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.

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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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Advanced use of the Curve Tool

September 28, 2011 by 6 Comments

The Curve Tool in Capture One is a very powerful tool for precise control of the tone mapping of an image. Even though the Exposure Tool also provides sliders for controlling the tone mapping, you sometimes need a more advanced tool to achieve a specific goal.

You can use the “Pick Curve Point” cursor tool to place a point on the curve by clicking directly in the image and you can fine tune a curve point by using the scroll wheel on your mouse.

The left image is straight out of the camera. The right image has been corrected in Capture One with the Curve Tool and the Color Editor.

To enhance this image, I first used the Color Editor to boost the colors a bit, but I found that the rocks in the foreground needed more contrast.

If I use the contrast slider in the Exposure Tool to add contrast to the rocks in the foreground, they just get darker. The built-in contrast correction adds contrast to the image – but not in the way I prefer for this image.

In the Curve Tool, I can see the location of a tone represented by a vertical line underneath the curve. Moving the cursor around on top of the rocks in the foreground, I can see that the first spike in the histogram originates from these rocks. In order to add contrast for these rocks, I start by adding a curve point by simply clicking on one of the rocks with the “Pick Curve Point” cursor tool.

To increase the contrast, I add another curve point. This time, I just click on the curve a little below the first curve point. I can drag this point with the mouse, but it can be done with much more precision by using the scroll wheel of the mouse. Place the cursor beside the last added curve point, and you will see that a horizontal orange control line appears. If I turn the scroll wheel, I can move this curve point up and down very precisely. To add contrast, I need to bring the curve point down turning the curve into an “S” curve shape. The maximum steepness of the curve, which creates the contrast effect, occurs exactly where it is needed to give contrast to the rocks.

Curve points can also be adjusted horizontally. To do this, I place the cursor vertically over a curve point and a vertical orange adjustments line appears.

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Vignetting – a creative tool

September 14, 2011 by 5 Comments

The Vignetting tool in Capture One 6 can not only be used to compensate for Light Falloff caused by the lens, but also as a creative tool that allows you to change the whole expression of the image.

You can create both negative and positive Vignettings. By applying Vignetting, you help the spectator to focus more on the central part of the scene.

In the image on the left, a negative Vignetting has been applied to frame the windsurfer and darken the sky, which creates drama in the image. The image on the right is without Vignetting.

The Vignetting values are expressed in terms of EV.  If you apply Vignetting of +2EV, it means that the image has been brightened the equivalent of 2 f-stops at the edges.

Creative use of Vignetting for portrait images can also be very powerful:

The same image with different amounts of Vignetting applied. The image to the left has a positive Vignetting. The center image is without Vignetting and the right image has negative Vignetting.  For both positive and negative Vignetting, I have used a local adjustments layer to ensure that the model’s face maintains the right exposure.

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Capture One’s Clarity Tool

September 8, 2011 by 5 Comments

The Clarity Tool in Capture One 6 is a tool that can apply a kind of local contrast to an image without changing the overall contrast of the image.

The Clarity Tool works great when you are working on images with some degree of haze. Applying Clarity values of 20-50 will give an impression of increased contrast and stronger details. But even images without haze can benefit from adding Clarity up to around 20-30.

A high amount of Clarity applied to a sky with clouds can make the sky look much more dramatic.

However, too much clarity can create halos around strong contrast edges. Therefore, it can be a good idea to apply Clarity in a local adjustments layer, allowing you to apply more Clarity without creating halos.

In the image to the left, the Clarity Tool has been used to enhance the perceived contrast of the image and to compensate for the slightly hazy look.  The image to the right has not been adjusted with the Clarity Tool, and it is easy to see that haze has reduced the contrast around the buildings.

The Clarity Tool can be adjusted with both positive and negative values. Negative Clarity values can be used to create a more dusty or dreamy look which also works very well for some portraits.

Same image with different amounts of Clarity applied. Both positive and negative values can have strong effects on an image.

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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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