Capture One

Latest Posts

The secret to beautiful colors

One thing that I keep getting asked is, “Why would I switch over to Capture One Pro 8 from what I’m currently using? What does it do better than what I already use?” It seems as though a lot of people do not know that different programs process raw files differently. If this was news to you, then this article is for you!

I was missing out

It’s only in the last few years that I’ve been using Capture One. Before that time, I was oblivious to the benefits. As I started working in the commercial world, photographers seemed to use Capture One, for tethering and processing. I started using Capture One and was surprised at how colors rendered. I couldn’t believe what I was missing out on all of those years before. I initially thought that it would be an undertaking to learn a new program and that the benefits couldn’t be worth it. Still in denial, I thought whatever the difference might be, I could surely make up for it within Photoshop.

Worth the effort

I was completely wrong. Not only could I not make up for it, I couldn’t get anywhere near what Capture One was getting me in regards to how it processed colors. The reality is that it processes them so much more realistically than the current (and most popular) choice for processing RAW files. In fact, going back to the raw converter I was using before makes me realize just how much of an uphill battle it was trying to achieve beautiful color tones in my images. I was doing myself a complete disservice.

Let me show you first hand. Photographer and friend, Michael Woloszynowicz, has kindly allowed us to use his images to showcase the difference.

The two images seen here are imported as is without any settings. As you can see, the image on the left was processed in my previous raw converter of choice and it comes up muted and falls short while the Capture One processing algorithms show us how vibrant and pleasing the tones of the image are. This is before any sort of customization whatsoever. Depending on the image, the discrepancy varies much more…..sometimes, shockingly so. For instance, here is another example shown below.

When I get asked how I got my colors a certain way, the answer is unmistakably that I just started with a base from Capture One. Then when I apply further color grading, it becomes apparent why a good base is imperative. When I show them the difference, they tend to have the same reaction I did when I found out.

The other difference is how it handles sharpness and clarity through the image. You can clearly see how much sharper the base file is with Capture One within the image. You can even see a difference with the contrast. The brilliant clarity resolves much more detail than what I would get before.

The game-changing tool

The game-changing tool in Capture One Pro 8 is the color editor. The color editor allows you to correct offending skin tones that need to be corrected. The eyedropper tool on the bottom right of the wheel allows you to select a very specific skin tone and tweak exactly how it will be modified.

For instance, you can pick a green tint and move it to a red tint, which would blend in closer to the skin range of the image. The smoothness slider allows you to pick whether or not you want just the color you picked, or any neighboring colors to be modified at a lower capacity. The hue rotation slider gives you the ability to move the offending tone closer to its neighboring colors. In this example, a green tone is moved to reflect a beige tone. The saturation and lightness tab adjusts exactly what they say.

The uniformity slider is my favorite

This slider brings all the tones in the selected range closer to one similar tone. So if you have an issue where an image is rendering 5 varying tints of the same color, you can bring them all together without affecting texture, luminosity, or vibrancy. It really saves time in your retouching workflow once you begin working on it. Before, I would spend a much longer time color correcting skin tones in Photoshop. This delicate attention before-hand saves me time and gets me a far more accurate result.

Again, for example, with the settings shown in the image above, here is a before and after of what the edit accomplished.

Before:

After:

Ultimately, the way Capture One Pro 8 handles the fidelity of colors is far better than anything I have seen thus far. It is further complimented by the ability to specifically control each color in the image with purpose built tools. The sharpness and clarity that pair with the color control is a perfect match. This total control is really something that should excite anyone that cares about their images.

Best regards,

Pratik Naik
Solstice Retouch

Want to learn more about Pratik’s work? Sign up for the upcoming webinar, where Pratik will take us through his Capture One to Photoshop workflow.

New powerful workflow enhancers

Capture One Pro 8.1 was released recently with a focus on improving your workflow. Not too long ago I covered the new round-trip feature to Photoshop. In this post I will concentrate on the other powerful workflow enhancers in version 8.1.

Quick Cursor Tools

Many of the cursor tools in Capture One have additional functions if you click and hold on them. For example, with the crop tool, it brings up additional options for adjusting the aspect ratio.

Now in 8.1, this contextual menu can be accessed at any time in the Capture One viewer, simply by Control or right-clicking.

The additional benefit is that we can actually access all the features in the Crop tool, not just what is available from the cursor menu.

You will find a similar result if you experiment with the other cursor tools. Any of the picker tools can be very useful in this respect.

For example, if we choose the Pick Curve Point, we can right-click to get access to the Curve tool itself.

Try a few of the others and see what you find. It can really limit the amount of travelling your cursor has to do, when you can have the tools quick at hand where you need them.

Find and Replace Naming and more Tokens!

The ability to name and rename is also enhanced in 8.1. More naming tokens have been added and split up into different ’Groups’ to make them simpler to navigate.

Additionally, there is also a ‘Find and Replace’ function when batch-renaming. The Batch Renaming tool can be accessed by selecting a number of images to rename, then right-click on one and choose ‘Batch Rename”.

In the Batch Renaming tool, the ‘Method’ can be changed from the traditional token-based way, or changed to the new ‘Find and Replace’ method.

This is a great way for quickly and easily editing the file name or parts of the file name.

For example…

Multiple Guides

For those of you working in the studio or on location that require critical alignment of the subject, the addition of multiple guides is a nice added benefit. In the past, one horizontal and vertical guide were available by clicking on the show guides button on the tool bar.

Now additional guides can be added from the ‘View Menu’.

Note, that in the same menu you can also Lock, Clear and hide the guides. You might like to set up your own shortcuts for these.

Once shown, guides can be repositioned simply by hovering the cursor over them. Additionally, guides can be removed by dragging them to the edge. The current location of the guide is also shown at the edge of it. This can be very useful if aligning the subject for layout.

Other new features in Capture One Pro 8.1

Additionally in version 8.1 (as well as the usual additions of camera and lens support), the following other features have been added.

Improved Auto Adjustments
Up to 16 layers in Local Adjustments
Additional TIFF processing options

This is all part of our accelerated development to deliver more new features on a regular basis in Capture One. Watch this space for more!

All the best,

David

Video: Learn retouching from the best

In yesterday’s webinar Michael shared his unique technique of portrait retouching using the Local Adjustment possibilities and the powerful tools in Capture One Pro 8.

As we ran out of time yesterday, Michael promised to elaborate more on how he does color grading and Color Correction in Capture One Pro 8 in today’s blog post.

Sit back, click play and learn how to do professional retouching directly on the RAW file without the need for Photoshop!

Check out Michael’s website, some of his other tutorials and the webinar from last night.

How to make your food shots stand out

NOTE: This article discusses an outdated version of Capture One. To learn more about our latest version, click here.

Here is the finished shot of an Indian salad that I shot with my friend and exceptionally talented food stylist, Katie Giovanni.

In this instance I was shooting with Capture One Pro 8 with the IQ 160 back on a Phase One camera. The lighting is daylight with lots of black flags blocking the light out to create more contrast.

The journey from the initial to the final shot

As much as I try to minimize post work and processing, some shots just demand a little more tweaking and that’s when Capture One Pro 8 comes into it’s own. Here I will outline the journey from the very initial shot from the camera to the final shot you see here.

Stage 1: the first shot

This shot above is the first image before I work on the White Balance, exposure control and other processing options. It is a RAW image. Apart from choosing an ISO and exposure values this initial shot is a little bit like dipping the proverbial toe in the water to see what the potential is.

Stage 2: White Balance

I will always adjust the White Balance before the shot is completed so that you get an accurate idea of the composition as it develops. Often I’ll warm or cool the shot down just a little using the White Balance tool.

Working on the composition

Stage 3: Composition

The shot above is now pretty much complete within the camera but needs a certain amount of work on the raw file. Apart from White Balance the shot has been un-touched in Capture One Pro 8.

Stage 4: Exposure and Contrast

Changing the exposure and contrast at this stage is for me about trying to determine the mood and feel of the shot. Personally I prefer using this method rather than Levels as for me the exposure directly relates to minor exposure changes as if they were in camera. Obviously a calibrated screen is essential. See screenshots above.

Stage 5: Localized exposure change

One of the most useful features of Capture One Pro 8 is the layer options where you alter localized areas of the image. The red onion was just slightly burning out the highlights. If we tried to darken this using files that weren’t Raw, it would be almost impossible to retrieve this information. Using the raw information it is relatively easy.

Using the Draw Mask tool, you click on the plus sign to create a new layer. You can rename this layer if using multiple layers. Then using the Draw Mask tool you choose the size of the brush and then paint within the area you require to alter. The area will go red. Then using the sliders you can alter the exposure, contrast, color of this selected area (see screenshot above).

I also used this tool with another layer to make the small metal dish filled with mustard seeds go a little lighter.

Stage 6: Changing the background color

While using this tool I selected the background layer to make the whole shot a little bluer/turquoise. I did this by selecting the background color using the color picker tool, and then slightly changed the hue and saturation. See screenshot above.

Stage 7: Adding a vignette

Under the exposure slider tab is the Vignette tool. This shot I felt would benefit from your eye really closing in on the main dish so I added a vignette. Vignette’s can add to an image but I personally prefer it to look natural and not overly obvious. Capture One Pro 8 has a range of options to let you select the shape and amount.

Stage 8: Finished shot

So here’s the finished shot, which has been enhanced by Capture One Pro 8’s many features. The whole process took me just a few minutes.

As a food photographer for such a long time it’s quite incredible how the genre has moved on into the public’s imagination with a lot of people wanting to create their own blog, or wanting to self-publish their Mum’s recipe book. Food is a serious business and whether you are shooting angry soufflés for books or belligerent burgers for fast food chains, it’s always good to know that the digital age is complementing and helping progress rather than compromising quality for convenience.

More on Howard Shooter:

I started 20 years ago assisting a food photographer who photographed across multi disciplines, i.e. editorial, publishing, packaging and design, and I was blessed with his old school attitude to teaching about the craft, using 10×8 sheet film and old Strobe lights. The photographer and I are still great friends today and my approach to digital photography has been shaped by these skill sets that I developed as a young and enthusiastic apprentice.

Being quietly geeky and gadget mad

As an early adopter of digital being quietly geeky and gadget mad, I can’t help always feeling that what Phase One got right was that they allow the photographer to shoot without the digital bit either taking over or getting in the way. If you want it, it’s there but you don’t need a degree in quantum physics to get started shooting in a way that is as easy as pressing the camera shutter.

I shoot tethered which is a posh term for the digital back being physically attached to the computer with either a firewire or a usb cable. Capture One Pro 8 happily receives the raw data from the camera and there is the enormous file in beautiful color in front of your eyes for everyone to see instantly.

Why I use Capture One Pro 8

It is the immediacy of the action and the reliability of the new software, which constantly impresses me. The most crucial part of this process though and what sets Capture One apart from the competition is three fold; firstly the color is so accurate, it always has been the market leader in this area as far as I’m concerned and it just gets better.

Secondly the filmic quality of the files makes shooting seem like a throw back from when we would huddle over enormous light boxes judging the bracketing of sheet film transparency. Finally Capture One Pro 8 let’s you make very exacting changes to raw data, accurately, quickly and naturally.

Hope you enjoyed the blog post.

Best regards,

Howard Shooter

7-1-15