When I first joined Capture One back in December of 2020, I did some snooping on social media and was blown away by the experience and talent connected with Capture One. I’d encourage you each to do the same: search #captureone in Instagram, and you will quickly be transported to a world rich in color and creativity.
Whether it’s photography of nature, fashion, sports, or the odd selfie, it’s clear to me that #captureone is a vibrant, diverse, and global community of passionate photographers. We’re inspired by the photos you create, and humbled to support you from our base in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Our mission to deliver the most powerful photo editing software to elevate the field of photography would not exist if it were not for you.
Our brand ambassadors, like Paul Reiffer and Tina Eisen, always remind us of the critical role we play in their professional domain as first-class photographers. Their ceaseless drive and inspiring creative vision push us to set our gaze ever higher and strive towards more ambitious goals.
In listening to the stories of photographers – I can see a common thread: a wish to share beauty and joy. Our relentless commitment to helping you achieve your vision stems from this profound conviction that photography brings beauty and joy into our lives. There has to be a passion for filling countless memory cards, for rising in the early hours when the rest of the world slumbers because that’s when the light is just right.
We’re exactly the same. We won’t rest until the color is perfect. Until the quality we can render for your image is pristine. The final touch is only complete when you have everything you need to achieve your vision.
Thank you for sharing your images with us—in return, we will provide the same level of openness, giving you timely and regular insights into what will be in our releases and our future roadmap. This is our plan for 2021. I hope you’ll be as excited as we are.
So, thank you for your passion, it inspires and drives us.
There are many tools at your disposal in Capture One to edit your landscape photos with. But what tools make sense and when? How does Exposure differ from Brightness? Should I use Contrast or a Luma Curve? What do the different types of Clarity do?
In this webinar we will run through some edits to appeal to beginners and more advanced users alike. So sign up and take your landscape editing to the next level and enjoy the creative process even more.
NOTE: This article discusses an outdated version of Capture One. To learn more about our latest version, click here.
For our Capture One 21 launch, we challenged Polish food and still life photographer Maciek Miloch to tell us about his experience of the pandemic – using just one color. In this blog, he shares the inspiration behind his shoot and how he created an entire green universe during a lockdown.
As a foodie at heart, my photography series “Eat your greens” is dedicated to my coping mechanism during the COVID-19 pandemic – comfort food. In challenging times, I wanted to capture my experiences in a fun, playful way.
My background is art direction, so I wanted the series to be highly conceptual and sketched everything our prior to the shoot.
Shooting photos during a pandemic
To create the concept, I took a color that is normally associated with healthy eating and gave it a twist, using “greens” to depict sweets and candy. I also depicted a mash up of home office and food worlds, which began to blend for me as I worked more from home under the pandemic.
As a professional photographer, I usually rent a large studio for more space. But with a lockdown, the very small studio space that I own had to do. I worked with a tiny team of 3 – just my assistant and my friend and set designer, Zuza.
To me, this project was about using what we already had available. Both Zuza and I collect vintage items as a hobby. With Poland in lockdown and stores closed, we drew on our personal collections to give the photos a retro look. I like that it gave the series a touch of “nonsense.”
Besides our vintage props, we used a lot of materials that were already in my small studio space. To create a green universe, my assistant and I painted everything green in gold and copper tones – we even painted one of the walls green so that there was enough background.
We also did the food styling ourselves, relying on secrets I had picked up from stylists during my career as food photographer.
The challenges of green
I was initially afraid of green – it took me out of my comfort zone. The human eye can identify more nuances of green than with any other color, making it one of the most challenging colors for creatives to work with.
Green also has so many different tones to portray different moods – from warm, almost yellow tones to highly saturated cold tones that look artificial. It was critical to get my greens exactly right so I could tell my story in my own vision.
Capture One was crucial to my green editing process. I’ve found that it renders colors in a more pleasing way than other photo editing software, giving softer color transitions and tones that are true-to-life.
Editing tips for green
I relied heavily on the Advanced Color Editor to twist and alter some of the colors. I carefully choose colors before photo shoots, but no matter how dedicated you are, different tones can end up reacting differently due to light and the color cast from surrounding objects and surfaces. This photo editing tool from Capture One allows me to create color exactly as I imagine it.
Unexpectedly, the Skin Tone tool also helped me even out the colors of a surface or an object, which is ideal for still life photography. And the new Dehaze tool in Capture One 21 allowed me to make the glass carafe look more clear. This was critical for a shoot with vintage glassware, as it allowed me to quickly reduce haze from the glass in post production.
Green means hope
Green might have seemed challenging to work with in the beginning – but with the right photo editing tools, I was able to bring out the exact green tones and hues that I wanted. I created it as a vintage and old-school color to match the retro feel of my shoot.
I ultimately find green a hopeful color – representing life, hope and vitality, and I’m happy I was able to use green to communicate visually about this unprecedented time period. I can’t wait to see how the Capture One community interprets this incredible and versatile color.
Share your green story
Inspired to create a green story just like Maciek? Upload it to Instagram with the hashtag #captureone for the chance to be featured in our community gallery. Plus, explore Capture One to discover the latest color editing tools to help tell your story.
