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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

Using Wacom Tablet with Capture One Pro

It is almost three years ago since I wrote on this blog about using a Wacom tablet with Capture One Pro (Work faster by customizing your Wacom tablet in Capture One Pro 7), so I thought it was about time for an update!

I began using a tablet after struggling with the worst mouse design of the century, the infamous Apple ‘Hockey Puck’ mouse.

Whilst looking sleek, it was an ergonomical disaster and soon led to RSI in hand wrist and arm. At the time, I was creating cutting paths for about 7-8 hours per day, so maybe I’m being hard on the mouse, but something had to change. So I found the Wacom tablet.

Since then, I have never looked back and I use my Wacom all day every day for every single application. I do not even have a mouse anymore or feel the need to get one.

Why Wacom?

So, apart from comfort, why else use a Wacom tablet? If you haven’t tried one before, my advice is to certainly give it a go. It may take a short time to adjust, but once you have, you won’t regret it!

The latest models also act like a large trackpad, so if you want a break from pen holding, you can simply activate the touch sensitivity and use it like you would use a laptop trackpad. The pen also responds to pressure, which can be linked with some functionality in Capture One Pro and as well as to other applications.

The model I am using for this post is the Intuos Pro (http://www.wacom.com/en-us/products/pen-tablets/intuos-pro-medium). They come in a number of sizes, but I have always found the smaller size adequate for my needs, plus it’s also easy to travel with. It really does come everywhere with me.

Wacom were kind enough to send me a new one so I could compare to my much older model I’ve been using. If the financial stretch to a Pro model is too much, the Intuos line (http://www.wacom.com/en-us/products/pen-tablets/intuos-photo) should definitely not be seen as a poor substitute.

Customisation

Since my last look at the Wacom driver, I can certainly see that things have moved on in terms of customisation possibilities. There’s almost a mind boggling array of customisable functions and it’s going to take me some time to dig into what will work the best.

Let’s have a look at the Pen first….

Pen

Changes to Pen and Tablet functionality are all carried out in the System Preferences (I am told the possibilities are the same with Windows). Here are the Pen options:

The feature circled in orange is important! It allows you to create custom configurations for individual apps. So, click that to begin creating a setup just for Capture One Pro.

I change very little on the Pen configuration, except for the switch which you can operate with your thumb. The lower part (set to Pan/Scroll) I can click and hold which allows me to scroll up and down through the thumbnail view, or indeed any other scrollable window in Capture One or any other application..

The upper part I’ve set to Right Click, which means I can access many of the sub menus of Capture One Pro directly from the Pen.

If you’ve read my older blog post about Wacom, you might remember a function called the Radial Menu which can also be accessed by a Pen button click. This brings up an OSD-like menu wherever the cursor currently is:

This menu can be customised to respond to Capture One Pro’s shortcut keys, and if you’re new to Capture One Pro and can’t remember all the shortcuts yet, this is a great way of adding some of the frequently used functions.

To configure it, you need to change to the Functions section, On Screen Controls Tab and then the Radial Menu:

For each ‘wedge’ of the Radial menu you can assign a function. In this case, I have set Keystrokes that correspond to certain Capture One actions, like creating a New Variant.

I will admit that I’ve moved away from using this, as I became more and more used to using shortcut keys and being able to remember them! However, this is a GREAT option if you can’t remember shortcuts or simply don’t like using them.

If you want to use this option, just change the top Pen switch to Radial Menu, or use one of the Express Keys (See below) if you prefer.

I think that, potentially, a great action to add here would be options for Local Adjustments like Fill Mask and Invert Mask. I plan to try this out right away.

If neither of those options appeal to you, simply take a look at the available ones from the list, there’s a lot!

The Tablet

The tablet itself also has customisable Express Keys and the Touch Ring, which is a touch sensitive wheel that can also be customised. It’s commonly used for changing brush parameters or zooming.

Once again, I will be completely honest and say that I don’t use these keys as much as I use the keyboard. Ergonomically, I have my left hand on the Keyboard where I can access, CTRL, SHIFT, CMD, ALT etc., and the Pen in my right.

(Don’t worry if you are left handed, as you can flip the tablet, and set to being left handed in the preferences)

However, instead of using the Express Keys as modifier keys, they are useful for accessing some Wacom specific functions. One of them, I’ve actually just discovered while writing this post.

The Express Keys are configured just like the Pen toggle switch. Each key is shown graphically, with a drop down menu of options.

I leave the first Express Key set to the default, which just turns the touch sensitivity on and off.

Display Toggle

If you work across two monitors, like me, the surface area of your Wacom will be divided between them. In the Mapping tab, a graphical representation shows you how the tablet is divided. Generally, I leave it like this, but if you are working on two displays that vary greatly in size, you can find that you don’t have enough tablet for the screen in terms of accuracy.

Therefore, I’ve just set the second Express Keys to Display Toggle:

This means that clicking this button will remap the tablet to either one of the monitors or both of them. So if I would like to concentrate on my main monitor only, I just toggle through using that key. I have to say that I’m so glad I found this feature.

Precision Mode

This can be really handy when doing some intricate masking work in Local Adjustments. Basically, it remaps the tablet area to a very small part of the screen, so you can work very smoothly.

The Touch Ring

If you’ve ever used a classic iPod (showing my age here), you’ll know exactly how the touch ring works. It’s a touch sensitive dial that can be used for things such as zooming or adjusting the brush size and hardness:

Sometimes I use this, but sometimes I can either just Right Click whilst using the brush (easy to do on the Pen as you have seen) to bring up the Brush parameters, or even hold CTRL on the keyboard.

So at this time, I haven’t found a time saving use for the Touch Ring, but I will keep investigating.

On Screen Controls

On Screen Controls are similar to the Radial menu but going one level deeper for the amount of shortcuts you can add with more customisation possibilities:

By clicking the plus button (indicated) you can create a list of key assignments in a similar way to the Radial Menu.

They show as a HUD style grid on screen:

Again, this could be a useful way to convert shortcut keys into visual buttons, if you have a hard time remembering them.

Using Pen Pressure

Depending on the model, Wacom tablets are sensitive to the amount of pressure you place on the pad. You can link that pressure sensitivity to the size of your brush in Capture One Pro’s brush settings panel:

Personally, I am not skilled enough to make this work well, and find it faster to just bring up the settings panel to finesse brush size as I work. Also, with the addition of Flow control (The importance of Flow control) it doesn’t make sense to link Pen Pressure to Opacity right now.

But try it and see what you think.

Conclusion

So far, I have only scratched the surface of what’s possible in broader terms with a Wacom tablet.

If you decide to take the plunge and start using a Wacom as a result of this post, then please let me know in the comments how it went.

What have you found that makes your workflow easier?

If you’re already a Wacom user, what can you tell us about your shortcuts and settings?

As I work more with this new tablet and driver, no doubt that I will settle on a configuration. When I do, I will follow up with my final setup!

All the best,

David Grover

Pick your battles: 4 things worth fighting for on any shoot

Preparing for a commercial shoot, no matter what the size, is a stressful endeavor. Countless decisions need to be made in the weeks leading up to shoot day and most often these aren’t your decisions alone to make. Creative directors who have been working for months to concept the project, producers who have hawk like eyes on the budget, and account managers who are looking out for their client are just a few of the voices who will have an opinion — and rightfully so.

If there is one thing that experience has taught me, it’s that even the best intentioned ideas need to adapt to the practical realities of their capture. Believe me I’ve seen it all: From not having new cars painted when delivered from the factory (we ended up using Plasti Dip), to no fly zones due to military training; both planned and unplanned challenges are part of any production.

So, knowing which battles to pick when it comes to these conversations can be the difference between successfully executing your creative vision and feeling like a robot who is just pushing a shutter button. Here are the four things I’m never willing to budge on — and a few images from a recent production for the US based fabric manufacture Eastman to illustrate.

1) Location

As an outdoor/lifestyle photographer, to me, location is everything. REAL is king, and while it is possible to fake heat, rain, snow, and epic vistas, they always fall short on the authenticity meter. The mood of the shoot, and therefore the images we create, are directly related to a location. So I will fight to the death for the best location.

For the project with Eastman, we wanted to capture compelling photography while telling a visual narrative about the different conditions that their new fabrics were designed for. Practically, that meant the heat of the desert to the cool chill of mountain summits. For the ‘hot’ desert part of our story, I was inspired by the photographs you often see of Antelope Canyon in Arizona, where the dust stirred up by hundreds of people in the narrow canyon create beams of light that tell such a rich story in a single image. I wanted those beams, but in a more dramatic place. Tall, smooth walls of sandstone.

I think our team found an awesome spot for my creative vision, and the producers were happy that we could get everyone in and out safely, with minimal hiking, AND within the budget.

2) Talent

You can be in the most beautiful place in the world, but if you don’t have the right models you aren’t going to get the shot you need. Whether you are just using friends that you’ve worked with before, or having a casting agent supply models for the project, it’s incredibly important that you as the director/photographer talk with talent beforehand. Be honest about your expectations, locations, and direction ahead of time.

Then when it comes time to make a decision on who you will be using on the project, you can be specific about the talent you want to shoot and why. “He looks good” doesn’t hold up in a discussion about casting. “When I talked to him on Skype he shared his experiences in hiking in exposed environments, can do backflips on command, and has great energy” goes much further. This was the case with ‘Zuma’ our male talent in these desert photos. I loved his look, but it was his comfort in the dusty, dirty, exposed landscapes that made these locations really come to life.

3) Gear

No matter what the client asks for, use the camera equipment that YOU want. You are a race car driver, and the gear is your car. The equipment you pick will have as much effect on the look and feel of the imagery as the location.

Because I knew these images were going to be used as giant billboards, I wanted to capture everything in the highest and sharpest resolution possible. Additionally, I knew we were going to be operating in narrow canyons, river bottoms, and mountain ridges – places where the exposure and vastness was an essential element in the photograph. I wanted to be close to the action but still see the epic landscape.

For these reasons I shot the entire campaign on the new Phase One Schneider Kreuznach 35mm LS f/3.5 Blue Ring lens. I was blown away by the corner-to-corner sharpness when paired with the XF IQ3 100MP camera system, even when shot wide open. Shooting tight, but knowing that I’d still have the context of landscape, helped us move fast and efficiently, because the client knew they could crop in on an image if needed.

I normally don’t think of shooting medium format as faster, but it’s a big reason why we were able to shoot this entire campaign in a matter of a days – not weeks.

4) The Post Process

Once you’ve wrapped a production, the work is only halfway done. From stills to motion, the realization of your creative vision comes together in the post production process. This entire project was edited in Capture One Pro 9, which is the best tool I’ve found for pulling every ounce of color and resolution from your files.

Because we shot this campaign practically, meaning that what you see was how it was on location, it was important for us to remain rooted in reality, but push what the naked eye could see.

At the end of the day, the RAW file is just a foundation for you to build your story from — so don’t let the fact the that shooting is done, stop you from having your creative voice be heard.

There’s always a fine line between fighting for your creative vision and being a micromanager. It’s your job as the photographer to lead your team through the creative process of a production and be specific about what you want. However, it’s also important to remember that you are a team.

While there will always be several things out of my control, these four elements are always worth fighting for.