Some of you have requested tips on how to switch to Capture One Pro 7 from other RAW converters and Asset Management applications.

I’ve collected some interesting material to show you just how easy the switching is and to give you all you need to know to get started using Capture One Pro 7.

Watch the video below and learn:

• How you can populate a Catalog with images
• Find out how to organize your images and perform a search
• How to process images

Download a Quick Start Guide to get up and running with Capture One Pro 7 in no time.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

All the best,

Niels

A simple feature exists within Capture One Pro 7 to keep the Catalog structure safe and to avoid the need for duplicating the Catalog itself or the images within.

Capture One Pro 7 Catalogs can either be in a Locked or Unlocked state. In the Locked state, multiple people can open and view the Catalog, but not make changes. In the Unlocked state the Catalog can only be open by one user at a time. That “admin” user will be able to make full changes and edits to the Catalog.

Sharing Catalogs in Capture One Pro 7

When you create a Catalog in Capture One 7, a .cocatalog file bearing the name you specified is created and on an Apple system it looks like this in the Finder.

This is the one Catalog file that contains everything Capture One 7 needs to open and display your images with the Catalog information. Double-clicking the .cocatalog file opens it in Capture One 7 on your computer.

The Catalog structure is a little different in Windows. A folder is created with the name of your Catalog and contains a few items that Capture One 7 needs to open and display the images with the Catalog information. The file circled in orange (below) is the equivalent to a .cocatalog file as seen above on the Mac platform.
You need to double-click this file to open the Catalog in Capture One 7 on your computer. You can of course also access Catalog files via the File>Open command (on Mac or Windows) within Capture One 7 and browse to the Catalog location. Catalogs are compatible between Mac and Windows, so you are not limited to one platform.

Locking and Unlocking Catalogs

When a user has a Catalog open in Capture One 7 it is by default locked and unable to access for other users.

If you try to open an already open Catalog you will see a warning message like the one above.

This behaviour prevents two or more people editing a Catalog at the same time. In order to edit the contents of a Catalog one user must first close it before another user can open it. If you wish for multiple people to open a Catalog at the same time it must first be Locked.  To lock a Catalog go to File>Lock Catalog in Capture One.

When locking a Catalog, the following warning appears.

After clicking Lock, the Catalog will reload in a locked state.  Multiple users can now access the ‘Read Only’ Catalog. To return it to its unlocked state, simply choose File>Unlock Catalog.

Please note, that if sharing a Catalog on a network, network speed may affect the performance of browsing and editing the Catalog. Optimize your network to have the best experience sharing Capture One Catalogs. Use the fastest network speed possible and store your images on high speed hard drives.

All the best,
Niels

Many imaging applications require you to enter a separate dialog screen each time you want to process a new file. With Capture One 7 you have the option to build multiple recipes, each containing the specific parameters of how you would like your images processed.

Once the Process Recipes are created it is a simple matter of deciding which recipe you want to use to export your images. Processing is easily achieved by one click or using a keyboard shortcut.

Alternatively you can make an immediate ad-hoc Export for a single image or group of images. This is achieved by simply choosing File>Export Variants.

Saving time with Batch Processing

Building Process Recipes in Capture One is easy. Once created, you can use these recipes in all of your Sessions or Catalogs.

The Process Recipes Tool shows an overview of what recipes have already been created and indicates if they are enabled (checkbox to the left of the name). It also shows the currently selected recipe (highlighted name).

Creating a Recipe

To create a Process Recipe click on the ‘+’ icon in the Process Recipe Tool and name your new recipe.

Once named, define the parameters for the recipe in the Process Recipe Tool. In the Basic tab, set the criteria for the File Format, Resolution, Color Profile and Scale. The further tabs contain other options, for example the option to include Metadata in the file as well as the option to apply a Watermark. Work through the tabs to decide what settings work best for you.

Once processed, your images will be saved to the location defined in the Ouput Location Tool. This tool is also in the Output Tab. Change the location by changing the ‘Store Files’ drop down menu. This is specific to the Session or Catalog as a whole.

The File tab, back in the Process Recipe Tool, has some advanced options that can be rather important. The Root Folder describes where the files will be saved when processed. This can be set specific to each Process Recipe so that each will save the file to a specific and separate location of your choosing. You can see in the example below that the Root Folder is designated as Output Folder, as previously mentioned this is its default setting.

The benefit of setting your Root Folder is that your Process Recipes are independent of the “global” Output Location. However if you do not want to set specific Root Folders for your recipes you can always change the output folder in the Output Location Tool without having to edit each recipe.

The use of the Subfolder option is also useful. This option will automatically create a subfolder in your output location, reflecting the name of your choice. This option makes it is easy to separate each image by its different process recipe.

Processing Images

Select a number of images in the Capture One 7 browser and decide what Process Recipes you want to use by enabling each of their check boxes.

The Process Summary Tool describes the currently selected recipe and if you have additional recipes selected as well.

Next, simply click on the Process button.

Alternatively, at any point during your shoot or editing process, simply select any image and choose File>Process or, as a faster workflow option use the Keyboard shortcut Cmd-D (Mac), or Ctrl-D (Win).

Processing images on the fly is a great workflow option during the editing process. On completion of editing an image, just use the keyboard shortcut to process and move on to the next image. When the editing is complete, we only need to wait for the last image to finish processing before beginning the next workflow step.

The status of the processing can be seen at any time in the Batch Tool in the Batch Tool tab.

Finally, a quick look in the Finder shows our Processed images, located neatly inside the automatically created subfolders as defined in the recipe. This workflow lends itself well to efficiency and organization.

All the best,

Niels

Fortunately in Capture One Pro 7, the Focus Mask function can take on the hard work of finding the images that have the most accurate focus. The Focus Mask works by analyzing each individual image and determining the sharpest areas. If you are used to features like focus ‘peaking’ with video capture, then the functionality is similar.

Once analyzed the sharpest areas of the image are overlaid with a coloured mask.

How to use the Focus Mask

The Focus Mask can be activated by choosing either View>Show Focus Mask, or clicking on the Focus Mask icon in the toolbar.

Any image in the Viewer (as well as the Browser) is then analyzed for the sharpest areas, represented with the coloured mask as seen in the introduction. In the Capture One preferences, you can change the mask colour and behaviour.

The Threshold controls how sensitive the mask is. A low number will show the sharpest areas of the image and also the near-sharp areas. A high number will show only the sharpest areas of an image. The analysis will sometimes misrepresent sharpness for noisy images, or branches from a tree out of focus. I do not recommended using the Focus Mask with images taken with a pocket-sized camera with a small pixel size at high ISO values, unless you tune the threshold to a high number.

The colour and opacity of the mask can also be changed to your choosing in the same dialog box.

Using Focus Mask and the Loupe Together

It’s a good idea to use the Focus Mask in combination with the Loupe Tool to zoom in and review at 100 % full detail enabling you to select the most accurately focused images, since the Focus Mask and the Loupe Tool can operate in the Browser as well as the Viewer.

Hide the Viewer by choosing View>Hide Viewer from the main menu. You will then be left with thumbnails only. Just as before you can turn on the Focus Mask, waiting a few seconds for the analysis to take place and the Focus Mask to appear.

Choose the Loupe tool by hitting “p” on the keyboard or selecting it from the cursor tools.

Click and hold on the sharper images indicated by the Focus Mask to verify.

This method gives you a rapid workflow to verify and choose the images with the most accurate focus. Additionally you could use the Star Rating tags OR colour tags to mark those that you have selected.

- Use 1 -5 on the keyboard for a rating of 1 to 5 stars.

- Use the ‘+’ key to tag an image as Green.

All the best,

Niels

Catalogs or Sessions

A session is an easy, straightforward and efficient way of organizing your images, as all files, adjustments and metadata are kept inside the Session folder. This method makes it easy to archive or move your data to another computer, by simply moving the entire Session folder.

Read more about the difference between Catalogs and Sessions as well as the benefits of using each

When creating a new Session, a simple folder structure, including some basic predefined folders, will be created for you:

Capture folder
Selects folder
Trash folder
Output folder

A Session folder will, by default, have a Capture folder, which is the default location for saving files when shooting tethered or when importing from a memory card.

The Selects folder is a default folder ready for holding selected images from the Session. The keyboard shortcut Cmd + J (Mac) or Ctrl + J (PC) will automatically move selected files to the Selects folder.

The Trash folder will hold all deleted images. Whenever you delete an image from the session, the image and its adjustments will simply be moved to the Session Trash folder.  You can always go into the Trash folder and move any deleted files, including their adjustments, back to the original folder with a simple drag and drop. The Output folder is where all the processed image files are saved by default.

Create a Session for each job

It’s generally a good idea to create a new Session for every new job you have.  This way you never mix up images from different jobs or different clients.  You can easily switch between Sessions in Capture One 7 Pro. To do so, simply use the dropdown Session selector on the Library Tool tab or locate the Session you want to open in the Finder and double-click on the “.cosessiondb “ file (located within the Session folder).

The default Session gives you a basic Session workflow, but often you will need to add more Session folders in order to better organize your images.

How to add more folders to a Session

There are different ways to add additional Session folders.

The following method works both on Mac and PC.

1) In Capture One 7 Pro select the Library Tool tab and create a new Session from the menu item “New Session”, or by clicking the “+” button next to the Session selector. In this example I have created a new Session named “2013 05 – Italy”, the name of the Session is also shown at the top of the Capture One window. I always use the naming convention: Year, Month and then the name of the event. This naming convention makes it easier for me to go back and find older Sessions.

2) Right-click on any of the predefined Session folders Capture, Select, Output or Trash and select “Show in System folders”.  This will locate the selected predefined session folder inside the System Folder tree.

3) Now go one level up in the System Folder tree and select the folder with the Session name. Right-click and select “new inside”.  You can then select “Folder” and give the new folder a name.

4) Repeat this procedure for every new folder you would like to add.

5) Finally you can add these new folders to the Session Favorites by right-clicking on the folders in the “System Folders”  tree  and select “Add to Favorites”

Once you’ve added the new folders to your Session, they will show up in the Session Favorites list and be part of the Session.  The Session database will keep information about all images saved in these folders and you can now use the Search and Filtering functionality in Capture One and for instance create Smart Albums based on specific search criteria.

On the Mac there is another special method that you can use:

1) In Capture One Pro 7 select the Library Tool tab and create a new Session.

2) Right-click on the Session name at the very top of the Capture One window (2013 05 – Italy.cosessiondb) and select the option to open the Session folder in the Finder

By right-clicking on the name of the Session on the top of the Capture One window, you can
directly open the Session folder in the Finder.

Folder selector when right-clicking on the Session name at
the very top of the Capture One window

3) In the Finder create the folders you need, quickly and easily.

4) Select the folders created in Finder and then drag them directly into the Session Favorites area in the Library Tool tab of Capture One.

5) The newly created folders will now show up in the list of Session Favorites.

You don’t need to use the default predefined “Capture Folder” as capture folder.  Right click on any of your just added folders in the Session Folders list or in the Session Favorite list and select “Set as Capture folder”.  This will set the selected folder as the Capture folder.  In the Session Folders List you will now see a camera icon indicating that this folder is the Capture folder.

In my workflow I always keep the default Capture Folder even if I only import from memory cards.  I will add additional image folders to the session as just explained, but I will still import directly to the Capture Folder. I use the Capture Folder as a “work in progress” folder but once I have finished editing the files, I move them to the different Session folders, I’ve added to the session.

All the best,

Niels

In order to do lens correction for a specific lens, Phase One has to measure the lens and extracted data that describes how the different lens parameters behave. These measurements are done at typical focus distances and describe very well the performance of the lens at focusing distances from normal close-ups to infinity.

However, when using a lens for macro photography the focusing distances can be quite far from those used when the lens was measured for analysis. Sometimes you can achieve better results by doing a manual chromatic aberration analysis on the individual image in the Lens Tool.

If we zoom into this macro image and look at the slightly out of focus high contrast edge, we see a strong blue color caused by the chromatic aberration in the lens.

Because this is a macro image, the automatic lens corrections does not efficiently remove the chromatic aberration.

In the Lens Tool you have the option to perform an individual Chromatic Aberration analysis on the selected image.  Click on the orange arrow to the right of the tool and you will access a dropdown menu with the option “Analyze”.
Click “Analyze” and after a few seconds a new Chromatic Aberration correction will be calculated based on the selected image. We now see that the previous strong blue color on the edge of the flower has been corrected.  If you click on the orange arrow, you will see a check mark next to the file name.  This check mark now indicates that the chromatic aberration reduction is based on data retrieved from this specific image.

So, for this macro image, it’s possible to achieve a much better chromatic aberration correction by making an analysis on the image instead of using the “Default” correction for the lens.

All the best,

Niels

-  Make your favourite tools more accessible, where you want them.

-  Change the layout and content of the toolbar

-  Make different workspaces for different tasks (Importing, Editing, Shooting, Focus Checking)

By streamlining the interface, functions and options can be found quickly and easily. Different tasks will also require focus on different parts of the software. For example, whilst selecting images from a shoot or moving images in your catalog, it is not necessary to have the tools on display, thereby creating more screen real estate for image viewing.

Switching Workspaces

Switching between Workspaces is easily done in the Window > Workspaces menu found in the toolbar. It’s also here you can save and delete your custom Workspaces.

Building and Saving a Workspace

The simplified workspace in Capture One Pro 7 looks like this:

Many elements of the Workspace can be changed. A few examples:

-  Contents of the toolbar

-  Adding / Removing tools from a Tool Tab

-  Changing the position of tools in a Tool Tab

-  Adding / Removing Tool Tabs or Creating Custom Tools Tabs

-  Creating floating windows

-  Position of the browser and tools

Example

In the following example we can make some changes to the Toolbar and the Tool Tabs.

Toolbar
Right-click on the toolbar and choose Customize Toolbar.

This will bring up the following menu:

Then simply drag and drop the required icons from the available selection into the toolbar.

Tool Tabs

To add a Tool Tab, right click on the Tool Tab Area and choose Add Tool Tab.  A list of Tool Tabs that have not yet been added will be shown in the menu.

Choose one of the available ones and it will be added to the Tool Tab area.

Cmd-click drag to change the order of the Tool Tabs.

To add a tool to the currently open Tool Tab, right-click on the Tool Tab itself and choose Add Tool. If you don’t want a tool docked with the other tools, either drag it from the rest of the tools to the placement you want, or you use the menu Window > Create Floating Tool and create a floating version of whichever tool you want.

Play around with the options in the View menu to find the workspace setup that suits you. When you are happy with your new Workspace, choose Window>Workspace>Save Workspace.

All the best,

Niels

An adjustment in an adjustments layer will only be applied to the image, where an adjustments mask has been created. You create and adjust a mask for an adjustments layer by using the cursor tools named: Draw Mask, Erase Mask and Gradient Mask.

You can use simple shortcuts to change between the different mask cursor tools and to show the mask in a layer.

The image to the left is without any adjustments.  The image to the right has been optimized in Capture One Pro 7 primarily by using the Adjustment Layers Tool. Three adjustments layers have been used:

One layer to brighten up the cliffs to the left, a second layer to bring more contrast in the waterfall and to emphasize the sunbeam through the mist and a third layer to brighten the surface of the river.  Finally the overall white balance has also been tweaked.

Once you have selected one of the mask cursor tools you can use the keyboard shortcuts to switch between them:

(b) for Draw Mask
(e) for Erase Mask
(g) for Gradient Mask

To control how you want to see your masks, you can choose the options below in the dropdown menu for the mask cursor tools:

Always Display Mask (m)
Only Display Mask when Drawing
Never Display Mask (m)

Once you have selected an adjustment layer in the layer list you can change between “Always Display Mask” and “Never Display Mask by simply using the keyboard shortcut (m).

The shortcuts explained here are using plain letters, no Cmd or Ctrl combinations.

All the best,

Niels

The tool has individual sliders for controlling recovery of highlights and of shadow details.

If values over 70-80 are needed in one of the sliders, it can be a very good idea to use the Exposure Tool to bring in the exposure as a first step. As a second step, use the HDR Tool to extract the desired details and colors in both highlights and shadows – now with lower slider values. When lower and more similar values of the shadow and highlight slider are used, you will typically achieve a more realistic and pleasing image.

The image to the left is directly out of the camera. The high dynamic range of the scene makes it difficult to see details and color in the shadows, but also the sky has lost some color. The image to the right has been optimized in Capture One 7, primarily with a combination of the Exposure Tool and the High Dynamic Range Tool. Finally the Keystone Tool has been used to correct the perspective.

To illustrate the effect of using the slider in the Exposure Tool followed by the High Dynamic Range Tool, I have shot a series of test images with different exposures.

The first image is exposed with clipping of only the extreme highlights. This exposure gives a perfect definition in the bright elements in the scene, but all the shadow details are barely visible. For the last exposure, we have a reasonable amount of details in the shadows, but the highlights are overexposed and you can hardly see the large red poster on the building in the background.

Let’s start with the first image, which is exposed with good highlight details, but with very dark shadows. To bring back the shadow details, I could use the shadow slider in the High Dynamic Range Tool.

Using only the shadow slider in the High Dynamic Range Tool, I need a value of 90 to open up the shadows. However by doing so, I won’t get a natural looking result.

To achieve a more natural looking result, I will use the exposure slider to open up the shadows first. This will lead to overexposure in the highlights, but this can easily be fixed with the highlight slider in the High Dynamic Range Tool.

This is the same image as before, but now I am using the Exposure Tool to generally open up the image and the High Dynamic Range Tool to bring in the highlights and the shadow details. Note that I have the same value for both the highlight and the shadow slider. The image now looks much more natural.

Having this idea in mind, I will correct the last of the 4 images, which was the one exposed with EV +2.

Instead of only using the highlight slider in the High Dynamic Range Tool, I start out by using some negative exposure compensation in the Exposure Tool and then use the High Dynamic Range Tool. Once again I use similar values for the shadow and the highlight slider, and I achieve a natural looking image with a good balance of shadow and highlight details.

By using this technique it’s possible to adjust all 4 images to give the same natural looking result. An amazing result given we have a 2 f-stop exposure variation from the left to the right image.

All the best,

Niels

The High Dynamic Range Tool in Capture One Pro 7 gives you the possibility of bringing back details otherwise hidden in both highlights and shadows at the same time.

The improved HDR tool use sophisticated algorithms allowing you to control details in the highlights and the shadows independently of each other. For instance when working with the highlight slider you will not affect tonality in the shadows.

The left image is straight out of the camera. The image to the right has been improved primarily by using the
High Dynamic Range Tool in Capture One Pro 7. The tool has brought back details in the shadow as well as in the blown out parts of the sky.

To see what has actually been captured by the camera sensor in both the shadow and the highlights, I start by dragging the exposure slider.

Dragging the exposure slider up, I see that the sensor has captured lots of details in the dark foreground.

Dragging the slider to negative exposure values, I see that even though the highlights looked as if they were burned out, the software is still able to recreate all the highlight details.

Having realized that the RAW image file actually contains valid (but hidden) information in both the shadows and the highlights, I now know that I will be able to improve the image the way I would like to.

In the High Dynamic Range Tool I use the sliders to bring back the details of the dark foreground and in the bright sky. This image needs quite high values to get the desired level of highlight details, but the image also becomes a bit flat and lacks some kind of contrast after adjusting both Highlight and Shadow.

To compensate for the lack of contrast, I use the Clarity Tool and the method “Punch” with Clarity 35 and Structure 15. These settings bring back some local contrast to the image and makes the image look much more natural and much closer to how I saw the scene with my own eyes.

Finally, I add a bit of Contrast and some extra Saturation in the Exposure Tool.

All the best,

Niels