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Secrets for adding multiple Styles and Presets to one image

NOTE: This article discusses an outdated version of Capture One.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

In Capture One you have the option of combining several Styles and Presets in one image. We call it stacking them.

Why stack your Styles and Presets?

Without the stacking option you would only be able to apply one Style or Preset to each image and trying to apply a second one would remove the previous.

But with stacking enabled, you can mix and match several of these pre-configured adjustments. But what happens in case of two or more conflicting adjustments? Which will be saved and which will be overridden?

For each tool, you decide whether you will allow stacking of Presets, and as long as two Presets do not conflict with each other, it makes sense to stack them within a single tool.

For Styles, you also have the option of stacking. When working with Styles, it makes a lot of sense to be able to stack Styles or Presets as they may come from different tools dealing with separate issues.

For instance, you can make a Preset that adds some basic metadata to your images like ‘creator’ and ‘copyright’. You can stack this Preset with a Preset that turns your image into a square crop format and with a Preset that adds some general color corrections.

How to stack Presets

To show how you can stack Presets within a single tool, I will create two different adjustment Presets which I will combine by allowing Capture One to stack Presets.

First, I will create an Exposure adjustment Preset pushing the exposure by 1/3 f-stop. I set the exposure compensation to 0.33 and press “Save User Preset” in the Manage and Apply drop-down menu. As the exposure is the only change, it is the only item that has been checked in the save dialog. This is important, as I will later combine this Preset with Presets using contrast and exposure. I name this Preset “Exposure +1/3”.

Next, I will generate a Preset giving the look and feel of old color films. I set the contrast to +18 and the saturation to -56. I save this Preset and make sure that only contrast and saturation are selected in the save dialog. I name this Preset “Old Colors”.

By default, the “Stack Presets” is turned off. Start by selecting the “Stack Presets” menu. Now a check mark indicates that stacking is turned on. Now you can select the Preset “Exposure +1/3” as well as the Preset “Old Colors”. By stacking these Presets, we combine them within a single tool giving you a nice color look, reminiscent of the early days of color films.

If you stack Presets where the individual parameters are not independent, the last Preset you add will be the one that takes effect.

To remove a stacked Preset, you can either click on the Preset again or use the remove option found when pressing the triangle in the “Applied … Presets” list.

If you want to apply the corrections to other images, you can just copy the settings to the Clipping board and apply them to the selected images. This operation will ensure the right settings are applied. If you also want to see these adjustments coming from a certain Preset, you should check the “include style layers” checkbox on the top of the Clipping board.

See how to create your own Styles and Presets

Try out Capture One for free

All the best,

Niels

Color Balance reload – still more to give?

It’s been a while since we released the 3-way Color Balance tool in Capture One 8.2, and to be honest, I am wondering how I ever coped without it! It finds its way quite often into daily adjustment of images, even if it is a small tweak here and there.

For some reason, which I have no explanation for, I am currently going through a phase of preferring more less contrast and less saturated images than I have before. No doubt I will revert to the opposite at some point, but for now I prefer subtlety to punch-in-the-face colors!

So, can the 3-way Color Balance tool still be used effectively in this situation? Of course, and I have discovered a couple of methods that work nicely.

Here is a picture of my son I shot a while ago. This is straight out of the camera, except for the square crop.

Pretty good on the-out-of-camera adjustments, in my opinion, but I always experiment with a couple of different adjustments to see if a different direction helps. I am not much of a Preset fan as quite often one Preset doesn’t lend itself well to a different image, and I can work pretty fast with the tools on hand.

Looking at the histogram, exposure seems about perfec,t so right now I am not going to mess with much in the Exposure tool, except to drop the saturation down quite a way to -30 points. I have found this is a good start point before going on to the Color Balance tool in many situations. It gives a subtle but still visible effect, which I really enjoy.

You could argue there is a little bit of clipping in the shadows, but as this is in the very deepest areas (just below the ear for example), it won’t achieve much to improve the end result by adjusting the Shadow slider in the HDR tool.

Now, the only thing this has achieved so far is to make everything look a bit dull (see below).

Next step is to then to move to the 3-way Color Balance tool and see what we can do here. I haven’t done much but it is enough to cool the shadows (which I like) and add a bit of warmth back into the midtones so the skin tone is improved. Remember, the further you move the selection towards the edge of the circle, the greater the saturation. I have also played around with the lightness of each of the tones by pulling the right-hand slider up a little in each case.

If you want more fine control in the 3-way Color Balance tool, don’t forget you can drag it out of the tool tab and enlarge it, like I have done above. Can we do anything else? Sometimes I go back to the Levels tool and play around with the midtone slider to see if I prefer a lower contrast effect (which I did in this case) and nine times out of ten apply some kind of positive or negative vignette.

Let’s put the adjusted image up, alongside the original.

The last thing to do is some minor spotting work. I really must remember to clean his face before taking a picture.

Don’t forget that even in a Black and White image the Color Balance tool is useful. The Lightness sliders will still come into play and even changing the saturation of a given color selection has an effect.

Here are just four examples from one image:

There is no harm in trial and experimentation! After all, the end result is the key.

Finally, here is another example. I have put the tools used on the left-hand side so you can see the process. The Local Adjustments are simply selective areas to lighten and darken the image where I see fit.

If you want more in-depth instruction on the 3-way Color Balance tool, don’t forget to visit the earlier blog posts on that subject:

Color grading made easy

Color control like never before

Best regards,

David

Save time on the road – with Sessions

Usually, I carry little when I am on a job – only cameras, lenses, memory cards, pen and paper, and that’s about it. I’m not required to lug around a notebook, I edit RAW files on my workstation and deliver images and text the next day or so.

From time to time, though, I get assignments, which require overnight stays, and delivering images on-site. Capture One Pro’s Session mode really makes my life easier, both during an assignment, and afterwards.

Why Sessions?

First of all, Sessions are what I’m used to working with. I’ve been working with Capture One for years now, and once a “workflow” works for me, I’m not inclined to change it. I started using Capture One Catalogs on my workstation a while ago, but on notebooks? It’s definitely Session time.

Apart from force of habit, Sessions make it easier for me to cull images, back up files via FTP or Dropbox, and move photos, and settings, to my main Catalog once I am back from a job.

On-site

I create a fresh Session in Capture One Pro 8 using a pretty basic workspace template. I don’t usually shoot tethered, so I don’t need the “Capture” tool tab, for example. I then import the day’s images, rename files and add metadata such as copyright with tokens and templates.

Tokens make it easy to dynamically create structure and rename files.

Next, culling. One thing I never do while on a job is to delete images directly on a camera or memory card. Things can get pretty hectic, and the risk would be too high, that I accidentally delete the wrong file(s). So, I often end up with a couple hundred images within a few hours.

For culling, I disable the Viewer with CMD+ALT(option)+V, and use the red color tag by hitting the “minus” (-) key. I filter out images tagged Red in the browser. They’re still on the work drive, but won’t get in my way.

Keeps your browser tidy: The minus key can tag images as a “reject” button.

Sometimes, clients need printouts or JPEGs the same day – say, as a present to speakers or for a wrap-up at the end of a conference. So, while culling, I also move key images to the Session’s “Selects” folder by pressing CMD-J (PC users hit Ctrl-J). Culling and selecting is completely keyboard-driven for me, and I can go through hundreds of images very quickly. If I DO need to take a closer look, I switch to the Loupe tool (P key) and magnify portions of an image right inside the browser.

Why not just use another color tag, e.g. green, for key images? Networked backup, that’s why. With hundreds and hundreds of images, and wonky internet connectivity at some venues, it’s just not practical to upload the complete session to e.g. an FTP server. If I end up with two dozen or so key images, backing up the most important files by dragging-and-dropping the “Selects” folder, as appose to the entire Session, it’s more feasible.

A Session’s folder structure makes networked backups a bit more bearable.

Next, I switch to the “Selects” folder and edit my key images. Thanks to Capture One’s Copy/Apply Settings tool, I can easily transfer basic development settings to the rest of the day’s shoot. Afterwards, I process the key images for the client’s needs, as specified prior to the shoot.

Usually, I don’t add much more metadata at this stage. Everything is contained inside the Session’s folder structure, so I don’t need to differentiate between clients, jobs or topics. Also, I might not have all names of speakers, artists, guests etc. yet, so keywording doesn’t make much sense at this stage.

There and back again

Once I’m back in my office, it’s time to move the images to the workstation for the heavy lifting (say, the client also wants files for a print ad) and archiving. Sessions make this step very easy: In the workstation’s Capture One Catalog, I hit the import button and navigate to the notebook’s Session folder in my LAN. I make sure to check the boxes “Include Subfolders” and “Include Existing Adjustments”, hit “Import All”, and have some coffee.

Don’t forget to include your adjustments when importing images to the main Catalog.

Using Sessions on the notebook, rather than Catalogs, saves me the step of either exporting all images, then importing them, or moving the notebook Catalog to the workstation and merge with my main Catalog. Merging the Catalogs would require a clean-up to get file naming, file location, keywording etc., so it’s less than ideal for my workflow. Importing images, using my usual import templates, is easier and leads to more consistency.

“Easier” is the key word here. With Sessions on notebooks, and Catalogs on the workstation, I have a robust workflow that is easy to maintain. If it’s too complicated, I tend to avoid going through all the necessary steps, especially when I’m a bit tired after travelling for a day’s shooting. Using the best of both worlds – Sessions on the road, Catalogs in the office – helps me minimise potential mistakes, while it is also saving me time.

A word on EIP

You might have noticed in the screenshots that I use EIP while in Session mode.

I do this due to my obsession with back-ups. On slow networks, uploading a single EIP file rather than the original RAW file plus Capture One sidecars, shaves a couple of minutes waiting for a large backup to finish. It’s not much, but if you’re using your mobile as a WiFi hotspot it can be something to consider.

It’s not a perfect solution, but for the time being it’s how I do things. As mentioned above, I don’t like to change tools that work for me – but naturally, your mileage may vary. Will I stick with EIP? As Capture One’s Catalogs grow more powerful, sooner or later it won’t make much sense to do so. Thankfully, opting out of EIP is easy with Capture One: Either use the “Unpack” option in Session mode, or import your EIP files into a Catalog.

Best regards,

Sascha
www.saschaerni.com

Deep dive into Capture One 8.3

Capture One 8.3 was released last week in conjunction with our new XF camera system.

Our new camera inspired us to expand the communication between Capture One and the tethered camera. Therefore the new Camera Settings tool enables you to configure many of the settings of not only the new Phase One XF but other models from Canon, Nikon and Sony.

So, as opposed to digging through the menus of your camera, simply search for the term in the Camera Settings tool and adjust from there!

It makes life much easier (and faster!) to adjust the settings directly from Capture One.

We have also redesigned the Camera tool to mirror the XF display and be able to change settings directly from here. Don’t forget – this is not just for Phase One cameras, this also works for Canon, Nikon and Sony too.

When you start up Capture One 8.3 you will find the new Camera tool and the new Camera Settings tool in the Capture tool tab.

The new Camera tool, not only gives you a display of the current settings, but also allows you to change them, without the need to necessarily enter the Camera Settings tool. Simply click on a parameter and use the pop menu to adjust with the Plus / Minus buttons.

Clicking another option, for example, could bring up a list…

So, for your given camera, just have a click around and see what you can change! The available options are based on your camera model and what is made available for access. So it will vary model to model.

Note that there is also a camera battery status icon. Very useful for keeping an eye on during tethered capture!

The next new tool, Camera Settings, goes further than the simple Camera tool, by accessing as many options in your camera as possible. Again, we access what is made available by the specific camera model so you may see some variations.

Here is a view from the new Phase One XF camera…

And that’s just a small part! Therefore, to make this easier there is also a search bar at the top of the tool, so you can get straight away to the desired setting.

Type any search term in there and go straight to the adjustment. So, for example, if I connect a Sony A7 camera and type ‘Drive’ in the search menu and get straight to the following.

Therefore you could also consider Capture One as a camera configurator, even if you don’t shoot tethered.

Grids and Guides

To bring Capture One in alignment with options available on IQ digital backs, we added a couple more compositional grids. The preferred grid can be selected in the Capture One preferences under ‘type’…

To view the grid in the Capture One viewer, click the show guides icon on, in the top toolbar. (Indicated by the orange circle)…

Also in Capture One 8.3, we have approved tethered functionality on the Mac platform with an overhaul of the engine to increase performance and stability!

Download today and enjoy the new features.

Best regards,

David