Mastering Capture One: A Free Guide

Part I. Essential Training

Alexander Svet
AlexOnRAW.com

Capture One Pro 11 is a complex app, that’s why it takes time to master it. Don’t panic. You
are not expected to learn studio lighting or skin retouching techniques in a few hours as
well.
I have been training photographers to work with Capture One for more than seven years
and what I can say for sure – you need a strong plan, a clear roadmap for your journey of
learning Capture One. With Capture One it’s quite easy to jump straight to the sweetest
features, skipping the essential knowledge, and getting lost as a result. On the contrary,
having a robust plan ensures you would not miss anything. You don’t even need to pay for
education – there are dozens of fantastic articles and videos about Capture One available
for free. The only thing you need is a good roadmap to lead your way.

“Mastering Capture One” is the roadmap, a guide to learn Capture One and a collection
of the best articles and videos to study each topic.
Today I’m publishing the first part – “Essential Training”. If you’re new to Capture One, it
will give you everything you need to begin working in Capture One without a mass of
overwhelming information.
In the second part “Advanced Techniques” we’ll discover new features for Layers, and
tethered shooting capabilities, we’ll go deeper into Levels, Curves, and color correction
tools.

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Experienced Capture One users would find useful materials in the third part – “Pro Tips”.
Here we’ll talk about creating custom ICC profiles, using LUT in Capture One, and working
with Linear Curve. I will show you how to use Color Readouts, LCC plates, and other
professional tools.

Join our Facebook group, follow me on Twitter or subscribe to my Newsletter to be the

first to know when new parts of “Mastering Capture One” will be released!

It’s an absolutely free guide and if you wish to say thanks – simply share it with your
friends-photographers. In case you wish to suggest some additional materials for the
collection – write me a comment here.

To make a reading experience more convenient, most of the videos and links are hidden,
just click the “show” button to expand them.
Here is the full table of contents to jump to the part where you have left the course last
time.

Table of Contents
Part 1. Essential Training
1.1. Why Capture One
— 1.1.1. Capture One Run Modes
— 1.1.2. Capture One Licenses
1.2. How Capture One Works
1.3. Capture One Interface
— 1.3.1. Interface Explained
— 1.3.2. Workspace Customization
— 1.3.3. Keyboard Shortcuts
1.4. Capture One File Management
— 1.4.1. Sessions
— 1.4.2. Catalogs
— 1.4.3. What to Choose?
1.5. Basic Adjustments
— 1.5.1. Crop Tool
— 1.5.2. Lens Correction
1.6. Exposure
— 1.6.1. Exposure Tool
— 1.6.2. High Dynamic Range
— 1.6.3. Clarity
— 1.6.4. Vignetting
— 1.6.5. Levels and Curve
1.7. Color
— 1.7.1. White Balance
— 1.7.2. Color Balance
— 1.7.3. Color Editor
— 1.7.4. Masks from Color Editor
— 1.7.5. Black & White
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1.8. Introduction to Layers
— 1.8.1. Layers in Capture One
— 1.8.2. Retouch Tools
1.9. Before-After Comparison
— 1.9.1. Before-After Button
— 1.9.2. Image Variants
1.10. Batch Editing
— 1.10.1. Edit All Selected Variants
— 1.10.2. Copying and Applying Adjustments
— 1.10.3. Styles and Presets
1.11. Working with Details
— 1.11.1. Sharpening
— 1.11.2. Noise Reduction
1.12. Exporting to Final Formats
— 1.12.1. Simple Export
— 1.12.2. Advanced Export
— 1.12.3. Photoshop Integration
What’s next?

Part 2. Advanced Techniques

Part 3. Pro Tips

Part 1. Essential Training

1.1. Why Capture One

As you plan to spend some time learning
Capture One, it would be quite reasonable to
ask yourself – does it really fit your tasks?
The point is that Capture One is a high-end
RAW converter and those are not just fancy
words. Capture One contains a bunch of
professional tools which require an advanced
understanding of image processing.
If you’re just looking for some nice RAW
converter to make your images better – there
are plenty of easier-to-learn and cheaper
software on the market.

But if you’re a commercial photographer or

you’re simply addicted to taking photographs
as a hobby – Capture One will open a whole new world of RAW editing.
Start with the article “10 Reasons to Switch to Capture One”. It will give you a complete
understanding of how Capture One is different from other RAW converters and why it’s
worth to allocate your time to master it.
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The first part of the article is dedicated to amazing features that Capture One delivers
besides the editing itself: interface customization, file handling, tethered shooting, and color
rendering.
The second part is all about the RAW editing: Layers with opacities, RGB channels Levels
correction, Luma and RGB Curves, Color Editor and many more features are waiting for
you there.

Also, there are lots of professional photographers who share their experience of switching
to Capture One. Such articles and videos are a great source of workflow tips and tricks for
new to Capture One users.
It’s definitely worth to check out these materials:

Articles:

Fast-track Guide from Lightroom to Capture One Pro

Switching to Capture One Pro From Aperture – Photography Workflow
Jumping Ship from Lightroom to Capture One Pro
A Beginner’s Guide to Migrating From Lightroom to Capture One
Learning Capture One Pro After 12 Years of Lightroom

Videos:

Why I prefer Phase One Capture One over Lightroom for Raw Processing

Why I Chose Capture One Pro 10 Over Lightroom CC 2017

1.1.1. Capture One Run Modes

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When you would open Capture One 11 for the first time, you have to choose one of four run
modes:

Capture One Pro

Capture One Pro for Sony
Capture One Express for Sony
Capture One DB

Capture One Pro is the most suitable option for the majority of users: it works with any
supported files and if you have Nikon, Canon, Fuji, Olympus or Pentax cameras – this
mode is right for you. Capture One Pro 11 has a 30-day trial and requires a license
activation after that period.

Capture One for Sony versions work with Sony RAW files only and provide an exclusive
price offer.

Capture One Express for Sony – absolutely free software best suited for basic RAW
editing and image catalogization. Some of the professional tools are not available in
Express version, but in general, it’s the same Capture One.

Capture One Pro for Sony – professional software with all the features of the standard
Capture One Pro. The only difference is the price tag, which is five times lower compared
to regular Pro. If you have a Sony camera – it’s the best option for you. For more details
check out this article “Capture One for Sony: How It Works”.

Capture One DB – is a special run mode of Capture One dedicated to working with files
from Phase One Digital Backs only. As you might have guessed by now, DB stands for
Digital Back. DB mode doesn’t require any activation, but it won’t work with RAW files from
regular cameras.

1.1.2. Capture One Licenses

For Capture One Pro 11 run mode there are two types of licenses available:Full License
and Subscription.

The difference is that with Full License you pay for the license only once and use it as long
as you want. All the updates of your version of Capture One Pro 11 are free (like 11.1, 11.2,
etc.), but the upgrade to Capture One Pro 12 would be paid.
Subscription is basically a contract where you sign in for monthly payments for 3 or 12
month periods or a single payment for a year of subscription to Capture One. You would
always have access to the actual version of Capture One as long as your subscription is
valid.

Photographer Peter Holdmann in his article performed calculations which showed that Full
License is much more profitable in the long-term. Subscription is a smart choice when a 30-
days trial is over, and you feel that you need more time to test Capture One in your
workflow.
BTW, you can also get a 10% discount for a Full License or an upgrade with this
code – AMBC1BLOG:
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1) At Phase One on-line store click “Add to cart” to purchase Capture One Pro 11.
2) At Check Out page enter this special code AMBC1BLOG, select “USE VOUCHER” and
you will immediately gain a 10% discount.

Here is a useful lifehack – each major Capture One upgrade (11.x or 12) resets the trial
period. That’s why if you have tried Capture One 11 and are not ready to purchase a
license yet – simply wait for the next 11.x release to get a new 30-day test drive.

If you have any additional questions, here are some other useful articles to help you with
activation and license management.

All about Capture One licenses: Upgrades, Updates and Activations Explained
How to change your Capture One license from Express for Sony, or DB mode, to
Capture One Pro
Where can I find my Capture One License key?
How To Deactivate Capture One Directly In The Application

1.2. How Capture One Works

As you have chosen the proper running mode, now it’s the time to understand some very
basic principals of what is happening with RAW files in Capture One.

Capture One never changes your RAW files – all the adjustments are stored in separate
files. Also, you don’t need to save the corrections manually, it does so automatically, right
as you’re editing the image.
In the File Management chapter, we’ll discuss where exactly you can store adjustments and
original RAWs, but before that let’s see what is happening with the file as you open it in
Capture One.

Step 1. First of all, Capture One needs to transform the RAW data into an editable image.
To provide correct color, Capture One uses unique ICC color profiles for each camera
model. You can find them in the Basic Characteristics menu.

For some cameras, you would

find several profiles available. In
most cases, the newest version of
profile works best, but you can try
other options as well.

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Step 2. Now, that we have an editable file, we need to see it with a proper color profile.
Under-the-hood Capture One works with its own color space, but you can choose which
color profile to use for viewing the image.

You can set viewing color profile in View –> Proof Profile, but I highly recommend to use
the default option “Selected Recipe”. It synchronizes viewing color profile and processing
color profile. For example, if you set up Adobe RGB in your processing settings, the image
in Capture One would also be displayed with Adobe RGB profile. This way your processed
JPG/TIF image will always have the same color which you have seen during the editing.

Step 3. When the editing is finished, it’s time to process the image into JPG or TIF file.
Here you need to select an ICC profile for exporting.

For internet, I recommend using

sRGB; for further editing in
Photoshop – Adobe RGB or
ProPhoto RGB would suit you
better. If you plan to print images,
ICC profile depends on a
particular printing machine.

Understanding these principals

guarantees that your processed
image will look just as you expect
it to. To get deeper into Capture
One engine, read a great article
“Capture One: An Overview of the
Rendering Pipeline”.

1.3. Capture One Interface

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Capture One interface might look a bit complicated at first glance, especially if you get used
to Lightroom or Aperture workspaces.
The good news is that you can customize each part of the interface for your needs! But
before we would change the workspace, let’s see how it looks and operates by default.

1.3.1. Interface Explained

Here is a great video to explain all the basic features and working areas of Capture One
interface:

Capture One 11 Tutorial | Getting Started – Interface Explained

Also, Capture One has some very handy features for viewing images.

1.3.2. Workspace Customization

Now we can customize the interface to fit your personal needs. Do you prefer having tools
on the right side of the screen? No problem. Do you wish to move White Balance tool near
Exposure settings? Simply drag-n-drop it there!

In this short video, you’ll find all rules of thumbs for workspace customization:

Capture One Custom Workspaces

Customizing a main working area and a toolbar

Creating custom sets of editing tools
Duplicating tools in different tool tabs
Creating a custom tool tab with multiple Curve tools for each color channel

Despite all the customization features, what I recommend to do is to spend some time with
a default interface in Capture One. Then you can start modifying it for your needs.
My point is that you can change everything, but don’t rush replicating, say, a Lightroom
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interface just after running a Capture One for the first time. They are different software. And
they will be different regardless of any customization that you can apply. Custom interface
in Capture One is a feature designed to deal with your tasks better. Not by copying a
generic interface of the other software, which isn’t aware of your tasks at all.

Looking for some inspiration? Here you’ll find custom workspaces from professional
photographers:

Customize Your Workflow In Capture One Pro

Bend Capture One To Your Will By Customizing The Display
Organizing A Capture One Workspace For Astropad Studio
Black And White With Capture 1 Pro – Part 1: Custom Workspaces

How To Make Capture One Behave More Like Lightroom

Capture One 11 Webinar | Zach Sutton’s Workflow

1.3.3. Keyboard Shortcuts

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It’s truly important to note this in the very beginning of our learning – keyboard shortcuts are
the vital part of Capture One workflow. You can assign most of the action to hotkeys and it
will save you a mass of time during the editing.

Check this beginner’s guide to keyboard shortcuts in Capture One, and these posts would
give you some additional tips for managing hotkeys:

Martin Bailey’s Capture One Pro Keyboard Shortcuts

Some Favorite Keyboard Shortcuts In Capture One Pro & How To Make Them
Capture One High Volume Keyboard Shortcuts
How To Shortcut Almost Anything In Capture One Pro (Mac)

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1.4. Capture One File Management
In Capture One Pro 11 there are two approaches to file management: sessions and
catalogs. Each of them has some unique features, but what is even more important – they
store image adjustments differently.

1.4.1. Sessions
Session stores image adjustments in a “Capture One” folder located near your RAW files.

This means that you’ll always have a “Capture One” folder in a folder with RAW files. The
main benefit of it is a robust reliability – for more than nine years of working with sessions
none of my adjustment files were corrupted. Recently, I’ve opened in Capture One 11 some
RAW files originally edited in Capture One 6 and they work flawlessly.
The main disadvantage is this particular folder which appears with your RAW files – if you
accidentally delete it you’ll lose all the editing. Also, sessions aren’t designed for running a
photo archive and it’s quite problematic to run a single session on several computers.

In general, sessions are best suited for commercial photographers with project-based
workflow. That way, you will have all the images that are related to a particular shooting in
one place. At the same time, you can go your way: create a single session and work with it
for years, using this session as a “browser” tool for files on your hard drive.
Paul Steunebrink wrote a fantastic guide to sessions where you’ll find all the detailed
information if you feel that sessions might work well for you.

If you prefer video tutorials, here is a useful webinar by Phase One:

Ultimate Session Workflow

1.4.2. Catalogs

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Catalog works exactly as you might expect from its name – this is an archive to keep all the
image adjustments in one place. You may import RAW files inside the catalog as well, but
there is an issue of growing size of the catalog. That’s why I personally prefer to store
RAWs outside the catalog.

Catalog is designed for building a solid photo archive of thousands of images with an
ordered structure, searching filters, and keywords. Catalogs are easily portable – you’re
able to manage files in the catalog and to edit them even if the RAW files are not available
at the moment. For example, you can take a catalog on a laptop on a trip leaving all the
RAWs at home and being able to work with images. The main restriction is that you can’t
process files to JPG/TIF without access to RAW originals.

Catalog has lots of great tools for image organizing and here I suggest Paul’s resource
again – he has a well-made guide to catalogs where you’ll find out how to import and
organize images.

Also, there is a Phase One webinar as well:

Organizing your Catalog with Capture One

1.4.3. What to Choose?

Long story short, choose the workflow that you can easily adapt to your tasks:

If you have switched to Capture One from Lightroom or Aperture – choose catalogs.
If you prefer to run a photo archive – choose catalogs.
If you want to open files directly on your hard drive, edit and process them without
catalogization – choose sessions.

The good news is that you can always change your decision: sessions can be quickly
imported into a catalog, and images from catalogs can be exported to work in sessions.
Right now all you need is to understand how to open your RAW files in Capture One to edit
them and know where image adjustments are stored to not lose them.

Later, when you would finish “Essential Training” course, spend some time on developing
your own workflow. To give you some ideas, here are interesting examples of how other
photographers manage files in Capture One:

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 Importing & Organizing Photos in Capture One Pro
How And Why To Use Capture One ‘Sessions’
Catalogs vs Sessions: An Epic Battle of Our Times
Moving 10 years of Aperture to Capture One
How I Organize My Photos To Play Nicely With Capture One And Lightroom
Transition Tips: Capture One Catalogs to Sessions

Download 12 film styles for Capture One for free!

1.5. Basic Adjustments

Ok, here we are: you’ve learned Capture One basics and have set your first workflow. Now
we’re ready to edit images.

I’m pretty sure you’re eager to begin right away with complicated tools. That’s fair, most
likely you have decided to learn Capture One to get maximum from your RAWs with these
professional tools.
Nevertheless what you really need to do first is to study all the Capture One basic tools.
Even if you’re familiar with other RAW converters, most of Capture One tools work
differently. They might have the same names, they might work similarly to other software,
but there are lots of distinctions in the details. Knowing these features would give you a real
Capture One experience and the necessary base for the second and the third parts of
“Mastering Capture One”.

Let’s start with Crop tool.

1.5.1. Crop Tool

Cropping might seriously affect
visual perception of the image
and histograms, that’s why it
makes sense to apply Crop
before other adjustments.
Although cropping is a common
thing, Capture One Crop tool has
a number of features and these simple rules would help you to make them work for you:

1. There is no need to “confirm” cropping. In Capture One the cropping action is applied
when you have changed the crop frame and you don’t need to somehow confirm it. If you
wish to hide a crop grid – just switch to any other cursor tool, for example, Select (an arrow
icon) or Pan (a hand icon). Learn simple hotkeys: C – Crop tool, H – Pan tool. Now you can
toggle the cropping mode in a second.
2. You don’t set image size with cropping. Crop tool is intended only to reframe your
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image; to set the output image size, you need to go to process preferences. Depending on
these preferences, cropping may or may not affect the output image size.
3. Right-click displays settings window. This is a general feature of all the cursor tools in
Capture One. When a tool (in our case Crop tool) is active, right-click brings out a settings
window to quickly change the Ratio, for example.

In this video you’ll find all the essential information on Crop tool in Capture One:

Capture One Pro 8 | Composing Images

To learn some additional features of Crop tool like Fibonacci Spiral, take a look at these
articles:

Recompose with Ease

Capture One Preferences (part 3)
Can Capture One See More Than Your Camera?
Advanced Cropping Tips For A Faster Workflow

1.5.2. Lens Correction

Capture One has all the standard
tools for correcting common lens
related issues: Distortion,
Sharpness/Light Falloff,
Chromatic Aberration and Purple
Fringing.
We’ll discuss lens Correction
tools in all the details in the
second part of the guide. If you’re
completely new to RAW editing –
this is definitely not a prior thing to
learn and you can continue the
course with the next chapter
about Exposure.

If you’re familiar with lens correction techniques in other software, there would be no
problem for you to handle them in Capture One as well. Here is a short video to explain the
basic concept:

Correcting Lens Errors with Capture One Pro 10

Now it’s the time to finally review all of the essential tools for editing! First things first, let’s
begin with exposure.

1.6. Exposure
In Capture One you’ll find two types of exposure tools: sliders (Exposure, Contrast, HDR,
Clarity, etc.) and histogram-based tools (Levels and Curves).
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Sliders are well suited for a quick, general editing. This doesn’t mean that they are “dumb”,
on the contrary, some sliders in Capture One are analyzing your image and using smart-
algorithms for the best result. The problem is in the slider-based control itself – it affords not
much space for complex adjustments. On the other hand, sliders do a great job for most of
the images, that’s why I highly recommend to examine them closely.

Histogram-based tools in Capture One are truly fantastic – they provide you with a full
control over your image. However, they also require a deeper understanding of image
editing. That’s why in this part of “Mastering Capture One” we’ll discuss only basic usage of
Levels and Curves. In “Advanced Techniques” you’ll find the most exciting things: per-
channel corrections, Luma curve, and tricks with layers.
But you have to study all the basic tools when you start the second part of the guide. Don’t
forget – the goal of the roadmap is to prevent you from being lost during the journey.

1.6.1. Exposure Tool

Exposure tool contains four
common sliders: Exposure,
Contrast, Brightness, and
Saturation.
Here you’ll find a detailed
comparison of how each tool
affects the image. In this guide, I
wish to share three key points,
which you need to keep in mind while working with Exposure tool:

1. Use Exposure slider for global exposure corrections. Exposure slider imitates
camera’s exposure and gets a maximum from your RAW file for this. It’s a great tool to
make an overall image brighter or darker. Also, you can easily use Exposure in layers or
mix it with other tools. For example, make an image significantly brighter and use High
Dynamic Range tool to darken highlights.
2. Use Brightness for mild corrections. Brightness affects mostly mid-tones and, talking
less technically, it makes the actual image darker or brighter without digging deeper into the
RAW file.
3. Use sliders when you need a “smart” tool. All the sliders here, except Exposure slider,
adopt effects for the image specifics. Brightness is quite similar to mid-tone Levels
correction, but if you would compare them, you would see a noticeable difference. The
reason is smart algorithms which adjust the impact of the tool to the particular image. The
same thing with Saturation – smart algorithms increase saturation differently for each color
in the image. Smart contrast minimizes an impact on saturation and works gently with
image color as a result. It’s pretty useful sometimes.

To see how Exposure sliders are used in practice and to find some useful tricks, watch this
Phase One webinar (Exposure tool starts at 20:40).

Capture One Pro 9 Webinar | Essential Image Adjustments

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1.6.2. High Dynamic Range
High Dynamic Range (HDR) is
the main tool to work with
highlights and shadows on your
image.

You would find the most detailed

description of HDR tool at this
link, but the general idea is pretty simple:
Highlight slider darkens overexposed areas.
Shadow slider lightens dark areas.

HDR sliders don’t affect any other parts of the image, that’s why a reasonable HDR might
improve almost every image. Here are my favorite tips for HDR tool:
1. Mix HDR with other sliders. It works fantastic with Exposure, Contrast, and Clarity.
Curves and Levels also combine pretty well with HDR, but you have to keep an eye on the
image histogram to avoid technical mistakes.
2. Use HDR in layers. In the “Introduction to Layers” chapter you’ll see that layers are an
irreplaceable feature of Capture One workflow. HDR in layers would give the most natural
correction of dynamic range. Plus you can increase HDR effect with each new layer by
sacrificing accuracy of the impact.
3. My default settings for HDR tool are: Highlights – 20, Shadows – 5. For the majority of
casual images, these settings either would enchase an image or would do not harm them.
But of course, it’s not a universal recipe that should be applied blindly.
4. Don’t overextend dynamic range of your image. Google for “horrible hdr photos”, this
horror-show always starts with “and some more HDR here…”.

The best way to master High Dynamic Range tool is to see how professional
photographers are using it in Capture One:

Highlight & Shadow Recovery: Why You Should Use Capture One | Nino Batista

Editing Sony a7r III RAW Files for Dynamic Range and Color Depth

Creating Dynamic Images In Capture One

Save 10% on Capture One Pro 11

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For all the readers of Alex on RAW, a 10% discount for Capture One Pro 11 license is now
available.

It works equally well for a full version of Capture One Pro 11 or an upgrade.

How it works?
1) At Phase One on-line store click “Add to cart” to purchase Capture One Pro 11.
2) At Check Out page enter this special code AMBC1BLOG, select “USE VOUCHER” and
you will immediately gain 10% discount.

1.6.3. Clarity
Clarity is one of my beloved tools
in Capture One. This tool affects
the mid-tone micro-contrast and
thus changes “clarity” of an
image. Clarity works marvelously
for adding visual accents, for
emphasizing texture in the image
or for making an overall picture
look deeper.

There are two main differences between Clarity in Capture One and the similar tools in
other apps:
1. There are four modes: Natural, Punch, Neutral, and Classic. In most of the cases, I
recommend to use Natural or Punch modes. Natural suites image best when you don’t want
to affect color saturation. Punch mode, counter-wise, would significantly increase it.
2. Capture One Clarity has an additional Structure slider to emphasize patterns on
objects in the image. It looks a little bit similar to sharpening, but the difference is that
Structure algorithms are smart. It makes it difficult to predict the result sometimes, but
generally, Structure works pretty nice.

To learn more about Clarity tool and to find the best practices for using it I have prepared a
list of useful articles:

Capture One Clarity

How To Enhance Details With Structure
Get Smooth Skin Tones Using Negative Clarity

1.6.4. Vignetting

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Vignetting is the most simple tool
in the Exposure tool tab. This
minute-long video describes all
the features of Vignetting in
Capture One and I don’t even
think that you would need any
additional materials.

The Vignetting Tool in Capture One Pro

1.6.5. Levels and Curve

That was a pretty nice journey up till this moment, isn’t it? Now we’re going down the rabbit
hole. It’s time to talk about Levels and Curves.

There is a reason why I never go deep into the Levels and Curve in the beginner’s course.
These tools are stunning, but to unlock their’s potential, you would have to study many
things that are not directly related to Capture One. And this is the easiest way to get lost.
On the other hand, I’ve already told you that Levels and Curve are fantastic…
Ok, boys and girls, today we’re doing a short round-trip into the dark woods and don’t forget
your breadcrumbs!

Levels

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Broadly speaking, Levels in
Capture One is a tool for technical
correction of the image, and
Curve is for creative adjustments.
Levels is mostly used when your
image looks flat or when there is a
noticeable “haze” effect. By
setting black and whites points in
Levels, you’re expanding the
tonal range of the image. In some
cases, it might dramatically
enhance your photo.

Also, Levels corrections affect the Curve’s histogram, that’s why it’s reasonable to start
editing with Levels, perform all the necessary adjustments of black and white points and
then proceed with Curves.

Sounds a little bit complicated? Fortunately, I’ve found for you a great video to learn all the
basic features of Levels in Capture One:

Capture One Levels Tool: Simple and Effective

There are many more Levels features to talk about, but let’s keep them for “Advanced
Techniques” part of the guide.

Curve

Years before all these fancy

sliders became a common thing,
Curve was a prime tool for
professional image editing. And it
continues being so.
Curve gives you a full control over
each part of the image exposure.
For example, you can darken
specifically the mid-shadows and
lighten mid-highlights in the
image.

As well as Levels, Curve is a

histogram-based tool. That’s why
don’t even start working with
Curves without a complete
understanding of how histogram
works.

What the Heck is a Histogram?? Understand Digital Photography’s Most Useful Tool

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Also, I highly recommend to master RGB curve first and only then proceed to Luma, Red,
Green, and Blue channel curves.
You have to feel absolutely comfortable with the RGB curve, to know its benefits and
disadvantages before switching to other curves.

I’ve never seen a solid and free video about Curve in Capture One (if you know of one, feel
free to share a link here). The good news is that thanks to Paul Steunebrink we have a
detailed article about Curve and I address you to his resource again.

Uh. We did it. Is everybody back here? Stop, where is Johnny? What? Went googling about
Luma Curve? Poor boy… Ok, send him a message that we have a meeting point in the
second part of the guide. Everybody else – follow me, the next topic is Color!

Join our Facebook group, follow me on Twitter or subscribe to my Newsletter to be the

first to know when new parts of “Mastering Capture One” will be released!

1.7. Color
Capture One has a bunch of great tools for color correction and each of them has a special
role in the editing process.

1.7.1. White Balance

I’m pretty sure all of you are
familiar with the basic concept of
White Balance, that’s why I don’t
see any reasons to spend much
time on it.
If you have any doubts, watch this
short video about all the main
features of White Balance tool in
Capture One.

The White Balance Tool in Capture One Pro

Yet, here are three useful hints to White Balance in Capture One:

1. Always start color correction with White Balance. Think of WB as of a foundation of

your color correction. For detailed work with color, you need an overall White Balance to be
properly adjusted.
2. Use White Balance in layers. Sometimes, it’s simply impossible to set a correct WB for
the whole image. You might have few light sources with completely different color
temperature and the only solution here is to adjust WB locally for each part of the image.
Fortunately, layers in Capture One have some fantastic features to deal with this quickly
and easily.
3. Use WB Skin Tone. This is a unique feature of White Balance in Capture One. To learn
more, take a look at how photographer Quentin Decaillet uses WB Skin Tone in wedding
photography.
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Here are some additionals articles about White Balance tool to learn in all the details.

Capture One White Balance

No More White Balance Compromises!
The Creative Power Of The White Balance Tool
How To Use A White Balance Card

1.7.2. Color Balance

Color Balance is an easy to use
tool for color toning.
Previously, Color Balance was a
“final-touch-tool” and usually was
used at the end of the editing.
Starting from Capture One Pro
11, Color Balance got a layer
support and now you can use it
locally at any stage of the editing.

To learn all the features of Color

Balance, watch this well-made
video from Phase One:

Capture One 11 Tutorial | Using

the Color Balance Tool

Besides the official tutorial, here are my personal recommendations for Color Balance tool:
1. Color Balance and Red-Green-Blue curves are different. New to Capture One users
tend to think that Color Balance works in the same way as R-G-B curves, but that’s totally
wrong. Red-Green-Blue curves affect the color, but it’s not a simple “color toning”, the
impact of curves on to the image is much deeper and complex. In some cases, Color
Balance would be a more handy solution, in other cases, R-G-B curves are the only option
to achieve a desirable effect.
2. Color Balance Lightness slider is not a universal tool. It seems to be a nice idea to
always adjust lightness for shadows, highlights, and mid-tones right in Color Balance. The
problem is that the lightness slider here is specified for pre-toning corrections. Its algorithm
is designed to prepare an image for further color toning, not to provide the most accurate
and universal lightness correction. As a pre-toning tool it’s a pretty handy thing, simply don’t
use it as a replacement for HDR or Exposure.
3. Customize your Color Balance tool. Don’t forget to use all the Capture One features to
customize your tools. For example, you can change the size of Color Balance window or
create a separate tool tab with multiple Color Balance tools.

Color Balance is a favorite tool for many photographers, that’s why you can easily find
useful tutorials here:

Articles:

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 Color Grading Made Easy
Colorist POV: Color Grading In Capture One
Color Tools For Fashion Imagery

Videos:

How to Color Grade using the Color Balance Tool

Color Grading With Capture One Pro

1.7.3. Color Editor

Color Editor is the main tool for
color correction in Capture One.
The general idea is pretty simple
– you can select any color in the
image and change its hue,
saturation, and lightness. Plus,
you can apply color correction
locally in layers, even out a skin
tone and create a mask from
selected color range with Color
Editor. In other words, Color
Editor is the most powerful tool
for color correction which you can
find in RAW-converters.

Color Editor has three tabs:

1. Basic tab – the best option

for beginners. Simply choose a
color range and adjust the color
using sliders. Here you would find
a detailed description of how
Color Editor Basic tab works.
Also, Basic mode adjustments
are sort of foolproof: it’s almost
impossible to screw up the editing
with Basic tab corrections.
2. Advanced tab – great
features for experienced
photographers. To start working
with Advanced Color Editor, you need to pick the color manually – there are no built-in
color ranges. That’s not all the differences: Advanced mode sliders have a much stronger
impact on the image and Advanced Color Editor can be used in layers. We’ll discover all
these features in the second part of the guide, and in the third part of “Pro Tips” you’ll find
out how to create custom ICC profiles with Color Editor.
3. Skin Tone tab – a separate tool to work with skin tones. Skin Tone tab works quite
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similar to the Advanced tab, but it has a few additional sliders to even out skin color.

To get acquainted with each tab of Color Editor, I recommend this short video:

Tutorial | Using the Color Editor Tool in Capture One Pro 10

At the same time, at the start of your development try to focus on Basic tab. Even with its
restricted functionality, you can perform a high-level color correction here. Later we will
surely get back to Advanced and Skin Tone tabs, just focus your attention on the essential
things first. That will give you a solid base for mastering advanced and pro techniques in
Capture One.

If you already have some experience in color editing, use these materials to improve your
skill:

Articles:

Capture One Pro | Breaking Down The Astounding Color Editor Tool
Color Grading with Capture One 9 Part 2: Color Editor Tool
Post Tips: Precision Color Control

Videos:

Color Grading and Color Correction in Capture One Pro

Capture One 11 Webinar | Working with Color

Before we go any further, there is one more feature of Color Editor that stands a little bit
alone and is definitely worth learning about.

1.7.4. Masks from Color Editor

Color Editor is not only a tool for color correction, you can also create masks based on
selected color range. For example, in one click you can create a mask from model’s skin
color and edit it with all the regular tools: Exposure, Color Balance, White Balance, Curves,
etc.
This feature will completely transform your approach to RAW editing, that’s why it’s better
to start using it right away.

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Photographer Quentin Decaillet has a great article that demonstrates how you can create
masks from Color Editor in practice.

1.7.5. Black & White

Black & White is an essential tool
for B&W editing because it allows
you to control lightness for six
colors and how they would appear
in B&W mode.

If previously you were creating

black and white images with
Saturation slider, here is a nice
video to explain the difference
between these techniques:

The Phoblographer Black and

White vs Desaturation Capture
One Tutorial

As you might know, B&W editing is a complex process and it’s pointless to learn the Black
& White tool separately from other tools which are commonly used. That’s why I made a list
of useful materials which would develop a better understanding of B&W editing in general
and Black & White tool in particular.

Let’s start with this great tutorial by Martin Bailey:

Black and White Processing by Martin Bailey | Capture One

Also, here you’ll find some other useful materials:

Articles:

Black And White In Capture One Pro

Black And White With Capture One Pro 8 – Part 2: Workflows
Steve Gosling’s Tricks To Create Stunning B&W Images

Videos:

Capture One Pro 10 Webinar | Complete Black and White Adjustment

Capture One – Black and White Conversion

Save 10% on Capture One Pro 11

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For all the readers of Alex on RAW, a 10% discount for Capture One Pro 11 license is now
available.

It works equally well for a full version of Capture One Pro 11 or an upgrade.

How it works?
1) At Phase One on-line store click “Add to cart” to purchase Capture One Pro 11.
2) At Check Out page enter this special code AMBC1BLOG, select “USE VOUCHER” and
you will immediately gain 10% discount.

1.8. Introduction to Layers

Now I have fantastic news for you. Almost all the tools, which we just discussed, work in
layers. That’s right: Exposure, Color Balance, HDR, Color Editor, Levels, Curves, Clarity,
White Balance – all of them can be used locally in Capture One. That means you can select
an area and apply corrections only to this part of the image.
In practice, Layers opens completely new possibilities for RAW editing. That’s why it’s vital
to learn layers in sync with other essential tools of Capture One.

1.8.1. Layers in Capture One

Ok, let’s start with a short
explanation of basic concepts of
Layers:

1. Layers and masks. For a local

correction, you need to create a
layer and draw a mask on it. The
layer contains adjustment settings
and the mask defines a part of the
image which will be affected by
these adjustments. You can create
up to 16 layers with different masks on a single image.
2. Mask drawing. You can create masks on the layer by Draw/Erase brushes or by
Gradient tool.
3. Brush icon. When a layer is selected, a brush icon appears on all the supported tools.
That means they are operating in the local corrections mode and are adjusting the selected
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layer only.
4. Mask’s display modes. You can toggle between modes to turn on and off visibility of
the mask. Note, that you can draw and adjust a mask even when it’s not visible.
5. Copy, invert and fill mask. Masks can be copied from one layer to another. You can
also invert a mask and fill a space inside the mask borders.
6. Layer Opacity. Each layer has the master opacity slider. It affects all the corrections on
this layer. Mask’s opacity can be changed by the brush opacity settings.
7. Keyboard Shortcuts. Hotkeys for layers would save you a significant amount of time
and I highly recommend to use them for most of the actions with layers. For example, you
can create a new filled layer or clear a mask with just one click.

To illustrate all the key points, here are two helpful videos. You can begin with this four-
minute tutorial to Layer Adjustments:

Capture One 11 Tutorial | Using Layer Adjustments

To go deeper into local corrections, I recommend to watch this webinar:

Capture One 11 Webinar | Working with Layers

1.8.2. Retouch Tools

Besides local adjustments, Layers
also works as a retouch tool in
Capture One. There are two types
of retouch layers: Clone Layer and
Heal Layer.
In general, they work in the same
way as regular layers, but you can’t
apply any adjustments to them.
Instead of that, retouch layers allow
you to copy a chosen area to the
masked part of the image. Clone
Layer will simply duplicate a selected area; Heal Layer will adopt it to the image by
changing lightness and saturation.

If you wish to simply remove dust or some small object in the image, Capture One has a
special tool for this – Spot Removal.

It has two modes: Dust (for sensor

dust) and Spot (for any small
objects). You can create up to 100
spots on a single image and that’s a
great tool for a brief retouching.

Here is a brief video to see how

retouch layers and Spot Removal work in Capture One:

Capture One Pro 8 | Repairing and Spotting Images

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Retouch layers are really helpful when you need to remove or replace some object in the
image. It is even possible to perform some skin retouching with this tool, but there is one
significant restriction – you can’t use a retouched area as a sample for next cloning or
healing.

To learn more here is a webinar about retouch layers:

Capture One Pro 8 Webinar | Repair Layers

1.9. Before-After Comparison

As you edit images in Capture One, you might want to compare adjusted photos with
original images. Or simply create different edits for a single picture and compare them.

In Capture One, there are two comparison options available: before-after button and image
variants.

1.9.1. Before-After button

Each tool in Capture One has a reset button with a curved arrow icon. The same button in
the toolbar resets all the editing.

The feature of this tool is that you can also reset adjustments temporarily to quickly
compare before and after. Simply click and hold the icon with Alt key pressed at the same
time; while you’re holding it, you can see an original image.

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The Alt-key trick works to temporarily reset a single tool as well. If you wish to view before-
after for a single slider, just click and hold the left mouse button on its name – this will also
temporarily reset the slider.

1.9.2. Image Variants

In Capture One you can also create variants – virtual copies of an image. They allow to
clone image with existing adjustments or to create a new variant of the original image. Plus,
since variants are virtual, they don’t waste any of your disk space.

Phase One has a great tutorial to explain all the features of variants:

Capture One Pro 8 | Creating Multiple Looks from one Image

And in this video Adrian Weinbrecht shows how he is using variants in practice:

C1 Variant Tutorial

1.10. Batch Editing

Ok, you’re editing images in Capture One: adjusting exposure, improving color, working
with layers. Everything looks great, but… You might have a reasonable question – how do I
make editing faster? Indeed, this is one of the main features of RAW processing – not only
to get the most out of your file but to quickly replicate your edits to a batch of images as
well.

Capture One allows to easily copy/apply adjustments from one image to another and save
your corrections for further processing. However, I’ll begin this chapter with a simple option
which is a key thing for batch editing in Capture One.

1.10.1. Edit All Selected Variants

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When you select a group of images in Capture One, you might notice that one of the
selected images has a bold white border.

This image is called “Primary variant” and all the chosen images are called “Selected
Variants” in Capture One.
Now, let’s find “Edit All Selected Variants” option in the toolbar or in the Edit tab.

Using this tool, you can choose which variants are to be edited by bulk actions (applying
adjustments from other images, deleting and exporting files).
“Edit All Selected Variants” Turned On – all the selected variants will be edited
“Edit All Selected Variants” Turned Off – only the primary variant will be edited
In general, the best practice is to have this feature always turned on, especially if you do
lots of bulk actions with images.

Now, we’re ready to talk about batch editing.

1.10.2. Copying and Applying Adjustments

In Capture One you’ll find a number of ways to copy/apply adjustments and they are pretty
well described in this video:

Copy & Apply in Capture One

In my guide, I would like to point out two of them, most useful in my experience.

1. The easiest way to copy/apply all the adjustments. Simply use the keyboard shortcut:
Shift + CMD + C or V (for copy or apply). In Windows: Shift + Ctrl + C or V. Also, in
Adjustments Clipboard tool you can choose which copied adjustments would be applied to
the images.
2. Copy/apply adjustments from one tool only. In each tool, you’ll find a double arrow
icon. It allows you to quickly copy settings of one particular tool and apply them to all the
selected images. Let’s say, you wish to copy Clarity adjustments: select files, now an
image with the bold white border (primary variant) is a source of adjustments. Hold Shift
and click this double arrow icon – Clarity settings will be applied to all the chosen images.

1.10.3. Styles and Presets

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Copying adjustments is only one
part of the batch processing.
Sometimes you might want to save
your favorite edits or to use settings
from other photographers.
Capture One has two tools to
manage saved adjustments: styles
and presets. These names might be
confusing for users who just
migrated from Lightroom because
“styles” in Capture One work as
“presets” in Lightroom. Ok, let’s get it
all figured out.

Styles vs Presets
First and foremost, what is the difference between presets and styles?

Preset contains saved adjustments for a single tool only. For example, you can save
your Exposure or White Balance settings as different presets. But you can’t save Exposure
and White Balance corrections in a single preset.

Style contains any saved adjustments. Using the same example, you can store
Exposure and White Balance settings and any other adjustments in a style. If you wish, you
can store settings for a single tool in a style as well. Also, you can mix different styles in one
image. For instance, you can easily apply a few different styles to a single image. Like a
style with color corrections, style with Curves corrections, and with metadata. All these
features make Styles a much more universal tool. That’s why many photographers use
mostly Styles in their work.

Ok, then why should I use presets?

Well, that’s a tough question. In the old versions of Capture One, presets had some unique
features. Today it’s only a matter of a habit. If you prefer to manage saved adjustments by
tools and not by “looks” – presets might work well for you. If you’re new to Capture One, I
recommend building your batch workflow on styles, not presets.

Here is a nice tutorial to show how styles and presets work in Capture One:

Tutorial | Working with Styles and Presets in Capture One Pro 10

I, personally, use styles for two main purposes:

1. To automate all the basic actions. Usually, I prefer to shoot slightly underexposed
photos, thus styles work great to apply basic exposure and curve corrections during the
image import. The same for copyright metadata. Also, I have a number of styles with my
favorite sharpening and noise reduction adjustments. In the third part of the guide, I’ll show
you how to use styles with Linear Response Curve.
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2. To quickly find a color correction solution. Here is an important thing to understand –
universal styles don’t exist. Style is not a magic “make beautiful” button. At the same time,
some styles can help you to quickly find an impressive color solution. In my work, I use
1Styles.pro Film Styles. There are more than 200 styles which you can quickly scroll and
immediately see which would fit your image best.

You can download 12 film styles for free right atthis link

Simply try them with your images – it’s a completely new experience for RAW editing.

How to install the styles? Here is a detailed installation guide.

Managing Multiple Styles

As I said before, you can apply several different styles to a single image. That’s a powerful
feature and it’s definitely worth it to examine closely.
To activate style mixing, you need to turn on Stack Styles option:

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Now you can apply different styles to an image.
Ok, but what if some style would have conflicting adjustments? There is a simple rule for
this: in case of conflicts, settings from the last applied style always prevail. That means all
the non-conflict adjustments will affect the image simultaneously. When some styles have
the same adjustment, say, Contrast: on the image, you will see Contrast settings from the
last applied style which has Contrast adjustment. That’s why the best practice for mixing
styles is using separate styles for different purposes: color correction, exposure
adjustments, details settings, etc.

Styles in Layers
Starting from Capture One Pro 11, styles are able to work with layers and that brings out
amazing features.

In my Capture One 11 review, I’m demonstrating possibilities for RAW editing which are
available with styles in layers:

Capture One Pro 11 in 10 minutes

The first key feature is style’s opacity.

If previously some styles were too strong for your image, now you can manually setup the
opacity and find the look that fits your vision best.

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 Applied style – Kodak Royal Gold 400 v4 Winter from Film Styles Extended Set.

The second fantastic feature is that style can be applied to a part of the image.For
example, you can create a mask based on skin color, copy this mask onto a new layer,
invert it and apply two different styles to the layers.

This editing took me few minutes:

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Check out this post to see what you can create with styles and Capture One Pro 11.

In the next part “Advanced Techniques” I’ll give you a short overview of the paid styles and
presets available on the market. In the third part “Pro Tips”, we’ll go deeper into styles and
discover professional tricks for creating and managing styles.

Join our Facebook group, follow me on Twitter or subscribe to my Newsletter to be the

first to know when new parts of “Mastering Capture One” will be released!

1.11. Working with Details

Details, such as Sharpening and Noise Reduction, are usually the last stages of the editing.
Your image is almost ready; now you need to prepare it for export to final formats.
Before we proceed, let’s clarify a crucial thing – there are no universal settings for
Sharpening or Noise Reduction. They completely depend on your input (camera and lens)
and output (destination and format). That’s why your goal is not to find some absolute
numbers for these tools but to learn to work with details in general.

1.11.1. Sharpening

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Sharpening workflow in Capture
One consists of three stages:

1. Input sharpening.
A sharpening process starts with
“Diffraction correction” checkbox in
Lens tool. That feature
automatically corrects technical
issues with sharpness related to
your lens. Sometimes its impact on the image might be not really noticeable, thus the main
corrections are applied in the next two stages.
2. Creative sharpening.
At that stage, you can manually add sharpness to your image using common sliders:
Amount, Radius, Threshold, and Halo Suppression. I recommend the article
“Understanding the Capture One Sharpening Tool” to learn of using these slides. The only
thing which is not explained in the article is Halo Suppression slider. It’s a pretty simple tool
designed to remove specific «halo» effect, which often appears during sharpening.
3. Output sharpening.
In Capture One you can assign additional sharpness to a particular process recipe. It’s an
extremely handy feature because different exporting formats obviously require various
sharpness. For instance, it allows you to set specific sharpness for web and print recipes.

To see how the three-stage sharpening works in practice, here is a free webinar:

Capture One Pro 10 Webinar | Three Stage Sharpening with Proof View

Also, check out these articles to find out more tips for sharpening in Capture One:

Guide To Image Sharpening

Sharpening Tips for Capture One

1.11.2. Noise Reduction

For some reason, there are almost
no solid tutorials for Noise
Reduction tool in Capture One.
Maybe because this tool is
described pretty well in the official
manual. Maybe because most of
the sliders are quite intuitive there.

In any case, here is an old video

about Noise Reduction in Capture One 7. Do not pay attention to the fact that there are two
Noise Reduction tools in the video – they were combined in future versions of Capture One.
The description of each slider is still actual and correct.

Noise Reduction in Capture One Pro 7 | Phase One

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1.12. Exporting to Final Formats
That’s was a long journey. We ran Capture One for the first time, learned all the basics and
started editing images. Now, it’s the time to talk about exporting your RAW to JPG, TIF and
other final formats.
Here Capture One gives you a choice between simple and advanced exports. Simple export
is absolutely plain and intuitive. Advanced delivers a bunch of professional features for
exporting and requires some time to master them.
Let’s find out which would fit your task best:

1.12.1. Simple Export

Simple Export is the easiest way to process your RAW into JPG or TIF. It is not a rocket
science at all. Just click File –> Export Images –> Variants, set the parameters and you’re
ready to export.
Here is a short tutorial to learn how it works:

Capture One 11 Tutorial | Getting Started – Export to Final Formats

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If you don’t feel the need for any additional features – Simple Export is a robust choice.
However, if you often process images into different formats or wish to preview your image
before the processing – take a look at Advanced Export.

1.12.2. Advanced Export

In Capture One you can create different process recipes and set specific parameters for
each one of them. This way you can easily switch between processing settings, but what is
even more important – you can export files to different formats simultaneously.

Phase One has a well-made video to demonstrate Advanced Export in practice:

Capture One 11 Tutorial | Advanced Export

To learn about Advanced Export in all of its detail I suggest to watch this webinar:

Capture One Pro 10 Webinar | Optimising Export with Process Recipes

Another great feature of Advanced Export is Output Proofing.

Output Proofing is dedicated to showing you how exactly the RAW file would look after
processing. When you are working with RAW, there are many options to convert it to the
final JPG or TIFF. For different purposes, you may need a particular color profile, size or
sharpening settings, and sometimes it’s quite difficult to predict the look of the final image.
Output Proofing would immediately show you the prepared image with applied preferences
from the selected recipe. It’s especially useful when you’re processing images for the web.

There is a helpful tutorial for Output Proofing:

Tutorial | Proofing Images for Output in Capture One Pro 10

1.12.3. Photoshop Integration

If you switched from Lightroom, you are probably looking for a feature to open an image in
Photoshop right from Capture One.
In Capture One this tool is called “Edit with” and it allows to quickly process an image and
open it in any third-party software, including Photoshop. What is really convenient, after
editing in Photoshop, your image will automatically appear in Capture One for further
processing and catalogization.

For instance, here is a nice video on how to use “Edit with” feature for combination with
Affinity Photo:

Using Affinity Photo with Capture One

To learn more about Photoshop roundtrip workflow, I recommend this webinar:

Capture One Pro 10 Webinar | Working with PSD files in Capture One Pro 10.1
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That’s all folks! We learned all the essentials of Capture One. Now… What’s next?

What’s next?
The new journey, of course! Right as you’re reading this, I’m already preparing the
roadmap for our next hike into Capture One’s jungle.
This time, with “Advanced Techniques” part of the guide, we’ll go deeper into
catalogization, Layers, color correction, Levels, and Curves. We’ll discover tethered
shooting, advanced lens corrections, EIP files, and lots of other fantastic Capture One
features.

Want to be the first on board?

Join our Facebook group, follow me on Twitter or subscribe to my Newsletter to be the first
to know when new parts of “Mastering Capture One” will be released!

Can’t wait to start the new journey?

Well, simply show me that you’re here. Tell your friends and colleagues about the guide,
write me a comment and give some feedback. Let me know that you’re waiting for the next
parts of the guide – that’s the best motivation.
If the first part of the guide was really helpful for you, you can support the next parts with a
small donation:

Donate cryptocurrencies
I’m accepting donations with
cryptocurrencies only. I support the effect
that cryptocurrencies have on our society.
If you share my belief, here are my wallet
addresses.

I don’t use cryptocurrencies, but I wish to support you

In this case, you can simply purchase one of our Film Styles Sets for Capture One.

It’s a creativity tool that helps you to find a quick and impressive solution for your
processing.
It saves you hours of work in Capture One and delivers new ideas for color correction of
38/39
your images. That’s why our styles have been already approved by thousands of
photographers worldwide.

You can download 12 film styles for free right at this link

Simply try them with your images – it’s a completely new experience for RAW editing.

How to install the styles? Here is a detailed installation guide.

Simply try them with your images – it’s a completely new experience for RAW editing.

Author – Alexander Svet

Alexander Svet – professional photographer and specialist in image processing.
Phase One Certified Professional and Capture One trainer.
AlexOnRAW.com

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