Capture One

Latest Posts

Shortcut your way to a faster workflow

NOTE: This article discusses an outdated version of Capture One.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

For many releases of Capture One Pro, it has always been possible to configure your own Keyboard shortcuts, but with some limitations.

In earlier versions, the cursor tools (For example, the Crop tool, Pointer tool and Pan tool) were locked to the factory shortcuts, and many other functions couldn’t benefit from a shortcut.

Shortcut updates in Capture One Pro

Since Capture One Pro 9.2, you can configure cursor tools to anything of your choice, and a significant number of functions have been added to the Keyboard Shortcut configurator.

This also opens up the pathway for other hardware input devices like graphics tablets (See Using Wacom Tablet with Capture One Pro) and specialist keyboards or gaming mice.

But why explore keyboard shortcuts? It’s actually a very efficient way of working in Capture One Pro. You can activate most functions, select tools, and trigger processes much faster than ‘mousing your way’ to the desired menu.

Still not convinced? I quickly found some other reasons why you should be using Shortcuts:

(Inspiration: Why Use Shortcuts)

1. Efficiency

Generally, computer professionals acknowledge that using the keyboard instead of a mouse increases your productivity and helps you do more tasks. In other words, your job is done faster and easier when you use shortcuts. Take for example the task of selecting all the images in the browser. You can simply do that by pressing Cmd/Ctrl + A, whereas using a mouse requires Shift-clicking on the first and last image.

2. Multitasking

This argument derives from the first motive, and means that when using the keyboard you don’t have to follow a pointer to see what you’re doing. You can do anything semi-automatically thus freeing your mind for other tasks. For example, to start images processing it’s a simple Cmd/Ctrl + D, regardless of what’s open or visible in Capture One Pro.

3. Complementarity

You can combine the advantages of using the keyboard with those of using the mouse. For example, drawing a Local Adjustment mask is much easier done with the mouse. However, at the same time, you can easily switch brush mode by using keyboard.

4. Health issues

RSI (Repetitive Syndrome Injury) is much more often associated with extensive mouse usage rather than with keyboard usage. By alternating mouse and keyboard usage you can reduce the risks of RSI.

Convinced? Great! Read on to see how to customize your own shortcuts.

Create your own Shortcuts in Capture One Pro

Capture One Pro ships with a default set of shortcuts, so right out the gate you can start to exercise your fingers and speed through the program.

To get an overview of those shortcuts, and indeed any further configuration, browse to Help > Keyboard Shortcut Summary:

This will open a web browser showing a complete list of shortcuts and descriptions.

Naturally, it makes sense to modify these keyboard shortcuts or completely start from scratch, as we’re all wired a little differently.

You edit shortcuts in a simple way by browsing to Capture One > Edit Keyboard Shortcuts…

This will open the Keyboard Shortcut Editor:

If you look at the Category headings in the Shortcut Editor, notice that they follow the menu headings in Capture One. So, if for example you want to Shortcut an entry in the File menu, you find the equivalent entry under File in the Shortcut Editor.

Also, there is an Other category, which covers things that can’t be linked directly to a menu item, like for example Local Adjustment functionality.

The default shortcut configuration can’t be changed. This gives you the option to always return to factory default if you need to.

To create your own shortcuts, start by clicking on Create:

Give your Shortcut set a name, as you might want to create more than one or share your system with another user:

From this point on, you can go ahead and configure your shortcuts.

One of the shortcuts I always recommend to personalize is the Show/Hide Viewer command. This command gives you an easy way to quickly hide the main viewer if you just want to see your browser on screen.

To configure, expand out the View menu to find the Show/Hide Viewer command:

By default, it’s a combination of modifiers and the V key. I choose the key that’s just below my Escape key – apparently it’s called a ‘Period’. I have no use for this key in day to day operation so it makes sense to assign it.

Click on the Shortcut entry and then click on x to clear it:

Now use your chosen Shortcut and hit Enter to apply it:

Configuring Cursor Tools

Cursor tools often have sub operations, made visible if you click and hold on the Cursor tool itself:

For example, the Straighten cursor tool’s default shortcut is R. Shift-Clicking R will cycle through each of the cursor tools in turn, but you can also assign different keys to each cursor tool.

If we look at the same tool in the Keyboard Shortcut Editor, we see that each cursor tool can take a different Shortcut, if we wish so:

Other Shortcut Possibilities

In the Other menu, you can find shortcuts that don’t necessarily fit into a menu item. For example, shortcuts are in place for many of the Adjustment tools, like Exposure…

There are also many possibilities for Local Adjustments, like adding new Layers with the possibility to distinguish between Adjustment, Clone and Heal layers:

As I mentioned previously, keyboard shortcuts are also a great way to map these to other hardware input devices. Graphics tablets, like Wacom, often have buttons that can be assigned to mimic a shortcut key, which gives you a great way to exercise keyboard shortcuts further.

Here is another example from the gaming world which could be interesting to use with Capture One Pro: http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-keyboards-keypads/razer-orbweaver-chroma

Anybody willing to try? 😉

Do you have any good time saving shortcuts? Then please let us all know in the comments below.

Best,

David Grover

Phase One

Confessions of a retoucher: From RAW to refined

In a recent Photography Master Class Jodi Jones and I hosted in Nashville, we got some amazing shots that we would love to share with you, as well as my process of getting the best images out of the RAW files from Capture One Pro.

The settings of the shoot

Jodi and I spent lots of time together before the shoot day for creative planning. The model we used for our Nashville Master Class workshop is the beautiful Esseri. She is a rock star and a great friend of ours. She has long, rich red hair and a stunning face and figure. We thought of creating a very Barbie-like look for the beauty shoot of her. Thanks to the epic Phase One XF 100MP camera system, it captured all her great details. She was absolutely gorgeous!

The shoot; A retoucher’s perspective

While everybody on set was amazed by the images popping up on the screen as they were shooting, I was already visualizing and planning the retouching process for the shoot! I regard myself as an artist, being that I am a professional retoucher. Great retouching should dramatically enhance the image, or even totally transform it!

I am also very happy being part of the image planning and creation process, which helps set me up for the final retouching phase. So, when I opened Capture One Pro after the first day of the shoot and looked at those images again, I knew immediately I would want to retouch her as a pretty doll.

Ready to retouch

I first adjusted curves for the entire image, just to bring out more contrast and color. I zoomed into the model’s face to see the details and brought down the clarity and brought up the structure, so I could create that Barbie look skin texture even in my RAW files. This saves a lot of time later on when you bring the image into Photoshop for further adjustments.

Now the creative story begins: Let’s give it a pink background! I went to Local adjustments and created a separate layer. Then I painted a mask over the background, and simply changed the white balance to get the baby pink color I wanted.

Thereafter, I created another layer mask for the skin tone. I used the color picker to sample both the midtones and highlights on her skin, and then softened the color contrast by doing a few adjustments using the color editor.

Next, to emphasize her beautiful face and add more depth to the image, I made another layer mask for the hair specifically. I wanted to darken her hair just a little. However, I love the redness of it, so I adjusted the color without taking too much red out.

The Magical Dodge and Burn

The following step is making my magical Dodge & Burn layers. One thing I love about Capture One Pro is that I can do so much on my RAW images. I can get the most out of the RAW file before I even start retouching the image in Photoshop. To do Dodging and Burning in Capture One Pro, it’s just the same formula as doing D&B in Photoshop, using two different curve layers. I don’t recommend doing too much on the two adjustments, because the entire purpose of this step is to only slightly enhance your RAW. You want to keep it subtle. After that, I paint my mask just like a quick D&B in Photoshop.

Final adjustments

My last step is changing the color of her eyes to blue through a separate layer. In Capture One Pro it’s very easy in to mask only the pupils and use the color editor or curve to achieve the color you want.

With some simple adjustments for skin retouching, and a further Dodge & Burn, here are my final images. Loving it, don’t you?

Article and retouching by Yanyanista

Stylist: Yanyanista

MUA & Hair: Tina Davis

Model: Esseri Holmes

Follow Yanyanista’s and Jodi Jones’ journey around the world on Instagram: @yanyanista & @jodijonesstudio

To sign up for the next Jodi Jones x Yanyanista’s Master Class in Miami and New York, visit http://jodijonesstudio.com/workshoptour

5 fundamental features in Capture One Pro

Capture One Pro 9 forms the backbone of my images, especially when it comes to creating fine art images. The workflow presented below will give you an understanding of why I prefer this RAW converter compared to the rest. Let us start from the very bottom.

Step 1: Creating Sessions & Importing image

No matter which image I am about to work on, my first step is to create a new session on Capture One Pro. The reason why, is that it creates a new folder with the files I am about to work on. Hence, I do not have to worry about file misplacements and have them offline in case I misplaced them, which is usually the case with Lightroom’s Catalog sessions.

So, I set the path to where I want Capture One Pro to create the session. Once you click ‘OK’, it opens a new interface with a blank canvas. From here, you can import the images that you would like to work on.

Once this is done, your images will be ready to be fine-tuned:

Step 2: Setting Global Adjustments

We will primarily be working on two images in this example: One normally exposed image and one underexposed image. By doing so, we can blend them later when we take them into Photoshop.

The first thing I do is to make Global Adjustments so I can set the right mood and feeling. Since we are working in RAW format, this is the best time to capitalise on this aspect. Whatever adjustments we make on one image, we will duplicate those on the other image to maintain consistency.

We start by making Global Adjustments in the colour panel of Capture One Pro. Here, we make changes to the 3-way colour panel tool, as pictured below.

In this image we make adjustments to the midtone slider and bring down the luminosity to add a mood. Then we adjust the colour slider of the midtones and shift it towards the yellow/orangish range, since we are shooting in the desert. That way it add a bit more warmth to the image.

The next step is to adjust the colour wheel of the shadows. We will bring down the lightness slider first to darken the shadows a bit. Thereafter, we shift the colour wheel to Blue and bring up the saturation slider. By doing so, we limit the colour spill of the sand to the bright portions of the image only, in this case the highlights.

Now we come to the Highlight colour wheel. Here we will mimic the colour wheel of the midtones in order to add more warmth to the highlights. Below is an example of how the final colour balance wheels look like.

So, just by using the colour balance tool alone we have created quite a mood in the image. Below is a quick example of a before and after, which is shown by holding down the ‘alt’ key on my mac and left-clicking on the circular arrow above the colour wheel:

Before and after color adjustments

The next move is to go to our Exposure tab and make some Global Adjustments.

In this case, I make minor adjustments by bringing down the exposure slider to -0.2 and the brightness slider up by +2. Then I open my shadows just a bit by bringing up the slider to 6. The reason I do so is to make sure not to kill any information in the image before exporting it. I want all the information available to play with later as well.

Usually, I adjust the clarity slider as well but I will not do so in the exposure tab. You will find out why soon. Another beauty about Capture One Pro is that it takes care of the chromatic aberration and lens distortion by default, unlike Lightroom. That is visible under the lens correction tab.

Below are the final results after making the above adjustments.

Final result after Global Adjustments

Now, we duplicate these adjustments onto the underexposed image, so we can maintain consistency when we merge both images. We simply right-click on the selected image and choose ‘Copy Adjustments’:

After copying those adjustments, we select the next image and simply right-click on it and hit on ‘Paste adjustments’.

Now both images share the same adjustments that we made earlier.

Step 3: Local Adjustment Slider/Masking

This is the part where we will play with our clarity sliders in the local adjustments tab. The reason we do so is because we can choose which clarity option to apply on both the ground and the sky after masking them.

How to apply the clarity to the foreground? We simply do that by masking it.

First we select the Brush Tool from the console, which is placed just below the tab. Once you have selected the brush, take your mouse towards the image and right click it to make sure that Auto Mask is selected.

The Auto ask functionality will allow us to seamlessly mask the ground and not the sky. That is the beauty about using this brush tool. We gradually mask the ground by brushing through the horizon with a small brush all the way to the foreground. Please see image below as example:

When you apply the Brush Tool, it automatically creates a new layer in the panel which is highlighted on the upper left hand side. Now that we have fully selected our foreground with the brush tool, it’s time to make some custom adjustments to it.

First, we bring up the contrast slider almost half way. The beauty about the contrast slider in Capture One Pro is that it only affects the luminosity value of the pixels and not its colour unlike Lightroom’s contrast slider.

You can see from the image below how the contrast slider brings out a nice punch to the foreground.

Result of Masking

The next step we take is to play with the clarity slider. A crucial advantage about Capture One Pro is that, unlike Lightroom, you can choose from up to four different clarity sliders, as shown in the image below. The algorithms used in all four are different and hence your mid tone contrasts vary from one clarity slider to another.

In this case, I prefer to use the Natural clarity slider since it does not kill/hurt the blacks unlike the clarity slider in Lightroom when pushed to the extremes. However, in this case, we will make subtle changes to the slider here, since we already added contrast to the sand.

The other reason for making the subtle changes is because I do not want to lose any information in this image that can be used later in Photoshop, when we will mask the sky layer and finalise the mood of the image.

Step 4: Masking the sky layer

The next step is now to mask the sky layer in the underexposed image:

This is the part where we can capitalise on the clarity slider by moving it from Natural to Punch, as shown in the picture below. The reason for doing so is because Punch adds a bit more pop to the image and adds a bit of colour as well. Hence, this is the reason why I do not do any global adjustments to clarity.

As a final adjustment I bring up the saturation just a notch and bring up the temperature a bit too.

Step 5: Exporting the images

With the necessary adjustments made, we select both images by hitting Cmd/CTRL and left clicking the unselected image. In this step, we export the images from Capture One Pro, so we go to the recipe section for this:

As illustrated above, I export these images as 16-Bit TIFFs in prophoto RGB colour space. The reason for me to choose such a colour space is because, compared to sRGB and Adobe RGB, it has the widest colour gamut, hence you have more colour variations to play with.

The final result of my picture, including some further editing in Photoshop, ended up like this:

If you would like to also see some advance photoshop video tutorials, feel free to check out my website. You will find over 35+ episodes on how I edit my images from start to finish. Please feel free to also visit me on my Facebook account.

Hope you enjoyed this walkthrough,

Baber Afzal

Monitor calibration made easy

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

Today’s monitors have improved a lot during the last few years. Many of the new ones provide nearly 100% of the Adobe RGB (1998) workspace and have a pretty reasonable default calibration.

On a Mac system, where color management have always been an important part of the Mac experience, it may even look acceptable. However, as soon as you really need to rely on what you see on the monitor, you will need to create a monitor ICC profile for it and make sure that your operating system is using it correctly.

Today, ICC Color Management is an integrated part of the operating systems on both Mac and PC’s, and all serious image applications are using ICC Color Management when displaying images on a monitor.

The easy way with EIZO

With the release of Capture One Pro 9.3, we have completed a long on-going collaboration with EIZO. This has resulted in a one-click solution for calibrating the high-end EIZO monitors with integrated calibration sensors.

This feature is a great solution for all of those who do not want to be an expert in monitoring profiling and just want a proven, trustworthy solution setting up for a target of gamma 2.2, 5000K White Point and a brightness of 120 candele/m2.

If you would like to try out this solution, you need to open Preferences, open Color Tab and push the One-click calibrate button. As long as you have a supporting monitor tab, sit back and watch the magic happen.

Profiling a monitor

For those who like to be hands-on or are interested in getting to know the work that lies behind profiling a monitor, we have provided you with an explanation. Profiling a monitor basically consist of 3 steps:

Calibrating the monitor
Measuring the color and tonal response
Creating a monitor ICC profile

To profile a monitor, you will need a specialized monitor calibration solution which includes an application and a color measuring device, typical connected via USB. There are at least a couple of solutions available on the market.

First part of the Profiling process is about bringing the monitor as close as possible to a standardized setup. To describe such a setup we typically specify 3 parameters:

Gamma response = 2.2
White Point = 5000K
Brightness = 120 candela/m2

Gamma Response

The gamma number refers to the mathematical gamma function and it is used to describe the un-linear response of the monitor, which originates from the days with CRT tube monitors.

Historically, Mac computers were using Gamma 1.8 and Window computers 2.2. Mac chose the gamma 1.8 as it was easier for them to match images on a monitor and a printer when using gamma 1.8. In those days, the ICC color manage system was not invented.

With today’s ICC Color Management workflow you will get equally good results whether you use gamma 1.8 or 2.2. However, as the most often used workspaces for images (The Adobe RGB (1998) and the sRGB workspace) use gamma 2.2, it has become the default standard to use gamma 2.2 for the monitor setup.

White Point

Any color displayed on a monitor is created by a mix of the monitor’s pure primary colors: The pure Red, pure Green and pure Blue. The White Point basically describes the balance of Red, Green and Blue light when a white color is displayed in the monitor.

A White Point of 5000K, which is practically the same as D50, gives a neutral daylight white. For critical viewing of prints it is recommended to use a 5000K light source. A number of print viewing booths with 5000K light sources are available, as well as general lighting solutions for room illumination at 5000K.

A modern quality monitor has no problem using a White Point of 5000K while still being able to be bright enough. It has not been like that always. Earlier monitors were very bluish by default, and when you tried to set it up for 5000K it would often be too dark, which forced you to make a compromise and use D6500 instead.

Brightness

The Brightness of the monitor is the last parameter to setup. There is an ISO standard that specifies a brightness of 160 candela/m2 for critical inspections of color prints. So, ideally you could set your monitor for a brightness of 160 candela/m2 and having a viewing booth matching that brightness level but running a monitor at this brightness may reduce its live time. A very good compromise is then 120 candela/m2. Most viewing booths can easily be dimmed to match that brightness level and it is fairly bright for critical color judging.

Calibrating a Monitor

As the first step of profiling a monitor, you need to set it up as close as possible to the target values. Depending on the calibration solution and your monitor, this first part can be done either pure manually or automatic. These two methods will be further explained in the up-coming sections.

Manual setup

On your monitor there will be a menu system where you should be able to select the target values:

Gamma 2.2
White point D50 /5000K
A brightness level

When you start the monitor profiling application you will have to specify the target values for the monitor. The profiling application will now be able to measure the monitor setup and guide you to optimize it in order to get it closer to your target values if the monitor menu system allows you to do so.

Calibration colorimeter on EIZO monitor

Now that the monitor is correctly set, it is time for measuring how it performs.

Typically, this requires at least measuring the monitor’s primary colors the pure Red, pure Green and pure Blue and the linearity of the monitor. These measurements are then used for generating the monitor ICC profile.

In this manual calibration case the ICC profile will contain a linearization tables for the Red, Green and the Blue Channel that will be used by the graphic display card to insure the correct white point and a perfect linearity.

If you double-click on a monitor ICC profile on a Mac it will be opened in the Color Sync Utility application. Here you can inspect the “Vcgt” tag, which contains the lookup tables for the graphical card. In this case we can see that the Red and Blue lookup table are a little different as these curves compensate for a non-perfect White Point setup at the monitor and for some un-linearity.

Automatic setup

In some high-end monitors the profiling application will be able to communicate directly with the monitor via USB connection. If this is the case, the profiling application is able to set the monitor for the target values in closed loop calibration.

For some monitors it is even possible to load the measured linearization tables into the monitor’s hardware where they can be using a 10 bit resolution. If so, the ICC profile will still have lookup tables for the Red, Green and Blue channel but they will all be perfect linear as any un-linearity compensation has been moved into the monitor hardware.

This way of calibrating a monitor is, of course, the preferred solution, as lookup tables in the graphic card only works in 8 bit and can cause visual banding in very smooth tone transitions if the needed corrections are too big.

At the end of the profiling process, a monitor ICC is generated. As I work with laptops and with different external monitors (studio, office, home), I name the ICC profile by a model name/location and a data. This way it is easy for me to identify the different ICC profiles if I want to inspect it in, for instance, ColorSync Utility.

Just Viewer Booth

Quality control

Now you should have a perfect calibrated monitor and the monitor ICC profile has been setup for the ICC Color management system on your operating system. But something may have gone wrong, so you are recommended to do some kind of validation of your new profile.

For years, I have been using the same reference file that I almost know by heart how is supposed to look, and I have reference prints of that file that I can bring up in my viewing booth next to the monitor. Over the years, I have tried many different monitor profiling solutions and many times I have ended up with something not looking right.

How often do you need to profile you monitor?

High-end monitors do not change much over time. Working with a rather new monitor, I only profile every 12 months. It is important that you make sure that you do not start to calibrate the monitor before it has warmed up. Depending on the manufacture, this can be done as fast as in 7 minutes.

My experience also tells me that my monitor is in fact very stable. However, if I profile it with different applications and/or color measuring devices I will get more or less different results, so it is also very important to use the same tools every time.

All the best,

Niels