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PSD files in Capture One – now what?

From version 10.1, Capture One supports reading of PSD files. You have always had the option to export to this widely popular file format, but if you wanted to see your work file inside of Capture One after some external editing, you were required to save your layered file as a TIFF. Those days are gone.

Whatever layers you might add on top of your images, Capture One will now recognize and show PSD files as any other supported file type. It is important to mention that processing layered files from Capture One always flattens the image, and the layers in your PSD or TIFF files are not individually visible or editable in Capture One. The files are always treated as non-layered files within Capture One.

Now, what does this mean for your workflow? Depending on how you edit your images, this provides two overall game changing additions if you are a regular user of Capture One and Photoshop (or a similar editing software): asset management and full round-trip workflows.

1. Asset Management

If you are one of the many photographers who finalize their work in Photoshop after having processed the images in Capture One, you might have been missing the ability to see your final work within Capture One, next to your RAW files. Upgrading to Capture One 10.1 now makes this possible.

One way is to use the round-trip functionality within Capture One when sending processed images to their final steps in Photoshop (or other external editors). This ensures that the PSD-file is instantly placed next to the RAW file and will show in whatever Album or Folder you are working from – both in a Catalog and a Session. This is achieved by right clicking the thumbnail of the image and selecting Edit With…, which will open a dialog with processing options for format, ICC profile, size etc. You will notice that PSD is now included in the Format list as well as JPG and TIFF. Open With should be set to your preferred external editor for example Photoshop. This effectively processes your RAW file with the adjustments made to it, and opens it in your selected external editor.

N.B.: Open With, which is placed next to Edit With…in the right click menu, might be slightly confusing without an explanation. The direct Open With option will effectively open your RAW file in an external editor without processing it through Capture One. To summarize:

Edit With… -> processes file with adjustments -> opens in external editor
Open With -> RAW file opens directly in external editor

It is recommended to process to 16 bit to maintain as much information in the file as possible. Any changes to this newly added PSD file, from any external editor, will instantly show in Capture One once it is saved, making it possible to use Capture One as your preferred asset management software for all your work. N.B.: Saving with Maximum Compatibility in Photoshop is required for Capture One to support the PSD file.

You can of course also import PSD files as any other supported file types into your Catalog or Session.

2. Full round-trip workflows

The second addition to a PSD workflow is the full round-trip functionality: You have finalized your external work to your PSD file and might need a final touch of color grading, Film Grain, or other Capture One specific tools to take your image to the highest level.

With the Edit With-procedure described in the previous section, it’s easy to send a processed PSD file directly to Photoshop for further retouching. A good tip is to keep the processed image relatively neutral before retouching, and processed to 16 bit. This will give you the option to make different variants of color grading to the retouched image once it is back in Capture One. A huge benefit of this is, that if you need to do additional external retouching to the image, all variants within Capture One will automatically be updated with the changes. It is also possible to ignore the crop you have applied in Capture One from within Edit With… > Adjustments, which gives you the option to crop differently at a later point.

Imagine the following scenario:

You have shot an image for a client, and want to show them a couple of different versions to choose from. The image needs external retouching and is processed as a PSD file using the Edit With procedure.
External retouching is done and the PSD file is saved with layers.
Back within Capture One, the PSD file now shows the retouching. You create two new variants of the PSD file, effectively having three variants of the image ready.
Using Color Balance, Film Grain, Curves and other tools in Capture One, you finalize three versions of the image to prepare for your client.
With a process recipe, a small JPG of each version is processed and sent to your client.
They notice a flaw in the retouching that needs to be taken care of. You therefore open the PSD using your external editor and fix the flaw.
Back in Capture One, all three versions are now updated and can be processed again with a single click.
The client now receives and chooses one of the versions as their final pick.

All in all, support for PSD files provides full control to your workflow when using Capture One with external editors.

What impact will PSD support have on your workflow? Download a 30-day trial of Capture One and see for yourself.

Read more about using an external editor in our User Guide.

Tethered Capture with Capture Pilot for iOS and Capture One Pro 10

One of the biggest annoyances with tethered capture is having to constantly move back to the computer to trip the camera. I often work independently, so anytime an adjustment needs to be made with a soft box, moving a bounce card, moving the subject or styling the scene, I have to move from behind the computer and into the frame. That gets old quickly and chews up a lot of time that could be spent more productively. Of course, an assistant or digital tech would be helpful, but that isn’t always an option. Capture Pilot is an awesome mobile solution to many of these
challenges. The app integrates seamlessly with Capture One Pro 10 to review capture right on the iOS device with the option to control many tethered camera settings, including shutter release.

Independent Workflow Benefits

Capture Pilot reliably allows me to step away from the tethered camera to style a scene, reposition lights, hold bounce cards, while still adjusting camera settings and taking the shot without having to move. When tethering a camera to Capture One Pro 10 on my Mac, I position the display to face back towards the scene. I can stand just out of frame and see exactly what is happening on a larger monitor with precision. For added refinement at a glance, viewing the Focus Mask displays a green overlay to show image areas in focus. Previews will quickly load on my smart device in Capture Pilot and a simple pinch to zoom helps to evaluate fine detail. Working independently on projects is vastly more feasible using Capture Pilot with Capture One Pro 10.

Focus Mask displaying a green overlay

Collaborative Workflow Benefits

On set, time is money, and it’s not simply your time that goes into consideration. If you have a creative team with a producer, creative director, stylists, assistants, chefs, clients, etc., there can often be a number of staff on hand. Any amount of time you can save is multiplied across every person on set and that can be considerable. For food or beverage photography, the level of efficiency that Capture Pilot helps establish can make all the difference with brief windows of opportunity after styling, saving additional takes.

Having the best creative tools will you help maintain a less chaotic, more productive atmosphere on set, further increasing the value you offer. Capture Pilot is one more resource to have on hand to speed up and simplify the process, especially if you are working shorthanded. It can also be implemented to easily include a key player in the creative process, giving them their own personal review station on a phone or tablet.

Setup and Tethered Camera Controls

To begin, make sure your computer and smart device are both connected to the same Wi-Fi network. After installing Capture One Pro 10 and Capture Pilot iOS app, open Capture One Pro 10 on your computer and navigate to Capture Pilot within the Capture Tool Tab. Under the Publish Tool, select either Mobile or Mobile and Web. Launch the app on your smart device and select the local server you just created in Capture One Pro 10. By default, it will share the same name as the Capture One library that is open. Once connected, it will launch camera controls with previews behind it. You can disable the controls and change the size of previews, as well as intuitively navigate within the frame by pinching to zoom. You can choose your priority/drive mode, and within the applicable mode, adjust Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO, and Exposure Value.

Adjust Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO, and Exposure Value

RAW or JPEG file types can be selected, as well as preset while balance options. The ability to set a white point for color balance is built in. What’s really slick is that you can rate photographs as you are working.

Rating photographs

Coupled with Smart Albums in Capture One Pro 10, that’s a powerful feature and enables more freedom from being stuck behind the computer.

Pro tip: keep a charging cable on hand to charge your smart device. I have a case with a built in battery for additional redundancy and only kick it on if charging between shoots can’t keep up with demand. Enabling Do Not Disturb on an iPhone can help keep you from getting interrupted by notifications while working.

What I Love About Capture Pilot

Freedom to work more independently on studio or location projects. Time saved being able to interact with a scene while still controlling the tethered camera. The seamless implementation with Capture One Pro 10, quickly adjusting camera settings, and tripping the shutter with ease. The pinch to zoom previews show all the detail I could ever hope for. The app itself is free, with camera control being an optional (massively beneficial!) in-app purchase. Basically everything about it. It considerably upgrades my workflow and Capture One Pro 10.

Pinch to zoom preview

Improvements I’d Like to See

Focus control, which was just added to Capture One Pro 10, would be an amazing feature. The histogram doesn’t load for me on mobile, though perhaps it is my camera. Ability to check camera battery status when the camera is powered by a battery and not with a power adapter. The camera could be a Phase One XF 100MP. A better photographer.

Closing Thoughts

In the past, I’ve used third party remote apps, paid more for them, and they were not this easy to use and never this integrated. At $15 for an in-app purchase (the app itself is free), it’s on the steeper side of what one might consider paying for a phone apps. That said, when you consider the amount of time savings, creative control, and mobility it provides, it upgrades the value of Capture One Pro 10 and your overall production workflow. If you tether even occasionally, using Capture Pilot with Capture One Pro 10 really is a must.

Capture Pilot is available as a free iOS App from Apple’s App Store

Download Capture Pilot here. You will need Capture One as well, download a 30-day trial to make everything work!

Read more in-depth details about Capture Pilot in our User Guide.

Miss Aniela “Barocco”

Miss Aniela’s recently completed “Barocco” project has been the culmination of two shoots: one on location, and the other in studio. The project takes inspiration from the Baroque and Rococo eras, creating a symphony between high-fashion and surrealism. Shooting in this particular style requires pristine attention to detail throughout. Here Miss Aniela shares her workflow on how she has achieved these images.

“Whenever I shoot with the Phase One I tether to my iMac desktop at all times, the images always dropping smoothly into Capture One Pro 10. For easy organization, I create a new Session for each model look, shooting straight into the Capture folder, which later on I organize approved/rejects into Selects/Trash respectively. In the Library tab, I can then easily navigate to the Selects folder to work on my desired shots and batch-copy adjustments across any set of images to preview the desired effects, before hitting the ‘process’ button to output them as high-res 16-bit Tiffs in sRGB. From there, I simply open the Output folder in Adobe Bridge so I can take across the files I want to do compositing work on in Photoshop. I’ll store the resultant PSDs, PSBs and final Tiffs in that same Output folder.

It’s crucial for me to shoot medium format in a stationary and meticulous manner so I see exactly what I’m getting onscreen, and can try immediate adjustments via Capture One Pro’s quick edit sliders. I commonly use the exposure, contrast (just a slight increment higher) just to ’pop’ the image slightly; also the color temperature via the Kelvin slider, again to get a feel for color mood, but not to disrupt the chosen white balance and lighting set-up I’m purposefully shooting in-camera. If I know the image will definitely be cropped, I will also perform the crop in Capture One Pro, maybe loosely, so I can lose the unnecessary data in the file.

The Awakening

In ‘The Awakening’ the main adjustment was in color temperature, but little more than this. Final curves adjustment was then done later in Photoshop when perfecting the final file.

The Awakening – Schneider LS 80mm f/2.8 lens. 1/250 sec, 80mm, f/6.3, ISO50.

Glacial Gate

For ‘Glacial Gate’ I brought down color temperature a little, boosting the blue; and brought up exposure and contrast a notch, so that the white highlights behind the model popped a little more just on the verge of blowing out. It would not be usual for me to risk having blowout part of an image, but this one is a fairly unique situation where the white window glow evokes the mood of snow, or an angelic halo around her, simultaneously giving her face a pop of glow too. Then I worked on the surreal compositing in Photoshop.

Glacial Gate – Schneider 35mm f/3.5 lens. 0.5 sec, 35mm, f/7.1, ISO50.

Avalanche

Often in Capture One I will add a layer to the file and use an exposure brush to make specific, subtle exposure lifts. I did this for parts of the armor corset in the ‘Avalanche’ portrait of Gina. An increase in Clarity is perfect for exaggerating textures, though too aggressive on skin, so I will use a brush to work only on the outfit. I love that I can use exposure brushes on a file before I even export beyond the Raw stage! Quality is paramount to me, and making sure images ‘hold up’ at close-up view. All my images are shot on the lowest ISO possible, in this case ISO50, using as much light from my Broncolor Move 1200L kits as possible. I feel safe in the knowledge that Capture One Pro is preserving utmost quality by allowing me to make a whole host of adjustments before I even get near the ‘destructive’ Photoshop stage.

Avalanche – Schneider 55mm f2.8 lens. 1/160sec, 55mm, f/10, ISO50

Capture One Pro makes a difference for me in three ways: first, as an extremely smooth and reliable tethering tool. Secondly, as a sorting and organization tool to examine the images and separate wheat from the chaff in a straightforward and intuitive way. Thirdly, to add batch adjustments easily and to output high quality files with a simple click of the programmed process recipe.

I personally always like to use folders in my operating system (Mac) as my central form of organization, and Capture One Pro works alongside this easily. Predominantly I favor using Sessions for all my workflows, so for any one shoot, I can see easily upon glancing into its subfolders (Capture, Selects, Output, Trash) the position of my content without opening up the software.”

Read more about Miss Aniela’s inspiration behind her Barroco shoot here

Credits

Barocco House – Photographer: Miss Aniela. Model: Annabelle Loveluck. HMUA: Grace Gray. Costumes: Miss Aniela own, with dress in ‘The Awakening’ by Wendy Benstead.

Barocco Studio – Photographer: Miss Aniela. Model: Gina Harrison. HMUA: Lan Nyugen. Costumes: Agnieszka Osipa, military jacket Miss Aniela’s own. Assistant: Dan Lennard.

Natalie is an art and surreal fashion photographer based in Sussex UK. She works together with her partner Matt on both fine art and commercial projects under the name of “Miss Aniela”. Mixing art and fashion, Miss Aniela creates a fine balance of contemporary creativity. Her work centers on a fusion of traditional imagery and digitally enhanced motifs, interweaving in a surreal composition.

Miss Aniela has been exhibited by the Saatchi Gallery, Photo Vogue Milan, Prins Eugens Waldermarsudde Museum in Stockholm and the Houses of Parliament.

Editing Competition with Pratik Naik

We have teamed up with fashion retoucher Pratik Naik and photographer Bella Kotak for this month’s editing challenge. We invite all photographers – whatever your level of experience with Capture One Pro – to watch Pratik’s guide for inspiration and let your creativity shine! Show us what you can do and be in with the chance of winning a free Capture One Pro license.

Learn more about the competition here and enter by 30th March! [THIS COMEPETITION HAS ENDED!]

Pratik Naik is a high end retoucher specializing in commercial and editorial work. Bella Kotak is a world traveling fine art and fashion photographer based in Oxford & London, England.

Working in the industry for over a decade, we have asked him some insights into his approach to retouching and editing.

What do you focus on when retouching images?

As a guide to retouching images, always focus on areas that you are distracted with. With this image, I would like you to focus mostly on emphasizing details and colors, over just finding flaws. Enhance what you want to bring attention to and make the raw file truly sing using your keen sense of taste and refined eye.

What tools do you mostly use?

In Capture One Pro 10 and why My favorite tools to use in COP for color is the Advanced Color Editor, it truly allows me to push and pull colors of a specific region. For an overall feel, I like playing with the Color Balance tool. It always me to crossprocess the image with an easy visual reference. I can control mid tones, highlights, and shadows effortlessly. I also like to use curves for familiarity and the ability to tweak each region as well. Finally, the local adjustments gives me control with masking in combination with these tools.

What makes a well edited image for you?

A well edited image is one that has a balance, not going too far and being overdone, while still showing a sense of character through the processing. Using visual cues to bring out the emotion of the image and using color to compliment the scene.