Capture One Pro 20 Workflow
complete guide

1. Why
Capture One

1.1 the Capture One license
If we look over to Lightroom – we see that there is only Lizezen as a subscription. Many don’t want that. It was the same for me. I’ve always been a fan of purchase licenses. The nice thing about Capture One is that there is both a subscription and a purchase license. And above all, there are even free versions. Capture One Express is the free version, it is available for Fujifilm and for Sony. The express version has a few limitations. One of them is, for example, that only the RAW files are read by Fuji or Sony cameras. Nevertheless, you get a lot here for free and I even say that most users will not notice that something is missing. You can find a precise comparison of the range of functions of the Express version with the Pro version directly at Phase One.

1.2. best image quality
Well, image quality is difficult to measure – but it has long been clear among professionals that Capture One is the best RAW converter when it comes to pure image quality. Since the whole thing is very subjective, I recommend that you download a 30-day test version and get an idea of ​​it yourself. Let’s take Fujifilm cameras as an example. Lightroom and many other RAW converters have a hard time with the sensor pattern of the X-T1, X-T2, X-T3 and all other Fuji X cameras. Worm-like artifacts become visible very quickly, which intensify very quickly during sharpening and make them unattractive. Of course, not tolerating that.

1.4. Camera support
It’s hard to find a camera that Capture One doesn’t support. The same is true for Lightroom – but Capture One is always a tick faster when new cameras appear. C1 currently supports over 500 camera models.

first 6. Capture Pilot
Another reason that speaks for Capture One is the so-called Capture Pilot. This is an app for your smartphone or tablet. These combine knowledge in many YouTube videos and on this page. Due to recurring demand, there are now very cheap styles for Capture One Pro from me. These bring a variety of looks to your pictures with just one click. The examples shown below were only processed with the styles mentioned. No further adjustments. You will find the link to the style pack above the slider and again below on this page. Have fun!

What’s new in Capture One Pro 20

A real Lightroom alternative

You have probably been a Lightroom user so far. Don’t worry, even if Capture One Pro looks overwhelmingly complex at first glance, it isn’t. It is enormously customizable and, above all, it is the tool that currently delivers the best image quality of your RAW images. Even if you are just starting out, you should consider carefully whether you will become a Lightroom or Capture One Pro user. The great thing is, as a beginner, you can test both programs for 30 days free of charge and find out which program is right for you and which one meets your image quality requirements. Fujifilm RAW images in particular have worm-like artifacts when sharpening in Lightroom. This is very unattractive and is not due to the Fujifilm cameras, but to how Lightroom interprets the sensor pattern of the Fuji cameras. Absolutely unacceptable processing. Here Capture One shines with a much clearer image processing. The images appear sharper without being over-sharpened. But especially when it comes to editing an image, Capture One can really shine, because the layers and especially the masking functions are far superior to Lightroom.

Capture One Pro 12
in 12 minutes

Capture One Pro Kurs zum Download

2. the user interface

2.1 Introduction to the
Capture One Pro work environment
Capture One is very powerful. Understanding the tool in detail is essential for every photographer. So that you get along well in your daily work, it is also important that we adapt your work environment individually to your workflow.
The Capture One Pro work environment consists of 3 main elements: the Browser , the Viewer and the Tools . The fourth element could be the toolbar.
The browser shows thumbnails. Clicking on the respective preview picture opens it in the viewer. The viewer is therefore also the area in which we mainly work and where the actual image processing takes place.
There is no distinction between a library module and a development module as you know it from Lightroom. In my opinion, this distinction is also completely unnecessary. If you come from Lightroom, I recommend selecting Window -> Work Environment -> Migration in the menu. So you get an arrangement of the windows, which is modeled on Lightroom. This will make it easier for you to switch. Also important: both the browser and the viewer can be shown or hidden if necessary.

2.2 Adjusting the workspaces
The tools themselves are organized in tabs. These tabs can be filled with tools as required. The standard setting of the tools is perfect for the beginning and does not have to be changed. However, it makes sense to add the Black & White tab with a right click in the upper area of ​​the toolbar. All the important tools for a black and white conversion are gathered here. But more on that later.
Every tool can be moved freely. So you can adapt the order of the tools to your workflow. So you can insert any tool into any tab, even several times or take it out again. You can even pull it out to get a floating tool. The advantage of a floating tool is that you can place it directly over the image so that your gaze does not have to constantly wander away from the image to the toolbar.
My recommendation is nevertheless, stay with the standard for the time being and start adapting the workspaces later.

3. File Management

3.1 sessions
The sessions in Capture One are actually more of a holdover from earlier times. Nevertheless, they are super practical. Because a session has the charm that images do not have to be imported. When you create a session, it allows you to browse every folder on every hard drive and edit the images stored there immediately. These edits and changes are stored in the session.
Sessions are actually meant for sessions – as the name suggests – for photo sessions. This is how the pictures you take in tethering go directly to the Capture subfolder in the session folder. The session folder above it forms a unit of images and the associated Capture One data in order to work with this session and the processing carried out in it. For example, I like to create a session for individual customer orders. Or when I’m traveling, I also like to work in sessions. So these are self-contained, small projects.

4. Basic tools

4.1 Crop
No matter how well you take pictures – a crop just has to be every now and then.
Then you can set the cut directly on the picture with the mouse pointer. Tip: there is a small triangle next to the cutting tool. If you click on it you get further options for the cropping in fixed aspect ratios or also for a free cropping.

4.3 Magnifying Glass
You activate the magnifying glass with the p. Now click and hold the mouse button on an image to see the corresponding area in 100% magnification. A long mouse click on the magnifying glass symbol in the toolbar shows you further options of the magnifying glass tool. There you can set the size of the magnifying glass and the magnification of the magnifying glass. Incidentally, the magnifying glass also works on preview images.

5. Exposure

5.1 exposure
The exposure control is roughly equivalent to a change in the exposure in the camera. It can be set from -4 to +4. So a little sensitivity is required. I usually click on the number with the mouse and then adjust the exposure with the keyboard and the up and down arrows. It is advisable to display a histogram in parallel or even to activate the exposure warning (symbol with triangle and exclamation mark in the toolbar). This exposure warning then shows both overexposed and underexposed areas in color and help you to find a suitable setting. On the whole, however, you should proceed according to your gut feeling.

5.2 contrast
Do you even know what contrast means? Right? With more contrast, dark areas of the image become darker and at the same time, bright areas of the image become lighter. You can use it to make a picture “crisper”. I think the contrast control is very nice and soft and can also be operated with the mouse. Again, you should just go for the image effect – there are no standard values.

5.3 brightness
The brightness control mainly takes the middle tone values ​​in the pliers. I personally use this controller very rarely or not at all.

6. Styles

6.1 What are styles
In Capture One, styles offer a good starting point for further image processing. I have all the styles that can be bought in the Capture One Shop. It’s not very cheap, but I use it regularly. By the way, my capture codes for Capture One Pro are also valid for the styles. I will show you how to create your own styles and how to use existing styles efficiently. If the styles at Capture One Pro are too expensive you should take a look at my cheap styles for Capture One Pro for download.

6.2 Styles on layers
Styles are basically applied to layers. In the simplest case to the background level. This is the standard case. However, the style is then applied to the entire image and cannot be masked. Right-clicking on the style gives you the option to apply it to a new level. Advantage 1: you can control the opacity of the layer and thus the opacity of the style. Advantage 2: you can mask. In other words: you can specify in which image areas the style should be used. So it is usually advisable to put styles on a new level and name them accordingly.

Styles by
Michael Damböck

Icecave Style

Black Sand Style

Endlessness Style

Reykjavik Style

Vatnajökull Style

Arc de Triomphe

Les Cafés

Opera

Paris je t’aime

Tour Eiffel

Metro

7. Colors

Colors are incredibly important in photography. And colors are one of the strengths of Capture One Pro. On the one hand, the RAW engine guarantees accurate handling and thus a high degree of reliability of colors and color profiles, and you can simulate the proof directly in the workflow and see what the subsequent print result will look like. In addition, the tools with which you can change and fine-tune colors are very easy to use and yet extremely versatile. Speaking of colors – there is black and white in the next chapter!

7.2 the advanced color editor

The advanced color editor is another of my favorite tools in C1. This is superior to the “Basic data” color editor in many ways. First you select the pipette in the tool, click on a color in the image that you want to change and then immediately see which color range C1 has captured in the color wheel. This color range can easily be changed with the mouse. You can both enlarge or reduce the color wheel and limit or expand the saturation range of the color selection. This allows an extremely precise color selection. It is always advisable to click the “Show selected color range” option.

Now the defined color range can be adjusted. Hue, saturation and brightness can be changed. Pro tip: A click on the 3 dots at the top right of the color editor tool shows the option “Create masked layer from selection”. With this little trick, C1 creates a new layer with a mask based on the color definition. So you can apply (almost) all other tools to this selection. The possibilities are unlimited!

8. black and white conversion

8.1 the paint mixer
The color mixer is the tool of choice for professional B / W conversion. You heard right. The color mixer for B / W conversion. Because in the color mixer we define how bright the respective colored areas of your picture will become in the B / W picture. So if you have a green meadow and then reduce green / yellow in the color mixer, the meadow in the B / W picture becomes very dark. If you master that you will get incredibly strong B / W pictures.

black and white conversion

9. Layers

Many only know layers from Photoshop. But definitely one of the hottest features of Capture One Pro are the layers. Above all, the way the layers work and how flexibly you can work with them. Layers help you to divide processing into segments. For example, you can very easily apply a different treatment to the sky than to the landscape. Or sometimes just make the eyes more contrasting, the possibilities are unlimited.

C1 Layer Tutorial

10. Layer Masks

Without masking, layers would be pretty pointless. A mask hides the layer in some areas, so that you can apply your editing where it makes sense. A mask can be created in different ways. Depending on the picture. We now want to discuss these individually. But first an important info: if you press the m key on the keyboard, press M like mask, then the current mask in red is overlaid on your image. M hides this mask again.

10.1 Linear gradient mask
The most commonly used marking tool is the gradient tool. You can use it to create a linear gradient, perfect for masking a sky, for example. To do this, simply press the “g” key. G stands for gradient. You can then use the mouse to drag and drop a gradient mask. This means that all the edits you made on the level are applied 100% on one side of the history and not at all on the other side. There is a smooth transition in between.

11. Before and after

Nothing works without a before and after view. However, the before and after function in Capture is not particularly intuitive. To see what your image looked like before editing, hold down the Alt key and click the “Reset Adjustments” arrow. It may take a while depending on the speed of your computer, but then you can see what you have achieved or screwed up so far.

12. Copy and paste settings

Of course it is fun to edit pictures. But we don’t want to do the same processing 100 times. Therefore there are functions for copying and pasting settings. To do this, you first select the image from which you want to copy the editing. There you click on the up arrow in the top right of the toolbar. Then you select the one or more pictures on which you want to insert the editing and click on the down arrow. Voila, done!

Sync Edits in Capture One

13. Tethering
connecting your Camera

So, my dream of connecting a camera would be: I plug it into the computer and take pictures. Yup, that’s exactly how it works! For real! Of course, there are also plenty of options. For example, you can have the images automatically edited with a style directly after the transfer. Alternatively, you can give new images the editing of the previous images directly. The whole thing is incredibly fast and, above all, reliable, even on older computers.
If you don’t see the options for tethering , right-click in the toolbar and select Add -> Recording .

14. Sharpening

It will surely surprise you when I tell you that on the one hand I always dealt very intensively with the topic sharpening in Lightroom and yet was never really satisfied with the sharpness, and on the other hand I never deal with sharpening at Capture One Pro and still am very satisfied with the sharpness. Sounds totally illogical – but Capture One Pro brings a much clearer image sharpness to my taste without creating the impression of an over-sharpening. If you don’t see the options for tethering , right-click in the toolbar and select Add -> Recording .

15. Exporting

Exporting from Capture One Pro is very different from exporting as you know it from Lightroom. But the Capture one Pro export module is much more powerful.

15.1 Processing specifications
To define how an image should be exported, there are so-called processing specifications. This processing instruction must have a name. It is advisable to choose the name so that you still know later what was defined here. But that is not a must. In the processing instruction we now define the following things:

• Basic data : file format | Quality | Color profile | Resolution | scaling
• file : storage emergency
• Adjustments : ignore or apply crop | Export sharpening for print or screen
• Metadata : EXIF ​​| GPS | Set keywords
• Watermark : add a watermark (text or image)

By the way, below in the tool “ Processing overview ” you can see at a glance how the export will work and you will get an estimate of how big your exported image will be.

Export with border

A very frequently asked question: How can I export images from Capture One Pro with a white frame or border. The answer: unfortunately Capture One Pro has no function for saving with frames. But there is good news – at least for Mac users. This limitation can be avoided with Michael Damböck’s Border Tool for Capture One Pro.
Michael Damböck’s Border Tool for Capture One Pro Allows adding black or white frames when exporting from Capture One Pro.
Now there is the Capture One Border Tool also for Windows

Export with border

16 Use Capture One with a Midi Controller