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Import your Catalogs from Other Applications in No Time

NOTE: This article discusses an outdated version of Capture One.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

We understand that many of you are keen to try the outstanding RAW conversion available in Capture One 7, and would like to do this with images that may already be associated with other applications. We have therefore added a new import function in Capture One 7.1.3 for Mac OS X that helps you migrate your images in no time

It’s now possible to import your Lightroom 4 and/or Lightroom 5 Catalogs into Capture One 7, so you can get started straight away while keeping your Catalog structure intact.

While we have succeeded in reading much of the database within the Lightroom Catalog, we unfortunately cannot transform all adjustments. Some settings in Lightroom like color edits cannot be imported due to the sophisticated methods we use in Capture One’s color handling and RAW conversion. Currently we can move the following parameters from Lightroom to Capture One 7:

Collections
Crop, Rotation and Orientation
White Balance, Exposure, Saturation and Contrast
Metadata (IPTC, Rating, Color Label, Keywords)

Importing a Lightroom Catalog

Importing a Lightroom Catalog is easy and it only requires a couple of steps. First, you will need to create a new Catalog in Capture One 7 by choosing File>New Catalog, or you can use an existing Catalog if you would like to combine it with a Lightroom Catalog.

Next, choose File>Import Catalog>Another Catalog.

Next, browse to the location of the Lightroom .lrcat file…

The following dialog box will appear in Capture One 7, reminding you what parameters can be transferred.

Click Continue and Capture One 7 will read the contents of the Lightroom Catalog and duplicate the information in the database to Capture One. You will see the following Activity dialog boxes during the process. The first indicates how many items are to be imported and the second shows the progress of building preview images.

When the import has completed, you will see a summary of how many items have been imported and if there were any skipped items. Skipped items may include images that are “offline” in Lightroom. Should a file be offline, Capture One 7 will prompt you to provide/locate the Volume that the images are on during the import process, or allow you to skip each particular item.

The speed of the migration process depends on how many images you are importing into Capture One 7.

Finally in the User Collections area of the Library Tool, you will see your Lightroom collections. Click on these to view the contents.

The Folders area in the same tool shows you the actual path of the images – reflecting how they are organised on the system.

Points to Remember

Capture One 7 is a “read only” software and makes no changes whatsoever to the Lightroom .lrcat file. Capture One 7 simply reads the information contained in your Lightroom catalog file and is therefore a very safe operation. If you are at all concerned however, please work with a copy of the .lrcat file.
Close Lightroom before trying the import otherwise the .lrcat file will be unreadable.
Adjustments to Saturation, White Balance, Contrast and Exposure are approximate and your image may look slightly different compared to Lightroom. Try the full complement of Capture One 7 Tools to get an ever better look.
Smart Collections in Lightroom cannot be imported. So if you want to see them in Capture One 7, save them as Collections first in Lightroom.

We hope you enjoy seeing your images with the quality of Capture One’s Raw conversion.

To help you with your transition into Capture One 7, we have prepared the following material:

Quick Start Guide to get you up and running with Capture One Pro 7 in no time

Webinar below:

All the best,

Niels

Relocating Catalog Images in Capture One Pro 7

**An updated version of this blog post for Capture One 11 is available here**

The Capture One 7 Catalog database keeps track of where images are located, as well as maintaining adjustments, metadata and other elements. When managing images in a Catalog you can decide to store the files directly inside of a Capture One 7 Catalog or in a separate directory. In this tutorial we will refer to images inside the Catalog as ‘managed’ images and those in a separate directory as ‘referenced’ images.

Why relocating is useful

Within Capture One 7 Catalogs, you have the ability to change how managed or referenced images are handled in the Catalog. This can be useful, if your workflow requires mobility and you need to move some of your images from an external volume to a Catalog that is kept locally on your Laptop. Relocating files in this manner gives you full access to the RAW data while you are on the road. Features like processing, zooming or lens corrections will then be available that would otherwise be unavailable in offline mode.

Offline mode

When importing images to a Catalog, a preview is made and stored in the Catalog. This preview is used for displaying the image on your monitor. Capture One 7 previews are ‘smart’ previews, which means should a drive containing the RAWS be disconnected, you can still make most adjustments. However things like processing and zooming requires the RAW data to be available to the software.

How to relocate your Catalog images

On the Mac platform the Capture One 7 Catalog is one single file.

On the Windows platform the Catalog database and other necessary folders are stored within one folder.

If you want to change image locations from a managed workflow to a referenced workflow, it is critical that this is done within the Capture One Folders Tool. This ensures that the Capture One 7 Catalog remains up to date. However, if you accidentally fail to do this, links to images can be re-established within the Capture One 7 “Locate” option.

Changing Images from Managed to Referenced

Referenced files are shown in the Folders Tool (by default in the Library tool tab) in their current location.

If you can’t see the complete folder tree as shown above, right-click anywhere in the Folders Tool and choose ‘Show Folders Hierarchy’.

To move an image within the Catalog itself (managed) from an external location (referenced), simply select the images you wish to move and then drag and drop them onto the Catalog icon (also in the Folders Tool).

The image will be physically moved inside the Catalog from the external location.

The image is moved and not copied in order to prevent duplications of RAW files with two different sets of adjustments.

Changing Images from Referenced to Managed

If you want to move an image located within the Catalog to an external drive, this can be achieved by doing a simple reversal of the operation described above, i.e. just drag and drop the image from within the Catalog to the desired external location.

Re-establishing Broken Links

Links to the location of your images or folders in Capture One 7 have the potential to become “lost” should changes be made outside of Capture One. If you have made changes to the folder structure or location of images in the Mac Finder or Windows Explorer you will have to re-establish a link within Capture One 7. As mentioned above, it is always best practice to make changes within Capture One 7, so the catalog database is updated accordingly.

However, should a link be broken it is possible to correct the change so that images are accurately located in the Catalog.

The folder in the image above shows the “image count” value and an exclamation mark to notify you of the missing connection.

How to repair broken links for moved folders

Select the folder that has lost its link to the Catalog. Choose ‘Show Info’ from the Library Tool’s drop down menu.

The following dialog box will display at the bottom of the Library Tool. In the example below, I have moved the folder named ‘Food’ to a different location in the Mac Finder, therefore the ‘Where’ field text is in red to indicate the folder cannot be found at the previously specified path. A locate button is present to point Capture One 7 to the new location.

Click the ‘Locate’ button and browse to the correct, new location for the missing folder. Once located, click “Open” in the browser window to re-establish a link in Capture One. The Catalog will be updated accordingly and the folder will now appear in the correct location of the Folders tool.

How to repair broken links for individual images

A similar process can be done for individual images that may have been moved outside of Capture One from one folder to another. The image will show as ‘Offline’ with a question mark displayed in the Viewer and Browser.

Right-click on the image in the Browser and choose the ‘Locate…’ option.

A Finder window will appear. Browse to the correct location of the image and click “Open” in the browser window to re-establish a link in Capture One. The Capture One 7 Catalog will be updated accordingly.

Fuji X-Trans Sensor Excels in Capture One 7

For more than 10 years Capture One has been supporting various RAW files from major camera manufactures. These fully supported RAW files all come from cameras using the Bayer Color filter layout.

Over the years Phase One has constantly been working on improving the algorithms for converting the RAW data captured by the sensor to a full RGB file, a process often referred to as Bayer interpolation.

The quality that can be derived from the Bayer filter layout has been well proven throughout the years. Using the Capture One 7 processing engine it is possible to achieve an amazing level of detail and precise color from RAW files using this color filter layout.

The arrival of the X-Trans filter

In 2012 Fujifilm introduced a completely new Color filter layout named X-Trans. Fujifilm’s new color filter layout is based on a 6×6 pixel pseudo random color filter pattern (as opposed to the traditional 2×2). Despite a more challenging filter layout the engineers at Phase One have managed to make support for this new filter layout in Capture One 7.1, yielding natural colors and excellent detail rendition.

A camera with an image sensor that uses the Bayer Color filter layout can run the risk of producing moiré when photographing fine structures. Image content with specific types of fabric or distant building details are potentially problematic. Optical low pass filters, also called antialiasing filters, can be used to minimize the risk of moiré by slightly blurring the image, however this can result in an image with less sharpness.

In 2012, Fujifilm offered their own solution to deal with the above dilemma by introducing a new color filter layout named X-Trans. The theory behind the new layout was that by using a more random color filter, over a 6×6 pixel block, you effectively minimize moiré and can then remove the need for an antialiasing filter. Without antialiasing filter a sharper image can be achieved.

The X-Trans color filter layout with a 6×6 pixel pattern

You can, of course, never completely prevent moiré from happening with just a change to the color filters from the classical 2×2 Bayer layout to the new 6×6 X-trans layout.

A big challenge

The new 6×6 X-trans layout is a big challenge for all RAW converters. Many algorithms and process steps in the Capture One processing pipeline have been modified in order to handle this new pattern. As a result, Capture One now has a solution with which you can achieve excellent details and precise colors using these X-trans cameras.

JPEG file from camera RAW file in Capture One

The image above is a 200% zoom into a X-Trans file from a Fujifilm X100S. The lack of antialiasing filter coupled with a sharp lens results in a very crisp image. If you compare the JPEG with the RAW file from Capture One you will see that, by default, Capture One extracts slightly more details.

More precise color rendition

The real benefit, however is a much more precise color rendition of the smaller details in the image. Look specifically at the colors of the curtains in the windows. In the RAW file you can see green and blue curtains while the JPEG file only shows gray curtains. Also notice the natural color variations in the bricks of the RAW file.

When using a sensor with a color filter array, moiré will occur when patterns in the image interfere with the pixel resolution. This is also the case when using an X-Trans sensor.

JPEG out of the camera RAW file in Capture One.

The image above is a 100% zoom into a picture of two blue shirts. This specific type of shirt fabric has always created moiré problems when testing cameras and it is no different using a camera with an X-Trans color sensor. When no antialiasing filter is used and you have a super sharp lens you can always find a distance (from sensor to subject) where moiré can show up.

Remember that if color moiré occurs you can use the Moiré Tool in Capture One 7 to minimize the color moiré. The Moiré Tool can be applied to the specific area using the Local Adjustments tool, allowing you to apply strong settings adjustments without affecting other parts of the image.

RAW file with moire RAW file after using the Moire Tool

After using the Color Moiré Tool on the RAW file, all color moiré has been removed. Although X-Trans color filter sensors promise moiré-free images, the reality is something else. Luckily, with the advanced Moiré Tool in Capture One 7 it is possible to remove the Moiré completely.

All the best,

Niels

Improve the Level of Detail by Fixing Chromatic Aberration

Almost all lenses show some kind of chromatic aberration, but wide-angle lenses in particular are prone to this issue.

Chromatic aberration is a type of distortion where a lens fails to focus all the wavelengths of light at the same point. This is visible on an image in the form of colour fringing, especially at high contrast edges. Chromatic aberration can also reduce the sharpness and detail of an image.

The combination of the sharpest lenses and strong chromatic aberration can be a big challenge for the Bayer interpolation algorithm in a RAW converter.

In Capture One 7.1.3 the Bayer interpolation algorithm has been optimized to better handle images with strong chromatic aberration, thus improving detail rendition and correcting the color shift.

Chromatic aberration Fixed chromatic aberration

The sample image above is zoomed to 300% view. The image has been shot using a sharp lens with strong chromatic aberration. The image on the left is without the removal of chromatic aberration and the image on the right is the same image but after the removal of chromatic aberration in Capture One 7. After fixing the chromatic aberration not only the visual color shift is fixed but also the definition of all the tiny lines and structures are highly improved.

A normal image sensor in a camera only measures one color per pixel. The most common layout of color filters (named Bayer layout) uses 2 green, one blue and one red pixel for every 2×2 pixels. This layout was invented and patented by Bryce Bayer from Eastman Kodak in 1975. The process of estimating the 2 missing colors for every pixel in the sensor is often named Bayer interpolation.

Bayer color filter layout on an image sensor

When strong chromatic aberration occurs, the red, green and blue color information in the image can be misaligned by up to a few pixels. This misalignment can confuse the interpolation algorithm. Imagine you have a thin one pixel wide line in an image and you have strong chromatic aberration, then one set of color pixels will see the image of the thin line where another set of color pixel don’t see anything. This is in essence the challenge when doing the Bayer interpolation of an image taken with strong chromatic aberration.

Chromatic aberration Fixed chromatic aberration

This is a closer zoom that shows the image before and after the removal of chromatic aberration.

In Capture One 7 we have included automatic lens corrections for a large number of lenses. If an image is taken with one of the known lenses, Capture One 7 will automatically compensate for the chromatic aberration from the lens.

In the Lens Tool the Profile shows the automatically selected Lens
Profile. By default it compensates for chromatic aberration.

When using a non supported lens, Capture One 7 still gives you the option to fix the chromatic aberration in the image and therefore also the potential to increase the detail rendition. In the Lens Tool you only need to check the Chromatic Aberration checkbox.

When checking the box, the application will analyze the image to determine the behavior of the chromatic aberration. After the analysis is complete, the image will then be re-interpolated taking into account the information gathered from the analysis.

Setting the checkmark for chromatic aberration initiates an analysis of the image to determine
a proper fix for the chromatic aberration. The result is a more natural looking image with a highly improved level of detail.

The small icon to the right of the chromatic aberration label will become visible after the chromatic aberration analysis has completed. Clicking this allows you to re-analyze the image. If you have copy-pasted lens correction adjustments including the chromatic aberration information from another image, clicking the small icon will also show which other image the information is form.

All the best,

Niels