Search and Filtering in Capture One

December 1, 2011 by 9 Comments

The Search and Filtering functionality in Capture One 6 is an often overlooked feature. Learn how to use it, and you will find it to be a very powerful tool that can help you improve your everyday workflow.

You can search among your images in any selected Image Folder or Album; or you can search among all the images in all the folders associated with a Session.

Searching a selected Image Folder can be done with a simple free text search or by setting up multiple specific search criteria. A free text search will match the search text with the context of more than 50 search criteria within Metadata and file names.

To show the result of search criteria applied to all the images in a Session, Capture One 6 uses Smart Albums. Smart Albums are dynamically updated and will therefore always show the latest search results.

The dynamic nature of Smart Albums make them very useful for workflow related search and filtering. By default, a new Session includes a Smart Album named “Five Star Images”. This Smart Album will always show all 5-star rated images in a Session. Immediate after rating a new image with 5 stars, it will also be visible in the “Five Star Images” Smart Album.

Searching within a folder: To enter the search setup dialogue box, click the search magnifier icon, above the thumbnail browser as shown above (if Capture One’s thumbnail browser is placed to the right of your screen, you may need to click again on the magnifier in the small search dialogue to get the larger search box)

Selecting images:

In my workflow, I use the Smart Albums in the process of selecting which images from a shoot I would like to work with.

First, I create a new Session for my shoot. When using the Search and Filtering options, I can search among all the images in this Session except those in the Trash Folder.

Then, I set up an extra Smart Album for holding my 4 and 5 star rated images.

The image above shows the search criteria for finding all images rated with 4 or 5 stars (using one of the preset criteria). To extend the search to all images in the Session, press the “Create Smart Album” button.

When browsing through my image folders, I use the keyboard shortcuts to rate the images with stars. I only rate the images with 3, 4 or 5 stars, and I am not extremely methodical when rating, as I will complete the rating in at least 2 steps.  In the first round of rating, it is not too important if I initially rate a 5-star image with only 4 stars or the other way around.

Next, I select the Smart Album containing all my 4 and 5 star rated images. Now, I have isolated the best images from the shoot and it becomes much easier to reevaluate the images in a second round of selection to really nail down the best 5 star images.

When I am done rating, all the images I want to work with are placed in the default Smart Album called “Five Star Images”.

In the Library Tool under Session Albums, you can see the list of Smart Albums and normal Albums created for the Session. Note that the icon for a Smart Album differs from the normal Album icon by the addition of a small cog-wheel in the lower right corner of the icon.

Separate Variants:

Smart Albums can also be used to separate variants. This can be a big advantage if you want to show a client images from a shoot in a series with the same look or style applied. I use it quite often to separate Black and White image variants from the Color variants.

Here I have generated 2 variants of the same image; one of them converted into Black and White.  In order to separate the color version from the Black and White version, I have color tagged the Black and White version with Purple

An easy way to do this is by associating a specific color tag to those variants I want as Black and White images. I typically use the last color in the color tag list (Purple) as it is easy to select from the drop-down list and it still allows me to use Yellow and Green for tagging my final selects.

Here I have selected the Smart Album named BW. This Album is set up to find all Purple tagged images. As you can see only the BW variants are visible in this Smart Album.

Using color tags to separate the BW variants is just one way of doing it.  Another method could be to add the keyword “BW” to the Black and White variants and set up a Smart Album containing all images with “BW” in the Keywords. This solution requires a little more work, but will free up the color tags for further selection possibilities.

Filed under Capture One Tips & Tricks, Capture One Workflow Tagged with , , , , , ,

Optimize your workflow with Albums

November 24, 2011 by 3 Comments

One of the key organizing elements in a Capture One 6 Session is an Album. It looks like a normal image folder, but it is just a virtual folder with internal references to the real location of the images.

  • You can create as many Albums in a Session as you wish.
  • You add images to an Album simply by drag and drop.
  • An Album can contain images from different locations.
  • Images in an Album can come from any folder location both inside as well as outside the Session folder.
  • When deleting an image in an Album, you only remove it from the Album.  You do not delete it from the original folder.

If you move an image containing multiple variants to an Album, the Album will also show the variants. Variants of an image will always stay together.

An image in an Album will always reflect the current corrections made on the image at the original location. There is only one original, and changing an image in an Album will also change the appearance of the image at the original location.

I typically use Albums to create small collections of images sharing a common theme, which could be something as simple as my Black and White images. I love Black and White so in each new Session, I always create an Album for Black and White images even though I may have gone out shooting without having Black and White shots in mind. I keep all my originals in the Import folders inside my Session folder. When I go through my Import folders, I immediately add files to my Black and White Album when I see images which will work great as Black and White. By adding the files to an Album rather than moving them to a new folder, I still have all my originals in one location, which I like. Browsing through the Import folder again, I continue to have all the images there, and I can make another selection, which I can add to a different Album.

By using Albums, I am able to keep one Album with images for Black and White work and another Album for working on images in full colors. I just need to create Variants: one Variant holding the Black and White version and one Variant holding the color version.

To add an Album you can right click on any Session Album, Favorite or folder and select the “New Album” from the dropdown menu.  You can also add an Album by selecting the Library Tool action menu icon.  The Session above already contains 4 Albums as indicated by the blue circle.

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Sessions – A great way to organize your work

November 17, 2011 by 10 Comments

Creating a Session in Capture One 6 is an efficient way to organize your image files into folders and virtual albums.

  • Create a new Session for every new event, trip or job. This will help you keep all relevant images, image corrections and processed images within one physical folder.
  • A Session can easily be moved to another computer or another physical disc drive. As all necessary files are saved inside the Session folder by default, you can work on the Session from any computer. This can be a great advantage, as you may have started working on the Session on your laptop while on a trip. Once you get home, you can simply move the Session folder to your stationary computer and continue your work.
  • You can easily switch from one Session to another and when you return to the first Session, you will see all images and all selects the same way as when you left the Session.
  • You can search and filter all images in the Session Favorite folders.

If you use Sessions to organize your work, Capture One will place all your image folders inside the Session folder by default. This will ensure that the Session can be moved to a backup device or another computer later.

The image above shows the Library tool in Capture One. The current Session is named “2011-10 Demo”.  The Session folders provide quick references to the default Session folders. To see the physical location of a Session folder, right click on the Session folder and select the “Show in Library”. In the above example, you can see how all the Session folders are placed inside the Session folder “2011-10 Demo”. The small icons indicate the function of the individual Session folder.

Besides the Session folders, you can also find a .col50 folder. This is the Session folder containing the information about image selections and Albums. If you double click on a .Col50 folder in the file system, Capture One will open the associated Session. You can rename a Session by simply renaming the .col50 folder directly in the file system, but if you do, first you must make sure that Capture One is not open.

You can create and add as many folders to your Session as you like. You can also add folders to your Session from any location outside the Session folder, but doing so you lose the possibility of moving the Session to another physical location later. If you know that you will never need to move your Session, there are no problems.

If you are shooting tethered, you should choose a tethered Session, as this option automatically gives you a Capture folder and sets the capture naming to equal the Session name by default.

In the Library tool, you click on the “+” icon to create a new Session. The current Session named “2011-10 Demo” is a tethered Session and includes a Capture folder. Both tethered and untethered Sessions will always include an Output folder for the processed images, a Selects folder for holding specially selected images and a Trash folder for all the trashed images.

If you chose an untethered Session, you won’t get an Image folder until you manually create one or use the Importer tool to import images. The Importer will automatically provide options for creating Import folders inside the Session folder.

After completing an import, you will notice that the Import folder has been added to the Session Favorite List. It is important to note that only images placed in folders that are visible in the Session Favorites List can be searched when using the search and filtering function.

I have imported 3 CF cards into this session and the importer has automatically added the Import folders to the Session Favorites. I named the import folders by date and an index number.

You can always use the browser in the Library tool to select an Image folder, but the Image folder won’t be searchable until you add it to the Favorites list.

To add a folder to the Session Favorites, just right click on the folder and select “Add to Favorites” in the drop down menu.

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Black and White conversions

October 20, 2011 by 10 Comments

The Black and White Tool in Capture One Pro 6 is split into two sub-tools placed on individual tabs. The Color Sensitivity tool deals with the conversion from color to black and white while the Split Toning tool deals with toning of converted gray tones.

The Color Sensitivity tool gives you full control of how the conversion from color to black and white takes place. You can control the conversion in 6 color bands.

Controlling the conversion in color bands is very powerful, and it enables you to create great black and white images from colorful landscape, nature or portrait images.

It is important to remember that it is still essential to have a good white balance when you want to create black and white images. The conversion tool works strictly according to colors. For instance, if the whole image has a blue cast, you may not get the desired or expected conversion.

The image above shows 3 versions of the same original image. The left image is the color version. The center image shows the default black and white version you get by just enabling the Black and White tool with the check mark. As can be seen in this image, the red color of the rose and the green color of the leaves get the same gray tone with no clear separation between rose and leaves. For the right image, I have used the individual color sensitivity sliders to lighten up the red color and to darken the color of the leaves. To darken the leaves, I used both the yellow and the green slider as they both affect the gray tones of the leaves.

For portraits, it is often interesting to utilize the red and yellow sliders as they both affect the skin tone colors.  For natural skin without makeup, the skin tone pigments vary between reddish and yellowish tones. Traditional panchromatic film made a conversion that turned red colors dark which can have an interesting effect for portraits of women wearing red lipstick. In the example below, the red sensitivity slider has been used to make the lips darker.

On a Mac, you can temporarily reset the slider positions in the Black and White tool, and this makes it easy to toggle between your adjustments and no adjustments. Hold down the option key and click on the tool reset icon. The tool is reset only as long as the mouse key is pressed down. This feature is currently only available on Mac.

Remember, it is always a good idea to use variants when you want to test out different conversions.

Three variants testing different Black and White conversions. Notice the different color of the lips.

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Stacking Presets and Styles

July 4, 2011 by 4 Comments

In Capture One 6, you have the option to stack Presets and Styles.

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.

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 dropdown 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.

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Capture One on Antarctica

September 14, 2010 by 4 Comments

Let’s face it, processing raw files is a burden. It’s a job to be done quickly and accurately, so any tools or features than can reduce the time sitting in front of our computers are to be applauded.

Overview

Capture One 5 works as a filing cabinet and sorting table as well, allowing you to rate and flag your files in many different ways.

While Capture One allows you to operate many cameras tethered (Phase One, Mamiya, Canon and Nikon), my workflow for landscape photography means I’m slipping a memory card into the computer and letting Capture One copy the files to my main drive as well as a back-up folder. When on the road, such as my recent trip to Antarctica, I save my files to my laptop and to an external back-up drive simultaneously. Then, as my laptop fills up (a month in Antarctica will do this to you), I back up manually to a second external drive before clearing the laptop, so I always maintain at least two copies of the files.

When copying the files (or working tethered), Capture One lets you work with ‘sessions’. A session is simply a way of saving and storing all your files quickly in an ordered way. For instance, once I’ve created a session (let’s call it Antarctica), I can then save individual shoots to sub-folders that will sit within the Antarctica session folder. Similarly, when I process my files, the results are stored in logical folders so I can easily find any file that has to do with a particular session. It makes the process of transferring files quick and foolproof – it’s a useful workflow tool.

QuickTab

There are several tabs in Capture One which give you access to different tools. All the tabs can be customised – this is the author’s Quick tab which has his most used tools gathered together.

Possibly the best thing about Capture One is the way you can customise the workspace to suit how you process your files. I populate the ‘Quick’ tab with the processing tools I use the most and, by running down the tools in order, I create a mini checklist for what has to be done.

At the top of my workspace is the Histogram display. Just as I use the histogram to check my exposures on the camera, so I keep an eye on it when processing my files.

Next are the three tabs I use the most: White Balance, Exposure, and High Dynamic Range. Depending on the nature of the job and its purpose, most of my work can be done with these tools. I really like the sliders in the Exposure menu – Exposure, Contrast, Brightness and Saturation – as they provide a really quick way to work.

However, there are files (especially with landscape work) where I need to bring out the big guns because the sliders are not extreme enough in their effect. Capture One 5.0 now offers Curve and Levels dialogs with access to the red, green and blue channels separately. This gives me complete and absolute control for files that are a little more demanding.

Next I include Lens Correction, Focus Tool, Noise Reduction and Sharpening. I also keep Styles (a quick way to apply a series of changes to a photo or series of photos) and the Process Summary dialog here, so essentially I can process most of my work from just one screen.

Of course, to use any raw processing software you need to have an accurate colour monitor which has been correctly profiled and calibrated, otherwise the changes you make on screen (especially to colour and contrast) can be meaningless.

Fully Equipped

In addition to the Quick Tab, Capture One has another ten tabs which give you access to the raw processing engine with even more control. For instance, the Colour tab not only gives you control over colour temperature, but over individual colours as well. The system is very intuitive: using a colour picker tool, you click on the colour you want to adjust, and then you can adjust the hue, saturation and lightness of just that colour alone. A similar process is followed to set a neutral colour balance automatically – just click on a neutral area in the image and watch the colour balance pop to a neutral, correct state.

Colour Tab

Each tab has a comprehensive set of tools controlling different aspects of image quality. The Colour tab allows you to neutralise the colour balance or creatively enhance a single colour.

Of particular interest for portrait photographers is a Skin Tone Enhancer menu, designed to quickly set natural-looking skin tones. You can choose an existing skin tone from a drop down menu, or create your own presets.

Once you’ve made these colour changes, you can quickly copy and paste the adjustments to another image or to a whole folder of images. In fact, the copying of image adjustments from all tabs from one image to another is simply a mouse click or two (depending on how you set it up).

The Lens Correction tab is designed to correct a range of lens issues, including spherical and chromatic aberrations, plus vignetting. It’s quite amazing how software is able to make final corrections to any number of different lenses and you can see the image change shape on screen, especially with wide-angle lenses.

Capture One lets you crop and rotate your images, helping to fix any lilting horizons, while the Details tab lets you sharpen, reduce noise and increase clarity (a local contrast adjustment). Capture One also includes a Spot Removal feature, allowing you to clean up the file and, even better, copy the fixes to all the other files that are similarly afflicted.

There are many other features tucked away inside Capture One, including a creative vignetting tool, the ability to save your changes as ‘styles’ which can be quickly applied to your files, and a sophisticated processing system that lets you output to any number of different sizes, formats and locations. You can even create internet web pages automatically.

Full Control

Capture One can be used in a semi-automatic manner, or opened up and worked with manually. The degree of control is remarkable.

Capture One is a raw processing program that will grow with you as your needs expand. It can be used with several ‘auto’ buttons and just a few steps to make marked improvements to your images, or you can agonise over every possible aspect of your file, extracting every gram of quality possible. The choice is yours.

But don’t just take my word for it, try it yourself. You can download a free 30-day trial from the Phase One website (www.phaseone.com/download) and test it out yourself. Not only is raw processing incredibly more powerful than shooting with JPEGs, using Capture One 5 will harness that power with industry leading technology that makes the most of your raw files – no matter what type of camera you use.

Filed under Capture One Workflow, Photography Travelogues Tagged with ,

Step By Step With Capture One 5

September 14, 2010 by 1 Comment

How easy is it to process a raw file? Once you’ve transferred your files to your computer and opened Capture One, it can be as simple as four steps. Of course, once you’ve mastered these four steps, there is a whole world of control available elsewhere in Capture One 5.

Step 1 White Balance

The White Balance tool can be used manually, but I like the automatic eye-dropper tool. I click on a grey cloud and the colour balances is instantly neutralised.

Step 01 - White Balance

Step 2 Exposure

Next I play with the four sliders in the Exposure section – Exposure, Contrast, Brightness and Saturation. It’s amazing the corrections and improvements that can be made with these four controls.

Step 02 - Exposure

Step 3 Crop

Shooting from a boat meant a few angled horizons in Antarctica, and often I wanted a different format as well. The image is cropped and rotated, quickly and easily.

Step 03 - Crop

Step 4 Process

Often this is all you’ll need to do, so click on the Process control and the raw file will be processed and saved in a format and to a destination of your choice. Raw processing couldn’t be easier!

Step 04 - Process

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Capture One 5 Pro RAW Converter Workflow Tour

September 12, 2010 by Leave a comment

Photographer Peter Eastway gives a step by step tour through the ideal Capture One 5 PRO RAW converter workflow.

See the Video Tutorial

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Stitch your panoramas!

September 8, 2010 by 1 Comment

Easily and seamlessly stitching with Capture One 5 PRO and Photoshop (Mac only).

See the Video Tutorial

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