time. This as the advantage of reducing the number of RAW files you have to deal with (and thus the processing time and the smoothness of the trails) at the expense of more sensor noise depending on the camera.

Choosing Camera Settings for Star Trails

The choice of f/4 is for two reasons. First it has a deeper depth of field. Even on very wide lenses (e.g. 14mm), there may not be enough depth of field at f/2.8 if you have a very near foreground subject. The second reason is that many wide angle lenses are very soft in the corners wide open (i.e. at their fastest aperture, f/2.8, etc). Stopping down sharpens them up.

Here are some other rules of thumb for settings in various areas:

Near city rural, shooting away from city: ISO 1600, f4, 30s to 2 minutes.
Suburbia: ISO 800, f4, 15s to 30.
Urban: ISO 800 or less, f4 or slower, 10s or shorter.
Very Dark (.e.g Big Bend, etc): ISO1600+ (depending on sensor), f4 or faster, 4 minutes or longer (depending on sensor and trigger system)

Of course, these are just starting points.

Software

Here are links to all the software used:

RAW Processing: Capture One
Stacking: StarStaX
Pixel Edit: Affinity Photo

I realize I didn’t go into as much detail as I probably could have. More detailed videos focused on specific areas are coming. I’m already working on one covering how to shoot the frames without an intervolometer.

The Finished Star Trail

Andrew is a photography instructor teaching students of all skill levels in Austin, TX through Precision Camera and independently in San Diego, CA. He runs workshops around the United States.

He is a self taught experiential learner who is addicted to the possibilities that new (to him) gear open up. He loves to share the things he has worked out. Andrew started with a passion for landscape and night photography and quickly branched out to work in just about every form of photography. He is an ex-software developer with extensive experience in the IT realm.

Andrew is a full time wedding and commercial photographer in both Austin and San Diego. Andrew is a club founder and multi-time past president of North Austin Pfotographic Society.

Capture One and Affinity Photo are powerful milky way photo editing tools. Combining them adds a whole new dimension to milky way photography. Check out this edit walk through of a milky way photo on Padre Island National Seashore.

Editing Milky Way Photos with Capture One and Affinity Photo

Capture One is my go-to raw editor. I love it’s configurable interface. And, most of all, I love how good my images look with minimal work. When shooting at high ISOs, noise can be an issue even on the best camera. After the initial raw processing in Capture one, I export the images to Affinity Photo for more advanced processing.

Image Stacking Noise Reduction

This milky way photo is a part of a sequence of images. Therefore, I am able to use image averaging to remove noise in the static areas.

Noise should be randomly distributed. That means any set of frames will exhibit random shifts in the color or luminescence of each pixel. The better the sensor, the smaller the variation between frames, and the closer to the “real” value the pixels will be. However, noise *should* be normally distributed around the “real” value.

When you capture a set of frames of the same scene, you have essentially increased the size of the data set. We can apply some very basic statistics and determine the most likely “real” value for each pixel. You could even calculate your confidence interval if you wanted. That is a complex way of saying that when you have 5, 10 or 20 frames of the same subject, as we do with a time lapse like this, we can average them together and remove noise.

Affinity Photo Capture One Pro

By averaging the frames, the noise will cancel out statistically. And, unlike most noise reduction techniques, image averaging actually approaches the real value instead of selectively blurring differences. Real variation, such as fine details, remain and even become more distinct while random variations diminish. The more images you average the closer the results are to the “real” values presented to the camera.

I used image stacking noise reduction on the beach and water. They were the only elements of the image that remained the same from frame to frame.

Frequency Separation Noise Reduction

Photographers normally use frequency separation for portrait retouching. The photographer splits the image into two layers. The high frequency layer contains all the “rapid” changes in pixel values. The low frequency layer contains all the “slow” changes in the pixels.

By separating these two types of information, a photographer works independently on different aspects of an images. For portraits, the high frequency layer usually contains all the information about pores, clothe texture and other fine details. The low frequency layer contains broader information like tone and color for entire regions of the image.

For this image, we use frequency separation in a totally different way. By separating the high and low frequency information of the image we can selectively mask out the high frequency information. This is a powerful technique for selectively blurring portions of the image.

The photographer can leave the image unchanged by not masking out the high frequency layer. Todo list in onenote. However, to smooth noise, the photographer need only mask out the high frequency layer using a black or grey brush. This omits the high frequency changes. Rapid shifts in color and tone do not occur in those areas.

That allowed me to remove the blotchiness in the clouds that increasing the contrast caused. Java se 6 download mac.

Affinity Photo Edit

Simple Noise Reduction

I don’t normally use general noise reduction filters because they tend to blur out details and make an image look plastic. In the case of the background sky, the general noise reduction filter in Affinity does a pretty good job.

I selectively applied noise reduction to just the clear part of the sky by taking advantage of Affinity’s filter masking system. Each filter you apply is also a masking layer. Select a filter and paint in black, grey or white. The closer to white the filter is, the stronger the filter is applied. Black pixels disable the filter on those pixels.

I applied the noise reduction strongly to the sky. Because the stars are such distinct feature on a dark background it does a good job of only removing actual noise and not detail.

Capture One Affinity Photo Workflow

Capturing Milky Way Photos – The Importance of Foreground

Same Milky Way, Different Weather

The milky way is invariant from a humans point of view. Other than it’s relative position in the sky, it doesn’t really change. That poses some interesting problems for photographers. Foreground becomes the defining characteristic in the image. On Padre Island’s beech, the sand and water are flat and uniform. The milky way is to the south, over the ocean.

The addition of blowing clouds makes this image. They add a middle ground element and a sense of motion. So, don’t think clouds will prevent astrophotography. As long as the sky can peak through some of the clouds, they can add a key element to your photo.

Affinity Photo Download

For those that are wondering, this image was taken using a venerable Nikon D3s with the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G ED lens. The settings were ISO3200, f/2.8, 30 seconds.

Andrew is a photography instructor teaching students of all skill levels in Austin, TX through Precision Camera and independently in San Diego, CA. He runs workshops around the United States.

Affinity Photo Ou Capture One

Andrew is a full time wedding and commercial photographer in both Austin and San Diego. Andrew is a club founder and multi-time past president of North Austin Pfotographic Society.