Capture One

Latest Posts

The Future of Adjustments? Reinventing the Shortcut and Other Ideas

NOTE: This article discusses an outdated version of Capture One.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

Normally, we write lots of stuff on how Capture One Pro’s newest features expands functionality. Today, I’m going to write about a project that actually means doing less in Capture One.

Around Capture One 8.2, we re-designed the Color Balance Tool. This was a bit of a moment for Capture One on the ideas of how to do GUI (Graphic User Interface) not least because the traditional curves interface is often complex to get your head around for color adjustment (and this made it way simpler), but also because the design has roots in a concept that doesn’t actually require a mouse to use it.

Stop chasing the mouse

The idea of using a mouse to interact with a GUI (a concept known as WIMP – window, icon, menu, pointing device) actually dates back to the late 60’s to Doug Engelbart’s “oN-Line System” (NLS).

Modern applications like image editors are complex beasts. The range of adjustment you can put into it quickly reaches a point when the UI and the tool-set start to overwhelm this rather simple concept. In some cases, the mouse simply limits what you want to do.

Demand on the user also increases to a point where the work-over-workflow equation may become a little top-heavy and you lose focus on what’s really important: image and vision. Multiple clicks, undo, more clicks, switch tabs, click, click, click.. and when you do this day-in day-out with the kind of volume of images a modern professional does, there’s this nagging feeling that there must be an easier, better, faster way to get to the image you have in your head.

When faced with the above proposition, most professional users add a myriad of shortcuts to use with the pointing device. Moreover, most apps allow you to assign functions to a keyboard key for quick access. This works well for toggle functions and simple “switch” commands like Reset and Next image. However, it doesn’t work well for accessing sliders or tools with ranges.

It also requires learning a huge array of keys and modifiers to do adjustment parameters. Who here knows the default shortcut for increasing contrast? (Ctrl + Shift + Cmd “+” for those who care). Multiple this by number of sliders and we have a distinct usability problem.

Post WIMP interface design (the best example here is touch and multi-gesture input) offers great experiences for controlling almost anything.

However, despite recent additions using haptic feedback, there’s one underlying drawback with touch. Touch screens lack a tactile surface, which requires you to look at it for spatial reference. Putting complex UI on it to mimic buttons and sliders is a bit distracting if you always have to break focus from a primary monitor to check what you just pressed. Those not convinced, try this for yourself: Pick a random friend in your life. Now, put your smart phone behind your back and dial that person from your contacts list.

The optimal alternative

Ideally, what one needs is a solution that can leverage both multi touch and provide a de-coupled, hand-eye coordination and adjustment experience that a mouse provides. Something like a panel.

Typically, panel systems consist of several devices with various physical input controllers: knobs, trackballs and buttons. They exist in a variety of shapes and sizes from homebrew switch kits to full blown midi decks.

The commercially produced end of these systems are already used in high-end film and video editing solutions for Grading – a term used more and more generally in the stills industry to describe a process of color adjustments.

At first glance, you might mistake it for an aircraft simulator but what it allows is fast, multiple input commands simultaneously; all the time keeping eyes on the master monitor as the editor “feels” input into the color engine.

Tangent

For Capture One 10, we’ve focused development on the high-end systems from Tangent, primarily on their flagship product ‘Element’. The first impression of the Tangent Element is the stellar build quality, sturdy weight and level of precision in the mechanical controllers.

The panels are a modular design which comprises 4 parts: Tk, Bt, Mf and Kb (see implementation detail below). These can be used as stand-alone units or as a complete system.

You connect the panels to the computer via standard USB. Once connected, the system utilizes custom mapping software to allow you to map any property exposed by the supported application to any of the controllers.

It’s easy to re-map/customize your favorite tools when you use bundled software (Tangent HUB). You can set over 460 shortcuts to almost any function. Capture One 10 ships with a default set, but this is only the tip of the iceberg in what you could do. Just consider the HUB application supports modes (switch between complete maps), banks (layers of controls for each panel in a map) and alternate functions for each mapped property.

Implementation

As already noted, the HUB app is fully utilized and allows full customization rather than a hardcoded configuration. It’s worth noting the implementation in Capture One is far more than a simple hack-and-link to the current shortcuts.

By talking directly to the command layer, you can achieve a more analogue experience of adjustment. Also, it keeps binding separate from any shortcut-map in the application. It also allows the user to utilize the ramp-rates and variables in the mapper without relying on hard coded increments.

The Tk panel (TracK-ball)

As this article started out, the core driver of the project of bringing tangent into Capture One was the Color Balance Tool – it’s no coincidence that the three track balls in the Tk panel match the three wheels in the Color Balance UI. The ball shape directly imitates the Color Balance Tool: The ball controls X/Y tint and saturation point in a 2-dimensional space, and the ring controls lightness. Two buttons allow a quick reset of ring and ball independently of each other.

Where the implementation beats the mouse is the ability to do adjustments simultaneously. As an example: lifting highlights and darkening shadows at the same time.

You may start to see how this removes barriers to adjustment while you get to the end result faster. To round off the Tk, a ‘hold to reset grading’ command is mapped to the B button for a temporary reset of the grade.

The Kb panel (KnoBs)

This panel consists of 12 encoders, and you can map it to most sliders in Capture One 10. The ramp rates are tuned per tool for a decent speed of adjustment. You can slow these when adjusting by holding the A button (mapped to alternative function) for finer tweaks. You can also adjust them simultaneously – for example Exposure and Contrast, or Sharpening and Threshold. Push the knob to reset the specific slider.

Mf panel (MultiFunction)

This is a hybrid of the Bt and Tk. It’s configured with a mixture of edit and rating shortcuts and experimental ideas in using the track ball.

The track ball has two banks. The first one works with brushes, which gives a dynamic interface into size, hardness and opacity. The second one quickly scales and set overlay position.

The buttons on the Mf panel are configured to rate and cull in sessions. The play and advance buttons are mapped to ‘Next image’ and ‘Next set’ respectively. ‘Stop’ marks the image green (for pick) with other tags and select by tags above. In order to for example delete or create an album from selection, you can use ‘Selected by tag’.

Bt panel (BuTtons)

The Bt panel is a simple button bank which can emulate button presses and toggles, or for bigger maps configured to “go to mode”. In the default set, most toggle functions allow quick access to things like Focus mask, Exposure warning and Proofing. It also allows deep menu commands for things like local adjustments and hiding parts of the user interface.

With practice, hiding the user interface is the show piece of the implementation. You can remove everything from the monitor except the viewer and user still has control over every tool. Working full screen on an image with no clutter and total focus is simply a dream coming true.

Summing up

This project started, as most “blue-sky” ideas do, in a pub with a developer friend who suggested MIDI devices could be an interesting way to adjust properties. That was nearly 5 years ago. The question for me was not if it would work but how important this solution could be in the future. During testing under The LABS initiative, the beta testers saw such a positive effect on their workflow we knew we just had to get it out there.

If you want to try or see a panel in action, visit one of our participating dealers or join us at one of the upcoming STAND OUT events. Moreover, David Grover will be hosting a webinar on the tangent topic on the 15th of December. Feel free to sign up here.

If you have further questions for this topic, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

All the best,

James
Software Product Manager, Phase One

Capture One Pro 10: 10 reasons why I’ll never look back

While retouching with Photoshop isn’t a necessary step to get the best out of a picture, processing the RAW file is necessary. There are many RAW editing applications available on the market, and it can be difficult to find the one that best suits your needs.

I remember when I started photography, I was introduced to Apple’s Aperture, which has since been discontinued. So, I then moved onto Adobe Lightroom. Neither of them truly met my requirements. But eventually, I stumbled upon Capture One Pro and slowly made the transition. I’ve had extensive experience with all three apps. While none is perfect, there are at least ten reasons why I can’t leave Capture One and go back to any other RAW-processing software.

#1 Tethered Shooting Made Perfect

If Capture One has become the industry standard in commercial, fashion, beauty, or even still life photography, there must be at least one really good reason. To me, Tethered Capturing mode is that reason. Unlike most of its competitors, tethered capture in Capture One is reliable, and adjustments can be made on the fly, which offers clients a better vision of the end result. Plus, it’s easy to setup.

This is actually the reason I started using Capture One, and why I mention it first. Lightroom simply didn’t cut it when I shot tethered in studio. In the beginning, I used Capture One only for its tethering mode, and I would develop my files in Lightroom. But that quickly changed…

With Capture One 10, still life and macro photographers will be pleased to hear that they can finely set the focus within the app. No need to move to the camera to adjust it. No more trying to get it right with live view mode.

#2 Easy and Accurate Color Management

Only with Capture One do I manage to get the colors I want out of my RAW files without spending too much time. The easy use of the Color Editor and Skin Tone Tab allows for extremely accurate adjustments! Every time a client requires different software to process the RAW files, I miss Capture One’s Color Editor Tool. It’s such a time saver, and diminishes the work you need in Photoshop quite a lot.

Even better yet, I haven’t had to buy an expensive color target to obtain the colors I want. The ICC profiles, created by Phase One for over 400 cameras, are stellar and can easily be tweaked to one’s liking. Get your white balance right, and your colors will look more realistic than ever, even with the default settings.

#3 Good Out of the Box, Great Once Customized

Capture One offers great settings right out of the box. When I switched from Lightroom, I was astonished to see the difference between my files in Capture One and Lightroom! They look so much better in Capture One, without adjusting anything. Consequently, I decided to leave Adobe’s product behind. The Capture One look, just like the medium format look, is something truly special. You have to try it to understand it.

Once you get accustomed to Capture One and its tools, you should tailor your interface. I see so many photographers using the software just as it is even though they don’t use half of the features and don’t know about others far more important.

The level of customization is above anything else I’ve seen: you can personalize almost everything. It’s by making your own workspace that you’ll be able to go through pictures extremely quickly and efficiently, without feeling restricted by the interface. You’ll take your RAW files to the next level without losing time.

#4 Lightning Fast

At first, Capture One may be intimidating because of all its tools. But once you make your own workspace and customize everything you can, you’re able to work faster than ever. Not just because you know the ins and outs of the software, but also because it’s built to operate with big files and for large jobs.

Most other RAW processing apps were built to process pictures from a 10-year-old 35 mm digital camera with a 15 megapixel sensor or less. The power needed isn’t the same as what 50+ megapixel files now require.

Capture One is designed to work with digital medium format cameras that produce large RAW files, so it is not an issue at all to develop pictures from a Nikon D810 or Canon 5DSR. I mean, it can process 100 megapixel files without slowing down, as long as your computer can handle it.

If you’re used to Capture One 8 or 9, you need to give Capture One 10 a try. It’s even faster, thanks to the software engineers who reworked the main tools to make them more efficient. Panning, zooming, or going from one RAW file to another is instantaneous, no matter how big the images are!

#5 Focus Mask

Wedding or commercial photographers sometimes have to go through quite a lot of pictures quickly to keep their business profitable. One issue when culling down files is that you can’t select them using the thumbnails only as you can’t check focus properly this way.

Well, with Capture One it’s actually possible! The Focus Mask Tool displays an overlay color where the focus is achieved. No need to zoom in on every single frame, just the ones you aren’t sure about. Even then, you can use the Focus Tool to keep the navigator view but still check focus accuracy on your file. Culling has never been easier than with Capture One.

#6 Color Toning Made Visual

When teaching retouching, I find that many struggle with the notion of color. Using curves when you don’t know anything about color theory is awkward and anything but intuitive. Removing green to add magenta, go figure it out…

Anyone who ever opened a video color corrector software has probably seen the color wheels they feature to adjust the colors. Until Phase One introduced it in Capture One, no other photo-editing software offered this! It’s such a powerful and easy to use tool, that one can only wonder why it wasn’t available in any other photo editing software before. Once you try it, it’s extremely hard not to use it.

Adjusting color according to luminosity levels is so intuitive that even beginners will achieve the results they have in mind.

#7 Multiple Exports at Once

I remember when I used Lightroom and the export process could be a pain when exporting in multiple formats. When I shot weddings, I wanted to export 8×12” files at 240 DPI for my clients, full resolution at 300 DPI for my archives, and have 120% TIFFs at 300 DPI in 16 bits for wall prints and album design. To avoid extremely slow processing, I wait for one export to finish before I launch the next.

Capture One is designed to launch multiple recipes (export presets) at once. So, exporting JPEGs for proofing while the TIFFs are being processed is no longer an issue. The software does the work for me once I select the recipes.

#8 Capture Pilot

Any commercial photographer has probably worked with an art director looking over his shoulder to get a glimpse at the camera’s back. Tethered shooting becomes more efficient with Capture Pilot running on an iPad alongside Capture One on a computer. By using Capture Pilot, the art director can quickly go through the files as they’re captured. Meanwhile, the digital assistant can work in Capture One on the computer, adjusting the files on the fly.

Also family and portrait photographers can benefit from Capture Pilot. Instead of sending a proof gallery, simply hand over an iPad at the end of the session, and let your client(s) choose their images. It’ll make your work easier and they’ll most likely pick more shots as they’ll make an emotional rather than a rational decision.

#9 Proofing Taken to the Next Level

Proofing has become a forgotten step in many photographers’ workflows nowadays. As our industry has changed and digital use only has become a thing, many don’t proof their files anymore. But proofing isn’t limited to making sure the file looks perfect once printed. Most photo editing software can do that, Capture One being one of them. However, Capture One 10 offers a brand new feature allowing you to proof a file according to the process recipe selected.

This effectively means that Capture One 10 will display a proof of the picture with the settings the recipe has. No need to guess the effect of the JPEG compression or of the scaling on the sharpness accentuation anymore. The proof looks exactly like the final exported file.

#10 Sharpening for Final Use

This new feature of Capture One 10 has to be one of my favorite ones! Many photographers tend to add sharpening to their images in Photoshop using some kind of high pass filter trick. That works great, but saving the file with added sharpness isn’t such an excellent idea when the final use hasn’t been defined or if the file will be used on different media. Your picture may need different sharpening for Facebook than it does for a fine art print or a billboard.

When exporting, Capture One 10 offers the choice between adding sharpness for print, screen, or none at all. The last option is ideal for retouching. Better yet, sharpening for print has a handy feature named “Distance”. It lets you define the viewing distance of your print, so that sharpening is applied accordingly. With this feature, you don’t have to guess if your file is sharp enough for a 5-meter-wide image.

And there you have it, my top ten reasons why I’m not looking at any other RAW processing software alternative. Capture One is what suits my needs best, and I customize it to make my workflow as efficient as possible. And I’m extremely excited about Capture One 10!

While I mentioned a few of the newest features here, the new release has so much more to offer. Whether you’re a Capture One user or not, you must give it a try and experience its speed and handy new features.

… And before I leave you with the free 30-day trial, here’s a bonus 11th reason why you should consider Capture One: free tutorials and webinars. No need to pay to become a Capture One expert. Just head over to Phase One’s YouTube channel to watch videos in seven different languages. If you want to go more in depth, there’s always the Image Quality Professor’s blog posts.

Control your Output in Capture One Pro 10

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

Capture One Pro 10 now provides a whole new way of proofing the quality of your output. Until now, you have only been able to validate colors or zoom in and out of the image to see the quality of the file as it will appear if processed with no scaling changes.

Today’s cameras offer very high resolution. Therefore, exporting your file at maximum resolution is often unnecessary. You may want to deliver smaller JPEG files to your client for selection, or simply export images for your website.

But how do you insure your processed images have the right amount of sharpening, film grain or JPEG compression? With Recipe Proofing, new in Capture One 10, you can now view the image exactly as it will be processed, according to the selected Process Recipe.

Adjustments made to the image whilst Recipe Proofing is active are shown instantly. This means that you can deliver the exact the look and quality needed, even for a small file.

One can even see JPEG compression artifacts if processing out to JPEG.

Typically, the goal is to have as small of a JPEG file as possible, with the right quality for your need. Now, it is as straightforward as adjusting the JPEG quality slider in the Process Recipe, to immediately see the impact.

Images for Web Use

When I process images out of Capture One for the web, I still want the highest possible quality.

Before Capture One 10, I was processing out to a 50% size TIF file. Then, in Photoshop, I downsized the image to a width of typically 1600 pixels. The downsizing process actually makes the image look softer compared to the 100% view in Capture One. This is a logical consequence of downsizing. Therefore, I need to re-sharpen the file.

Finally, I save it as a JPEG file with a specific compression setting.

However, I still need to check the final, compressed JPEG quality for “ringing” artifacts and banding in smooth transitions.

Now, in Capture One 10, all these steps are made redundant by simply using the “Recipe Proofing” option.

Recipe Proofing

Recipe Proofing requires that a Process Recipe is first selected in the Process Recipe Tool. For this example, I have chosen a Process Recipe named “JPEG sRGB 1600 Pixels for web”.

The Recipe Processes to a JPEG file with Quality set to 50. The ICC Profile is sRGB and I have chosen a scaling of 1600 pixels on the long edge of the image.

Capture One 10’s new default workspace contains a shortcut on the toolbar to activate recipe proofing. A red circle above the image marks this.

Once activated, the selected image in the viewer shows a “Proofing” label (See above image).

In this mode, the viewer will display the image according to the recipe. So, now zooming to 100% means 100% of the output size. This way, I can see the file exactly as it will look when processed and I can also check the sharpness and the quality of the JPEG compression.

Output Sharpening

To compensate for lost sharpness, caused by the downsizing of the file, I could just add some more sharpening in the Sharpening tool. However, I would then need to change it again if I were to process the same image with different scaling. To deal with this issue, we have added another new Capture One 10 feature that allows you to add Output Sharping to a Recipe.

In the Adjustments tab for the selected Recipe, sharpening is set to “Output sharpening for Screen” with a Radius of 0.6 pixel and an Amount of 80. With Recipe Proofing active, dragging any of the sliders gives live feedback in the Capture One viewer. Image update speed during Recipe Proofing may be slower, as it requires more processing.

Setting the Right JPEG Compression

The following image is good to show JPEG compression artifacts as it has smooth tonale transitions as well as fine high contrast structures:

Underneath, it’s illustrated how I have zoomed in to 200% with Recipe Proofing mode activated. Normally, I recommend validating the file at 100% view, but in order to make it easier to see the differences when choosing different JPEG qualities, I use 200% view.

The image to the left uses JPEG Quality 0. In this image, the “ringing” artifacts around the antennas are obvious. The image in the middle uses Quality 50. Here, the ringing is much less noticeable. The image to the right uses Quality 100 and here no JPEG artifacts are visible.

The Process Summary Tool shows approximately how big the file will be. In the example above the file increases from 175kb to 245 kb to 1Mb. So, if you find that 50% quality works for you, then you will have a file that is four times smaller than using Quality 100. Consequently, the upload of files to a client, or Image loading on a webpage, will also be four times faster.

Film Grain

With Recipe Proofing, it has also become super easy to use Film Grain on scaled images as you can view the effect exactly as it will appear in the final image.

Recipe Proofing in Capture One 10 simply provides a much more efficient workflow with full control of the image quality whenever you need to resize images.

If you want to try out the proofing and sharpening, together with a lot other new features, you can download a free 30-day trial or visit our online software shop to upgrade, subscribe or buy a new license.

If you have any questions about the new Capture One Pro 10, please feel free to add a comment.

Niels,

The Image Quality Professor

Creating atmosphere with Color Grading

It was a cold and windy morning in Chicago, and the sun was just beginning to peak over the lake. I was more than 500 ft in the air, standing on the roof of the Hard Rock Hotel. I cleaned the sleep from my eyes while trying to decide the best angle to shoot from. I’m no stranger to heights, much of my work showcases the city of Chicago from high angles – but being on the ledge of a building 40 stories high is an unforgettable experience. I don’t often shoot the city at dawn, but have always enjoyed it when I do. It’s such a great time to take photos, as everything seems less chaotic and serene. The light on the buildings is noticeably different, and it’s a nice change from the norm.

Choice of equipment and settings

My equipment for this shoot was an XF IQ1 80MP. The lens was the Schneider Kreuznach LS 28mm f/4.5. I chose this lens because I wanted to capture the canyon of the street perfectly, and knew I needed something wide to do so. The wide angle also increases the feeling of vertigo, which worked perfectly in this scene. I wanted as little noise as possible, so I set my ISO to 35, which left me with a shutter speed of 1/40s.

Recreate your style

When it comes to grading, I tend to favor a more dramatic and emotional tone to my photos. With consistency, it gives my work a recognizable style, something that sets me apart from other photographers. In this blog post, I’ll show you three different variations of the same photo, and the steps to recreate it on your own.

Version 1: Deep and dramatic

In the first example, we’ll make the photo appear a little more dramatic with deep creamy shadows and neutral mid tones. This will be done by using Curve adjustments and the Color Balance Tool. Small adjustments to both can have a profound result to your photos. The photo straight out of the camera is a little green, and the first thing I want to do is to correct the white balance. I tend to edit my work on the cooler side, but it’s more of a personal preference than being technically accurate.

As you can see from my adjustments, I’ve made very minor changes using the Color Balance Tool, yet it has a nice effect on the colors of the photo. Perhaps the most important adjustment here is the shadows, which give a nice cool hue, combined with the Curve adjustments. I’ve also desaturated the blues in order to give the buildings a silver/grey look.

Creating a variation of a photo is an easy way to compare different edits of the same photo without losing your settings. To do this, simply right click the photo and select “New Variant” for a completely fresh variant without adjustments. Also, you can “Clone Variant” to make a variant copying the adjustments from the photo.

Version 2: Bright and clear

My next edit is similar, but with no adjustments to the exposure curve. By comparing this with the first picture, you can see how big a difference curves can have. I’ve also recovered the shadows and highlights to even out the exposure. After also cooling the White Balance down, I desaturated the blues a bit to give the buildings a grey/silver look.

Comparing this edit with the original and first edited version, everything seems brighter. The mood of the photo is less dramatic, and has more of a natural feel to the image. The buildings no longer emerge from the shadows of the streets, but are more pronounced and clearer. This image represents more closely to what the scene looked like that morning.

Version 3: Black & White

Lastly, let’s look into the Black and White tool built into Capture One. I kept the cooler White balance settings from the previous two photos, and then dropped the blues a little in the color sensitivity settings. This gives the photo a little more contrast. Moreover, I gave the shadows a slight blue hue under split tones to give the photo a little bit of a silver look to it. I’ve also copied the exposure curve adjustments from the first photo to again give the shadows a milky look to them.

Color versus B&W atmosphere

Choosing to edit in B&W is a choice that some photographers often struggle with. The most common question is: “When is it appropriate to do so?” Depending on who you talk to, the answer will vary to great lengths, but I always say that it depends on how the photographer views the scene. Personally, I think it provokes a different feel and mood altogether. The image, to me, is less distracting and more serene. It feels less busy. It’s hard to pull off B&W in architectural photography, but I think it works for this image.

The importance of Color Grading

Coloring your images can sometimes be an intimidating process. In a world where expensive filters and presets are becoming the norm, people seem to spend less time learning the tools at their disposal. Understanding how all of these tools fit together and change your images is almost an art in itself. Sometimes, you become a photographer and a painter at the same time, taking something straight from the camera and creating a whole new perspective on an image just through color grading it.

I hope you learned at least where to begin coloring your images, and explore other possibilities by putting your own spin on it. If you want to explore more of my work, you can visit my website.

Feel free to let me know which of the three versions fits your style the best, or maybe you have another suggestion?