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Why nature photographers need photo editing

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

As a nature photographer, I spend a great deal of time trying to get to the most remote places possible. Like all photographers in the nature space, my goal is to create unique images – helped along by my sailing background and the fact that I seem to be frequently working on a boat.

That being the case, there are some inherent challenges in nature photography, whether it be limitations on gear, split second opportunities to take a photo, or terrible lighting.  Because of that, photo editing software and a good understanding of how to use it are quite possibly the most important tools in my photography toolkit.

It also requires an immense amount of patience and luck.  Having a good camera is important in nature photography, but not as critical as luck, timing, and editing.

I spent several years working in Lightroom.  I don’t have anything bad to say about it, because it’s a great tool.  But, as I have been working for over a decade as a photographer and moving more into the world of selling prints, I felt like I wasn’t getting enough out of my images in Lightroom.  Was I nervous about switching out of my comfort zone to learn a new editing software?  Yes.  Did it take a long time to get comfortable with Capture One?  Not one bit.  It is an incredibly intuitive photo editor.

After switching my Lightroom Presets over to color-adjusted Styles in Capture One, I had a solid editing foundation in place.  My editing workflow is pretty simple after that: I typically just make minor adjustments in the dynamic range and bump up the clarity ever so slightly.

But the difference in the way those adjustments in Capture One compare to Lightroom are noticeably visible.  It’s much more controlled.  It’s fine-tuning instead of broad strokes.  And the finer details make a huge difference to nature photography for me.

What was my biggest hold up for making the switch from Lightroom to Capture One?  It sounds silly, but it was the dehaze option.  Shooting in the water, or in conditions with hazy atmospheres, it was a wonderful tool to have in Lightroom.  It’s also readily available in Capture One due to the ease of creating a filled layer, increasing the contrast, and decreasing the brightness.  Now I have even more control over that adjustment and ultimately better results.

For the amount of time and energy I put into capturing one image (often times months), it’s comforting to know that I can get the most out of it through my photo editing software.  Combine that with how much faster Capture One is, I can now spend more of my time waiting for “the moment” and out shooting photos instead of waiting for editing adjustments to catch up.

It’s well worth the switch.

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Portrait & Fashion Photography in Studio with Emily Teague

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

Capture One plays such a significant role in my post processing workflow, but it also plays an essential part during the photoshoot itself. Throughout my shoot I’m tethering, checking focus, organizing, culling, applying initial adjustments, and color grading. All of this helps me and my team dial in the feel of the shoot and make sure everything is as it should be.

Mood Boarding For Inspiration, Style, and Color Harmonies

I feel the most inspiring part of the pre-production for a photoshoot is the moodboarding. This is where I get to bring out my creativity by deciding the aesthetics, colors, lighting, and concept. My most dynamic images are created through finding harmony in all of these factors.

I prefer using Pinterest for my moodboarding. As I build onto a concept I continually look back at my board as whole to make sure the aesthetic is consistent. I tend to go for around 25+ images and when I feel the moodboard is complete I can then send it out to my team. This ensures everyone knows what to expect and bring for the actual shoot day.

Lighting

My sets are lit with Elinchrom strobes and modifiers. I love creating soft, dramatic lighting that adds to the feminine aesthetic that’s shown in most all my work, so for this reason I’m often using large modifiers with double diffusion so the light will wrap around my models and create gradual transitions between highlights and shadows. My set ups generally range from using 1-3 lights. The Litemotiv 120cm, Rotalux Octabox 100 cm (39″), and Rotalux Octabox 175 cm (69″) are my favorites. All three of those modifiers create a beautiful diffused light with a wrap around quality that the modifiers are known for. I’m almost always using double diffusion, but now with Elinchrom’s stackable external diffusers for Rotalux I can triple my diffusion- for all that dreamy softness.

Technical Settings

For anyone curious about settings in studio, most settings are pretty similar. Typically I’m shooting around 1/160th, anywhere from f/5 – f/9, and staying close to ISO 100. Depending on what kind of look I’m going for or what I’m shooting this might differ slightly. After I have these basic settings, the main thing I have to focus on for getting a proper exposure is the power of my strobes.

Cropping & Composition

With Capture One 20 it’s now easier to crop quickly and effectively since you can see the edge of the crop with new handles. You can also quickly access freehand rotation by either moving the cursor outside the corner of the crop or by using the modifier key. When I’m shooting and composing an image through my viewfinder I’m always trying to create balance. For my style of photography I’m watching to make sure my model either has room on the sides of the frame or if it’s a tight crop that I’m not creating tension with where I’m cropping. I’m looking to avoid tangents or any unbalanced composition. I try to utilize lines, contrast, and color to create aesthetically pleasing visuals with balance.

Tethered Shooting

As mentioned earlier, every shoot in studio I’m tethering to Capture One. My tethering cord is 15 ft / 4.6m long, so I have the ability to move around my studio space with ease. Tethering allows me to focus on details I might not initially see while looking through my viewfinder and it allows for my team to spot those details too. Each team member can watch to make sure the work they did is coming through correctly. When I review images my eyes dart around making sure the lighting, composition, and other details are just as I want them to be. I can also better organize my incoming images by naming and organizing them. Final major benefit for me is that if my settings aren’t looking spot on, my digitech can easily adjust my camera settings through Capture One if I’m tethered.

Focus Masking

Quick tip here – use focus masking to quickly make sure you’re getting the correct focus. Focus masking creates a contrast-detecting layer on top of your images, marking the areas that are in focus with a green mask. This is especially helpful when I’m sorting through large batches of images. I use this as a general guide and am looking for eyelashes, eyebrows, lips, and texture to have that green mask on them. Don’t fret if your entire eye isn’t green, keep in mind this is just detecting contrast in your image.

Initial Adjustments Applied To All

While I’m waiting for my model’s hair and makeup to finish I’ll ask to grab a lighting test shot. Not only does this help me dial in my lighting, but it also let’s me start all my initial adjustments based on the exposure and mood of my shoot. I’ll then apply these settings to all images that come in so my team will see a version that’s going to be closer to the finished image. To start, I’m adjusting my tools in the Exposure, High Dynamic Range, Levels, Curve, and Clarity tabs. After that I’ll go into adjusting my skin tone if needed and finish my initial adjustments with color grading. Throughout all of this I’m making slight adjustments that add up to enhance my image- I’m staying away from anything that starts looking too processed.

Color Grading

Color grading is where I get to take my work to the next level. Color in an image can entirely change the mood. I decide the color grade based off the feel an image has to it, but it’s common for me to stick with cooler tones for my shadows (blues, purples, greens) and warmer colors for my highlights that are mostly affecting skin tone (yellows mainly). I’m often keeping my midtones on the warmer side as well.

I’m using a couple different tools when working with color in Capture One including the Color Editor, Levels, and White Balance, but my favorite is the Color Balance tool which gives the option of Master (the overall hue of the photo), Shadow, Midtone, and Highlight tabs. Generally I start by sliding the color in my shadows around until I’ve found a hue that balances and works well with my image- again, normally this is a color on the cooler side. If I drag my circle farther to the edge of the color wheel I’ll get more saturated colors. I can also adjust this with the slider to the left of the color wheel. After I’ve decided the color and the amount of saturation I want, I can then tweak the luminosity of that shadow color with the Luma Slider to the right of the color wheel. For my shadows I’m generally sticking to the darker side of luminosity and vise versa for my highlights.

I also like to try to balance my color grading based on the existing colors in an image. Thinking about color theory I know I can work off of complementary colors, split complementary colors, analogous colors, triadic harmonies, tetradic harmonies, or monochromatic harmonies. This gives me a lot of room to play.

Culling

One helpful thing I’ve started doing in the past year is culling images during the photoshoot. I do this during hair, makeup, and wardrobe changes. If I’m shooting an editorial I generally have 6 looks and over 1,000 images to sort through. It can feel daunting to have to sort through them all at once later in the week, so I try to do myself a favor and get it done while the images are still fresh and coming in. It’s also nice to be able to show the best images to my team.

Everyone has their own process for culling, but I prefer to start by stars. I’ll go through all of the images and sort anything I like with 1 star. Once I’m finished I’ll go through the 1 stars and the images I love will get 2 stars. And so on. This usually goes until I have just a few 5 star images. If I’m needing to sort further because images are being used for different things then I’ll sort by color as well.

Two quick tips to help make culling easier-

  1. Drag out your image catalog with the arrows on the side of the column to see more or less images.
  2. Hold shift to view multiple images. You can then rate images while doing this. If you’re sorting by x amount of stars or higher and rate an image with a lower number and then hold command when clicking the image it will remove it from your selection.

Working With Capture One in Studio

Shooting with Capture One in studio has made such a difference in my workflow. It speeds everything up, provides a better experience for myself and my team, and gives me the quality of RAW editing I need.

If you don’t already have Capture One, you can download a 30-day trial and try it out.

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Learn how to optimise nightscape photography in capture one 2

Nightscapes with Rachel Jones Ross

In this Webinar, David is joined by Rachel Jones Ross of Astralis Photography.

Rachel is a Canadian based photographer, specialising in low light and nightscape photography.

Not only will this webinar feature typical editing advice in Capture One, but we will also spend the first part of the session discussing how best to plan for and capture magical nightscape images.

Rachel is also a member of the Sony Alpha Imaging Collective and teaches photography workshops at her home in the Canadian Rockies and across the world.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn from one of the best in the field.

Learn about:

✓ Planning for the shoot: Rachel’s favourite weather and planning apps
✓ Gear: How to get the most out of your camera, as well as lens considerations
✓ Rachels top 5 accessories for shooting at night
✓ Shooting techniques (an overview of single shots, blue hour blends, time blends, and composites)
✓ Editing tips in Capture One 20

Length: 90:00 minutes

Download a 30-day trial of Capture One Pro.

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Capture One RAW photo editor enterprise studio blogpost slow exposure of studio shoot

How any photography studio can create value with Capture One Enterprise

For the past 10 years, leading studio photography has been created with photo editing software Capture One. With world-class tethering, state-of-the-art photo editing tools and the highest quality RAW processing, it’s been a staple in any photography studio.

Now, Capture One has introduced an “Enterprise” version which is specifically built for business and aligned to the way a photography studio works.

Learn how Enterprise Studios can actually create new value for studio photography with Capture One Enterprise.

Capture One Enterprise offers the same standard features as Capture One’s flagship product Capture One 20 – tailored to the needs of studio photography.

Built for business

Photographers are key to the success of any photography studio.

But what if the photography studio involves several photographers, studio managers, retouchers, quality assurance managers, project leaders, etc who need to collaborate, standardize and carry out the same workflows over and over again? What if those workflows also need to be integrated to other systems, eg. barcode scanners, PIM systems, digital asset management systems, ecommerce platforms etc?

Capture One Enterprise has been developed to address the challenges faced by studio photography and help any enterprise or e-commerce photography studio optimize their image production process and boost results across relevant KPI’s.

Value creation with Capture One Enterprise

Studio photography has huge value creation potential with Capture One Enterprise. By incorporating its enterprise-specific features into the workflow, it can improve KPI’s such as:

  • “Time to Market” – optimizing the hours your photography studio spends on the image production process, from planning your image, to shoots, to publishing the final photo on your ecommerce platform.
  • “Cost per image” – Optimizing each step in your studio photography process can dramatically increase your efficiency and reduce your costs
  • “Reduce Risk” – Secure your studio photography and image production to reduce errors and costs, thanks to enterprise exclusive features such as Image back-Up, License Management, MDM support etc.

This is achieved via enterprise features such as the Barcode scanner tool, Advanced Guides, Next Capture Backup, Next Capture Keywords, Next Capture Metadata, Tool Locks, Capture Pilot with Enterprise enhancements and Dedicated Studio workspaces.

To learn more about how Capture One Enterprise creates value for a large photography studio, download our case study from Boozt, a leading Scandinavian online retailer – which cut its photo production time by 50 percent after implementing Capture One Enterprise.


Automated workflows in Capture One Enterprise

Once your studio has implemented Capture One Enterprise and begun implementing its standard features in your workflows, there are further opportunities to intensify value creation by automating workflows and integrating Capture One Enterprise into your IT infrastructure. You can do this by implementing:

  • Workflow enhancement (an automation feature within Capture One)
  • Integrations (extension or automation interfacing with another app)

Customized solutions can maximize value, too

Your photography studio might also have very specialized needs – here, customized solutions can generate value for your studio photography. For example, ultra-accurate color profiling can assist in achieving one critical KPI in particular:

“Reduce product returns” – Color profiling optimization on true color reproduction can reduce the rate of goods returned due to discrepancies in color between the actual product and the image.

Capture One offers individual color profiles for businesses, so you can reduce editing time and save on retoucher costs with fine-tuned color profiling for the most popular e-commerce cameras used by photography studios. Minimize color discrepancies and meet the demands of specialist product and studio photography with more accurate colors out-of-the-box.

These are just some of the exclusive features designed for studio photography – get in touch with the Enterprise team to learn more and discover where Capture One Enterprise can specifically meet the demands of your business. For more insight into specific tools, check out the Tools and Functionality white paper and Barcode Reader white paper.

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