Christoffersen Nils Wille - Photographers Guide To Capture One

Contents
Foreword1
Feedback2
Legal information 3
Getting started 4
Installing the correct Capture One version 4
Changing the version type 5
Getting to know Capture One Pro 7
The Grand Overview 7
The image Browser in detail 10
The Viewer in detail 12
Viewing and editing multiple images 13
The Toolbar and the Cursor Tools 15
5 Cursor Tools you should know 16
Working with Tool Tabs 19
Overview of the Tool Tabs 19
Add and remove Tools from Tool Tabs 24
Removing or creating a Tool Tab 25
Taking advantage of Floating Tools 26
Getting to know tools and their icons 28
Tips for working faster with sliders 30
Saving your own Workspace 31
Customizing the keyboard shortcuts 32
The advantages of working non-destructive 34
What does non-destructive mean? 34
The benefits of working non-destructive 36
Catalogs and Sessions – what to use? 39
Being in sync with the file system 40
Pros and Cons for Catalogs and Sessions 41
File management in a Catalog 42
Moving an image to a new folder 45
Deleting an image 46
File management in a Session 48
Deleting an image from a Session 51
Moving an image file 53
Working on offline images 55
Storing files within a Catalog 56
Importing and exporting Catalogs 59
Exporting a Catalog 59
Importing a Catalog 61
Importing a Lightroom Catalog or Aperture Library 61
Importing a Session 63
Importing a Catalog into a Session 64
Adding images by Import 65
Getting to know the Import Images dialog box 65
Using the options during import 68
Supported file formats and cameras 78
How to check if your camera is supported 78
Importing and working with TIFF and PSD files 78
Importing files with Photoshop layers 79
Support of DNG raw files 80
Using DNG to import raw files not yet supported 81
Capture images by shooting tethered 82
Getting started 83
Getting the Exposure right 84
Adjust advanced camera settings 85
Naming files during capture 86
Choosing the Capture Location 87
Shooting tethered with a Catalog 89
Speed things up with Capture Adjustments 92
Adding image adjustments during capture 95
Adding Presets or Styles 96
Using the Camera tool 97
Camera Focus 97
Adding a Overlay 98
Using Live View during capture 99
Live View Navigator 100
Live View Controls 101
Camera Focus 101
Live View Info 101
Live View Focus Meter 102
Using the Camera Menu 104
Composition Mode 104
Hot Folder 104
Auto Select New Capture 105
Capture Pilot 107
Connecting an iPad or iPhone to Capture One 107
Using the Capture Pilot app 108
Connect to a web browser 109
Rename files and create folders automatic with Tokens 110
Widespread advantages of Tokens 111
Selecting a Token 111
Tips to improve Tokens 113
The most useful and powerful Tokens 114
Renaming files 125
Batch Rename Image 125
Renaming files with Text and Tokens 126
Rename using Find and Replace 127
Organizing: Culling and rating your images 128
Checking for correct focus 128
Color Tag for rejected and favorite shots 129
Deleting the rejected images 130
Rating images 131
Comparing images for rating 131
Choosing your hero shot with Compare Variant 132
Organize by using Albums 135
Creating an Album 135
Adding images to an Album 136
Populating an Album with Selects Collection 138
Removing images from an Album 139
Getting Smart with Smart Albums 140
Editing a Smart Album 142
Keeping Albums organized with Group and Projects 143
Using Projects vs Groups 144
Organize by using folders 146
Working with folders in a Catalog 147
Keeping the folder content up to date 149
Working with folders in a Session 150
Moving files within a Session 151
Changing the Capture, Selects, Output or Trash folder 152
Taking advantage of subfolders in a Capture Session 153
Use Favorites in a Session 154
Working with Variants of the same image 155
Creating new Variants 155
Organizing Variants of the same file 156
Selecting by Variant position 157
Collapsing or expanded a stack 157
Finding the right images with Filters tool 158
Adding more criteria to filter from 159
Hide and show file types to filter 161
Select by Rating, Color Tag or filenames 163
Select By Rating 163
Select By Color Tag 163
Select By Filename List 163
Selecting by same attribute 164
Adding custom keyboard shortcuts 165
Finding images with Advanced Search 166
Be aware of Global Filters 169
Search retained per collection 169
Saving a Search Preset 170
Create Albums with search results 170
Even more Advanced Search 170
Make notes with Annotations tool 173
Adding an Annotation 173
Removing an Annotation 174
Displaying annotations 174
Add Annotations to exported images 175
Keeping track of Annotated images 176
Copy and reuse Annotations 178
Working with Keywords 179
Adding keywords 179
Copying keywords 180
Renaming keywords 181
Deleting keywords 182
Saving and reusing as Preset 182
Faster workflow with Keyword Library 183
Applying a Keyword with the Keyword Library tool 183
Creating a Keyword with the Keyword Library tool 184
Working with Keyword lists 184
Exporting a Keyword List 186
Creating a keyword list outside Capture One Pro 186
Adding and using Metadata 187
Using Exif data 187
GPS location data 188
Adding IPTC metadata 188
IPTC Contact 189
IPTC Content and IPTC Image 190
IPTC Status 190
Save Metadata tags as a Preset 191
Copy and reuse Metadata 192
Metadata or keywords? 192
Keeping track of changing metadata 193
Removing metadata during export 195
Image Editing Preface 196
Getting the colors and contrast right with Base Characteristics 198
Saving as a Preset for reuse 201
Adjusting contrast with Curve 201
Taking advantage of the Linear Response Curve 202
Upgrading to a new Processing Engine 203
Changing to an older Processing Engine 204
Save your changes as defaults 205
Getting the White Balance right 206
Adjusting color temperature 207
Using the Pick White Balance cursor tool 207
Using the Kelvin and Tint slider 209
Adjusting white balance automatically 209
Adjusting white balance after Skin Tones 210
Handling more than one light source 211
Making Localized Adjustments on a Layer 212
Creative uses of white balance 213
Correct vs pleasing white balance 213
Making basic adjustments with Exposure 215
Getting the exposure right 215
Using the Histogram 215
Using Exposure Warning 216
Using Color Readouts to check exposure 218
Adding Contrast 219
Adjusting Brightness 220
Adding Saturation 220
Saving as a Preset 221
Using Dodge and Burn 222
Stacking the saturation effect 223
Optimizing the contrast with Levels 224
Setting the black and white point manually 225
Setting the black and white point automatically 225
Setting the Auto Levels Clipping Thresholds 226
Setting the black and white point from the image 227
Adjusting the midtones with the Levels tool 227
Setting output targets 228
Changing Channel Mode for scanned images 230
Using Levels to play with color 231
Copy and reuse an adjustment 233
Recovering details with High Dynamic Range 235
Adjusting Highlight and Shadow automatically 236
Getting the perfect contrast with the Curve tool 239
Using RGB and Luma curves 240
Adjusting and adding a curve point 241
Deleting a curve point 242
Making precise adjustments 243
Setting the black and white point 243
Creative color adjustments 245
Superior Dodge and Burn 248
Using Curves and Linear Response 248
Removing color cast locally 249
Adding punch and micro-contrast with Clarity tool 250
Choosing the right method 251
Improving colors with the Color Editor tool 255
Basic Tab 255
Advanced Tab introduction 256
Selecting the color range 256
Tweaking the color range selection 257
Inverting the color selection 258
Selecting all colors 259
Making the color adjustments 260
Working with Skin Tone 262
Selecting the color 262
Tweaking the color range selection 263
Making color adjustments 264
Increasing color uniformity 265
Save a color selection as mask 266
Save color adjustments as ICC Profile 267
Saving color adjustments as a Preset 268
Getting the composition right with Crop 272
Selecting an Aspect Ratio 273
Adding an Aspect Ratio 274
Readjusting a crop 274
Removing a crop 274
Setting a specific crop size 275
Controlling the image crop for export 276
Working with a crop grid as aid 277
Changing the mask opacity 278
Working with custom guides 278
Getting the angle right with Rotation & Flip 280
Getting your images level 281
Getting the image level automatically 282
Flipping the image 283
Resetting the tool 283
Getting the perspective right with Keystone 284
Using the Keystone feature 284
Fine-tuning the correction 285
Readjusting the crop 286
Resetting the Keystone adjustments 286
Automatic Keystone corrections 286
Save Keystone settings as a Preset 287
Optimize the details with Sharpening 288
3-step sharpening workflow 288
Sharpening is adding contrast 289
Getting the know the Sharpening tool 289
How to obtain to optimal sharpness level 292
Using the Focus tool 292
Additional lens-based sharpening 295
Improving sharpness with Structure 296
Removing noise with Noise Reductiom 298
Removing hot pixels with Single Pixel 298
Fixing lens flaws with Lens Correction 303
Removing Chromatic Aberration 304
Correcting distortion 305
Correcting soft corners 306
Correcting Vignetting & Light Falloff 306
Adding Diffraction Correction 307
Hide Distorted Areas 308
Accounting for a Shift lens 308
Using a generic profile 308
Disable Lens Corrections by default 309
Removing purple fringing 310
Correction for lens cast with the LCC tool 311
Capturing a reference LCC image 311
Creating an LCC profile 311
Applying an LCC profile 313
Applying multiple LCC’s in a batch 313
Changing the defaults 315
Removing moiré 317
Eliminating spots and sensor dust with Spot Removal tool 320
Changing the spot type 321
Copy and reuse dust removal 322
Layers and spot removal 322
Converting to greyscale with Black & White 323
Creating a Split Tones look 324
Using Color Balance for Tri-Tone styles 325
Using a Built-In Preset as inspiration 326
Tips for improving black and white adjustments 327
Adding photorealistic grain with Film Grain 329
Using a Built-In Preset 330
Alternative uses for Film Grain 331
Adjusting film grain for output and print 331
Creative color styles with Color Balance 332
Adding a color tint 333
Using a Built-In Preset as inspiration 334
Tips for Color Balance adjustments 335
Working efficiently with the Color Balance tool 336
Adding a border shadow with Vignetting 338
Reviewing colors with Lab Readout 340
Making local adjustments with the Layers tool 342
Creating a new layer 343
Renaming a Layer 344
Creating a mask 344
Showing and hiding the mask 346
Displaying the mask in Greyscale 346
Erasing a part of the mask 348
Erasing the whole mask 349
Additional brush options 349
Using the Auto Mask feature 350
Creating a Gradient Mask 352
Using Fill Mask 353
Feathering a mask 353
Using Refine Mask to improve the mask 355
Adjusting the Opacity of a Layer 357
Reusing a mask in another Layer 358
Reposition a mask after the fact 358
Changing the Mask overlay color 359
Using a color selection to create an automatic mask 360
Repair or clone details 361
Making a local image adjustment 363
Stacking image adjustments 363
Work faster with keyboard shortcuts 364
Copy and reusing Layer adjustments 365
Adding Presets or Styles to a Layer 365
sSaving Layer Adjustments as a Style 366
Copying edits with Adjustments Clipboard 368
Selecting the source and the target images 368
Copying adjustments per tool 369
Copying all image adjustments 370
Copying Layers 372
Working faster with the Adjustments Clipboard tool 372
Applying Styles and Presets 373
Work faster with shortcuts and cursor tools 373
Saving and reusing adjustments with Styles and Presets 375
Applying Styles and Presets 375
Using Stacked Styles or Presets 376
Adding Presets or Styles to a Layer 377
Creating a Preset 378
Creating a Style 379
Saving Layer Adjustments as a Style 380
Removing and deleting a Style or Preset 381
Copying styles to other images 382
Importing and exporting Styles 383
Applying Styles and Presets during import 384
Applying Styles and Presets during tethered shooting 384
Adding a Styles and Presets menu to the Toolbar 385
Exporting images with Process Recipes 386
Selecting and creating a Process Recipe 386
Selecting the output file format 388
Using Show Recipe Proofing to perfect JPEG compression 389
Selecting the right ICC Profile color space 390
Adjusting the output resolution 391
Selecting specific image dimensions for output 391
Opening the exported images automatically 394
Controlling the image crop for export 397
Applying output sharpening during export 398
Getting the output sharpening perfect with Show Recipe Proofing 399
Controlling exported metadata 401
Adding Annotations during export 402
Adding Overlay during export 403
Adding a Watermark during export 404
Saving the Watermark as a Layer 405
Creating target folders and renaming files for export 406
Creating folders for export 406
Saving and reusing a Folder Preset 409
Note on subfolders and Process Recipe 409
Renaming files during export 410
Process images for export 413
Exporting images directly 415
Exporting original files 415
Pack files as EIP 416
Exporting processed files 417
Open and Edit files in external applications 419
Edit files in other applications 419
Selecting the file format 420
Selecting a ICC Profile/color space 421
Adjusting output resolution 422
Choosing the external application 423
Adding output sharpening 423
Adding Metadata and Annotations 424
Editing workflow in another application 425
Working with Photoshop layers in a file 425
Open files in other applications 427
File formats that Capture One Pro accept 428
Simulate the correct colors with Proof Profile 429
Selecting a Proof Profile 430
Gamut warning 431
Working with multiple profiles 431
Using Show Recipe Proofing for output 433
Printing directly from Capture One Pro 434
Setting resolution 435
Letting the printer or Capture One Pro manage the colors 436
Rendering intent 439
Selecting units and showing guides 440
Selecting and saving a print Template 441
Adjusting the print margins 441
Adjusting the print layout 442
Image settings 443
Adding a Caption to the print 444
Adding a Watermark to the printed image 444
Tip: Change Viewer background to white 446
Simulate the correct colors with Proof Profile 447
Working with multiple profiles 447
Viewing your images as a Slide Show 448
Making a Contact Sheet for Web 450
Selecting a Contact Sheet Theme 450
Adding Title, Description, and Copyright 451
Adding a caption to the images 451
Setting image size and quality 452
Exporting the Contact Sheet for Web 452
Putting it on a website 452
Backup your catalog and session data 454
Making backup of a Catalog 454
Catalog difference between Mac and Windows 456
Making backup of a Session 457
Excluding preview files from backup 458
A solid backup plan 459
Getting help 460
Feedback460
Foreword
Thank you very much for buying Photographer’s Guide to Capture One
11…
This guide is a fusion between a traditional text-centered book and a

strict help guide, taking the best from both worlds: My aim is to provide a
pleasant reading experience while also being generous with illustrations
to aid the visual learning path.
I have tried to maintain the most logical workflow possible throughout

the book, so if you are totally new to Capture One, it is highly recom-
mended to follow the order of the chapters. However, you can always
jump ahead to a particular chapter and learn about a specific tool or fea-
ture that you might need to use immediately. It is not mandatory to read
all previous chapters first, but if some knowledge from a specific chapter
is advisable, it will be noted.
Note that I have tried to keep text and any corresponding illustrations to-
gether on the same page in order to optimize learning. This means that
some pages will end with white space even though the topic will contin-
ue on the next pages. This is a conscious choice.
Image editing is highly dependent on your visual preferences and the

image at hand, so I don’t believe in offering restrained step-by-step rec-
ipes or workflows which might not be appropriate for your style or im-
ages. Instead, the goal is to teach you the vast possibilities of the tools
in Capture One Pro, so you will be able to pick the right tool for the job.
There are for example several ways to adjust contrast and light balance
in Capture One Pro, and each tool has its place in the photographer’s
toolbox.
It might be useful to mention a bit about my background for writing this

eBook: I’m a journalist and technical writer based outside Copenhagen,
Denmark. Photography and raw image editing have been my personal
passion since 2004, and it evolved into a professional passion too back
in 2007 when I started working at the largest Nordic photo magazine,
Digital Foto.
After having written about photography and image editing for several
years at digitalfoto.dk, I decided it was time to start my own business. I
did some freelance work for Phase One, and during this time I made a
transition from Adobe Lightroom to fully embracing Capture One Pro as
my preferred choice for getting the best out of my raw files.
As I started on the path to master Capture One Pro, it occurred to me

that I might as well share the acquired knowledge in the form of this eB-
ook. Any piece of software has its own little quirks and peculiar ways of
doing certain things. It has been an important motivation for me to be
able to explain all those peculiarities while I was learning the software
myself, and while they were still fresh in my memory. This approach
should hopefully be of great help if you are new to Capture One.
It is my sincere hope that this eBook will empower you to get the very
best out of your images with Capture One. Let the journey begin.
Yours sincerely,
Nils Wille Christoffersen
Disclaimer: I’m currently working part-time as a technical writer for

Phase One, but this eBook was conceived and almost finished before I
was hired in November 2017. It is important for me to point out that this
book is a personal project made during the days when I run my own
business, Wille Media. Therefore, the content of this book has not been
approved or endorsed by Phase One in any way or form.
Feedback
Any feedback on how I could improve a future version of this eBook is
more than welcome. This is also that case if you believe that you have
found an error or there is something that could be explained more clear-
ly.
For any feedback, please contact: rawcaptureguide@outlook.com
Please note that this eBook doesn’t include any support for the use of
Capture One.
If you need Technical Support for the Capture One software, please vis-
it http://support.phaseone.com and then under Contact Support, select
Technical Support.
Legal information
Notice of Rights
Photographer’s Guide to Capture One 11
©2018 Nils Wille Christoffersen / Wille Media. All rights reserved. No portion of this book
may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without prior written permission from the
publisher. For permissions contact: rawcaptureguide@outlook.com
Notice of Liability
The information in this eBook guide is provided “as is”. Under no circumstances, including
negligence, shall Nils Wille Christoffersen / Wille Media be liable for any incidental, special,
direct, indirect or consequential damages arising out of or relating to the use of the infor-
mation provided in this eBook. Nils Wille Christoffersen / Wille Media reserves the right to
change this guide’s information at any time without prior notice.
Trademarks
Capture One and Phase One are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Phase One
A/S in the European Union and/or other countries. Adobe, Lightroom, and Photoshop are
registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States
and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Getting started
Installing the correct Capture One version
Capture One can be activated to run in four different versions. They are
all included with the same installation file, but you need to select the cor-
rect version during install as camera support and license keys are differ-
ent. These are the four versions:
1) Capture One Pro This is a full version that supports DSLRs, mirrorless
cameras (including Sony), Phase One and MamiyaLeaf Digital Backs.
Think of it as all-inclusive.
2) Capture One Pro (for Sony) This version has the exact same features
as Pro, but only support Sony cameras.
3) Capture One Express (for Sony) This basic version is free, but only
support Sony cameras. A number of the high-end features are missing
compared to Pro. There is no license needed, so you can use it without
any activation.
4) Capture One DB A full version like Pro, but it will only work with Phase
One and MamiyaLeaf Digital Backs. It is free, and no license is needed.
You can use it without any activation.
This eBook fully covers Pro, Pro (for Sony) and DB as these versions are
the same apart from the supported cameras and camera files.
If you select either the Pro or Pro (for Sony) versions, you will get the op-
tion to either run a trial, buy a license, or to activate the software with a
license key that you have already bought:
If you chose Activate, enter your License Code, and it will automatically
determine whether the key is for Pro or Pro (for Sony). Then enter your
E-mail, and click on Get Profile. You need an existing Phase One Profile
or else create a new one at phaseone.com under My Pages. Enter the
password for your Phase One Profile when asked, then finally click on
Activate…
If you need help with activating the software, please go to this support
webpage at phaseone.com.
Changing the version type

If you need to change the Capture One version
from Express (for Sony) or DB to another type,
select Capture One 11 > License… (Help > Li-
cense Information on Windows).
Then click on Change License and restart the

software. On Windows, you click on Stop Run-
ning Express (for Sony) or Digital Back only.
You will now get the option to select the desired version once you start
Capture One again.
Getting to know Capture One Pro
The User Interface in Capture One Pro is very flexible and let you cus-
tomize it to your heart’s content. This is an excellent feature because
you can set things up to match the way you work most efficiently. How-
ever, before you can take full advantage of this lovely flexibility, a quick
introduction to the user interface is in order as there are a couple of es-
sential topics to be aware of.
The Grand Overview

If you think of the way an application like Photoshop is handling the user
interface with a toolbar, several selectable panels, and an image win-
dow, you get the idea behind Capture One Pro.
The Tool Tabs contains all the different Tools that you use
to edit the images from adjusting exposure or contrast to
adding keywords. Each Tool Tab contains a number of re-
lated Tools like color adjustments and can be customized.
You can move the Tool Tabs location to the right side by
selecting the menu View > Place Tools Right.
The Viewer shows the image or images that you have

selected in the Browser, and it can display up to 12
photos at once. You can open an additional Viewer
window by selecting the menu Window > Viewer and
then move it to a secondary monitor. If you just want
to view the selected image in full screen mode, go to
the menu View > Enter Full Screen.
The Toolbar contains buttons for some of the
most useful commands like import, reset ad-
justments and several Cursor Tools like Pick
White Balance. You can hide and show this part
by going to the menu and selecting View >
Hide Toolbar/Show Toolbar.
The Browser will show thumbnails of all the images

you have currently chosen in Library Tool. This can be
all the images in a Catalog or Session, a specific fold-
er or an album combined with any filtering you have
amended. You can change its location to the bottom
by selecting the menu View > Place Browser Below.
The image Browser in detail
You can hide and show the Browser by selecting the menu View > Hide
Browser or using the keyboard shortcut Command + B (Ctrl + B on Win-
dows). It is also possible to hide it automatically when not in use by se-
lecting the menu View > Browser Auto Mode.
If you want to maximize the Browser viewing area, you need to select
View > Hide Viewer or use the keyboard shortcut Alt + Command + V
(Alt + Ctrl + V on Windows).
Grid View The default viewing mode let you see all the images distribut-
ed in a grid where you can change their thumbnail size. This mode will
only show the image name, star rating and color tag.
List View This is the perfect way to get an overview of your images if
you want to look through them based on metadata like focal length, cap-
ture date or image date. If you click on one of the options in the top row,
the list will sort the images by the chosen metadata.
Filmstrip View This is similar to the Grid View but will only show the im-
ages in a single row or column. You adjust the thumbnail size by chang-
ing the overall size of the browser window.
Sort This option allows you to easily sort all
the images by metadata like date, rating, fo-
cal length and even processed state. Note
the Reverse option. This determines the
sort direction and will show either the oldest
or newest image first if you have selected to
sort by date.
Search You can either type in a word for a

quick search here or click on the three dots
to bring up the Advanced Search window.
We will cover this feature in detail in a later
chapter.
Zoom This slider will set the size of the

thumbnails in Grid and List View mode.
Chapter continues on next page >

The Viewer in detail
You can hide and show the Viewer by selecting the menu View > Hide
Viewer or using the keyboard shortcut Alt + Command + V (Alt + Ctrl + V
on Windows). As already mentioned, this is how you maximize the view-
ing space for the Browser. If you want to keep the large Browser view-
ing area on one monitor and use the Viewer on a secondary monitor,
you can open a new, floating Viewer window.
This is done by selecting the
menu Window > Viewer and
then moving the new Viewer
window to the second moni-
tor.
Note that as a convenience,
you have access to the Tools
as a pop-out menu in the
floating Viewer window. Just
hover your mouse over the
little triangle on the side. This
way you can easily make im-
age adjustments without hav-
ing to go back to the other monitor to select a Tool.
Multi View This mode is the default and will allow you to view up to 12
images from your selection in the Browser and is a great way to com-
pare several photos side by side. The primary selected image will be de-
noted with a thick white border.
Primary View This Viewer mode is selected by toggling the Multi View
icon on the left off; now only the primary selected image (denoted with a
thick white border in the Browser) is displayed even if you have selected
more than one image.
Toggle Proof Margin This gives you to option to choose a wider margin
around your image in the Viewer. You can adjust the Proof Margin to
taste by going to Capture One > Preferences… and choose the Appear-
ance tab. Here you also have the option to change the background color
of the Viewer to for example white.
Readout values When you hover your mouse pointer over a part in the
image, the Viewer will show you the RGB and luminosity values, making
it easy to check for areas that might have no highlight or shadow detail
left or have a color cast. Note that you do not need to select a specific
Cursor Tool first, this feature is always on. If you have selected a CMYK
image, the values will be shown in CMYK instead of RGB.
Zoom level You can easily choose between viewing the image resized
to fit within the Viewer or being displayed at 100% by clicking on the two
icons. You can also zoom in and out by scrolling the mouse wheel or us-
ing the keyboard shortcuts Command + (plus) and Command – (minus).
Use Ctrl on Windows. If you want to zoom in or out of all the images in
the Viewer at the same time, just hold Shift down while you zoom.
Viewing and editing multiple images

It is important to be aware of one essential distinction between the im-
ages that you have selected in Capture One Pro.
The first selected image will have a

thick, white border around it in both the
Viewer and the Browser, and is called
the Primary Variant. The rest of the se-
lected images have a lighter, white bor-
der around them in the Browser and are
called Selected Variants.
This distinction is very important to pay
attention to because any image edits
will only be applied to the Primary Vari-
ant by default, not to the rest of the se-
lected images.
If you want to apply certain editing tasks to all of the selected images si-
multaneously – and not only to the Primary Variant – you need to go to
the menu and select Edit > Edit All Selected Variants or click on the Edit
Selected variant button in the Toolbar.
This might be a bit confusing if you are new to Capture One Pro, so if
you are left wondering why a keyword is only being applied to one of
several selected images, you should always check whether you forgot to
enable Edit All Selected Variants.
You also need to be aware that only certain types of editing will be ap-
plied to several selected images even if you have enabled Edit All Se-
lected Variants. You can apply metadata like ratings, color tags, key-
words and apply Styles and Presets to multiple images at once, but it will
not work with most Tools like adjusting white balance, exposure, contrast
or color edits.
This is done to make sure that you don’t accidentally apply wide-ranging
image adjustments to a large photo collection. You can, however, easily
copy adjustments from one image to multiple other images, and we will
get back to this feature in full detail in later chapters.
Tip: If you want to change one of the selected images to be the Primary
Variant, just click on it in the Browser or Viewer. You can also solo-select
just the Primary Variant by Shift-clicking on it or go to the menu and se-
lect Edit > Select Primary Variant Only. Note that in the Edit menu you
will also find the useful Deselect All command that will clear any image
selection.
The Toolbar and the Cursor Tools
You can customize the Toolbar area by going to the menu and selecting
View > Customize Toolbar…. Now you can drag items to and from the
Toolbar to add and remove them.
There are two very useful items you might want to add right away. Styles
and Workspaces will give you a quick way to select those without having
to go through a sub-menu first. Other handy shortcuts are Capture and
Auto Adjust.
The Cursor Tools in the center of the Toolbar contains a number of es-
sential tools like the Select, Pan or Crop tools. If you click and hold on an
icon in the toolbar, you will be able to select other related Cursor Tools
from the pop-up menu.
Note that some of the Cursor Tools are used in conjunction with certain
Tools from the Tool Tab, like for example adjusting the white balance on
an image. You can activate the Pick White Balance picker from both the
Cursor Toolbar or within the White Balance Tool. This might be a bit con-
fusing if you are new to Capture One Pro, so remember to keep an eye
on what Cursor tool you currently have selected if things don’t behave
as excepted.
Tip: It can be a good practice to select the Pan Cursor Tool when you
are done working with the other Cursor Tools because Pan can’t change
anything by accident. It is only used to select images, zoom in and out
and pan around the image in the Viewer. You can easily select it by hit-
ting the keyboard shortcut H or select it temporarily by holding down the
spacebar on your keyboard.
5 Cursor Tools you should know

Most of the Cursor Tools are self-explanatory or will be covered in detail
once the related tools are discussed in later chapters, but there is a cou-
ple of Cursor Tools you should know about from the start.
Loupe
The Loupe Cursor tool is an excellent way to check for critical sharpness
in your images without having to zoom in first and pan around. A pow-
erful tip is that you can use the Loupe on images in the Browser without
selecting them first. You can even change the size of the Loupe tool or
change the zoom level to something else than 100% under Loupe Zoom.
Pick Focus Point
This tool is used in combination with the Focus Tool (covered in a later
chapter) to show an enlarged area of the image, typically at 100%. It is
very useful when you quickly want to check different parts of the image
at 100% while adjusting for example sharpness or noise reduction.
Draw Mask and Gradient Mask
These Cursor tools are used to create a mask on a layer in combination

with Layers. Layers, mask and localized adjustments will be covered in
great detail in a later chapter, but for now, you need to be aware that if
you start using these cursor tools, Capture One Pro will automatically
create a new layer with a mask in the Layers Tool. That layer will be au-
to-selected, and all adjustments will be applied on that until you select
Background again. This can lead to some confusion if you didn’t intend
to work on a layer, so keep that in mind.
Add Color Readout
This is an excellent little feature of Capture One Pro that not everybody
knows about. With this cursor tool, you can add several RGB and Lumi-
nosity value readouts by clicking on the image in the Viewer. This makes
it possible to monitor a number of areas simultaneous when doing im-
age editing if you, for example, want to make sure that details won’t get
blown out or an unfortunate colorcast is being introduced. You remove
the value readouts again with the Delete Color Readout or holding
down Alt and clicking on the Readout.
Copy / Apply Adjustments
The whole concept of copying certain image adjustments from one im-
age to several others will be covered in detail in later chapters, but you
should be aware of these two Cursor Tools right away. You can quick-
ly pick up all the adjustments on a certain image with the Copy Adjust-
ments Cursor and then copy them to other images by choosing the Ap-
ply Adjustments Cursor and clicking away on the images in the Browser
that you want to apply the adjustments to. It is an excellent way to apply
a specific keyword name to a person, for instance.
Working with Tool Tabs
The Tool Tabs are used to organize all the different Tools that you use
to edit the images. The Tools are like panels in Photoshop, and you can
think of the Tabs a way to group related Tools together. They can be cus-
tomized as you wish, but more on that a bit later. You can hide and show
the Tool Tabs by selecting the menu View > Hide Tools or using the key-
board shortcut Command + T (Ctrl + T on Windows).
Overview of the Tool Tabs

All the Tools will be covered in full detail in a later chapter so the follow-
ing is meant as a quick guide, so you know where to find what. Note
how each Tool can be collapsed and expanded by clicking on the arrow
in front of the Tool name or by just clicking on the name.
Tip You can rearrange the order of a Tool Tab by holding down Com-
mand (Ctrl on Windows) and dragging it to a new position. You can also
select them by keyboard shortcuts. Just press Alt + Command + 1 for the
first Tab, Alt + Command + 2 for the second, and so forth. On Windows
the keyboard shortcuts are Ctrl +1, Ctrl + 2, and so forth.
The Library Tool Tab is used to navigate and organize your image collec-
tion. This tab contains the Library Tool and the Filters Tool by default.
The Capture Tool Tab is where you go when you are shooting tethered.
This tab includes a powerful collection of specific tools that will allow
you to adjust the camera settings, control naming and capture location
or focus remotely during a capture session.
The Lens Tool Tab contains all the Tools you will need to correct for ex-
ample lens distortion or light falloff. This is also the place to find the tools
to crop, rotate, and apply keystone corrections to remove perspective
distortions.
The Color Tool Tab includes all the Tools that you need to adjust and
optimize the colors in your image like the White Balance, Color Editor,
Color Balance tools and even Black & White. Note the Layers tool near
the top which allows you to make localized adjustments with masks. This
tool is also available in some other Tabs.
The Exposure Tool Tab contains all the Tools that are necessary to ad-
just the exposure, contrast and light balance in your images. Here you
will find the Exposure, High Dynamic Range, Levels, Curve and the Clar-
ity tools. Note that Saturation is adjusted here within the Exposure Tool,
not under the Color Tool Tab. The Layers tool near the top allow you to
make localized adjustments with masks, and this tool is also available in
some other Tabs.
The Details Tool Tab is where you adjust image sharpness and noise re-
duction. There are also Tools to remove moiré or dust spots, and you
even have the possibility to add film grain to your images. The Layers
tool near the top allow you to make localized adjustments with masks,
and this tool is also available in some other Tabs.
The Adjustments Tool Tab is essential when you want to copy certain
adjustments from one image and apply them to multiple other photos.
The Tab contains a clipboard where you can select precisely what you
want to copy and what not. The tab also includes the Styles and Presets
Tool.
The Metadata Tool Tab is where you add Annotations, apply keywords
and add specific metadata information like copyright, title, and location.
You can also view any Exif data that the camera has recorded in the im-
age files.
The Output Tool Tab is where you go when you want to process and ex-
port your images. The Process Recipe Tool is very powerful and lets you
set a vast array of parameters from file format and quality to output fold-
ers and renaming files.
The Batch Tab shows you the queue of which images that are currently
being processed or waiting to be processed for export.

Add and remove Tools from Tool Tabs
The very cool feature about Tools and Tool Tabs in Capture One Pro
is that all the Tools can be added, removed and moved around as you
wish. This gives you the possibility to set up a Tool Tab with only the
Tools you use the most. For example, you might want to move or add
the White Balance Tool to the Exposure Tab since many prefer to set the
white balance just before adjusting the exposure.
It is very straightforward to add or remove a Tool from a Tab. Just right-

click anywhere within a Tool Tab panel and choose either Add Tool or
Remove Tool.
The Add Tool submenu will show all the available Tools that are current-
ly not loaded into the Tab, while the Remove Tool will only show those
Tools there are currently loaded. Note that you can also move a Tool up
or down in the Tool Tab stack by clicking and dragging it to a new loca-
tion. An orange line will indicate where it will snap.
Removing or creating a Tool Tab
You also have the option to remove a Tab entirely or create your own.
Right-click anywhere within a Tool Tab panel and choose Remove
Tab Tool > Batch, if you want to remove for example the Batch Tab, or
choose Add Tool Tab > Custom Tool Tab…, if you want to create your
own.
Then give it a name, choose an icon, and click Add Tab.
You can now populate it with all the Tools you want by right-clicking and
selecting Add Tool.
You can also add or remove Tool Tabs and Tools by going to the main
menu and selecting View.
Note that the same tool can be present in several different Tool Tabs at
the same time. Any adjustment you perform with a tool in one Tool Tab
will automatically be mirrored to other instances of the tool. This is al-
ready the case with the Layers tool that is present in three different Tool
Tabs by default.
Taking advantage of Floating Tools

You are not constrained to placing the Tools within a Tool Tab, however.
You can open any Tool as a floating palette and place it wherever you
want, just go to Window > Create Floating Tool. You can also just drag a
Tool from the Tool Tab area and onto the Viewer.
This is an extremely useful feature because you can resize any floating
Tool to be larger. Just imagine working with the precise control that a
bigger Curve Tool or Color Editor Tool will grant you.
Power tip: A very cool bonus of the flexibility is that you can have more
than one version of the same Tool open. For example, you can have ac-
cess to the Red, Green and Blue channels on the Curve Tool simulta-
neously. Just open three versions of the Curve Tool from the Window >
Create Floating Tool menu and then set them to show the Red, Green
and Blue channels respectively.
Note that you can collapse (and expand) the Tool content by clicking on
the arrow in front of its name, making sure it doesn’t cover the image
when not in use.
Getting to know tools and their icons
All the different Tools have a little row of icons at the top that you need
to be familiar with to get the best out of Capture One Pro.
Auto Adjust
This will apply an automatic adjustment on the image like white balance
or exposure within the Tool at hand. Note that only six tools have this
Auto Adjust feature.
Copy settings
This feature will let you copy and apply the adjustments in the tool from
one image to another. Once you have clicked on the icon, you get the
option to select which adjustments to copy. Note that if you want to copy
adjustments from several tools at once, you need to use the Adjust-
ments Clipboard Tool that is covered in full detail in a later chapter.
Tip: You can hold down Shift to copy and apply all the adjustments in the
tool immediately.
Reset
If you click this icon, all the adjustments in this Tool will be reset to de-
fault. If you hold down Alt while clicking on the icon, you will only re-
set the adjustments temporarily, giving you the possibility see a be-
fore-and-after effect of your adjustments.
Tip: If you hold down Alt and click on the Reset Adjustment icon in the
main Toolbar, you will reset all adjustments temporarily, effectively view-
ing the original image without any edits.
Presets
Here you can save your own Presets for the specific tool for later use or
select from Presets that ship built-in with Capture One Pro. Not all Tools
comes with built-in Presets. Note that Presets are per Tool only, while
Styles are a collection of different Presets. Styles will be covered in a lat-
er chapter.
Options
This pop-up menu contains a number of options for the Tool. You typi-
cally have the option to save your adjustments in the Tool as default for
the camera used or to close the Tool. There are often other options spe-
cific to the Tool at hand so it is highly recommended to check whether it
might contain a powerful setting or feature.
Tips for working faster with sliders

• You can move a slider with the scroll wheel if you place the cursor
over it. Hold down Shift to increase the movement speed.
• You can reset any slider by double-clicking on it.
• If you click on the name of the slider and hold, you can reset it tempo-
rarily and get a before/after view of the adjustment.
• Click in the value field to the right of the slider and use the up and
down arrow keys on your keyboard to adjust the value. Hold down
Shift to increase the movement speed.
• If you hit Tab on the keyboard, you will move to the next value field,
selecting it. Hit Shift + Tab to select the prior value field.
• Tab Esc to escape/deselect a value field.
• Many sliders can be controlled by using keystrokes. See the section
about Edit Keyboard Shortcuts later.
Saving your own Workspace
Once you can have customized Capture One Pro to your liking, you
should take advantage of the ability to save your personal workspace by
going to the menu Window > Workspace > Save Workspace….
The Workspace sub-menu also contains a number of prebuilt workspac-

es that can be very useful. Default is the one that Capture One Pro 11
comes preloaded with, and if you want to reset everything in the user
interface back to normal, you just select Default again. It can be a real
lifesaver when you have experimented with the user interface and can’t
find certain tools anymore.
The Migration Workspace is an excellent choice for everybody who

comes from Lightroom, because Phase One has organized all the tools
so they more or less are where you would expect them to be, coming
from Lightroom.
Finally, if you are working on two monitors, you should try out the Dual
Monitor – Large Browser or Dual Monitor – Large Viewer based on
your preferred workflow.
Note that you cannot overwrite the built-in Workspaces, you need to
save a new one.
Customizing the keyboard shortcuts
You can get a nice overview of all the default keyboard shortcuts by se-
lecting the menu Help > Keyboard Shortcut Summary and then printing
the list. A really great feature of Capture One Pro is the ability to cus-
tomize the keyboard shortcuts and even apply new ones to many com-
mands that have no shortcuts by default. You do this by going to the
menu and select Capture One 11 > Edit Keyboard Shortcuts… on the
Mac or Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts on Windows.
3
4
5
You cannot overwrite the Default set, so you need to click on Create and
then name and save a new set first. Then you simply select the com-
mand you want to add a keyboard shortcut to and press the key - or a
combination of keys 1 . If the shortcut is already used by another com-
mand or tool, you will get a warning saying so, but you can still go ahead
and change it. Certain keyboard shortcuts can’t be changed, however,
like for example Open or Close. You will get a warning if that is the case.
Note that you also have the option to duplicate a saved keyboard short-
cut set if you want to experiment with an alternative set.
Menu commands 2
You will find all the commands from the different menus at the top of the
Keyboard Shortcuts list. Some have a combination of keystrokes, so it
can be a great idea to change those you use all the time to something
that is easier to remember. The keyboard shortcut for showing and hid-
ing the Viewer is a prime candidate, and some might like to change the
shortcuts for Copy and Apply Adjustments too.
Filters commands 3
There are no keyboard shortcuts assigned by default for filtering, but
you can apply some to these commands if you want a way to quickly
view all images with a certain star rating or color tag. It can really speed
up the process of culling a large collection of images.
Cursor Tools 4
Here you can change the keyboard shortcuts for the Cursor Tools or add
one for those who have none applied yet. If you are using the Color Edi-
tor a lot, you might want to add one for the Pick Color Correction for ex-
ample.
Other 5
There are a lot of very useful commands hidden here for the power user
to tab into. You can apply keyboard shortcuts for several special com-
mands that relate to a specific tool, enabling you to adjust exposure,
white balance and sharpness by simply pressing a combination of key-
strokes. It is definitely worth spending a bit of time to go through all of
the options if you want to work faster. Pay special attention to all the
commands under Layers as some of those can speed up your workflow
a lot when working with layers and masks.
Summarize…. 6
Once you have created your perfect set of keyboard shortcuts, Capture
One Pro can automatically generate a list of all the commands that have
keystrokes applied or changed.
The advantages of working non-destructive
If you want to work efficiently in Capture One Pro, you need to under-
stand the idea behind the so-called non-destructive workflow.
The fundamental concept is that your original image files are never al-
tered. Instead, all your edits and adjustments are recorded and kept in
a separate file. This approach has several advantages that we will get
back to later in this chapter, but first, you need a basic understanding of
how a non-destructive image editor works behind the scenes.
What does non-destructive mean?

As mentioned, all edits and adjustments are kept as separate data from
the pixels in the original image file. Any change is basically saved as
text entries in a database (or a small file) that Capture One Pro updates
whenever you do something. If you move the Exposure slider to +1, that
value is recorded in the database. The same thing happens if you set
the white balance Kelvin slider to value 5300 and so forth with all the
other possible edits. The change is reflected in the image you see in
Capture One Pro, but the original file is not altered.
One of the key benefits of this non-destructive workflow is that you can
always go back and tweak the Exposure or White Balance setting be-
cause it is merely a number in a database that has not yet been commit-
ted to a single pixel in the original file. You can change anything, anytime
you wish.
You might wonder how is it possible to view your changes when the
original image file isn’t being altered? This is accomplished by a preview
image that Capture One Pro creates on the fly based on the original file
and your edits. This preview file is displayed to you in the Browser and
Viewer.
The arrangement with preview files is essential for a non-destructive

workflow because your original files need to be kept untouched. Not a
single pixel must be altered on them. You will instead get the visual feed-
back during any image edits – like a change in exposure or saturation –
presented by the preview file. Even when you zoom into 100% in the im-
age, you are in fact still just looking at a preview file; it is just created in
full resolution.
Note that even if you haven’t made any adjustments to an image yet, the
original file will still need to be represented to you by an associated pre-
view file. A file is never actually opened in Capture One Pro as you might
be accustomed to in Photoshop. In other words, Capture One Pro must
render a preview file for each and every image for you to see, and this
explains why it might take some time to show all the images during im-
port.
Since none of your edits are ever committed to the original image file,
you need to export a copy of the file from Capture One Pro if you want
to view, edit or share the file with your adjustments applied outside the
program. One of the upsides is that you will never have to export all the
images that you just want to view inside Capture One Pro.
This graphic will give you a visual presentation of the non-destructive

workflow in Capture One Pro:
Note that there are two types of preview files; a small version used by
the Browser and a large resolution version for the Viewer.
You can change the default resolution of the large preview size in the
Preferences.
It is possible to set the Preview Image Size resolution all the way up
to 5210 pixels. This will ensure that the images look more detailed and
sharper on a high-resolution monitor, but the generated preview files will
obviously be larger and can take longer to load.
The benefits of working non-destructive

There are several advantages to the non-destructive workflow in Cap-
ture One Pro. Some of them are quite significant if you want to work as
efficient as possible going forward, so here are the six most prominent
advantages.
1. Worry-free
You never have to be concerned about making a wrong adjustment that
goes too far and ruin your images because your files are always kept
safe in their original state. Not a single pixel is altered, and this is true for
both raw-files as well as JPEG, TIFF, PSD and PNG files in Capture One
Pro.
2. Full freedom
Since every edit and adjustment is basically just a text string recorded in
a database that is not yet committed, you can always go back and read-
just everything. It doesn’t matter whether you revisit the image an hour,
week or a year later, the adjustment sliders will be exactly where you left
them, and you can continue tweaking the look. You also have the option
to reset parts or all your adjustments back to the defaults at any time.
You can experiment freely without any anxiety.
3. Time Saver
A very powerful part of the non-destructive workflow is the ability to
copy adjustments from one image to multiple others with a few mouse
clicks. If you determine that the adjustments to exposure and white bal-
ance should be the same for a group of images taken under the same
light conditions, you can easily copy and apply those edits to all cap-
tures. This obviously makes editing multiple images vastly faster. Note
that you have full control over which edits you want to copy.
4. Space Saver
You can work on several virtual copies of the same image in Capture
One Pro without the headache of filling up space on your drive. Capture
One Pro calls these virtual copies for Variants, but they are all based on
the same original file. Each of these Variants can have their own, unique
adjustments, which takes up almost no extra space. This makes it easy
to have a high contrast version and a black and white variety of the
same image for example without the necessity to export the different
versions.
5. Superior edits
Capture One Pro is a raw converter at heart and having full access to
all the data in the raw file throughout your editing session will grant you
superior image quality. This is especially true when doing heavy adjust-
ments to exposure, contrast and color edits. Once you have exported
the file and opened it in for example Photoshop, data is lost, even if you
output it as a 16-bit image file. Doing as many adjustments in Capture
One Pro as possible will result in better image quality.
6. Future gains
One particularly strong feature of working with raw-files in conjunction
with the non-destructive workflow in Capture One Pro is the possibili-
ty of improving the image quality in the future. New versions of Capture
One Pro often bring better image quality in certain areas – sometimes
considerably so – which all your raw-files will then benefit from. Even
those that are ten years old. Capture One Pro will give you the option
to update its render engine to the latest version if you so wish, but you
will never need to redo all your adjustments from scratch doing that. You
might need to tweak a few sliders, but the point remains that for exam-
ple, a new noise reduction method can resurrect old images that were
unusable until now.
Catalogs and Sessions – what to use?
A powerful feature of Capture One Pro is the freedom to manage your
images using either a Catalog or a Session workflow – or even combine
those two. A Catalog is typically used to store and organize a very large
image collection, maybe even all your images, while a Session is more
geared towards working with images from a specific event, date or loca-
tion.
You create a new Catalog or Session by going to the File menu and
choosing either New Catalog… or New Session…. In both cases, you
give it a name, choose the location where to save it by clicking on the
three-dot icon, and click OK to create one.
In the case of a Session, you can ignore the subfolder names for now.
Which type should you choose? It depends, and to take full advantage
of their particular strengths, you need to understand the key differences
between them.
The most fundamental distinction between a Catalog and a Session is

how they manage the location of your files.
A Catalog uses a centralized database to keep track of where all your

images are saved. You can have thousands of files located in numerous
folders on both internal and external hard drives, yet a Catalog will let
you sort through them all almost instantly.
A Session works a lot more like a powerful file browser and will, by de-
fault, only show you the content of the currently selected folder. The
Session was originally created with a tethering workflow in mind where
you would organize files by moving them to different folders. This is why
a new Session by default creates four subfolders called Capture, Se-
lects, Output, and Trash. It is important to note that you don’t need to
populate these subfolders. You can in fact create a new, empty Session
and use it as a file system browser to view the image files in any folder
on the drive just by navigation to it with the Library tool in Capture One
Pro.
Being in sync with the file system

The Session’s ability to read the file system directly just like the Finder
(Mac) or Windows Explorer (Windows) is in clear contrast to the Catalog
workflow. With a Catalog, you must import images first before you can
view and edit them in Capture One Pro. This difference is best illustrated
with an example.
If you add a number of images to a folder with the Finder (Mac) or Win-
dows Explorer (Windows), a Session will immediately notice that the files
are added. This is because a Session will always scan the contents of
the currently selected folder. Likewise, if you delete some files from a
folder with the Finder or Windows Explorer, those will be recognized as
removed automatically by the Session.
Not so with a Catalog. A Catalog depends on its database to keep track

of the location of all files and folders. If you add images to a folder with
the Finder (Mac) or Windows Explorer (Windows), those images will not
automatically show up in a Catalog. You will first have to inform Capture
One Pro that new files were added at the file system level. If you delete
files from a folder with the Finder or Windows Explorer, Capture One Pro
will notice that the original files are indeed missing, and you will get a
warning that the original file is Offline.
As you might have recognized by now, handling files can be very dif-
ferent in a Catalog and a Session. Because of this, the file management
topic has been split into two chapters covering Catalogs and Sessions
respectably. The next chapter will cover Catalogs; then we will proceed
to Sessions.
Pros and Cons for Catalogs and Sessions

As you will discover in the following chapters, there are a number key
differences between working in a Catalog and a Session. Here is a recap
of what you are about to learn:
Catalog
+ Keeps tracks of multiple folder locations with ease
+ Can search contents of multiple image folders
+ All edits are kept in one, central database
+ Can edit files from offline, external hard drive
- Necessary to import images first
- Files deleted via file system are not removed
Session
+ Keeps track of content in a folder-by-folder scheme
- Needs extra work (Favorites) to span multiple folders
+ All edits are saved in the same folder as the images
- Cannot edit offline files
+ No need to import
+ Files deleted via file system are automatically removed
File management in a Catalog
As mentioned in the prior chapter, a Catalog depends on its database
to keep track of the location of all files and folders. It will not by itself be
able to note which files are added or removed from folders outside Cap-
ture One Pro.
Because of this arrangement, you need to make sure that the Catalog is
always up to date with the location of your files and the content of the
image folders. This is done by following a simple rule; always add, de-
lete and move files within Capture One Pro with a Catalog. You should
add images with the Import Images feature, which will be covered in de-
tail in a later chapter.
For now, we will look at how you manage files within a Catalog. This is
done with Folders in the Library tool (located in the Library Tool Tab).
Note how Capture One Pro will only list folders with images that are im-
ported into the Catalog. You can’t browse to a folder that is not already
added. It is also worth to notice that while you can add a folder from
your hard drive by clicking on the plus (+) icon, it will actually not import
any images in the process.
So how do you make sure that the content of a folder is up to date? You
tell Capture One Pro to scan a folder for any changes. This is done by
selecting the folder, right-clicking on it, and choosing Synchronize….
Capture One Pro will now open a dialog box, giving you the option to im-
port newly added images and remove the deleted ones from the select-
ed folder.
Note that you have the option Include known subfolders to scan any
subfolders in the process, and that you can either import new images
directly or show them in the Import Images dialog box (covered in a lat-
er chapter) first with the Show importer option. You can also review the
missing images with the Show Missing Images option before you com-
mit to removing them by clicking on Sync.
Note that the right-click menu also gives you the option to locate a fold-
er. If you have moved a certain image folder with the Finder or Windows
Explorer, you will need to tell Capture One Pro the new location of that
specific folder with the Locate… command. If the Catalog has lost track
of a moved folder, you will see an exclamation icon next to it in the Li-
brary tool as a warning.
The same is true if an external drive with the folder is missing. Here the
green indicator will turn red as a warning.
Moving an image to a new folder
If you want to move some files from one folder to another, you just select
them in the Browser and drag them to the new folder in the Library tool
under Folders.
This action will move the files at the file system level, just like if you did it
from the Finder or Windows Explorer. Capture One Pro will warn you that
files are being moved, but go ahead and click Move.
Deleting an image
When you want to delete an image file from a Catalog, you have two
options. You can remove the image from the Catalog while keeping the
original file at its location on the hard drive. Or you can remove the file
as well as deleting the original file from the disk. Both options are found
in the File menu as Delete (Move to Catalog Trash) and Delete from
Disk.
Note that when you remove an image from a Catalog, it is actually

moved to a special collection called the Catalog Trash. You can find it
again by selecting Trash under Catalog Collections in the Library tool.
This means that you can easily undo any removal. Just select the Trash,
then choose any images you want to add to the catalog again, and drag
them back into the folder where they originally came from.
Tip: If you’re not sure which folder they belong to, just right-click in the
image and choose Show in Library. Capture One Pro will then take you
to the folder where the original file is located.
You might eventually want to empty the Trash to keep things neat and
tidy. This is done by going to the main menu and selecting File > Empty
Catalog Trash…. You will now get a warning, asking you whether to just
remove the images from the Catalog or delete them from the disk.
Be aware that choosing Delete from Disk will actually delete the original,
referenced image files from your drive, so only select this option if you
want to get rid of those files for good. If you’re not sure what this means,
choose Remove from Catalog.
File management in a Session
Adding, deleting and moving files around is straightforward when work-
ing with a Session, compared to working with a Catalog. If you prefer to
do some of the file management from the Finder (Mac) or Windows Ex-
plorer, you can do so, since a Session will always scan the selected fold-
er for any changes. This means that you will never need to synchronize
folders if you add images to a folder outside Capture One Pro.
The Library tool is a bit different in a Session than in a Catalog. Notice

how the System Folders let you browse through the entire file system
on your computer and thus give you the ability to look for image files in
any folder you please. This file browser ability is not possible with a Cat-
alog.
You also get some different options when you right-click on a folder in a
Session:
The most important action here is that you can set any folder on your
drive to be the Capture, Selects, Output or Session Trash folder. These
four subfolders are created as a part of any Session, but the different Set
as commands gives you the ability to change these to any other folder
of your choice at any given time.
You should also pay attention to the Add to Favorites command in the
menu (see next page). A Session has a central database which main pur-
pose is to make it possible to view and sort through images from several
folders at once. The only requirement is that you need to add the folders
to the Session Favorites collection first with this command.
If you then choose All Images under Session Albums, you will be able to
see and sort through all the images in the folders added under Session
Favorites.
This feature gives you some of the benefits from a Catalog workflow
combined with the advantages of a Session, and this is the reason why
some call a Session a hybrid between a pure database-driven Catalog
and a more direct file browser method.
Deleting an image from a Session

If you delete a file from a Session, it is by default moved to the Trash
Folder that was created as a subfolder in the Session main folder. It is
important to notice that the image is not deleted on the computer. This
means that you can always select the Trash Folder in the Library tool
and drag any images from here back into another folder.
If you really want to delete the files in the Trash subfolder, you need to
go to the File menu and choose Empty Session Trash….
Note that if you select the Delete from Disk command in the file menu,
the file will be deleted right away on your computer. It will NOT be
moved to the system trash on your computer, so be careful.
You will get a warning, saying that the action cannot be undone.

Moving an image file
You can move files between folders in a Session by selecting them and
dragging them to another folder within the Library tool. Just like with a
Catalog, the files are then moved on the hard drive.
There is one important key benefit to moving files within Capture One
Pro instead of doing it on a system file level, even with a Session work-
flow. Your image adjustments associated with the file will be copied au-
tomatically to the new folder together with the original image file. If you
move an image file with the Finder or Windows Explorer, this connection
will break.
This is because a Session saves all the adjustments and previews in the
same folder as the original file are stored. Capture One Pro creates a
subfolder called CaptureOne and then saves the previews in a subfolder
called Cache while the adjustments are saved to a subfolder called Set-
tings110.
The graphic on the next page show an overview of the Session file and
folder hierarchy:
This setup means that you need to copy the associated adjustment side-
car file too when you move a file around with the Finder or Windows Ex-
plorer. If you do it within Capture One Pro, however, it will take care of
that for you.
One key benefit of storing all the adjustments in a subfolder, as done

with the Session workflow, is that you can back up a specific folder or
share it, and everybody that access it later from Capture One Pro will au-
tomatically get all the adjustments associated with the files.
Working on offline images
A Catalog has one big advantage over a Session in that you can contin-
ue to work on a missing, offline image. This is a very powerful feature
when you have saved your images on an external hard drive. If you eject
that drive, you can continue to work on the files, because Capture One
Pro will just refer to the preview proxy file associated with the original
file. Capture One Pro will warn you that the file is offline by adding a la-
bel at the top of the image in the Viewer, but you can continue working
on it.
Many take advantage of this feature to edit the files on their laptop
during for example a flight when they might not have access to the ex-
ternal drive with the original files.
This workflow is not possible with a Session because the preview files
are stored in a subfolder together with the original files on the external
hard drive. When the original file and the associated preview are re-
moved temporarily, you will see a very pixeled preview file that you can-
not edit, and you get a warning that the file is unavailable or corrupt (see
next page):
Note that when you insert the external hard drive with the original files,
Capture One Pro will notice that they are accessible again, and will re-
move the Offline warning. In the case of a Catalog, this means that your
offline edits will be applied and that your work will again be based on
the original files instead of the preview file.
The reason why you can work on an offline file with a Catalog is that the
necessary preview files are stored within the central database that con-
tains everything but the original files. If you check the file size of a big
Catalog, you will notice that the file can be up to several gigabytes in
size. Most of that is because it contains a lot of fairly big preview proxy
files.
Note that you can do any offline adjustments with a Catalog, but since
you do not have access to the full resolution and data from the original
file, it is not advisable to do heavy image adjustments by for example try-
ing to recover details in highlights or shadows. This is best done when
Capture One Pro has access to the original image, especially when you
are editing raw files. You should also note that you might not be able to
see an accurate presentation of the image when you zoom into 100%
since the preview file might not have been saved in full resolution. That
is another reason why you should not adjust critical sharpness on an of-
fline file.
Storing files within a Catalog
So far, we have assumed that the original files are always saved in lo-
cations outside the Catalog file. This is probably the workflow the most
would prefer or have been accustomed to, but Capture One Pro has a
very neat trick that especially users of Apple’s Aperture will welcome
with a sigh of relief.
You can actually store the original files within the Catalog file itself, thus
keeping everything organized in one, easy to manage file. In the Library
tool, you can move an original file from an external location to inside a
Catalog by selecting it and dragging it onto Catalog under Folders.
In this example, 41 images are stored within the Catalog file, while 10 +
175 images are stored in folders Denmark and Norway outside the cata-
log.
If you later want to extract the original files from the catalog file and
store them in a folder outside, you can just select them from Catalog un-
der Folders and drag the files onto the folder in question. They are then
moved, and Capture One Pro will make sure that any adjustments are
still associated with the files. That is another beauty of the non-destruc-
tive workflow.
Note that it is possible to add images to the catalog during import. This
is done by selecting Inside Catalog under Destination, but we will get
back to that in one of the next chapters about importing images.
There is a couple of scenarios where it might make a lot of sense to
store your images inside a Catalog, at least temporarily.
You might want to be sure that you always have access to the original
files in order to do the full suite of adjustments where the offline preview
files will simply not suffice.
Another scenario is where you need to exchange the files and adjust-
ments with other people and want to make sure that the original files
won’t go missing by an accident during a round trip.
You have the freedom to work with images stored both inside and out-
side the Catalog. This way the most important photos can always trav-
el with you on your laptop, while the rest can be stored on an external
drive and be online and offline as you wish and need.
There are drawbacks to having all of your images stored within a sin-
gle Catalog file. For starters, the file is bound to become very big, which
might not be ideal when you need to do a backup of your image collec-
tion, or you might run out of space on a SSD drive. In theory, it could also
be a risk if the catalog master file becomes corrupt. Finally, you won’t be
able to access those files outside Capture One Pro.
Importing and exporting Catalogs
It is possible to divide larger Catalogs into smaller ones or import a small
Catalog into a master Catalog if desired. This feature can help you man-
age Catalogs as working in a large one can slow things down somewhat.
Exporting a Catalog
If you want to export an entire Catalog, go to the File menu and select
Export as Catalog…. You are now asked to choose the location where
you Catalog will be stored. Pay close attention to the option Include
originals. When this is checked, the original files will be saved as dupli-
cates in the same location as the new catalog. If you select Include sub-
folders, the original file structure will be duplicated too.
Note that you do not need to include the original files, the exported Cat-
alog will still know where to find the images if they are kept at their origi-
nal location.
It is also possible to export just a part of your Catalog based on User
Collections like Albums or a specific folder for example. You do this by
right-clicking on the folder or album in the Library tool, and then select
Export as Catalog…
This is a very nice way to split a big Catalog up into more manageable
parts or is perfect if you just need to share a selection of images with
other Capture One Pro users. Note that you can right-click on a folder
and include the images within the subfolders if you remember to enable
the Include subfolders.
Importing a Catalog
Adding the images from one Catalog to another is straightforward. Just
go to the menu File > Import Catalog > Capture One Catalog…, navigate
to the Catalog file, and select it.
The imported images will stay in their original locations, and all edits and
adjustments made to them in the original Catalog will of course carry
over. Note that the preview files will be regenerated for the newly added
images.
Importing a Lightroom Catalog or Aperture Library

If you are a former user of either Apple Aperture or Adobe Photoshop
Lightroom, you have a really great option to import those into Cap-
ture One Pro. Note that the images will stay in their original location, so
you are not moving or duplicating any of the photos on your drive. This
means that you can freely experiment with the import feature and con-
tinue to work in your Lightroom Catalog or Aperture Library just as be-
fore. Once ready, go to the File menu and select Import Catalog and
then choose either Aperture Library… or Lightroom Catalog…. Here you
also find the option to import a Media Pro Catalog.
Once you have selected one of the options, Capture One Pro show a di-
alog box, telling you what kind of image adjustments and metadata that
will be transferred together with importing the images. Make sure that
you read all the information before proceeding.
While several of the image adjustments done in Aperture or Lightroom

will not be transferred to Capture One Pro, a lot of the basic metadata
for organizing your image collection together with certain image collec-
tions will. This will save you from redoing a lot of tedious and time-con-
suming work, so it is a very nice feature to get you a head start if you are
coming from Aperture or Lightroom.
Note that if you have a very large Aperture Library or Lightroom Cata-
log with a ton of images, it is recommended to split those up into smaller
pieces first, and then import those one by one. This can greatly speed
up the process because a huge Lightroom Catalog can really put Cap-
ture One Pro to the test.
Importing a Session
You can import a Session into a Catalog, which can be the base of a very
efficient workflow. You might want to start out with culling, rating and
edit your images in a Session after each specific shoot to keep things fo-
cused or organized. Then when done, you can move your Session work
into a master Catalog. This is done by going to the menu File > Import
Session…, navigate to the Session database file, select it, and click Im-
port.
A couple of things to note when you do this. First, the images will remain
in their original subfolders in the Session master folder, so you can’t de-
lete the Session folder without deleting the original files too. You will ei-
ther have to keep the Session folders where they are or move the Ses-
sion files and folder to a new location before importing the Session. All
edits to the images will be added and saved within the Catalog.
For your convenience, Capture One Pro will recreate the folder structure
from the Session as virtual folders in the form of Albums.
For example, the Capture folder will be created as a Capture album with
the files from this subfolder included. The same goes for the Output and
Selects subfolders, which is all organized within a group called Session
Folders. Note that the Albums created in the Session is imported as well
under the Session Albums group.
If you only want to import certain images from a Session – like for exam-
ple only those in the Selects subfolder, you should instead use the Im-
port Images feature. It will let you select and import from a single folder,
and this feature will be covered in the next chapter.
Importing a Catalog into a Session

You cannot import a Catalog into a Session. You will either need to use
the Import Images feature covered in the next chapter or simply browse
to the desired image folder with the Library tool. You should, however,
be aware that none of the applied adjustments from the Catalog will be
recognized or applied when you open the image in a Session.
One way to solve this issue is to select the images in the Catalog, go the
File menu and select Export Images > Originals…. Then select the Pack
As EIP option and export the images. This will pack the adjustments to-
gether with the original file and those be added automatically once you
open the file in a Session.
Adding images by Import
If you’re working with a Catalog, you need to import images before you
can view and edit them in Capture One Pro. You can also use the import
feature covered in this chapter to add images to a Session; the workflow
is the same. The only important distinction to keep in mind when import-
ing images is whether you are copying images from a memory card to a
drive in the process or are merely adding images that are already stored
on a drive.
When you insert a memory card with images, Capture One Pro will by
default open the Import Images dialog box if the application is already
running. Otherwise, you can always start the process of importing by go-
ing to the File menu and selecting Import Images… or by clicking on the
Import Images icon.
Getting to know the Import Images dialog box

First, we will take a grand overview of the Import Images dialog box be-
fore getting to know all the tools and options.
You can sort the images by meta-
data like Date, Name or even Focal
Length from this drop-down menu.
In the left panel

are all the tools
you need to add,
copy and rename
images during im-
port. These will be
covered in detail
on the next pages.
This option let you choose whether to go

to the chosen import collection or just be
notified when the importing is done.
You can choose to eject the memory

card once the import is finished by
selecting the Eject Card option.
It is possible to change the
size of the thumbnails with
this zoom slider.
You can choose

to import only cer-
tain images. Hold
down Shift and
click to select con-
tiguous images, or
hold down Com-
mand (Mac) or Ctrl
(Windows) and
click to select indi-
vidual images. By
default, all images
are imported.
It is possible to erase the images Click to Import. The

after copying, but only check this button shows how
option if you are absolutely sure many images you
what you are doing. have selected.
Normally, you do not want to
erase the images.
Using the options during import
The following part of this chapter will guide you through all the options
that are present in the left panel of the Import Images dialog box.
The options in Import From tool are straightforward.
Under the Source drop-down menu, you either choose an inserted

memory card or select Choose Folder… and navigate to the image folder
on an internal or external drive. Remember to check Include Subfolders
if Capture One Pro should look inside those for additional images.
If you select the Exclude Duplicates option, Capture One Pro will make
sure that any images you have already imported earlier won’t get re-im-
ported. The number in the parentheses will show you how many du-
plicates there currently are, and they have been removed from the im-
age thumbnail area. This way you can tell exactly which images you are
about to import. If all images are duplicates, you will get a message say-
ing that there are “No unique images in folder” and the thumbnail area
will be blank.

In the Import To tool, the Destination drop-down menu gives you tree
options.
If you select Current Location, the images will just be imported, but not
copied to a new location in the process. Capture One Pro will instead
reference where the original image files are currently stored. This is how
you would typically add images already stored on a drive.
When you select Choose Folder…, you will be prompted to select a fold-
er where all imported images will be copied and saved to. You should al-
ways choose this option if you import images from a memory card.
Finally, if you select Inside Catalog, all the imported images will be
stored inside the Catalog masterfile.
If you chose to save the images in a folder, you will get the option to
store the images into subfolders. You can type a name into the Sub
Folder area and create hierarchical subfolders by adding a forward slash
/ between each folder name. (On Windows use a backward slash in-
stead).
There is, however, a much more powerful way to create the subfolders.
Capture One Pro can use metadata from the files to automatically cre-
ate the name of the folders by something called Tokens. These will be
explained in full detail in a later chapter, but just to give you an idea; you
can for example use the date of capture, the camera serial number or
the focal length to automatically create and name the subfolders.
Click on the tree-dotted icon to get access to the Tokens feature. In the
example above, subfolders are created by the year and month that the
images were captured with inserted Tokens. The images will be stored
in the relevant subfolder during import based on their capture date.
Sample Path will show the location path and the names of the subfold-
ers.
Collection option is a cool way to organize the images already during

import. This option is only available with a Catalog, not a Session.
If you remember to select an album under User Collections in the Li-
brary tool before starting the import, you can choose Selected Album,
and the imported images will then be added to that album automatically.
The default option Recent Imports Only will let you select the imported
images once they are done under the Recent Imports in the Library tool.
Note that if you choose Capture Collection, you will need to right-click
on an Album in the Library tool first and select that as the Capture Col-
lection before starting the import.
The Backup To tool makes it possible to save a duplicate set of the im-
ported images as a backup to a secondary location. Note that it doesn’t
matter whether you are copying images from a memory card or simply
adding them from a drive, you will still have this option.
Just select the Backup Enabled option and choose Select Folder… from
the Location drop-down menu and then browse to the folder where you
want to save a duplicate set of images. In a proper backup scheme, you
would want that location to be on another drive than where the primary
set of the images are stored.
The Naming tool lets you rename the files during import. If you leave this
empty, the images will simply retain their original file names.
You could type in a name in the Format field, but be aware that all the
imported files will then be called the same. Chances are that you don’t
want to do that.
Instead, Capture One Pro can use metadata from the files to automat-
ically create the names of the files by something called Tokens. These
will be explained in full detail in a later chapter, but just to give you an
idea, you can for example use the date of capture, the camera serial
number or the focal length to rename the files. If you want to rename the
files with this feature, you should click on the tree-dotted icon.
Note that if you add a Token called Job Name, you can type a job de-
scription into the Job name field and have that added as a part of the
image file names. The Sample area will show the renamed format. In
the example above, the renaming start with the Job Name and a 3 Dig-
it Counter is then added. It is a good practice to add an underscore be-
tween the Tokens to separate their data in the name.
Tip If you click on the options in the top right corner, you can reset the
counter to begin from one again, or you can set the counter to begin at
any value, like 100. You also have the option to set the increment value
to something else than 1.
The options menu also gives you the ability to Pair RAWs and JPGs
during renaming. If you have chosen to shoot in both raw and jpeg with
your camera, you will get two copies of the same capture. With this op-
tion selected, Capture One Pro will make sure to use the same naming
for those two files, making it easier to keep things organized. Note that
the files will still keep their different file extensions. This behavior is on
by default.
The Metadata tool lets you add a Copyright notice and a Description of
the event or subject for the imported images. These will then be added
as metadata to the files during the import process.
Adding a Description can be a very good idea because it provides you
with the option to automatically create file or folder names based on
that later during export. We will explore this possibility later in a separate
chapter about Tokens and dynamic locations.
The Adjustments tool give you a great opportunity to speed up your

workflow. Styles and Presets are prebuilt image adjustments or metada-
ta that can be applied to the images, even during import.

You can select one or more Presets and Styles from Styles drop-down
menu, but note that if you want to apply more than one Preset or Style,
you need to enable the Stack Styles option at the top of the drop-down
menu.
You can either select a Preset or Style that comes built-in with Capture
One Pro or create your own called User Styles and User Presets and ap-
ply them. Styles and Presets are covered in detail in a later chapter, so
for now you just need to know about the possibilities. You can for exam-
ple create a Preset with all your contact and copyright info and then use
that during import to make sure all the critical info is applied from the
get-go. Note that you need to create the Preset before using the Import
Images dialog box, but more on that later.
If checked, Auto Adjust will apply automatic adjustments to the image

like exposure or white balance.
Note that this will be based on what you have selected in the menu Ad-
justments > Auto Adjustments.
A great way to use this option is to only select Levels as an automat-
ic adjustment. This way the black and white point of the images will be
automatically adjusted during import, giving you a nice basis for quickly
judging the contrast.
If you check Include Existing Adjustments, you are making sure that
Capture One Pro copies any adjustments you might have applied to the
images prior to import. This is important if you have used a Session to
do most of the editing work, and now want to import the finished images
into a Catalog.
You can get information about a selected file’s name, date, camera and
size under File Info.
Supported file formats and cameras
Capture One Pro supports raw files from more than 400 cameras as well
as the most used image file formats such as JPEG, TIFF, and PSD.
How to check if your camera is supported

The list of all the supported cameras and raw files are too numerous
to add here, so you should go to this webpage at Phase One to check
whether your camera and its raw file format are supported. New camer-
as are added all the time, and this is the place to get the best up-to-date
information.
The webpage contains a few useful notes for each camera. You can
see whether Capture One Pro supports tethered shooting as well being
able to read a live view feed from your camera. There is also information
about what kind of special raw files that Capture One Pro will import like
mRaw and sRaw for Canon, Raw-M for Nikon, uncompressed raw file for
Sony cameras or IIQ S for Phase One. Finally, there might certain fea-
tures that are not supported, like the Pixel shift mode from Pentax. It is
therefore always a good practice to check what is supported or not for
your particular camera if Capture One Pro seems to have trouble read-
ing your raw file.
Importing and working with TIFF and PSD files

Capture One Pro will import pretty much all TIFF and PSD files, but there
are certain limitations on what you can do with them if they have been
saved in a special format.
Capture One Pro will show the image content of files saved in Greyscale
and CMYK modes for both TIFF and PSD, but you cannot edit those
types of files. In other words, you can use Capture One Pro to keep the
Greyscale and CMYK files organized with the rest of your images, but
there is no way to use any adjustments on them. The same is true if you
save a Greyscale image as JPEG or PNG (those two file formats cannot
be saved as CMYK).
If you are in doubt whether an imported file format can be edited, just
select it and go to one of the adjustment tools. The sliders will be inac-
tive if the file format isn’t supported for image editing.
Note that you can import and edit TIFF and PSD files in both 8-bit, 16-bit
and even 32-bit formats. The 32-bit support is important if you’re work-
ing on HDR (High Dynamic Range) images where multiple exposures
have been merged into a 32-bit HDR file.
Importing files with Photoshop layers

Capture One Pro can both import and edit files that contain layers from
Photoshop. This is true for both TIFF and PSD files. It is, however, im-
portant that you make sure to select the Maximize Compatibility option
when saving the files in Photoshop.
This will make sure that Photoshop creates and embed a flatten version
of the image so that Capture One Pro – and other applications – can
recognize the content and effects of the layers. Note that Capture One
Pro will not have access to editing the layers, it will only be able to work
on what is the equivalent of a flattened version of the file.
It is also worth to point out that those Photoshop layers will be overwrit-
ten and lost if you export a file from Capture One Pro with either the Pro-
cess or the Edit With… commands. If you want to retain the layers, use
the Open With… command instead.
Support of DNG raw files

Capture One Pro can import and edit raw files that are saved in the Ado-
be DNG raw format. In most cases, it should work just fine, but the color
rendering might be a bit different than if you imported the original raw
file.
Capture One Pro can actually treat and render the DNG file as if it was
the original file, but the RAW data needs to have been embedded in the
DNG file at the point of conversion. It also needs to support the camera
raw files natively.
You include the original raw file during the conversion to DNG format by
selecting the Embed Original Raw File option. Note that this will make
the file size larger, so it might be a better solution to just keep the origi-
nal raw file as well as a DNG converted version.
Using DNG to import raw files not yet supported
Sometimes Adobe is faster to support the raw files from a brand-new
camera than Capture One Pro. In this case, you can often convert the
raw files to DNG with the free Adobe DNG software and import those
files. You should only use this as an intermediate solution, however, as
you will not get the proper support of colors before Capture One Pro
can access the original raw. Until then, a generic ICC Profile called DNG
File Neutral will be added in the Base Characteristics tool.
It should also be noted that you cannot use the DNG format to import
all kinds of raw files. Capture One Pro does not support medium format
cameras like the Fujifilm GXF 50S, presumably because they are com-
peting with Phase One’s own camera brand. Even if you convert those
raw files to DNG, they will not be recognized by Capture One Pro.
Capture images by shooting tethered
Capture One Pro have very powerful tools and features to shoot teth-
ered and is arguably the industry-leading solution when it comes to cap-
turing images instantly. Once you have connected a compatible camera,
you can import images as you shoot, control the camera settings directly
from within Capture One Pro, use autofocus, and enjoy a Live View feed
to get the composition just right or to check for perfect focusing.
You can shoot tethered with either a Catalog or a Session; the workflow
is essentially the same. We will cover the subtle differences between us-
ing a Catalog and a Session as we go along, but it is worth to mention
most prefer to use a Session. A Session is recommended because the
file management is much more transparent than with a Catalog and ev-
erything is kept nicely organized within one master folder that is porta-
ble and easy to share. A Session also makes it easier to work on a proj-
ect by project or client by client basis.
If you are going to capture a lot of images, you should consider creating
a new Session (or Catalog) as this will speed things up and make it easi-
er to keep everything organized.
If you are not sure whether your camera is supported, go to this weblink
at Phase One and check the list.
It will also note whether Live View is supported for your camera or not.
Getting started
Before connecting the camera, you need to make sure that you have
chosen the correct connection method in the camera’s menu system.
Check the instruction manual for this. Some cameras just work, but with
others, like a Sony, you need to make sure that the connection type is
set to PC Remote.
All the tools you need to shoot tethered is organized under the Capture
Tool Tab.
Once Capture One Pro recognizes that you have attached a supported
camera, it will show up in the Camera tool. This tool will be covered in
detail later.
Getting the Exposure right
The Exposure Evaluation tool at the top is only meant as a guideline

on how well exposed the selected captured image is. The tool makes
it easy to set the exposure, but it doesn’t mirror the Histogram tool per-
fectly, so you should use the latter if you are going to do precise image
adjustments.

Adjust advanced camera settings
The Camera Settings tool allows you to make several advanced adjust-
ments to the camera’s settings. For example, beyond just selecting the
desired Exposure Program, you can also change
Flash Compensation, Focus Mode, Aspect Ratio amongst many other
settings.
The settings available is highly dependent on the camera manufacturer

and model. For example, a Phase One XF Camera and IQ3 series Digital
Back from Phase One will allow you to control a vast number of system
settings directly from Capture One Pro.
Naming files during capture
When shooting tethered, captured files are named on import using the
Next Capture Naming tool. Capture One Pro can use metadata to au-
tomatically create the names of the files by something called Tokens.
These will be explained in full detail in another chapter, but just to give
you an idea, you can for example use the date of capture or the cam-
era serial number. If you want to rename the files with this feature, you
should click on the tree-dotted icon at the end of the Format field.
In this example, we have used three Tokens. Note the Sample naming
at the bottom. The first Token, Document Name, inserts the name of the
Session (or Catalog). The next Token, Name, add the text you have en-
tered in the Name field. This is very useful, because you can change the
text on the fly when you start shooting a new subject, and the files will
then automatically get the correct subject naming during capture. Finally,
a 4 Digit Counter is added to make sure that the file names are unique.
It is a good practice to add an underscore between the Tokens to sepa-
rate their data in the file name, making it easier to read.
Note that the Digit Counter Token has a small triangle at the end, if you
click on it you can choose up to 6 digits. You can reset the counter back
to zero or set it to start with a specific number of your choice. Just click
on the options icon in the Next Capture Naming tool and choose Reset
Capture Counter or Set Capture Counter….
Choosing the Capture Location
If you are using a Session, the captured images will by default be saved
in the Capture folder. You can change the destination folder with the
Next Capture Location tool by choosing the Destination drop-down
menu and selecting Choose Folder….
You are then prompted to select a folder (or create a new one), and then
choose Set as Capture Folder.
If you are shooting a lot of different subjects, like products or models, it

can be a great benefit to create subfolders for each subject. Many pre-
fer to create subfolders within main Capture folder to keep things nicely
organized. Just remember to change the Destination folder in the drop-
down menu when you move onto the next subject during your shoot.
Note that when you change the Capture folder, Capture One Pro will ask
whether you want to add it automatically to the Session Favorites in the
Library tool.
You should accept this because it gives you the ability to view and
search through all the images in folders marked as Favorites. Otherwise,
you can only view the images in the currently selected folder, which is a
limitation of the way a Session works.
Note how there is a small camera icon by Shot2 under Session Favor-
ites. This icon indicates that the captured images are currently being
saved to this subfolder. You can quickly change that by right-clicking on
another subfolder and choosing Set as Capture Folder.
Workflow tip:
You can let Capture One Pro automatically rename the captured files in
the fly to match that of the currently selected Capture folder. This is a
great tip to keep things organized and is done by using the special To-
ken called Destination Folder Name in the Next Capture Naming tool
(covered earlier in this chapter).
Shooting tethered with a Catalog

If you are using a Catalog when shooting tethering, the images will by
default be saved within the Catalog master file. This means that the cap-
tured images cannot be accessed from the Finder, Windows Explorer or
other applications.
You can change this by choosing the Destination drop-down menu and
select Choose Folder…. Then browse to the desired folder or create a
new one, and select that as the destination folder.
Note that when using a Catalog, you get an extra option called Collec-
tion in the Next Capture Location tool to keep things organized during
capture. By default, all the captured images will be added to a collection
in the Library tool named after the time and date. You will find this under
Recent Captures (see next page):
As a convenient option, you can instead create a custom collection and
then choose to have all captured images added to that. You do this by
creating a collection under User Collections, right-clicking on it, and
then select Set as Capture Collection.
Note the small camera icon; it indicates that this is now the active Cap-
ture Collection.
Next, you just need to select Capture Collection from the Collection
drop-down menu in the Next Capture Location tool. If you choose this
without having selected a Capture Collection first, you will see a small
warning.

Speed things up with Capture Adjustments
Keeping track of adjustments made to images can be difficult to monitor
during a busy tethered shoot, so you can instead rely on Capture One
Pro’s ability to assign certain image adjustments and metadata to the im-
ages on the fly as they are captured. This is done with the powerful Next
Capture Adjustments tool and there are a number of different options to
explore.
ICC Profile: Capture One Pro automatically recognizes the tethered

camera and selects the appropriate ICC profile. However, some camer-
as, like Phase One’s IQ Digital Backs, have multiple profiles, so you can
choose a specific one from the ICC Profile drop-down menu if desired.
Note that you can also choose Copy from Last or Copy from Prima-
ry and the ICC Profile will then be based on what you have chosen for
the image prior to the capture or based on the primary selected image.
These options are relevant if you change the ICC Profile in the Base
Characteristics tool during the capture session (see next page):
Orientation: If the camera is unable to determine the appropriate image
orientation using its built-in sensors, you can select the correct setting
from the Orientation pop-up-menu.
Metadata: You can set up the tethered shooting to add specific metada-
ta to all captured images. For this to work, you first need to select an im-
age (for example a test shot) and assign the required keywords, ratings
or IPTC metadata to it using the tools located under the Metadata Tool
Tab. Then return to the Next Capture Adjustments tool, and from the
Metadata drop-down menu, select Copy from Last, which will then copy
all the assigned metadata you just made to all the following captures.
Note that you can also narrow down which metadata that you want to
copy to the sequential captures by selecting the Copy specific from
Last…. This will give you a list of Metadata options that you can check
and uncheck depending on whether those should be copied going for-
ward (see next page):
The option to use Copy from Clipboard might also be very useful. This
feature will apply metadata based on what adjustments you have select-
ed in the Adjustments Clipboard tool (covered in detail in a later chap-
ter). This feature makes it easy to check and uncheck certain metadata
as you go along, depending on what is appropriate for the current cap-
tures.

Adding image adjustments during capture
By default, Capture One Pro is set up to copy image adjustments like
white balance and exposure to the next capture based on the prior im-
age. You will note this behavior is active because the Copy from Last is
already selected in the All Other drop-down menu.
The Copy from Last option means that if you have made some ad-
justments with for instance the White Balance tool, Exposure tool and
Curve tool on the latest image, those settings will automatically be ap-
plied to all captures going forward. In other words, the image adjust-
ments are “sticky” and will be applied to all new captures, until some-
thing is changed.
If you do not want those adjustments to be applied to the next captures,
you should choose Defaults to disable this feature. Note that you have
the same options to choose Copy specific from Last… and Copy from
Clipboard as in the Metadata drop-down menu. They work the same
way and can be very useful if you only want certain adjustments like
white balance, crop or exposure to be applied to all captured images.
Adding Presets or Styles
If you wish to assign a specific Style or Preset to all the captures, just
choose the desired one from the Styles drop-down menu. You can
choose both user-created ones, as well as the built-in ones that ship
with Capture One Pro.
Note that if you want to apply more than one, you need to select Stack
Styles. This comes in handy when you for example want to combine sev-
eral User Presets with different keywords or metadata.
Auto Alignment
This feature will automatically straighten the image on capture if Capture
One Pro receive information from the camera about any rotation or pitch.
This is only supported by Phase One XF cameras. If selected, the image
will be rotated slightly to be level. Some cropping will happen as part of
this, but it can be adjusted after the fact with the Rotation & Flip tool and
the Crop tool.
Using the Camera tool
The Camera tool lets you adjust the basic camera settings like Exposure
Program, Shutter Speed, Aperture, ISO value and file format. The op-
tions depend on the camera. You can only change the settings that have
a light grey outline, those with a darker grey need to be adjusted directly
on the camera.
You can capture an image by either clicking on the big Capture button
or press Command + K (Mac) or Ctrl + K (Windows). Once you have made
a test shot, it is easy to set the white balance correction. This is done by
choosing the White Balance eyedropper in Camera tool and clicking on
a neutral gray area of the image in the Viewer. Note the icon with a cam-
era on. It actives a Live View feed, and we will cover that feature in de-
tail later.
Camera Focus
You can control focus from the Camera Focus tool that accessible in
both the Capture tab and the Live View window (covered later).
Depending on your camera, you might only have the option to autofo-
cus by clicking on the AF icon, while other cameras allow you to man-
ually move the plane of focus. If manual focus is available, clicking on
one of the six Camera Focus arrow buttons will adjust focus closer to
the camera under Near or further away from the camera under Far. The
single-arrow icons for small focus increments, while the double- and tri-
ple-arrow icons are for larger movements.
It makes the most sense to use this feature when in the Live View win-
dow (covered later) where you can observe any change to the focus im-
mediately. On some cameras, you can zoom into the image in Live View
to check for critical sharpness and then fine-tune the plane of focus.
If your camera doesn’t support the manual focus control, like with Sony,
you can instead select Manual Focus on the camera and turn the focus
ring on the lens. Depending on your camera settings, this will activate
the magnified focus area on the Sony which will be mirrored in the Live
View feed, making it easy to fine-tune focus manually on Sony cameras
too.
Adding a Overlay
To aid composition when shooting tethered, you can insert a graphic file
as an overlay on a captured image or the Live View feed with the Over-
lay tool. You insert the composition aid file by clicking the File browse
(...) or dragging and dropping the file into the specified area. This feature
can be handy if you need to shoot a subject that should fit within a mag-
azine cover with text for example.
You can adjust the opacity of the inserted graphics file with the Opacity
slider, as well as scale and position the overlay with the Scale, Horizon-
tal and Vertical sliders. You can also click on the hand icon and move
the overlay directly on the image. Once done, you can hide and show
the overlay by clicking on Show.
Using Live View during capture
Capture One Pro’s Live View feature is an excellent way to capture test
shots and checking for critical focus. Click on the Live View button (mov-
ie camera icon) to open a Live View window.
Note that there are two tabs, Live View, and Capture.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
At the top of the Live View window, there is a toolbar and some cursor
tools that are helpful to know about.
1 This button will switch between pausing and starting the

Live View feed from the camera.
2 Here you can turn the Overlay on or off as an aid to get the
composition right. Read about the tool above on how to
load a graphics as an overlay.
3 This function turns the Alignment on and off. These are

Guides that you can add from the View menu.
4 With this option, you can choose between a live view image
in colors (RGB) or a greyscale. Greyscale can make the com-
position easier as there are no colors to distract.
5 By choosing the DOF feature, the lens will be stopped down

to the working aperture on supported Canon EOS cameras.
With certain Nikon DSLR bodies, the feature is called EPV
instead.
6 This will open the Preferences in the Capture tab.
7 You can customize the Toolbar in the Live View window by

clicking on this button.
Live View Cursor tools
1 2 3 4
1 Hand Cursor tool Double-click to zoom to 100% in the Live

View window and pan around.
2 Zoom Cursor tool Zoom into the image, and press Alt and click
to zoom out.
3 White Balance Cursor tool If the white balance is off, you can
use the tool to set a correct one by clicking on a grey area.
Note that this change does not affect the white balance on the
captured images, it is only meant to aid you when working in
the Live View window.
4 Focus Meter tool This will initiate the Live View Focus Meter
tool which is described in detail below.
Live View Navigator
This tool should be self-explanatory. If you have zoomed into the image,
the Live View Navigator tool gives an overview of where you are cur-
rently. You can click on another area in the window to check for focus on
that part of the image.
Live View Controls
This tool lets you orient the Live View feed with the Orientation drop-
down menu in case it does not align the way you want. You can also ad-
just the Lightness slider to make the Live View feed darker or brighter.
Some cameras support the ability to adjust the Live View image quality.
Higher levels will update the image slower. Finally, you can pause and
start the Live View feed. It might be a good idea to pause the feed when
you’re not using it for a longer period, as it will use battery power on the
camera.
Camera Focus
See the part about this tool earlier in the chapter for an explanation on
how to use it.
Live View Info
This tool is only supported on Phase One XF cameras. It will read the 3D
sensors on the camera and show you whether it is level or not. Note that
Capture One Pro can use this information to adjust rotation and apply
perspective correction automatically on files captured with a XF camera.

Live View Focus Meter
If you have a Phase One XF or 645DF+ camera in combination with an
IQ3/2 series Digital Back, you will get the option to use the Live View
Focus Meter tool in the Live View window. This tool can be used to
achieve optimal sharpness when using manual focus by giving feedback
on when the contrast level is peaking.
You activate the tool by clicking on the Focus Meter icon, then click on
the Live View window’s viewer to set a focus area. You can add up to
three different Focus Meter areas so it makes sense to select both the
nearest and furthest points that need to be in acceptable focus together
with the part that must have critical sharpness.
You can adjust the size of the focus meter area by dragging the orange
frame to make sure that it only gives feedback on an important part of
the subject. Note that since the feature looks for high contrast to indi-
cate a well-focused area, you should place and limit the Focus Meter to
areas with detail and/or distinct edges.
Once you have added the Focus Meter areas, slowly turn the focus
ring on the lens while observing the meter readouts. The optimal focus
is represented as an orange-colored marker at the end, and you have
achieved optimal focus once the main white colored part of meter peaks
at, or close to, this orange marker.
The tool is a great way to find the best focus point that achieves good
sharpness for both the near and far points on the subject. Just turn the
focus ring until the Focus Meter readouts for both reach the orange
marker. If that isn’t possible, you will need to expand the depth of field
by closing the camera’s aperture down.
Overlay
See the part about this tool earlier in the chapter for an explanation on
how to use it.

Using the Camera Menu
The tethering feature in Capture One Pro has some additional features
and settings that are chosen in the main Camera menu.
Composition Mode
This mode allows you to shoot multiple test shots without filling up hard
drive space because each new capture overwrites the previous image. It
is meant to be used on test shots only while you work on the light setup
and composition.
Once activated, six icons will be displayed over the image as a warning
that Composition Mode is on and all images will be overwritten. Remem-
ber to deselect Composition Mode in the Camera menu to turn it off be-
fore starting your proper captures.
Hot Folder
If Capture One Pro does not support shooting tethering with your cam-
era, you can still use most of the capture features. Your camera might
come with its own tethering application that you can use to capture the
images to a specific folder on the fly.
If you are using a Session, you just need to navigate to that specific fold-
er under System Folders in the Library tool, right-click on it and select
Set as Capture Folder. Capture One Pro will now continuously add the
images from that location as if it was a native tethered shooting.
If you are using a Catalog, you instead need to use the so-called Hot
Folder feature. Go to the Camera menu and chose Select Hot Folder….
and then browse to the folder where the images are captured to, and se-
lect Open. Next, remember to select and enable Hot Folder Enabled in
the Camera menu.
If the captured images do not automatically show in the Browser, go to

the Library tool and select the current date and time under Recent Cap-
tures.
Auto Select New Capture
Capture One Pro has four different modes to control how previews are
updated and displayed in the Viewer during tethered capture. These are
selected from the Auto Select New Capture submenu in the Capture
main menu.
Never will show the same image without updating the Viewer when new
shots are captured.
Immediately displays a fast-rendered preview without any adjustments
applied. It will then proceed to re-render the preview with any adjust-
ments that should be applied, like white balance. This option makes
sense if you want to work as fast as possible.
When ready displays a high-quality preview with all the adjustments ap-
plied. This is slower, but you will get the proper white balance and expo-
sure from the start.
Auto Pause will keep showing the same selected image even when
newer files are captured. This might be valuable if you need to check fo-
cus on a specific image. The image isn’t updated until the option is de-
selected again.
Note that you can also select the options in the Camera menu from the
Camera tool. Just click on the options menu in the top-right corner to
open the menu.

Capture Pilot
The Capture Pilot tool works in conjunction with the Capture Pilot app
on an iOS device and lets you, or other people view, zoom and pan the
high-resolution images while shooting. You can also add star and col-
or ratings from the Capture Pilot app. Note that by buying an add-on in
Capture Pilot you can even adjust the exposure settings and trigger your
camera’s shutter from the app.
The Capture Pilot tool also has a web function that let you view, rate and
color tag captured images from a web browser on a computer, Android
or Windows Phone operating system.
Connecting an iPad or iPhone to Capture One
Open the Capture Pilot tool, type in a Server Name and from the Folder
drop-down menu select which folder you want to share the captured im-
ages from. This will typically be the folder location where you are captur-
ing the images to.
It is possible to type in the password if you are on a large, shared net-

work but it is not required. Then choose Mobile Device (or Mobile and
Web) from the Publish To drop-down menu and finally click on Start Im-
age Server.
Under the Mobile Tab in the Capture Pilot tool, you can choose which
permissions you want to grant people that are using the Capture Pilot
app. You might for example want to uncheck Adjust images and Capture
images, if you prefer to be in full control of those.
Using the Capture Pilot app
Open the Capture Pilot app on the iPad or iPhone and select the name
Server from the Server List.
Tap on an image to view it full screen. You control the app by tapping on
the icons at the bottom. The Camera icon opens the Camera window
where you can adjust basic settings and capture the next image. The
next icon opens a histogram that you can select and move to another
location on the screen. The Star icon opens a little row that let you set
the color tag and star rating of the current image. Finally, you can set the
white balance by tapping on the picker icon. Once activated, you tap on
a specific area on the image to set the white balance from that part. On
the right side, you can move through the captured images.
Tip: You do not need to have a camera attached or be shooting tethered

to take advantage of the Capture Pilot app. The cool thing is that you
can always start an image server from the Capture Pilot tool in Capture
One Pro and view and rate the images from any folder you like. Just
locate the desired folder from the Folder drop-down menu in the Cap-
ture Pilot tool. Any changes to the Color tag or Rating will be synchro-
nized back to Capture One Pro immediately so this could be a great way
to sit comfortably in the couch and rate the images or let someone else
do it without having the fear that they might mess with your image ad-
justments.
Connect to a web browser
Open the Capture Pilot tool, type a Server Name and choose a folder
from the Folder drop-down menu where you want to share the captured
images from. You can type in the password if you are on a large, shared
network, but it is not required. Then choose Web Browser (or Mobile
and Web) from the Publish To drop-down menu, and click on Start Im-
age Server. Click on the email icon. An email with a link can now be sent
to a recipient.
Under the Web tab in the Capture Pilot tool, you can choose how to dis-
play the captured images with the Theme drop-down menu.
Capture Pilot Classic will show the images as thumbnails which you se-
lect to view full screen, while Fullscreen is the other way around with a
large image center and a film strip at the bottom. You can also choose
which permissions you want to grant people that are using the web
browser interface. You can deselect the Rate Images and Color Tag Im-
ages.
To access the web browser capture session, the recipient just needs
to click on the link they have received in their email. Note that the web
browser feature is designed to work on a local network.
Rename files and create folders
automatic with Tokens
Capture One Pro has a very powerful feature that can rename files or
create folders automatically based on metadata like capture date, star
Rating or Color Tag. You do this with the so-called Tokens, and the fea-
ture is particularly useful when you are exporting images because it al-
lows you to keep the files organized and easy to identify outside Cap-
ture One. It can be a big timesaver, so it is well worth to learn about.
The concept of Tokens is best illustrated with a simple example. Let us

assume that you have been shooting multiple products. To keep things
organized, you have created an Album for each product ID and have rat-
ed all the images by giving them a star rating.
You now need to share the images with a client or art director for them
to review. By using the Tokens feature, you can easily setup Capture
One Pro to export all the images in folders and subfolders so that your
labeling and rating can easily be recognized by others. Tokens will ap-
pear as a grey box with white text as shown with the Collection Name
and the Rating tokens used here:
In this example, Capture One Pro has created top folders for each Al-
bum (the Collection Name is based on the name of the albums), and
within each of these folders, subfolders are created and named by the
different Ratings. Each image is then automatically put into the right sub-
folder during export. So, the product shot of the red rose that you have
rated as a 4-star shot will be saved in the 4_Stars subfolder within the
Red Rose top folder.
Hopefully, you can now see how Tokens can save a ton of time when
you need to export 200 images and organize them in specific folders
while also renaming them.
This concept of creating folders and saving the files within them auto-
matically is called Dynamic Locations by the Capture One Pro team.
Things can be much more powerful than in this simple example, and this
chapter will explore a lot of the possibilities.
Widespread advantages of Tokens

Tokens can be used for several tasks throughout Capture One Pro when
you need to rename files and/or create folders. These are the five main
features where Tokens can speed up your workflow greatly:
• Import Images
• Capture (tethering)
• Batch Rename
• Process Output
• Watermark
With most of these features, you can both rename the files as well as
creating folders and subfolders automatically based on the metadata.
The Batch Rename, Process Output, and Watermark will be covered in
later chapters.
Selecting a Token
If you can use a Token in Capture One Pro, you will see a rectangle with
tree-dots at the end of a Format, Sub Folder or Sub Name text field.
When you click on that icon, the Tokens dialog box appears. You can
also just start typing in the text field, and the matching Tokens will ap-
pear, but this is mainly for power users. If you are new to the concept, it
is recommended to start out in the Tokens dialog box, which we will look
at now.
5
3
4
2
1
1 Tokens This list contains all the Tokens that you can use. Dou-
ble-click on a Token to use it, or click and drag it onto the For-
mat field.
2 Group You can narrow down the selection of Tokens by the

Group list to keep things a bit more manageable.
3 Format You drag any Tokens you want to use into the area. You
can also type in some additional text to make a Token more de-
scriptive.
4 Sample This will show you an example of how the file or folder
name will be composed.
5 Presets When you have made the perfect combination of To-

kens, you can save them by clicking on the Save User Preset…
for later use or selecting them from the Presets pop-up menu.
Tips to improve Tokens
When you want to create a series of subfolders, remember to put a slash
between each Token. You use a forward slash / on a Mac and a back-
ward slash on Windows.
It is a good practice to put an underscore between Tokens when you

use them to rename your files. Otherwise, it can be difficult to tell each
point of data from another.
You should take advantage of the possibility to type in some text in front
of or after certain Tokens to make sure that the inserted data makes
sense. You can for example add “Stars” after the Rating-token so that
your output is more than just a number. Likewise, you might also want to
add Year in front of a Year-token, so the number is put in proper context.
Note the many IPTC-related Tokens corresponds to IPTC metadata that

you can add yourself with the Metadata tool. The Metadata tool will be
covered in a later chapter, for now, you should just keep the relation be-
tween the two in mind as the IPTC metadata can be the icing in the cake
when you want to take full advantage of the Tokens.
You should be aware that you cannot currently use Keywords as a To-
ken. The reason is that Capture One Pro wouldn’t know which of the
keywords to add if you have applied several or are using hierarchical
keywords (more on that in a later chapter). One way to circumvent this
limitation is to add a Description, Scene or Location annotation to the
image with the Metadata tool and then use the corresponding Token.

The most useful and powerful Tokens
There is an almost endless list of useful combinations that you can come
up with based on your preferred workflow. There is really no right or
wrong. The usefulness of some of the Tokens might not be immediately
apparent, so to get your imagination going, the following is a list some of
the most useful and powerful ones you can experiment with.
1 Digit Counter
This is probably one of the Tokens that you will use the most since it
adds a sequence of numbers to a file name. If you click on the little ar-
row on this Token, you can choose up to 6 digits. Note that this Token is
only possible when rename files, not with creating folders.
Clipboard Contents
A very useful Token because it will paste in whatever text you have cop-
ied to the clipboard on your computer. If you for example have a text file
with all the model or product names, you can copy those tags one by
one while you capture or output files of the model or product and then
having the proper names applied as you go along.
Collection Name
This is a powerful way to reuse your organization of the files in Capture
One Pro when you output them. This Token simply takes the name a se-
lected Collection like an Album, a Sessions Folder or a Smart Album
(more on those in a later chapter) and either rename a file or create a
new folder with the name. Note that you need to select the desired Col-
lection in the Library tool first for it to use this name.
Destination Folder Name

This Token is very useful when you want to rename files on the fly during
a tethering session. It will name the files according to the name of the
folder that the captured files are saved to. One way to take advantage
of this is to name a Capture folder for each of the subjects shot during a
Session and then having the files automatically named after the currently
selected Capture folder.
Image Folder Name

This Token will take the name of the folder where the original file is
stored and then either rename a file or create a new folder with the
name. This is useful when you just want to reuse the name of an import
or capture folder and copy it to an output folder.
Job Name
Note that the metadata for this Token should be added within the Import
Images dialog box to work, but it gives you the option to add a common
description for those imported images to reuse in file or folder names.
Recipe Name / Recipe Format

The concept of using Recipes to output images will be explored in a lat-
er chapter, but think of them as Presets for exporting images. You might
have a Recipe called Web and another called Print for different output
purposes. The Recipe Name and Recipe Format Tokens let you create
folders and rename images during export based on that Recipe you are
using. This way, you can automatically distribute exported images based
on their target, like a certain version for web and others for print.
Session Sub Path

This is meant for Sessions only and will mirror the subfolder structure
from your Capture folder to the Output folder during export. This can be
a big timesaver if you have a large number of subfolders – for example
for each product ID - in the Capture folder. This setup is often the pre-
ferred workflow for a fast-paced tethering session. Note that you can
also use the Session Sub Path (Long) Token which will include top folder
that the images are stored within, like Capture or Selects.
Date and Time
These Tokens cover arguably that most used way to organize images,
namely by date and time. You can select 12 different Tokens that are ei-
ther based on the image date or the current date. Note that you can
combine for example Image Year and Image Month Tokens if you don’t
want to include the day. Remember that you can change the time format
by clicking on the little arrow on the Tokens.
The Tokens features continues on next page >

Metadata - Basic
While basic, the Rating and Color Tag Tokens are extremely useful. It
makes the most sense to use these to create folders and subfolders
during output, so other people can quickly identify which images you
consider the best and which you regard as rejects that should be delet-
ed. Most use the Green Color Tag for the top-rated images, and the Red
for those that should be deleted.
Format
A very handy Token when you want to separate raw and jpeg files into
different subfolders during import or export.
Image Name
This Token reuses the name of the file. This can be useful if you need to
create subfolders based on the image name or want to rename files but
still want to keep the original name as a part of the syntax.
Metadata - Vendor Specific
Camera Serial
This Token can be very useful if you have shared a memory card with
another photographer or are using two cameras and need to separate
the images into different folders based on the cameras different serial
numbers.
Lens
Sometimes it might be useful to separate or name images based on the
lens used. This Token will obviously help you with that.
Sequence ID
This Token is for XF Camera users and lets you rename or organize the
output of your images into folders by Sequence ID. A XF Camera re-
cords a Sequence ID number into the files when shooting for example a
focus stacking or a time-lapse sequence. This way the XF Camera and
Capture One Pro will know that certain images are part of one, specific
shot. This is particularly useful when you want to merge images from fo-
cus stacking with Helicon Focus.
Metadata - EXIF - Camera
These Tokens can be useful if you need to separate your files into dif-
ferent folders depending on what camera model you have used or what
Owner metadata that the camera has embedded into the files. The Own-
er data can also be used as a part of renaming the files.

Metadata - EXIF - Exposure
Sometimes it might be useful to separate or name images based on the

Exif data like Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO, and you can do this with
Tokens too. The Focal Length Tokens is useful when you want to sepa-
rate the images taken of a subject at different focal lengths.

Metadata - IPTC - Contact
All of the metadata content that you have entered into the IPTC Contact
part of the Metadata tool can be used as Tokens too. This way you can
reuse your Creator, Address, Phones or even Websites data to rename
files or create folders. This could be useful if you want to be sure that
the people receiving the files never mistakes where the files are coming
from. The Creator Tokens is also great when you want to embed your
name as a Watermark on your exported files.

Metadata - IPTC - Content
If you have entered for example a Description, Headline or Category

into the IPTC Content of the Metadata tool, you can reuse these as To-
kens. The Description is the most useful because you can add this in the
Metadata field when you are importing images and reuse it as an output
folder.

Metadata - IPTC - Image
There are a couple of very nice Tokens to use within this group because
you can use Image City, Image Country, and Scene or Location to gen-
erate names and folders. Just remember to enter this information with
the Metadata tool first in the IPTC – Image part.

Metadata - IPTC - Status
If you want to create folders or name files based on Tokens like Copy-
right Notice or Instructions, you need to enter that data in the IPTC –
Status part of the Metadata tool. Most of these Tokens are specialized
but keep them in mind as they might be able to solve a specific task
down the line.
Renaming files
It probably makes the most sense to rename your files while importing
images or shooting tethered. We have already covered how you can use
Tokens to automatically rename files based on metadata in earlier chap-
ters. The same concept can be used when you are exporting images
with the Process Recipe feature that will be covered in a later chapter.
You can, however, rename a file in Capture One Pro at any point. If you
just need to rename a single file, select it in the Browser and either go
the File menu and select Rename Image or click on the name below the
image in the Browser.
You can now type in a new name and hit Enter when you’re done. The
original file will change its filename on the system level just as if you re-
named it with the Finder or the Window Explorer.
There is a more powerful way to rename a single or multiple images,

though, and that is done with the Batch Rename feature.
Batch Rename Image

The Batch Rename Image feature can be used both to rename all the
selected files or find a certain part of the filename and replace it with an-
other of your choice. Either way, select the images that you want to re-
name in the Browser first and then go the File menu and chose Batch
Rename Images…. Note that you can also use this feature on a single
image.
If you are using a Catalog, you will now be greeted by a warning. It re-
minds you that any renamed files can lose their reference if used out-
side the current catalog.
This can be an issue if you have added the same files to another Cata-
log, otherwise just click on Continue….
In the Batch Renaming tool, you can now choose whether you want to
rename the files based on Text and Tokens or want to perform a Find
and Replace. This is done from the Method drop-down menu.
Renaming files with Text and Tokens

Renaming the files with the Text and Tokens method works the same as
the Naming tool in the Import Images dialog box, or the Next Capture
Naming tool used when shooting tethered.
You can just enter a basic text name in the Format field if you wish, but
there is a more powerful solution. Capture One Pro can use metadata to
automatically create the names of the files by something called Tokens.
These was explained in full detail in a prior chapter, but you can for ex-
ample use the date of capture to rename the files automatically. You get
access to the Tokens by clicking on the tree-dotted icon at the end of
the Format field (see next page):
In the example above, we have used tree Tokens. The first Token, Doc-
ument Name, inserts the name of the Session (or Catalog). The next To-
ken, Job Name, add the text you have entered in the Job Name field be-
low. Finally, a 3 Digit Counter is added to make sure that the file names
are unique. Remember to add an underscore between the Tokens to
separate their data in the file name, making it easier to read. When
ready, click on Rename.
Tip: Instead of renaming the files during import, it might make sense to
wait until you have rated the images or done other tasks of the organiza-
tion. The benefit of waiting and using Batch Rename Images is that you
will have more metadata to use in conjunction with the Tokens, making it
possible to construct more advanced renaming schemes.
Rename using Find and Replace
The Find and Replace feature is obviously the best solution when you
want to replace a certain part of a filename with another. Note that you
will need to select all the images that Capture One Pro should perform
the action on before using the Batch Rename Tool. Images that are not
selected in the Browser will not be included.
Once ready, just type in the current and the desired text in the Find and
Replace fields. Capture One Pro will show you an example of the re-
placed name in Sample.
Note that the feature will not replace the entire original filename. It will
only change the part of the name that you have entered in the Find field.
Click Rename when ready.
Organizing: Culling and rating your images
The first step in getting your image collection organized is to rate them
and find out which are keepers and which should be deleted. Capture
One Pro has a couple of very nice features that can speed up this part of
the workflow which we will explore in this chapter.
Checking for correct focus

If your images are not sharp, it doesn’t help much
that the composition or exposure is perfect. Chanc-
es are that you want to delete them right away, or at
least tag them as problematic files. Capture One Pro
has a very nice feature called Focus Mask that will
analyze each image and show the areas that have
sufficient sharpness via a mask overlay.
You activate the feature by going to the View menu

and selecting Show Focus Mask. This is a great aid
when you are browsing through the images and
want to remove all those where the plane of focus is
wrong, and the eyes are blurry for example.
The Focus Mask feature works by highlighting the

areas in the image that has high contrast. This is im-
portant to be aware of as smooth areas of skin tones
or a clear sky might not be highlighted, even if that
part of the image is within the depth of focus.
If you doubt whether a particular part of an image is

indeed out of focus or sharp, you can quickly check
that with the Loupe cursor tool. You either choose it
by hitting the keyboard shortcut P or by selecting it
from the Cursor Toolbar. Then click on the image you
want to review.
The beauty of the Loupe cursor tool is that you do

not need to zoom into 100 percent and pan around
in the image to check for the critical sharpness, you
can just click on the part of the image you want to ex-
amine. A very nice feature of the Loupe cursor tool is
that you can use it to check images both in the View-
er and the Browser.
You should also note that the Loupe zoom level can be changed to for
example 50% for a bit faster viewing or 200% if you need to check the
fine detail. The combination of the Focus Mask and the Loupe tool is a
really great asset when you are doing your initial culling based on sharp-
ness levels.
By default, the color of the Focus Mask is green, but you can change
this under Preferences in the Focus tab. Here you also have the option
to change the Threshold for how sharp the detail needs to be before to
mask overlay shows.
Color Tag for rejected and favorite shots

While you are reviewing your images for sharpness, you should mark the
problematic files by adding a Color Tag so that you can easily discard
them at the end. Most use Red, and the fastest way to tag it is to hit the
keyboard shortcut minus (-) while the file is selected. Note that you can
also Color Tag your favorites shots with for example Green by hitting the
keyboard shortcut plus (+) or add Yellow with an asterisk (*). This way
you can do a rough, initial classification of all the images while reviewing
them for critical sharpness.
You can also add the Color Tags by going to the Ad-
justments menu and selecting Color Tag and then
the desired tag or add it by clicking on the little
square box under the image in the Viewer or Brows-
er. Keyboard shortcuts are just much faster for most
people to use.
You should note that you can change or add keyboard shortcuts to the
Color Tags if you want to expand on their usefulness. You might for ex-
ample want to use the Blue Color Tag to indicate that those images
need to be processed or Orange for those you are not quite ready to
delete just yet. You change the keyboard shortcuts by going to the menu
and selecting Capture One > Edit Keyboard Shortcuts… on the Mac or
Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts on Windows. You will find the commands un-
der Adjustments > Color tag in the Edit Keyboard Shortcuts dialog box.
Note that if you have selected multiple images, the Color Tag is only
added to the Primary Variant, unless you have enabled Edit All Selected
Variants from the Edit menu. So always keep an eye on that.
The Primary Variant is the image with the thick white border in the
Browser.
Deleting the rejected images

If you want to delete all the files that you have tagged with Red (or an-
other Color Tag), then go to the Edit menu and choose Select By > Color
Tag > Red.
Now all those images with the Red tag will be selected, and you can se-
lect File > Move to Catalog Trash (in a Catalog) or File > Move to Trash
(In a Session) or just hit Delete.
Rating images
Most people like to rate their image collection with some granulari-
ty by using star ratings, and this is done very fast with keyboard short-
cuts: They are very easy to remember; hitting the number 4 will apply a
star-rating of four, and so forth.
You can also add the ratings by going to the Adjust-

ments menu and selecting Rating and then the de-
sired number or by clicking on the row of dots below
the image in the Viewer or Browser. You can change
the keyboard shortcuts, but in this case, it doesn’t
make much sense to do so.
Note that if you have selected multiple images, the Rating is only added
to the Primary Variant, unless you have enabled Edit All Selected Vari-
ants from the Edit menu. The Primary Variant is the image with the thick
white border in the Browser.
Comparing images for rating

It makes the most sense to rate an image when you can compare it
against others, especially if they are of the same subject. Capture One
Pro has two ways to help you with this.
The first way is to

select a small num-
ber of images in the
Browser to view side
by side in the View-
er. Let us assume
that you select four
to be able to view
them at a decent
size. Once you have
rated those four, you can move to the next four images in your collection
by going to the Edit menu and choose Select Next Set or hit the key-
board shortcut Alt + right arrow.
Capture One Pro calls the selected number of images for a Set, and this
feature makes it quick to move through your collection while adding star
ratings.
You select a different image loaded in the Viewer with the arrows on
your keyboard and then hit a number for the desired rating. The rating
will be added to the Primary Variant that has a thick, white border in the
Viewer. You need be sure you have not enabled Edit All Selected Vari-
ants in the Edit menu. Otherwise, ALL of the selected images will get the
same rating.
The concept of Sets means that you can rate an entire collection very
quickly using just your keyboard. So, to recap the Next Set workflow:
You select four images, then move through them with the arrow keys
while applying a star Rating to each one by tapping a number from 1 to
5. You can obviously also add Color Tags while doing this. When done,
you move on to the next four images set by hitting the Alt + right key,
and then apply ratings to these four images, and so forth.
You can obviously select another number of images instead of four if

you please, the principle is the same.
Note that you can use keyboard shortcuts to move back to the previ-
ous set by using the Alt + left key. The Edit menu will also show you the
needed keyboard shortcuts for selecting the first or the last image in
your selection.
Note that if no image selected, the Select First and Select Last command
will go to the very first and last image in your collection.
Choosing your hero shot with Compare Variant

Sometimes you need to find that one hero image from a selection of
captures that might be very similar. The best approach to picking the
perfect shot is to compare your hero candidate against the others until
you are sure that you have selected the very best.
This is done with the Compare Variant feature in Capture One Pro. First,
you select the hero candidate image you want to judge the other against
by going to the Edit menu and choos-
ing Set as Compare Variant (or hit the
keyboard shortcut Shift + Enter). This
will mark the image with an orange
border and load the next image in the
viewer so you can start comparing
them side by side.
You can now move through the re-

maining images by using the arrow
keys, and if you find a better image,
you can promote that as your hero
candidate by choosing Set as Com-
pare Variant.
The image selected as a Compare

Variant will stay displayed in the View-
er window until you choose Edit >
Clear Compare Variant (or hit the keyboard shortcut Command + Enter).
Workflow Tip In order to narrow down

the choice of possible hero images,
you might want to select only those
with a top-rating. You do this by going
to the Filters tool in the Library Tool
Tab and select the star rating under
Rating you want to choose from. You
can select more than one rating by
holding down Alt and clicking on the
options.
We will explore the Filters tools in detail in a later chapter.
Note that can you can combine the Compare Variant and the Next Set
features in order to review more than one image side by side with your
hero candidate. You add more than one image by Shift-clicking on them
in the Browser. When you choose Select Next Set, the Compare Variant
will remain in the Viewer while the rest of the images are replaced.
Remember that you can always add a Color Tag or a star-rating to the
selected image with the keyboard shortcuts while going through the im-
age collection.
Tip You can change the orange border of a Compare Variant to another
color in the Preferences under Appearance with the Compare Variant
Color option. Here you can also change to color of the Selected Variant
from white if you wish.
Organize by using Albums
Albums are a great way to keep a large image collection organized.
Think of an Album as a virtual folder, where you collect images that have
something in common, for example an event, a subject, a person or a lo-
cation.
It is important to note you don’t actually move a file when adding it to an

Album; the files will always remain in their original location on the drive.
Everything is managed virtually, and this means that you can always de-
lete, rename or move an Album without affecting the image files. An im-
age can also belong to multiple Albums without any files being duplicat-
ed.
Creating an Album
You create an Album within the Library tool by clicking on the + icon un-
der User Collections in a Catalog (or under Session Albums in a Ses-
sion) and select Album. It is also possible to right-click within the Library
tool and select New > Album.
You can now give the Album a name and select whether you want to
add the images that are currently selected to the new Album with the
Add selected images after creation option. You can also choose to auto-
matically choose the Album with the Select collection after creation op-
tion.
Adding images to an Album
There is a number of ways to add images to an album. You can select
images in the Browser and drag them onto the Album under User Col-
lections, but there are other methods that are faster in most circum-
stances.
You can select all the images for your Album in the browser first, then
right-click on them and choose Create Albums From > Selection…
You will be greeted by the same dialog box as above. Just remember to
check the Add selected images after creation box, and the Album with
the images will be created.
Note that you can also create albums based on Rating, Color Tag or Se-
quence ID via the Create Albums From submenu:
When doing so, Capture One Pro will create a number of Albums that
are named after the applied Ratings, Color Tags or Sequence ID’s includ-
ed in your selection of images.
The Albums will be arranged together in a Group named after the time
and date when you use this command:
You can always rename any of these groups to just “Rating” or “Color
Tag.” It is, however, recommended to use Smart Albums instead to orga-
nize by Rating or Color Tag. More on Smart Albums in a little while.

Populating an Album with Selects Collection
There is another very convenient way to add images to an Album with
the Selects Collection feature. You need to select the targeted Album
first, then right-click on it and choose Set as Selects Collection.
Note that an icon with an arrow is added to inform you which Album is
currently the Selects Collection. Now you can easily add any selected
image(s) to the Selects Collection Album just by hitting the keyboard
shortcut Command + J. You can also use the cursor tool Move to Selects
Folder (keyboard shortcut Shift + V) from the Toolbar.
Then simply click on the images in the Browser that you want to add to
the Album.
Removing images from an Album
It is straightforward to remove an image from an Album. Make sure that
you have selected the Album under User Collections (Catalog) or Ses-
sion Albums (Session), then select the image and hit Delete. You can
also right-click on the image in the Browser and choose Delete (from Al-
bum xxx).
Note that if you drag an image that is already part of one Album to an-
other Album, the image will be included in both Albums.
Workflow Tip It can be a great help to narrow down the selection of your
images before adding them to an Album. This is done with the Filters
tool or Advanced Search where you can easily find for example all the
images with a certain keyword or from a specific date. Both the Filters
tool and Advanced Search will be covered in a later chapter so hold the
thought of creating Album based on more specific metadata for now.
It will make sense in conjunction with the features that Filters and Ad-
vanced Search provides.

Getting Smart with Smart Albums
With normal Albums, you must add images manually for them to be part
of the collection. Not so with a Smart Album which will be populated
automatically based on certain search criteria that you define. You can
think of the concept as a search operation where all the found files are
automatically added to a virtual folder.
For example, you can create a Smart Album that search for all images
with a Red Color Tag. Whenever you add the Red Color Tag to an image,
it will automatically be added to the Smart Album collection. Likewise, if
you remove the Red label from an image, the image will automatically be
removed from that Smart Album.
You create a Smart Album within the Library tool by clicking on the +
icon under User Collections in a Catalog (or under Session Albums in a
Session) and select Smart Album.
You can also right-click within the Library tool and select New > Smart
Album…. A dialog box now appears where you name the Smart Album
and define what to search for (see next page):
You need to add at least one Search Criteria first by clicking on the +
icon. You then choose a Criteria from a long list of different metadata in
a drop-down menu. Here we have selected Rating. Next, you can refine
the search criteria. In this case, we have selected 3 stars by clicking on
the row of dots. Note that we have also tweaked the search criteria to “is
greater than” from the default “equals” in order to populate the Smart
Album collection with all images that are rated with four or five stars.
In this example, we have also added a second Search Criteria with Col-
or Tag and defined that as the Green color tag by clicking on it. The
Match-option in the top-left is set to all, so we are only going to populate
the Smart Album with images that have a Green Color Tag and is rated
at four or five stars. When done, click on OK to create it.
You can choose from a vast list of possible Search Criteria. The most
useful of them rely on metadata that you must add first like Rating, Key-
words and the so-called IPTC metadata. You will learn more about add-
ing them in later chapters, so for now here is a small list of the possibili-
ties to get your imagination going.
• Color Tag • Focal Length
• Annotations • Geotagged
• Date • Content Category
• Format • Content Description
• Keywords • Image City
• Processed • Image Country
• Rating • Image Location
• Sequence ID
Certain Search Criteria, like the time and date of capture and Exif-data
embedded in the image file, can be used right away of course.
Note that you can save your search set up by clicking on the Presets…
drop-down menu and selecting Save Search Preset….
Capture One Pro also ships with a couple of built-in Search Presets that
you can select here.
Be aware that you cannot remove an image from a Smart Album manu-
ally. If you hit Delete, you will be warned that you are about to remove
the file from the Catalog or delete it. You can only remove an image by
changing its attributes, so they no longer match the Search Criteria in
the Smart Album.
Editing a Smart Album

You can always go back and tweak the Search Criteria after the fact by
right-clicking on the
Smart Album and choos-
ing Edit Smart Album….
Then makes your chang-

es, and click OK. This
menu also lets you re-
name and delete the
Smart Album. Note that
since a Smart Album is
just a virtual collection,
you can delete it without
affecting the files within.
Keeping Albums organized with Group and Projects
Having a lot of Albums and Smart Albums in a large image collection
can quickly become a bit overwhelming to manage. You can’t nest one
Album inside another, so in order to keep all of your many Albums orga-
nized and tidy, you instead need to use a Project or a Group.
These are both merely a way to group Albums together, because you
can’t add an image to either a Project and a Group. They need to con-
tain at least one Album or Smart Album which you can then populate
with images.
You create a Project or a Group within the Library tool by clicking on the
+ icon under User Collections in a Catalog and select one of them.
It is also possible to right-click within the Library tool and select New >
Project or New > Group. Note that a Session does not have to option to
create a Project or a Group.
Once you have created either a

Project and a Group, you can drag
your Albums into them to keep
things nicely organized.
You can also add a new Album by right-clicking on the Project or Group
icon and choose to create it inside them from the start.
Using Projects vs Groups

The key difference between a Project and a Group is that the former is
more restrictive when it comes to searching. If you create a Project, any
search will be limited to the images that are part of that collection. The
same applies to a Smart Albums, and this might be exactly what you are
after if you only want to see for example all the fire-star images within a
certain collection. Think of a Project as a way to keep a collection of im-
ages clearly separated from the rest.
A Group does not have this walled approach, so if you create a Smart Al-
bum within a Group, it will also find images outside the collection too.
It is however important to point out that Capture One will not show any
images when you select a Group under User Collections, even if you
have added Albums with images as part of the group. This also means
that you cannot search through or filter images when a Group is select-
ed. You will instead need to add a Project first and move the Group in-
side it. You can then select the Project under User Collections and see
all the images added to albums placed within the project and group.
You should also be aware that you cannot select more than one Album
at a time: If you want to view the content of multiple Albums, you will
need to create a Project first and place the desired Albums within it. A
Group is merely meant as a way to keep multiple Albums organized, so
keep this in mind.
Note that you can always move a Group or Project (or Album) around by
dragging them in the Library tool if you want to change the way they are
organized. Just note that if you delete a Group or Project, the Albums
within will be deleted too, and you cannot undo this action.
Note that you can collapse or expand a Group or Project to hide or show
its contents by clicking on the little arrow on the left or by going to the
Edit menu and choose Select Collection and then either Step Out / Col-
lapse or Step In / Expand. Note their keyboard shortcuts:
This submenu also shows you the useful commands Previous Collection
and Next Collection that let you move between collections with the use
of their keyboard shortcuts Ctrl + Shift + W and Ctrl + Shift + S. This can
be very handy when you need to switch between certain collections of-
ten or quickly.
Organize by using folders
Capture One Pro gives you a lot of options to manage your image col-
lection, but sometimes you just want to keep things simple and only
view images within a certain folder. This is done within the Library tool
by selecting the desired folder under Folders if you are using a Catalog
or System Folders if you are using a Session.
Depending on whether you are using a Catalog or a Session, there is a

big difference in the way that Capture One Pro lists folders on your hard
drive.
A Catalog will only show folders that contain images that you have al-
ready imported, while a Session behaves more like a file browser and let
you navigate to any folder on your hard drive, even if they do not con-
tain any images. For this reason, the feature is called System Folders in
a Session and just Folders in a Catalog.
Note that some of the information in this chapter is also mentioned in

the earlier chapter about Catalogs and Sessions. It is necessary to re-
peat some of the information here to make sure that you can work effi-
ciently with folders as a mean of organization.
Working with folders in a Catalog
Selecting a folder can be a great help to narrow down your search for
specific images, especially if you have made a good habit of naming im-
age folders to something easily recognizable.
You should notice that you can only view the content of one folder at a
time, there is no way to select more than one folder or to view all the im-
ages within subfolders. You can make it a bit easier to navigate the fold-
ers by right-clicking and choosing Hide Folders Hierarchy.
You also get access to a couple of other useful folder commands like Re-
name and Show in Finder when you right-click on a folder.
If you rename a folder, it will be renamed on the file system level, and
this is important to be aware of if you have another Catalog that contains
images from that folder. Once renamed, the folder link will be broken in
the other Catalog, and you need to right-click on the folder and choose
Locate…, then browse to the renamed folder to reestablish the correct
link. The Locate command is also a key feature if you have moved a
folder to a new location from the Finder or Windows Explorer.
If you want to move some files from one folder to another, just select
them in the Browser and drag them to the new folder. This action will
move the files at the file system level, just like if you did it from the Find-
er or Windows Explorer.

Keeping the folder content up to date
You need to be aware that Capture One Pro does not automatically
scan the contents of the selected folder for any changes you might have
made outside the application. So, if you have added or deleted imag-
es in the folder, you need to tell Capture One Pro to scan it for any file
changes. This is done by selecting the folder, right-clicking on it, and
choosing Synchronize….
As long as you always add, move and delete files within Capture One
Pro, you do not need to concern yourself with this feature, but if you
are also using another application to manage your image collection, the
Synchronize command can turn out to be essential.
Working with folders in a Session
A Session is perfectly well suited to organize your images on a fold-
er-by-folder basis. It is, in essence, an image file browser and will auto-
matically stay up-to-date with the change you do within a folder.
The concept behind a Session is that you keep your whole project in
one master folder. Once created, four subfolders are automatically creat-
ed which each has their own role.
The Capture Folder is where all your images go by default regardless of

whether you are shooting tethering or importing from a memory card.
Once you have reviewed your images, the best shots can be moved to
the Selects Folder while the useless ones should be moved to the Trash
Folder.
When you have done all your edits on the favorite shots, they are meant
to be exported to the Output Folder.
You obviously do not need to follow this workflow, but if you are used
to a file-based management, be might be the most comfortable way to
work. Others just prefer the simplicity of the Session subfolders when
doing the initial organization after shooting tethering or importing the im-
ages.
Moving files within a Session
It is straightforward to move files from one folder to another within a Ses-
sion. You can just select the images and drag and drop them to another
folder. All the associated adjustment and preview files will be moved too.
There is a faster and more clever way of moving files around in a Ses-
sion, however. You can use the keyboard shortcut Command + J (Ctrl + J
on Windows) to move any image to the Selects Folder. Another shortcut
is to choose the Move to Selects Folder (V) cursor tool and simply click
on the images in the Browser to move them.
Likewise, you can just hit Delete to move an image to the Trash Fold-
er or choose the Remove (V) cursor tool and simply click on the images
in the Browser to delete them. You can also right-click on an image and
choose the two commands.
It is important to notice that the images are not deleted to the system
trash, they are just moved to the Thrash subfolder within the Session.
You can always select the Trash Folder and drag any images back into
another folder. If you want to really delete the files in the Trash subfolder,
you go to the File menu and choose Empty Session Trash….
One of the strengths of working with a Session is that you can add,
move and delete files on the system level with the Finder or Windows
Explorer and Capture One Pro will automatically update the contents of
a folder when you select it. There is a catch to this, however.
You will need to copy the image adjustments associated with the original
file too when moving an image to a new folder. Otherwise, you will lose
your edits, so it is highly recommended that you move files within Cap-
ture One Pro because the adjustment files will then be moved too auto-
matically.
Changing the Capture, Selects, Output or Trash folder

You can set any folder on the computer to be the Capture, Selects, Out-
put or Trash folder. You change this by navigating to the desired folder
under System Folders in the Library tool and then right-click on the fold-
er. Now you get the option to set the folder as you wish.
This can be very useful if you for example prefer to use one specific cen-
tralized Output folder for all your exported images instead of having one
for each Session.
Taking advantage of subfolders in a Capture Session

Another very useful workflow is to create subfolders within the Capture
folder when shooting teetered. You can then have a subfolder for each
product ID to keep things organized as you go along. You create these
subfolders by right-clicking on the Capture folder and choose New in-
side “Capture” > Folder.
You then just need to remember

to set the required subfolder as
the Capture folder as you progress
through your product shot. Note
how the folder gets a small icon at-
tached to it to indicate what role it
has.
Use Favorites in a Session
By default, a Session will only
show you the images within a se-
lected folder. You can view all files
by choosing All Images under Ses-
sion Album, but this will by default
only include those images that are
either in the set Capture, Selects,
and Output subfolders.
If you want to be able to view and

search additional folders, you must
add them as a Session Favorite.
This is done by right-clicking

on the folder and choosing
Add to Favorites.
Working with Variants of the same image
The word Variants might be a bit confusing to new users of Capture One
Pro as it covers both the original imported image as well as any addition-
al versions of the same image. As far as Capture One Pro is concerned,
all Variants are just virtual versions of the original files, and you can have
as many of each photo as you like. Capture One Pro obviously need to
create at least one Variant for each original image file. Otherwise, the
photo wouldn’t show up in the Browser.
It is worth to reiterate that each new variant takes up very little extra
space as they are just are small text files describing the adjustments of
each virtual copy. This means that you can have several Variants with
each their incremental changes to an image. This can be a great way to
work for some as Capture One Pro does not have a history stack where
you go back in time, so to speak.
Creating new Variants

It is not unusual to want to work on different versions of the same file
with a specific look and style to each and Capture One Pro gives you
two choices when creating a new Variant.
If you want to start from scratch with a new Variant without any current
adjustments applied, choose Image > New Variant (or the keyboard
shortcut F2). This will essentially create a version as if you imported the
original image again.
You can also choose to create a new Variant that will copy and include
all the current adjustments from the selected image. This is done by go-
ing to Image > Clone Variant (or using the keyboard shortcut F3).
If you want to reuse certain adjustments, but not others, from a Variant,
it makes the most sense to use the Clone Variant option and then reset
the specific tool adjustments that you do not want to carry over.
If you want the workflow of incremental change mentioned above, just

select Clone Variant each time you have reached a point where you
would like to save a version as a backup or for future reference. Then
continue working on the newest Variant.
Organizing Variants of the same file

When you create more than one Variant
of the same file, the different versions are
automatically placed in a group that you
can collapse to keep things organized. A
number will be added in the top-right cor-
ner of the thumbnail images in the Brows-
er, signifying that you have created more
than one version of the original file.
You can reorder the position of each Vari-

ant within this group in a couple of ways.
One way is to simply drag and drop them
in the Browser.
You can also go to the Image menu and

choose Promote Variant to move the se-
lected version one level up in the group or
Demote Variant to move it one level down
in the group. If you want to move a version
directly to the top of the group, choose
Pick Variant. The image at the top is the
only one shown in the Browser when you
have collapsed the group.
Selecting by Variant position
There is one very good reason to keep a specific order of the different
Variants within a group. Let us say that you have created black and white
versions of a number of images and now want to select only those. If
you have made sure that they are in the same position – like third – you
can simply right-click on one of the black and white versions and choose
Select By Same > Variant Position. Capture One Pro will now select all
images at that position, and only those.
Collapsing or expanded a stack

You collapse and expand a group in two ways. You can either click on
the little Variant Group icon in the top-left corner of an image or go to
the Image menu and select either Collapse or Expand. Note that you
can also choose Collapse All or Expand All if you want to affect all Vari-
ant Groups in the image collection.
It is worth pointing out that Capture One Pro has no feature to group or
stack different images. If you want to organize similar images in a group,
your best bet is to create an Album, but you can obviously not collapse
a collection.
Note that you cannot apply different names to Variants of the same file.
They will all share the same filename, so you can instead organize the
different versions by Color Tag. You can also differentiate them by add-
ing different tags to them with the Metadata tool (covered in a later
chapter).
Finding the right images with Filters tool
Being able to quickly find all your images with for example a four-star
rating is obviously essential for any efficient workflow. You have a couple
of options for doing this, but the most straightforward is to use the Fil-
ters tool. You will find it under the Library Tool Tab.
You just click the box by of desired value and Capture One Pro will filter
through your image collection and only show those that fit the require-
ment. Note that you can choose more than one value by holding Alt and
clicking on it. In this example, we have asked Capture One Pro to show
all the images with both a Green Color Tag and a Rating of four stars.
If you want to reset the Filter, click on the dot with a cross at the end of
the Search field.
Note that by default Capture One Pro will only show the images that
fit all criteria, so an image with a Green Color Tag but only a 3-star rat-
ing will not be shown in this example. You can change this behavior by
clicking on the options icon in the top-right corner and deselect Results
Match All Criteria.
Adding more criteria to filter from

You might have noticed that the default options to filter with are some-
what limited in the Filters tool, but luckily you can expand those greatly.
Just go to the options submenu shown below and select Show/Hide Fil-
ters….
You now get access to a long list of Metadata Filters that you can add
(see next page):
Check those you want to add to the Filters tool and click in the top-left
corner to close when done.
Here is a couple of very useful Filters
you might want to add:
• Adjusted (No/Yes)
• Annotated (No/Yes)
• Format
• Orientation
• Processed (No/Yes)
• Focal Length
• Content Description
• Image City
• Image Country
• Image Location
The Adjusted and Processed Filter can

be very useful when you need to keep
track of which images that you still need to do image adjustments on or
need to be processed (as in exported).
The same goes for Annotations. Just add Annotated to the list of fil-
ter options. It will now be easy to select all images with an Annotation
amended by selecting YES and then checking whether you have missed
any important notes.
Note that a lot of the Metadata Filters rely on information that you need
to enter yourself. This is typically done with the Metadata tool that we
will cover in a later chapter.
Tip: You can actually add specific metadata by clicking on the + (plus)
icon that some of the filters has. It might make good sense to add some
additional data right from the Filters tool because it lets you see whether
some of the selected images are missing important metadata in a partic-
ular area, like Image City.
Hide and show file types to filter
You should pay attention to the Global Filters submenu as it gives you
the option to hide specific file formats like JPEG, PNG or video files.
This can also be set by going to the View menu and choosing Global Fil-
ters. If you find yourself in a situation where a certain file format seems
to be missing from your image collection, chances are that you have en-
abled to hide those.
The Filters tool also gives you the option to do a simple search by typing
in some text. This is useful when you want to find all images with a spe-
cific file name, keyword or ITPC Metadata like City.
You can combine your text search with any of the filter options, so if you
have named certain files Shot1 and want to find those with a star-rating
of four, you just type in “Shot1” in the text field and click on the 4-star op-
tion.
You can get access to much more advanced search options by clicking
on the tree-dot icon at the end of the search text field. Advanced Search
will be covered in one of the next chapters.
Select by Rating, Color Tag or filenames
While the Filters tool is a quick way to find specific images, you can
speed up the workflow with the very useful features called Select By
and Select By Same.
Select By Rating
This feature is very straightforward. If you want to select all images with
a certain star Rating, like for example 3 stars, you just go to the main Edit
menu and choose Select By > Rating > ***. Capture One Pro will then se-
lect all the images with that rating.
This can be very handy if you want to process or export specific images
fast and easy. Note that you can limit the selection of images by choos-
ing a certain Album or image folder first.
Select By Color Tag
Just like you can select images by a rating, you also have the option to
select all images with a certain Color Tag. If you choose Edit > Select By
> Color Tag > Green, Capture One Pro will select all the images that you
have given the Green Color Tag.
Select By Filename List

This feature can really save you a ton of time. Imagine that a client, art
director or family member ask you to process or export certain pho-
tos for their use. However, they only provide you with a long list of file-
names. Going through an image collecting, hunting for those filenames
can be very time consuming, but luckily Capture One Pro has a very
neat trick. Just choose Edit > Select By > Filename List…
You will now be represented will a dialog box where you can paste
those filenames into. Once you’re done, just click OK, and Capture One
Pro will find all those files.
Note that you can choose whether each image is separated by a New
Line, a Comma, a Semicolon or just Space from the Delimiter drop-
down menu.
Selecting by same attribute
If you want to select all images that share the same Rating, Color Tag,
Sequence ID or Variant Position, just right-click on an image in the
Browser and choose from the Select By Same submenu.
Note that Sequence ID is a metadata number that Phase One XF Camer-

as embed in a file if the capture is part of a Sequence. This is the case if
you have used XF tools like Focus Stack, HDR or Time-lapse and makes
it easy to manage those associated images in Capture One Pro.
Adding custom keyboard shortcuts
Neither the Select By and Select By Same features have any keyboard
shortcut assigned by default, but you can add those if you use the fea-
ture often. It can be very handy to be able to select all images with a
Green or Red Color Tag with a single keystroke, for example.
First, go to the main menu and select Capture One > Edit Keyboard
Shortcuts… (Edit menu on Windows).
Then open Edit > Select By and choose either a Rating, a Color Tag or
the Filename List… command and enter the desired keyboard short-
cut. If you want to add a keyboard shortcut to the Select By Same fea-
ture, open Other > Select by Same. Then choose either Select By Same
Rating, Select By Color Tag, Select By Same Sequence ID or Select By
Same Variant Position and enter the keyboard shortcut.
Finding images with Advanced Search
While you can always just do a simple text-based search directly from
the Browser, you will get access to a lot of powerful options when using
the Advanced Search feature instead.
You open the Advanced Search dialog box by going to the Edit menu
and selecting Advanced Search… or hitting the keyboard shortcut Shift
+ Command + F on Mac (Ctrl + Shift + F on Windows). You can also open
it by clicking on the three-dotted icon in the basic Search field or the Fil-
ters tool. Note that anything you have entered they will come preloaded
in the Advanced Search, so you need to hit Clear All if you want to be-
gin from scratch.
The power behind the Advanced Search feature is that you can search
through a long list of metadata in combination with any text string. It has
a lot in common with how the Smart Albums are set up, and the Metada-
ta options are familiar with those from the Filters tool.
By default, you need to add at least one Search Criteria first by clicking
on the + (plus) icon. You then choose a Criteria from a long list of differ-
ent metadata.
In the example above, we have selected Any (for a text search), a Color
Tag, and finally the Adjusted metadata. Let us look at the example is a
bit more detail. First, we are searching for all images that contain the text
“Shot1” in some form. It can be a filename, a Keyword or IPTC Metada-
ta like Description. Next, we narrow those down by adding that we only
want to find the images that also have a Green Color Tag applied. Final-
ly, the search result is being restricted further by only showing the imag-
es that have not yet had any image adjustments done to them (by set-
ting Adjusted = is false).
Note that All is selected by Match in the top-left corner to make sure
that all the search criteria are met simultaneously. If we had changed
that to Any, all images that met even just one of those criteria would be
found.
Each Search Criteria has a secondary pop-up menu with options to elab-
orate on the search result.
Their options depend on the chosen Criteria. With Keywords, for exam-
ple, you can select whether the images should equal or merely contain
the entered keyword. You can also search for images that do not contain
the keyword to exclude them, and so forth.
The images that are found with the current search are displayed in the
Browser. Once you are done, you close the Advanced Search dialog box
by clicking on the top-left red button.
Powerful Metadata options

As ready noted, you can choose from a vast list of possible Search Crite-
ria. The most useful of them rely on metadata that you must add first like
Ratings, Keywords, and the so-called IPTC Metadata. You will learn more
about adding them in later chapters, so for now here is a small list of the
possibilities to get your imagination going.
• Color Tag
• Annotations (No/Yes)
• Date
• Format
• Keywords
• Rating
• Focal Length
• Geotagged
• Content Category
• Adjusted (No/Yes)
• Orientation
• Processed (No/Yes)
• Content Description
• Image City
• Image Country
• Image Location

Be aware of Global Filters
If you find yourself in a situation where files with a certain format seem
to be missing from your searches, you need to pay attention to the Glob-
al Filters submenu in the View menu. Here you get the option to hide
specific file formats like JPEG, PNG or video files, and the chances are
that you have enabled to hide one of those.
Search retained per collection

One important feature of the Advanced Search is that it works inde-
pendently on a collection-per-collection basis. This means that when
you select a certain folder or Album, the search criteria will only be ap-
plied to that collection. However, it will also be retained for future use
when you switch to a new collection. You can select another Album and
make a new search criterion. The cool thing is that Capture One Pro will
now remember both of the different search criteria and switch between
them when you change between the collections. The different search
criteria will even be retained as you close and open Capture One Pro
later again.
This also means that each search criteria will be active until you clear
them by clicking on the cross in the Search field of the Filters tool or
open the Advanced Search dialog box and click on Clear All.
Saving a Search Preset
The possibilities are nearly endless when you think about the many cri-
teria that you can both use to add and exclude certain images from.
Luckily, you do not need to reconstruct those search setups over and
over because they can be saved as a Preset for later use. Just select the
Presets… popup menu and choose Save Search Preset….
Note that Capture One Pro ships with a couple of built-in Presets to get
you going.
Create Albums with search results

The Advanced Search dialog box has two very cool features that most
might overlook at first. At the bottom, you can click on either Create
Smart Album or Create Album With Current Images which are an excel-
lent way to convert your search results into virtual Album collections fast
and easily. Just click on either option, give it a name, and click on Save.
This might actually turn out to be your preferred way to create and pop-
ulate Album in one go because there are so many search options to
keep track of.
Even more Advanced Search

By default, you must choose whether all the different search criteria
should be respected to find a file or whether just one of them is enough.
You set this with the Match popup menu in the top-left corner. But what
if you want to combine the two possibilities? You can do this with the
Search Criteria Group feature. It gets a bit complicated, so let us do it by
example.
The first part of this search is fairly straightforward as we asked Capture

One Pro to find all images with the metadata text “Shot1” that have no
image adjustments applied yet. Next, we want to filter those results fur-
ther by showing us all those images that either also has a Green Color
Tag or a Rating greater than 3.
If you look at the dialog box, you will note that there is added a Match
option above each pair of Search Criteria. They are called a Search Cri-
teria Group. The first is set to All, so all rules within its group must be re-
spected. The second group, however, is set to Any, so the search results
will include all the images with a Green Color Tag even if those do not
have a star-rating greater than 3. Likewise, the search results will also
include all the images with a star-rating of four even if they don’t have a
Green Color Tag applied.

You add the special Search Criteria Group by clicking on the + (plus)
icon on the right side of the dialog box at the end of a Search Criteria.
Note that the group will be added above the Search Criteria where you
click and will add another Search Criteria in the process. It might not
be the most logical workflow ever conceived, so be prepared to play
around with a bit before you get it. Note that you can always delete a su-
perfluous Search Criteria by hitting the – (minus) icon.
Make notes with Annotations tool
The Annotations tool is a great way to add handwritten notes or point
something out that needs to be edited by drawing on top of your imag-
es. These notes can either be used as a reminder to yourself or used to
share a message with other people, for example, someone that needs to
do further adjustments to your images.
You can choose to bake the annotations into the images during export
or include them on a separate layer for greater flexibility if you choose
the PSD file format. By default, they are not included during export, but
only displayed in the Viewer.
The notes are added as separate metadata for each image to provide
the most flexible workflow. This means that a note is only added to the
Primary selected Variant even if you have selected multiple images. You
can copy the notes from one to multiple images, but more on that later.
Adding an Annotation
The Annotations tool is found in the Metadata Tool Tab, and it is
straightforward to add a note. Select the Draw Annotations cursor from
the Annotations tool or the Cursor Toolbar. You can also activate it by
hitting the keyboard shortcut I.
Then select a Color, set the Size, and start handwriting or drawing on
the selected image in the Viewer. You can preview the size (and the col-
or) by hovering the cursor over the image before you start to draw.
You can choose between six different colors, so make sure to select one
that is easy to read against the colors in the image. You can add as many
notes as you like and mix colors.
You can also take advantage of the different colors and let them signi-
fy different topics. This will give other people a quick visual indication of
whether the note is about composition, contrast, color adjustments or
something else.
Removing an Annotation
You can delete a note by choosing the Erase Annotations cursor from
the Annotations tool or the Cursor Toolbar. You can also activate the
cursor by hitting the keyboard shortcut Y. Then click on the note that you
want to delete.
If you want to get rid of all the annotations on the selected image at
once, hit the Reset icon in the Annotations tool. This is much faster than
having to click on all the notes one by one.
Displaying annotations
By default, the annotations are only displayed over the image in the
Viewer when you have selected either the Draw Annotations or the
Erase Annotations cursor tool. You can, however, choose to view the an-
notations all the time by selecting the Always Display Annotations op-
tion in either the Annotations tool or from the Annotations cursor menu.
You can also toggle their visibility on and off with the keyboard shortcut
J.

Add Annotations to exported images
As mentioned earlier, you can choose to bake the annotations into the
images during export or include them on a separate layer in a PSD file
format.
This is done within the Process Recipe tool (covered in great detail in a
later chapter) under the Output Tool Tab.
If you are exporting in TIFF, JEG or PNG file formats, you will get to op-
tion to bake the annotations in with the original file. This is done by
choosing the Annotations option under Workflow.
You can always deselect the option and re-export the images later to
output them without the Annotations if needed.
However, it makes much more sense to export the Annotations as a sep-

arate layer on the image file for two reasons: First, you can always tog-
gle the layer on and off in Photoshop as needed. Secondly, the notes
will be added non-destructively without affecting the image data in the
base layer, which is exactly what you want when further image adjust-
ments are needed. In order to export the Annotations as a separate lay-
er, you need to save the file in the PSD file format. Then choose the An-
notations (as a Layer) option under Workflow.
The notes will now be added as a separate layer called “Annotation
(Capture One)” in the PSD file.
Keeping track of Annotated images

It might get a bit difficult to keep track of which images you have made
Annotations on after some time, but Capture One Pro can organize that
for you. Just go to the Filters tool (covered in an earlier chapter) and add
Annotated to the list of filter options.
You will now be able to select all images with an Annotation amended
by selecting YES under Annotated.
Tip: Adding text to the Annotations

If you need to add a lengthy text to explain your Annotations to another
person, there is an alternative to writing it all out by hand. You can enter
text with the Watermark feature in the Process Recipe tool (covered in a
later chapter) and select the Text (as a Layer) option if you have chosen
the PSD file format (see next page):
This text will then be added to the exported file as a separate layer
called “Watermark (Capture One)” together with the Annotation (Cap-
ture One) layer in the PSD file.
Note that the Watermark text feature is global, so the same text will be
added to all the images that you export in the same batch. However,
this might not be much of a limitation if you for example need to add the
same instruction, like “Smooth out the skin tones,” to all the exported im-
ages. This is just meant as a workflow tip that might save you time once
in a while.

Copy and reuse Annotations
If you want to copy the Annotations to other selected images, just select
the Copy Adjustments icon.
Make sure that Annotations is selected, and then click on Apply to reuse
them on the other images. They will now be added as separate metada-
ta entries to those images, and you can delete or edit them on an image
per image basis.
Working with Keywords
Adding keywords to your image collection is can be indispensable when
you quickly need to find all the images of a specific person, scenery or
product. They can also be essential if you want to sell your image to a
stock agency. Keywords might not be the most exciting part of doing
photography, but Capture One Pro has a couple of very nice features
that can speed up the workflow and make it much more enjoyable.
There are two ways to add keywords in Capture One Pro, namely with
the Keywords tool and the Keyword Library tool. You find them both un-
der the Metadata Tool Tab. They are intertwined, but think of them this
way; the Keywords tool works on an image per image basis, while the
Keyword Library tool work in a Catalog or Session wide basis. It makes
the most sense to start exploring the Keywords tool.
Adding keywords
You simply add a keyword by selecting one or more images and then
type the word or words you want to apply. They are applied when you
hit Enter and will be then be displayed below in a grey label.
You can enter more than one keyword at once by adding a comma be-
tween each word. Notice that Capture One Pro will differentiate be-
tween upper and lower case, so “beach” and “Beach” will be added as
two different keywords.
You can also add keywords to be part of a keyword hierarchy while en-
tering them. Just use a > between the words instead of a comma. For
example, if you enter Nature > Landscape > Seascape > Beach, then
Nature will be at the top of the hierarchy, while Beach will be the lowest.
Note that Capture One Pro will not display the hierarchy in the Keywords
tool, but it will be visible in the Keyword Library tool that we will cover a
bit later on. You can, however, inspect the hierarchy by hovering over a
keyword.
Note that if you have selected multiple images, the keywords will only
be applied to all of them if you have enabled Edit All Selected Variants
from the Edit menu.
Copying keywords
You cannot use drag and drop to add
keywords from one image to another.
If you want to copy the keywords from
one image to multiply other photos,
then click on the Copy Adjustments
icon at the top of the Keywords tool.
This will copy all the keywords.
Note that when you have selected multiple images with different key-
words and had Edit All Selected Variants enabled, the Keywords tool
will put a little - (minus) in front of those keywords that are only applied
to some of the images.
If you want those keywords to be ap-
plied to all the selected images, then
click on the minus at the start of the
grey keyword label. We will cover delet-
ing Keywords a bit later.
Power tip: You can use the Apply Adjustments cursor tool to speed up
applying a keyword to a specific subject that is scattered throughout a
large group of images. Imagine having to add keyword names to people
from an event, like a wedding.
Once you have added the name of a person as a Keyword, you select
the cursor tool Copy Adjustments from the Cursor Toolbar and click on
the image. Next, you go to the Adjustments Clipboard tool (covered in a
later chapter) and deselect everything but Keywords under Metadata.
Then choose the Apply Adjustments cursor tool. Now the keyword will
be applied to every image you click on, even if they are not selected.
The tip works the best if you close the Viewer and let the Browser fills
most of the screen. This way you can very quickly spot those images
that need a specific keyword.
Renaming keywords
If you mistype a keyword or want to
change it from uppercase to lower-
case, then right-click on the word
and select Rename…, then change
the word, and hit Enter.
Note that if you change the keyword in the Keywords tool, it will only
change it for the selected images. If you want to make sure that the key-
word is changed globally, use the Keyword Library instead.
Deleting keywords
You can delete a keyword by hover-
ing over it and clicking on the little
cross at the end or right-click on the
word and select Remove Selected
Keywords….
If you want to delete all keywords at
once, then click on the Reset icon at the top of the tool.
Saving and reusing as Preset
If you find yourself applying the same keywords over and over, you can
speed up your workflow by saving them as a Preset for later reuse.
Click on the Preset icon in the Keywords tool and select Save User Pre-
set… and save it. You can then apply the keywords in the Preset just by
selecting them under User Presets.
We will explore the use of Presets and Style in-depth in a later chapter,
but for now, you need to pay attention to the Stack Preset option in the
fly-out menu. When that is enabled, you can apply more than one key-
word Preset, and all the keywords from the selected Presets will be add-
ed without overwriting each other.

Faster workflow with Keyword Library
If your keyword workflow is simple, you can just rely on the Keywords
tool to get the job done, but the Keyword Library tool can really speed
up your workflow. As noted earlier, it works on a Catalog or Session wide
basis and has a few extra tricks up its sleeve, so it is time well spent to
learn it.
Keyword Library tool keeps track of all the keywords that you have add-
ed to images in your currently open Catalog or Session. Once a keyword
is added to an image, it is also automatically added to a list called the
Catalog Keywords (or the Session Keywords).
Applying a Keyword with the Keyword Library tool

If you want to add a keyword to a selected image, you simply click on it
in the Keyword Library tool. Notice the keyword hierarchy. If you click on
a nested keyword, the parent keywords will be applied too.
Notice how the assigning keywords will be denoted by the grey label. If
you only want to apply the parent keyword, then click on that.
Creating a Keyword with the Keyword Library tool
You can add keywords by clicking on the + (plus) icon. A new keyword
will be added at the top of the hierarchy, but you can move any keyword
up or down in the hierarchy simply by dragging it to a new position. You
can also right-click on a keyword and choose Create Keyword Child to
add it as a nested keyword.
The right-click action also gives you the option to Rename a keyword or
delete it.
It is important to note that even if you have deleted a specific keyword
from all images with the Keywords tool, it will remain in the list under
Catalog Keywords. You must delete the keyword from the Catalog Key-
words list too if you to get rid of it entirely.
Working with Keyword lists
The real power behind the Keyword Library tool is that you can create
your own lists of keywords and then export and import them for reuse
in another Catalog or Session. You can also download ready-made key-
word lists from the internet and import them, so all the typing and classi-
fying is done for you (see next page).
You can either create a new, empty Keyword Library or create one
based on an imported text file by clicking on the options icon and choos-
ing Create Keyword Library.
A very nice feature is that you can have several of these Keyword Li-
brary’s loaded at the same time, so nothing stops you from having one
tailored for event keywords and another of landscape keywords and so
forth. You should note that the Catalog Keywords are always created
automatically, and it cannot be deleted like the custom Keyword Library
can.
You can then freely add keywords from multiple lists just by selecting an
image and click on the keywords you desire.
Here we have added both the
“Landscape,” “countryside” and
the “Event,” “christening” key-
words to the selected image from
the two different keyword libraries
“My Keyword List” and “My Key-
word List2.”
Exporting a Keyword List
When you have built a comprehensive list of keywords, you can export it
to reuse in another Catalog or Session or share with another photogra-
pher for a streamlined keyword workflow. You do this by clicking on the
three-dotted option and choosing Export Keyword Library….
Note that you also have the option to add further keywords to the library
by choosing Import Keywords into Library…. This is an addictive action,
so none of the current keywords will be deleted or overwritten, the new
ones will merely be added.
Creating a keyword list outside Capture One Pro
You might prefer to create your keyword list in a text editor instead of
in Capture One Pro, and that can easily be done. You just need to be
aware of a couple of things. First, you must save the file in the plain text
(.txt) format, a Rich Text Format file will not import. The other thing to
note is that each word should be on a separate line. If you want to use
hierarchy keywords, then hit tab once for each keyword that should go
under a parent keyword.
If you are in doubt about how to construct hierarchy keywords in a text
file, it might be a good idea to download one from the internet and see
how it is done.
Adding and using Metadata
Adding metadata like a description or a location to your images will
make it much easier to keep them organized and finding the right ones
in no time. Entering metadata can also be essential if you want to sell
your images to a stock agency or protect them with a copyright notice.
You will find the Metadata tool under the Metadata Tool Tab, and the
information here is roughly divided into two types; Exif data, and IPTC
metadata.
Using Exif data

In the first part, you can check all the file and camera related information
like capture date, camera serial number, the lens used and exposure in-
formation like shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. These are embedded
into the file and can’t be changed, but you can use the data to search
amongst your images with the Filters tool or Advanced Search (covered
in earlier chapters).
GPS location data
Capture One Pro will recognize GPS data if they are present in the im-
age file, and if you click on Show on map, Capture One Pro will open
Google Map in an internet browser and place your image on the map.
Note that you can’t enter location data manually under EXIF – GPS.
Adding IPTC metadata

The second part of the Metada-
ta tool consists of all the IPTC
metadata fields where you can
enter a Description or your
Copyright into one or more im-
ages. You simply click on the
field and enter the text.
Pay attention to the Edit All

Selected Variants option in the Edit menu. If you want to add the same
IPTC tag to multiple selected images at once, it needs to be enabled.
Capture One Pro adhere to the IPTC Photo Metadata Standard, so any
metadata you enter here to the files will be recognized by all other im-
age editing applications. IPTC Photo Metadata is the most widely used
standard to describe photos, because of its universal acceptance among
news agencies, photographers, photo agencies, libraries, museums, and
other related industries.
The different IPTC metadata are split into three areas.
IPTC Contact
Here you can enter all the information needed to identify you as the Cre-
ator and provide your contact information like Address, Phone, E-Mail or
Website. Note that the location data here is for your home or business,
not for the capture location. The capture location is handled by the IPTC
– Image covered on the next page.

IPTC Content and IPTC Image
These are used to describe the content with a Headline, Description,

Category, genre and capture location by for example City and Country.
You can even enter an IPTC subject code and an IPTC scene code if you
need to provide specific data from an IPTC list.
IPTC Status
This is used to enter copyright information and rights usage terms. Note
that you also have to option to add a bit of additional metadata informa-
tion with IPTC Getty Images.
Save Metadata tags as a Preset
Ii might make sense to save some your entered IPTC metadata as a Pre-
set so that you can reuse it quickly later on. This is particularly useful to
do with your contact and copyright data as this will be the same for all of
your images. Just click on the Preset icon and select Save User Preset…
You then get the option to select which metadata tags you want to be a
part of the Preset. Once done, click on Save.

Copy and reuse Metadata
If you want to copy specific Metadata tags to other selected images, just
click on the Copy icon.
You will now get the option to choose Metadata tags that should be car-
ried over to the other images. Select the desired options and hit Apply
to reuse them.
Metadata or keywords?
The functionality of IPTC metadata and keywords is somewhat overlap-
ping, so what to use when? A part of the question depends on wheth-
er you need to supply the images to others with specific IPTC metadata
applied to describe the content; otherwise it is probably faster to type
in some keywords. Even if you do not need to supply IPTC metadata, it
might still make good sense to enter location information under the IPTC
Image because there are specific text fields for Country, City, State and
Location here. You can then use keywords to describe the content of
your images.
Regardless, you should obviously always enter your copyright informa-
tion with the Metadata tool.
Keeping track of changing metadata
It can be a bit confusing to keep the metadata up to date if you use both
Capture One Pro and another application to manage your image collec-
tion. By default, all the metadata that you have entered is saved within
Capture One Pro’s database. This means that other applications will not
be able to read the applied metadata before you either export the image
or you save out a small sidecar file, such as a .XMP file. The metadata
will then be embedded in the exported JPEG, PSD or TIFF file or written
in the small XMP file for other applications to read.
You can write the metadata to a sidecar file by clicking on the options
icon and choosing Sync Metadata. If you choose Reload Metadata,
Capture One Pro will check whether some metadata tags have been
changed from an external application, and load any changes.
The default behavior in Capture One Pro is to not synchronize the side-
car XMP files automatically. This means that if you make a metadata
change in an external application, those changes will not be picked up
or applied by Capture One Pro by default.
You can change this behavior in the Preferences, see next page:
Open Preferences and select Image. Then under Metadata, you can
change the Auto Sync Sidecar XMP option from None to either Load or
Full Sync.
If you choose Load, Capture One Pro will always read any sidecar XMP
file and load any changes, and if you choose Full Sync, it will also write
any changes you make to the sidecar file.
You need to be aware that changing the option to Load or Full Sync
will mean that Capture One Pro must access the hard drives frequent-
ly which can affect performance. Unless you really need this feature, it
might be a better option to keep the default at None. Then choose Re-
load Metadata from the Metadata tool options menu (see above) when
you really need to read a sidecar XMP file for changes or Sync Metadata

when you want to write changes to a XMP file.
Removing metadata during export
You can control whether certain metadata is removed when you export
images. This is done by going to the Output Tab and clicking the Meta-
data tab in the Process Recipe tool. Here you can uncheck the metadata
you do not want to include in the image during output.
You might for example want to exclude GPS Coordinates or Keywords

by selecting None if you want to hide those from others. Note that the
option All Other Metadata are all the IPTC fields discussed earlier in the
chapter.
Image Editing Preface
Capture One Pro provide some very powerful image editing tools that
can bring the very best out of your photos, especially if we are talking
about raw files. In the next several chapters you will learn all about using
the tools to their full extent as well as tips on when to use what as some
of them overlap a bit in functionality.
The default Workspace has these tools organized in four different Tool
Tabs. This arrangement of might or might not suit your workflow, and
that is part of the reason why we will cover most of the tools in a slightly
different order. For example, most photographers will probably start with
getting the white balance right, then move on to adjusting the exposure
and contrast before editing the colors. Others might want to crop and
straighten the image or apply lens corrections as the very first thing. For
this reason, the tools will be covered in the order of a typical workflow
instead of following the organization in the tool Tabs.
We will explore the image editing tools in the following order:

• Base Characteristics
• White Balance
• Exposure
• Levels
• High Dynamic Range
• Curves
• Clarity
• Color Editor
• Crop
• Rotation & Flip
• Keystone
• Sharpening
• Noise reduction
• Lens Correction
• Purple Fringing
• LCC (Lens Cast Calibration)
• Moire
• Spot Removal
• Black & White/Split Tones
• Film Grain
• Color Balance
• Vignetting
Feel free to jump ahead to a specific set of tools if your workflow is dif-
ferent. Remember, there is no right or wrong order to the adjustments
as they are all done non-destructive on the images; you can always go
back and forth to tweak things without any penalty.
You should also keep in mind that you can add and remove tools to any
Tool Tab to suit your workflow or even create your own Tool Tab. You
can for example add the White Balance tool to the Exposure Tool Tab
while also keeping it in the Color Tool Tab. Whatever adjustments you
make to a tool in one Tool Tab is mirrored to any other instance of that
tool. This is part of why the user interface is so powerful in Capture One
Pro. See the Add and remove Tools from Tool Tabs section on how to
add a tool to a Tool Tab.
Getting the colors and contrast
right with Base Characteristics
An unaltered raw file is much darker in reality than it appears to be when
viewed in a raw converter like Capture One Pro. The light balance must
be corrected behind the scenes with a so-called gamma curve for the
image to look properly exposed, and this process is controlled with the
Base Characteristics tool. The tool also controls another important fac-
tor when dealing with converting a raw file, namely the colors. The col-
ors captured in a raw file are not the final product so to speak, they need
to be interpreted to reach the desired look.
Original Raw file before Base Characteristics
Raw file after Base Characteristics
In other words, Capture One Pro need to apply both a specific ICC color
profile and a gamma curve to each and very raw file before they are dis-
played and look natural. This all happens behind the scene without you
having to do anything because Capture One Pro automatically recogniz-
es the camera used to capture the raw file, and then applies the correct
adjustments.
The colors are controlled with the ICC Profile drop-down menu and the
gamma curve with the Curve drop-down menu. Both are tailored a team
at Phase One to look both correct and give nice, pleasant colors, so in
most cases, you can just leave everything in the Base Characteristics
tool to their defaults, enjoy the look of the raw files, and move on to oth-
er image editing tools.
The Base Characteristics tool does, however, give you some powerful
options that is worth knowing for more advanced image editing. We will
look at those now, but you can easily skip this part if you are new to raw
image processing or want to get going with the more basic tools.
Colors and the ICC Profile

Most supported cameras only come with one or two profiles to choose
from the ICC Profile drop-down menu, but if you are editing raw files
captured with a Phase One camera, you will typically have some addi-
tional optimized profiles to choose from.
They cover different lighting like Flash, Outdoor Daylight or Tungsten

light or might be a color profile specifically tweaked to make portraits
look good.
One very cool feature about the ICC Profile is that you can actually
choose a profile from an entirely different camera or camera make and
apply that to your images. Just click on the ICC Profile drop-down menu
and select Show All.
Now Capture One Pro will dis-

play all the ICC Profiles that ship
with the application, and you can
experiment to your heart’s con-
tent. Note how the colors in the
image are updated as you hover
the mouse over a profile, making
it easier to check several different
profiles with ease.
Saving as a Preset for reuse
If you find one that suits your taste perfectly for all your landscape or
portrait shot, for example, go to the Preset icon in the Base Characteris-
tics tool, select Save User Preset…, give it a fitting name and click Save.
Now you can quickly apply that profile to all the desired images by se-
lecting the Preset from the same menu later on.
Color is a science, but in the end what matters is the eye test. If you like
the colors from another camera profile better than the default, then, by
all means, try it out. You obviously need a color corrected monitor to be
able to judge whether the colors look correct or good, but beyond that,
the many different ICC Profiles are a great playground waiting to be ex-
plored by the adventurous.
Adjusting contrast with Curve

As already mentioned, the light balance of a raw file must be altered
with a so-called gamma curve for the image to look properly exposed.
This curve is selected in the Curve drop-down menu. By default, Capture
One Pro applies a curve called Auto. This is actually the same as the
Film Standard, which is a curve Phase One has tweaked to look good
with the camera raw file in question.
For most purposes, you can just stay with the default Auto/Film Stan-
dard-curve. You should be aware that the Film Extra Shadow and Film
High Contrast options will respectively lighten the shadows and raise
the contrast compared to the Film Standard curve. Those might come in
handy if the default for your camera lacks a bit of contrast, for example.
Taking advantage of the Linear Response Curve
The last option in the Curve drop-down menu, Linear Response, is an
extremely cool feature for the advanced user.
It basically provides a very flat conversion of the raw file where substan-
tially less contrast has applied. As a result, it will look dark and flat and
need some additional image editing to exposure, contrast and light bal-
ance with the Exposure tool and/or the Curve tool.
The major benefit, however, is that a file with the Linear Response curve
applied will retain highlights better and has a more gentle represen-
tation of the colors due to the lower contrast curve. This can be a big
boost to both landscape photography and portraits where you want to
retain fine tonal gradients.
You might find that the default Curve is a bit too harsh on the skin tones,
making it difficult to obtain just the right pleasing colors. Choosing Lin-
ear Response and tweaking the exposure and light balance can make a
very big impact on your portrait photography.
The advanced user probably wants to use the Curve tool in both the
RGB and Luma modes (covered in a later chapter) to tweak the contrast
and light balance respectively on a Linear Response file to get the per-
fect result. If that seems a bit daunting, just use the sliders in the Expo-
sure tool. Set Exposure to around +1, Contrast to +5, and Brightness
to +10, and you are off to a good start with your portraits. You can then
save those settings as a Preset to speed up your workflow to this partic-
ular setup.
We will explore how to use the Curve tool in a later chapter and how to
take advantage of the Linear Response power trick. For now, you should
just keep the possibility in the back of your head.
Upgrading to a new Processing Engine

Each new major version of Capture One Pro comes with new features
and an updated processing Engine. A newer engine normally means
improved image quality that might extract more details from the files or
improve how a tool works. By default, newly imported files will automati-
cally be based on the latest Engine, while files edited in an older version
of Capture One Pro will retain the old Engine version until you choose to
upgrade it.
If you want to update one or more files to the latest Engine, simply se-
lect those and click on Upgrade. Be aware that some tools might give a
slightly different look when you update to a new Engine version. Also,
note that you cannot undo the upgrade action. Because of this, it might
be a good idea to clone a Variant of all the files first by going to the Im-
age menu and selecting Clone Variant. Then only update one of each
Variant so that you always have the original adjustments as a backup in
case the new Engine changes the adjustments to much for your liking.

Changing to an older Processing Engine
You cannot downgrade to an older Engine, but there is a workaround
if you really need to use an older processing Engine version on some
images. Go to the main menu and select Capture One and Preferenc-
es…. (Edit > Preferences… on Windows). Then select the Image tab and
change the Default Processing Engine from the drop-down menu.
Close the window. You can now select an existing image, go to the Im-
age menu and chose New Variant or import an image. In both cases, the
images will now use the Engine version that you have selected in the
Preferences. You can still update them to the latest version.

Save your changes as defaults
If you have found a combination of an ICC Profile and a Curve that you
want to apply as the default for all the files from the specific camera
model, you can easily do that. Just click on the options icon in the top-
right corner and choose Save as Default for xxx.
Note that the new Defaults are not automatically applied to other files
already present in your Catalog or Session. This will only happen once
you import new files. If you want to apply the new settings to existing
image variants, you will need to select those first and choose Apply De-
faults from the drop-down menu. You can always revert to the original
settings by selecting Reset Defaults for xxx from the same menu.
Getting the White Balance right
One of the very first things you should do when adjusting an image is
to set the correct white balance with the White Balance tool. If the color
temperature is off, the image will look too warm or too cool. The reason
is that every light source emits a certain color temperature – measured
in Kelvin – and you need to counter any color cast to achieve a neutral
tone in the image.
Most might not think about it, but the white balance can also greatly in-
fluence the light distribution, making certain parts of the image lighter or
darker as you change the Kelvin value. This is another key reason why it
should be set before evaluating whether the exposure is correct. Think
of a blue sky. If the white balance is shifted to a cooler color, the sky will
become darker, and vice versa. This is more apparent if you have con-
verted an image to black and white, where a change in the color tem-
perature will shift light balance and contrast.
You will find the White Balance tool in the Color Tool Tab by default, but
it might be a good idea to add the tool to the Exposure Tool Tab as well
as it should be set before doing the adjustments there. You add the tool
by right-clicking on an empty area of the tool and selecting Add Tool >
White Balance.
Adjusting color temperature
The White Balance tool gives you several ways to set the proper color
temperature. You can select different presets from the Mode drop-down
menu, where Shot refers to the white balance that the camera has deter-
mined to be the best.
Some cameras might struggle to pick up the correct white balance in

overcast weather, where the Cloudy preset is the choice, or from indoor
lighting where the Tungsten or Fluorescent preset should help.
Using the Pick White Balance cursor tool

To get the most accurate white balance, most will use the Pick White
Balance cursor tool. You choose it by clicking on the cursor icon in the
White Balance tool or by using the keyboard shortcut W.
You then click on an area in the image that should be a neutral grey. It is
important to stress that whatever area you click on in the image with the
cursor tool will be balanced to become a neutral grey. The Pick White
Balance cursor does not recognize a neutral area itself; it merely fol-
lows your command to set a specific point as a neutral area. This means
that if you pick an area with a strong, distinct color, like a red shirt or and
green grass, the white balance will look terrible.
You can check that Capture One Pro has indeed set the selected white
balance point to a neutral grey color by looking at the color readouts un-
der the Cursor toolbar (see next page):
A point is considered neutral when the red, green and blue readout is
the same value.
With this knowledge, you should always look for an area in the image
that you know is neutral in real life when using the Pick White Balance
cursor tool. Any shade of mid-grey will do, while bright whites are tricki-
er to rely on as one of the three primary color channels might be burned
out and thus missing. It is not always possible to find a perfect mid-grey
source, so if the white balance needs to be perfect, you need to photo-
graph a white balance grey card or color checker chart on location in the
light that you are going to shoot under.
One more tip on choosing the best area for the Pick White Balance cur-
sor tool. If possible, find a mid-grey patch that is primarily lit by the most
important light source in your scene. If you select an area partly in the
shadows, for example, you will be sampling the indirect light, which most
of the time is cooler than the main light. That will result in a white bal-
ance that is too bluish.

Using the Kelvin and Tint slider
If you have trouble getting the right, pleasing white balance with the pre-
sets or the Pick White Balance cursor tool, you can tweak the color tem-
perature to taste with the Kelvin slider.
A low value will make the image more blue and cooler, while a higher
value will make it more yellowish and add warmth. For a point of refer-
ence, a Kelvin value of 6500 is considered the default for daylight.
The Tint slider controls the balance between magenta and green. Pos-
itive values correct for a green color cast by adding magenta, while
negative values take care of a magenta cast. Most of the time you don’t
need to adjust this, but under certain lighting conditions, it can be im-
portant to tweak to get a proper whiter balance. This is especially true
with fluorescent lighting where there might be a strong green color cast.
In the case, add a positive value to balance it out with some magenta.
You might also experience that the shadows have a slight green or ma-
genta color cast, which should be corrected with the Tint slider as well.
Note that both the Mode presets and the Pick White Balance cursor tool
will set the Tint too.
Adjusting white balance automatically

You also have the option to let Capture One Pro analyze the image and
set the white balance automatically. This is done by clicking on the little
A letter at the top of the tool.
It has the best chance of success if there are some light grey areas in
the image that it can use as a neutral reference point. Note that this auto
white balance feature is not the same as the Auto preset in the Mode
drop-down menu. If the white balance is still not quite right, you can of
course tweak it with the Kelvin and Tint sliders.
Adjusting white balance after Skin Tones
Capture One Pro has a unique feature to help you get the right white
balance when shooting portraits. Instead of picking a neutral grey area,
you select a skin tone of a certain hue and ask Capture One Pro to set a
white balance that looks correct with that. First, select the Skin Tone tab
in the White Balance tool.
Then select a skin tone hue that fits the subject’s face most closely from
the Skin tone drop-down menu. Once you have selected one of the nine
presets, select the Pick Skin Tone cursor tool (or hit the keyboard short-
cut S), and click on the subject’s face. The white balance will now be ad-
justed.
If you need to tweak the white balance, select the Grey tab and adjust
the Kelvin and Tint sliders to taste.
You can create your own skin tone Preset if none of the built-in one’s
work. First, you need to select the Pick to create new option, then click
with the Pick Skin Tone cursor tool on the face of the person. You are
now asked to give the Preset a name, then hit Save.
You can now choose the new preset from the Skin tone drop-down
menu and click on the same person’s skin tone on another image to re-
use it. The feature works the best if you sample and save a skin tone for
each specific light setup as different light sources will cast a different
color on the subject.
Using a color calibrated screen
Your monitor should ideally be calibrated with a hardware color calibra-
tion tool if you want to fully trust the colors you see on it. Otherwise, ad-
justing the white balance by taste and eye test could mean that the im-
ages will look too cold or too warm on other monitors.
If you don’t have access to a hardware color calibration too, it becomes

more important to either use a grey card on location or having another
point of reference in the image that you know for a fact is a neutral grey
in real life. Then use that as a target for the Pick White Balance cursor
tool and trust it over the colors of your screen. Having said that, most
modern monitors have a decent, but certainly not perfect, white balance
out of the box, so unless you are a professional or just want to trust the
colors of your monitor, you should do fine.
One way to test whether the white balance of your screen is adequate
is to shoot a raw file of something that you know for a fact are a neutral
grey in real life. Then use that as a target for the Pick White Balance cur-
sor tool in Capture One Pro and verify that it is indeed set as a neutral
area by checking with the color readouts. If your monitor then displays
the grey area in a blueish or yellowish tone, you should consider getting
it calibrated.
Handling more than one light source

Proper white balance can be a bit tricky to master because each light
source in a scene can or will have a different color temperature. The
sun has one color temperature, a flash system another, and a household
light source a third. To complicate matters, light rays are always reflected
off surfaces and absorb their colors, introducing some additional indirect
color casting.
This is the reason why professional photographers try to work with only
one type of light, namely a flash system, when shooting portraits or
products. The daylight is often blocked out as it will introduce another
color temperature that makes it difficult to obtain a proper, even white
balance. Furthermore, the interior of the studio is normally kept in neu-
tral colors to minimize color contamination from the walls.
However, you might not have the choice to limit or select your light
sources. Then what to do? First and foremost, you should always try to
pick a white balance that looks good on your main subject. Most of the
time, this will be good enough.
The human brain is constantly adjusting the white balance based on
what we look at in real life, so the concept of changing and mixing color
temperatures is well known to the brain. The problem with mixed light-
ing only really becomes an issue in photography when there is no clear
point of attention for the eye to be drawn into. If everything looks to be
of equal importance, but the white balance is clearly off in a part of the
image, the image won’t look correct.
Luckily, this can be corrected by using different white balance values for
different parts of the image. This is done with Layers.
Making Localized Adjustments on a Layer

Using Layers and Masks will be explored in full detail in a later chapter,
so, for now, you just need to know that you can limit the effect of the
White Balance tool to a specific area of the image by creating a new
layer and painting a mask with the brush. This is done in the Layer tool
placed near the top of the Color Tab.
Once you have created a new Layer and have masked the area you
want to affect, you can go ahead and make your selective White Bal-
ance adjustments. They work exactly the same way as the main, global
tool explored above. Note the small brush icon next to the tool name; it
is indicating that you are now working on a Layer, not on the base Back-
ground image.
The principal use of the localized white balance tool is get rid of the is-
sue with mixed lighting in the images. A typical scenario is when you are
shooting indoor with a mix of warmth tungsten lights and the more blu-
ish outdoor sun shining in through the windows. The best approach to
fixing this is to set the global white balance to match the largest part of
the image and then create a mask over the smaller area that needs a dif-
ferent white balance to cancel the color cast of this part out.
Creative uses of white balance
The combination of the White Balance tool and Layers can be used to
do powerful color adjustments beyond just working with mixed lighting,
however.
As an example, you can get a deeper blue sky by masking just this area
and adding a lower Kelvin value to make it deeper bluish. If the clouds
become a bit too cold as a result, just create a new cloud-specific lay-
er and neutralize the color cast in them by raising the Kelvin value and
painting over the clouds.
The combination of the White Balance tool and Layers can also be used
to add extra warmth to a part of a sunset image or even enhance foliage
by adding some green color cast with a negative Tint to a certain area.
This is just to get your imagination going.
Most of the time you will probably use the Color Editor tool to enhance
certain colors in the image, but the White Balance tool used locally can
be quite powerful too.
Correct vs pleasing white balance

A technically correct white balance is not always to be preferred. A
prime example is when shooting in the golden hour before the sunset or
after the sunrise where the sun is low in the sky and gives a warm light.
If you were to set the technically correct white balance, you would lose
the distinctly golden tone to your images, and most would prefer the
more pleasing warm white balance.
The same goes with the blue hour just after the sunset where an extra
touch of cold white balance by lowering the Kelvin slider would get you
the right feeling although it might not be technically correct. Most would
also choose a warmer white balance to emphasize the yellow and or-
ange hues in a sunset. In other words, a lot of times the most pleasing
white balance might be preferable to the technically correct one.
When comes to being creative with color adjustments, there are real-
ly no right or wrong. The human brain is sensitive to whether the white
balance of skin tones looks good, but beyond that, you just need to be
aware whether you’re are going after a technically correct white balance
or want to add a bit pleasing color touch with the tool.
You should note that the Color Balance tool is better suited if you want
to add a more distinct color grading style, so keep that in mind. We will
cover this great creative tool in a later chapter.
One final note on using the white balance in a creative context. When
you are converting your images to black and white with the Black &
White tool, there is no longer a right or wrong white balance to care
about. But that does not mean you should forget all about the tool when
doing your black and white adjustments. On the contrary. Changing the
white balance can shift the underlying light balance and contrast quite a
bit and get you to a more suitable starting point.
Making basic adjustments with Exposure
The Exposure tool is a bit unique in the sense that it will let you do the
basic adjustments to both exposure, contrast, and saturation whereas
all the other tools in Capture One Pro mostly focus on one specific task.
Think of the Exposure tool as the place where you do the basic adjust-
ments before moving on to more specialized tools.
Getting the exposure right

The Exposure slider works exactly like adjusting the exposure on your
camera. A +1 value is the same as adding one stop of light, like if you
were raising the ISO value from 100 to 200 or adding a +1 exposure
compensation on the camera.
It is important to be aware that moving the Exposure slider will shift all
tonal values, including the darkest shadows and the brightest highlights.
This is worth mentioning because sometimes an image might look too
dark or bright, but the exposure is actually well balanced with correctly
mapped shadows and highlights. In this case, you should adjust the mid-
tones with either the Brightness slider in the Exposure tool or with the
Curve tool (covered in a later chapter).
Using the Histogram

So how do you know whether the exposure should, in fact, be adjusted?
There are a couple of ways, but most photographers rely on a combina-
tion of the Histogram and what looks correct.
In a properly exposed image, the Histogram will show that there is im-
age data in both the dark areas to the left and the bright areas on the
right. If there is no data in the bright part and both the midtones and the
shadows look too dark in the image, you should move the Exposure slid-
er to a positive value, until the histogram looks well balanced and the
highlight data start to fill the area close to the border on the right. Just
make sure you don’t crush the highlights against the right border as this
will result in burned out details. If there is no data in the dark part of the
Histogram, but both the midtones and the shadows look too bright in
the image, you should do the reverse and move the Exposure slider to a
negative value.
Using Exposure Warning

You need to be careful not to clip the shadows or the highlights when
adjusting the Exposure slider. This
will happen if you crush the image
data against either the left or right
border of the histogram. The Expo-
sure Warning feature can help you
determine whether you have reached
this point and you turn it on by us-
ing the keyboard shortcut command
+ E (Ctrl + E on Windows) or clicking
on the exclamation icon in the Tool-
bar. Once you are starting to clip the
highlights, a red color will be shown
in the affected areas.
By default, the Shadow Warning is

turned off (see next page):

This can be changed in the Preferences under the Exposure tab. Make
sure to check the Enable Shadow Warning here.
You should also consider changing the Exposure Warning threshold

from 250 to 255. The default value of 250 is great if you are going to
output to a print that might not be able to reproduce all the fine high-
lights, but a value of 255 will give you a better feedback on when that
data is actually starting to clip. Note that you can also change the warn-
ing colors from red and blue here.
It is important to note that you will get an exposure warning even if only
the red, green or blue color channel are clipped. This means that there
might still image data in the area to work with and that you can recover
highlight data with the Highlight slider in the High Dynamic Range tool
(covered in a later chapter).
There is one final thing to be aware of when using the Exposure Warn-
ing. The warning is based on which ICC color profile is set as the out-
put target. A sRGB profile contains a smaller color gamut than the Ado-
be RGB profile and will therefore show certain colors as clipped which
might get no exposure warning if the Adobe RGB profile is selected. You
can check which output color profile is currently selected by going to the
main menu and select View > Proof Profile.
By default, Capture One Pro is basing the Proof Profile on the selected
Output Recipe in the Process Recipes tool (covered in a later chapter),
so be aware of that.
If you want the Exposure Warning to more closely mirror the full color
gamut in the raw file, you could consider choosing the ProPhoto profile.
Just be aware that no output device like a printer or monitor can repro-
duce all those colors, so this tip is only for power users who know what
they are doing.
Using Color Readouts to check exposure

If you want to check whether there are still useable image data in the
areas where you get an exposure warning, use the color readouts. You
can either hover the mouse over the warning area and look at the color
readouts under the Cursor Toolbar.
You can also click on the picker part of Cursor Toolbar drop-down menu
and select Add Color Readout. Then click on the area to insert a read-
out. A highlight is fully clipped if both a red, green and blue value is at
255. Ideally, none of them should go above 254, but there are no rules
without exceptions. The sun in bright daylight or powerful specular high-
lights will often clip in a well-exposed image. A shadow area is clipped if
both the red, green and blue value all show 0 (zero).
Adding Contrast
Using the Contrast slider will obviously add contrast to the image by
making the bright tones brighter and the darker tones darker. If you
pay attention to the Histogram while adding a positive value, you will
see how the image data is stretched out towards both edges. This also
means that you might end up clipping some image data in the shadow
or highlight area if you go too far. Using a negative value will do the op-
posite by compressing the extremes more towards the midtones, creat-
ing a flatter looking image.
You can control the contrast of the image in much greater control with
the Curve tool, but that doesn’t mean there is no use for the Contrast
slider. It is faster and easier to use than working with curves for most
people, and it also affects the colors in a slightly different way than the
Curve tool does. The Curve tool will be covered in detail in a later chap-
ter so for now you just need to be aware that the RGB Curve will boost
the colors more than using the Contrast slider when adding the same
degree of contrast. This means that you might prefer to use the Contrast
slider in certain situations.
Contrast should ideally be added to enhance the presence of the mid-

tones, giving them more punch. Some images look flat, but before you
add a ton of contrast, you should set the proper black and white point
first with the Levels tool. We will cover how to do this fast with a key-
board shortcut in a later chapter, for now you just need to remember that
setting a proper black and white point will instantly enhance the contrast
of a flat looking image and should therefore ideally be done before ap-
plying contrast.

Adjusting Brightness
The Brightness slider is a great way to make primarily the midtones
brighter or darker. In contrast to the Exposure slider, the Brightness will
not shift the whole exposure range the same amount, but instead mostly
brighter or darker the midtones.
A very high positive or negative amount can ultimately clip the highlights
or shadows respectively, but this can usually be countered with a bit of
adjustment to the Exposure slider or the Highlight and Shadow sliders
in the High Dynamic Range tool (covered in a later chapter).
You can use the Curve tool to lighten or darken the midtones instead
of the Brightness slider, but unless you need the precise control of the
curves, you just might find that this slider will do a fine job with less ef-
fort. Even if you plan on using Curves later on, it can be a quick way to
help decide whether the image need a boost to just the midtones or a
shift of the entire exposure range.
Note that the way that the Brightness slider works was updated in ver-
sion 9 of Capture One Pro, so if you gave up on using it in a prior ver-
sion, now might be a good time to revisit its functionality.
Adding Saturation
This slider will boost the colors when you add the positive value. It is
smart in the sense that it primarily saturates the more subdued colors
while affecting the saturated tones less. This way you can achieve a nice
saturation boost to pale colors without fearing that the rest is blown out.
It works much in the same way as the Vibrance slider you might know
from Photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw.
Another nice feature of the Saturation slider is that the luminosity levels
are not altered, or only slightly, when you are boosting the colors. This
means that most of the time you don’t need to adjust the brightness of
the image after tweaking the colors.
When you use a negative value, the slider will work like an old-school
Saturation in the sense that all colors are desaturated the same amount
until the image turns into a completely black and white photo.
Saving as a Preset
If you have found a nice combination of settings that might work great
for other images in the future, it would be a good idea to save them as a
Preset that can easily be reused. Click on the Preset icon in the upper
right corner and select Save User Preset....
You now get to choose which kind of adjustment you want to include.
Then click Save, and the preset is ready to be applied from the Preset
drop-down menu under User Presets. Note that the Exposure tool also
comes with a couple of readymade Built-in Presets that you can try out.
Copy and reuse an adjustment

If you want to copy adjustments made with the Exposure tool to oth-
er selected images, just click on the Copy icon. You now get the option
to choose whether the Exposure, Contrast, Brightness or Saturation
should be carried over to the other images (see next page):
Select the desired ones and hit Apply to reuse them.
so, for now, you just need to know that you can limit the effect of the Ex-
posure tool to a specific area of the image by creating a new layer and
painting a mask with the brush. This is done in the Layer tool placed
near the top of the Exposure Tab.
want to affect, you can go ahead and make your selective Exposure ad-
justments. They work exactly the same way as the main, global tool ex-
plored above. Note the small brush icon next to the tool name; it is in-
dicating that you are now working on a Layer, not on the Background
image.
Using Dodge and Burn

Most people use the Exposure slider when doing a selective Dodge or
Burn darkroom technic on the image to either brighten or darken the im-
age. The Exposure slider is a bit of a blunt instrument, however, because
all tones are shifted equally, often making highlights or shadows grey.
A better option can be to use the Brightness slider because it mainly
brightens or darken the midtones, making your local adjustments look
more natural.
You can also use the Exposure tool locally to add or remove contrast in
certain parts of the image with the Contrast slider. In some cases, you
might want to use the Curve tool as a Layer instead as it offers more
control.
It is also possible to saturate or desaturate parts of the image selective-
ly by using the Saturation slider and brush over the areas you want to
affect. Just be aware that you can also control the saturation of a select-
ed color range with the Color Editor tool (covered in a later chapter) and
that solution might be easier if you just want to target a certain color.
Stacking the saturation effect
It is very unlikely that you will ever encounter a situation where the Sat-
uration slider will not be able to boost the colors enough. Should that
happen, however, you can use a neat trick to stack an extra Saturation
layer upon the base image with Layers. Basically, you just add a new lay-
er, increase the Saturation slider here, and then paint a mask on the ar-
eas that need the extra saturation.
Optimizing the contrast with Levels
The Levels tool is arguably the best way to set the base contrast of the
image and should, therefore, be used as one of the very first tools to-
gether with the White Balance tool and the Exposure slider discussed in
the prior chapter.
Setting the black and white point correctly is a crucial first step to obtain
a great base contrast. By doing this, you are making sure that the image
spans the full tonal range from pure black to white. If your image looks
flat and dull, the chances are high that it doesn’t contain any tones near
the blacks or whites. This will also be revealed in the Histogram where
there will be empty spaces adjacent to the borders.
In the example below, most of the image data are in the middle of the
Histogram, and the image looks flat and dull. Applying a correct black
and white point remaps the tonal range and adds a much-needed boost
to the base contrast. No other adjustments were between the two imag-
es.
Setting the black and white point manually
The black and white point correspond to the two markers at the bottom
of each end of Levels histogram. Note how the markers are black and
white respectively. You can move them by clicking and dragging the
markers inwards. The two markers should be adjusted, so they touch the
point where the image data starts to appear at both ends of the histo-
gram. You can also click on the number fields below the marker and type
in a value.
Note that once you have set the black and white point, the image can
appear a bit brighter or darker and you might want to adjust the mid-
tones with the grey Gamma marker in the middle (explained below), or
the Brightness slider or Curve tool. You should also be aware that if you
adjust the Exposure slider afterward, the black and white point will be
shifted, and you should readjust them.
Setting the black and white point automatically

It can be somewhat time-consuming to fiddle with the markers on mul-
tiple images, so luckily there is a much faster and easier way to do it. If
you click on the little A icon at the top of the Levels tool, Capture One
Pro will set the black and white points automatically.
It is a highly recommended workflow as it is done accurately and fast.
You can also use the keyboard shortcut command + L (Ctrl + L on Win-
dows) if you go to the main menu and select Adjustments > Auto Ad-
justments and make sure that Levels are selected in the submenu. If you
deselect all the other options, you will only apply Auto Levels with the
keyboard shortcut, and it is definitely something you should consider
speeding up your workflow.
Setting the Auto Levels Clipping Thresholds

Note that by default, Capture One Pro will set the black and white point
so that some data in the shadows and highlights will clip slightly. This is
by design to provide a pleasing contrast, but you can change this behav-
ior in the preferences if you so wish.
Go to the main menu and select Capture One (Edit on Windows) and se-
lect Preferences… Then select the Exposure tab and look at the Auto
Levels Clipping Thresholds at the bottom. If you want to make sure that
the Auto Levels features don’t clip the data, you can change these val-
ues to 0,0% (zero). Setting the Highlights value to 0,0% could be a good
idea if you are keen not to lose any detail in a very bright scene.
Setting the black and white point from the image
You can also select either the Pick Shadow Level or the Pick Highlight
Level Cursor tools at the bottom of the Levels tool. Then click on the im-
age where you want the corresponding black or white point to be set.
Note how an orange line in the Levels histogram will indicate where you
are currently sampling from in the tonal range.
You might clip some shadows or highlights by using this method if you
are not very careful, so this is best used in those circumstances where
you have a precise point to sample your black and white point from, like
a color checker board. Note that you can select the two Cursor tools by
using the keyboard shortcut L and switch between them by hitting Shift
+ L.
Adjusting the midtones with the Levels tool

In addition to the black and white point markers, the Levels tool also
have a grey marker in the middle. This is used to adjust the brightness
of midtones, and some refer to this as adjusting the gamma curve. It will
automatically readjust itself when you set a black or white point in order
to keep the midtones at the same brightness level, but you can adjust
it after the fact by dragging the grey marker. Moving it to the right will
make the midtones darker, and vice versa.
One of the benefits of using the gamma to adjust the midtone is that it
will not affect the black or white point in comparison with for example
the Brightness or Exposure sliders discussed in a prior chapter. On the
other hand, it doesn’t provide the same control as using the Curve tool
and can give a slightly flatter look with less contrast.
Setting output targets

By default, the Levels tool is set up to output black in the image as pure
black and white as pure white. This is sometimes not desirable because
an output device like a monitor or a printer might not be able to repro-
duce the finer nuances of near-black or near-white values. If this is the
case, the details in these areas will end up going to waste because the
output media will in a sense just cut them off.
This issue can be solved by setting the output Target Levels which is
controlled by the black and white marker at the top of the Levels tool
histogram.
In this example, the Target Level for black is set to 5, while the Target
Level for white is set to 250. This means that the darkest and brightest
data in the image are remapped to fit within the tonal range from 5 to
250. In other words, the image will never contain any data that is darker
than 5 or brighter than 250. This is true even if you adjust the exposure
heavily.
This is a feature that can be very useful if you are going to share the ex-
ported image to monitors or printers that cannot reproduce the fine de-
tail of near-black and near-white.
You can set the Target Levels by dragging the black or white marker on
the top of the Levels histogram or type in a value in the two associated
number fields above.
You also have the option of having them set automatically when using
the Auto Levels command. This need to be enabled in the preference
first, however. First, open the Preferences and select the Exposure tab.
Make sure that Pick Target Levels is selected and set the Shadows and
Highlights values. A value of 5 and 250 could be a good standard, but
it really depends on the capabilities of the target output device. Then
close the window.
Next time you run the Auto Levels command, Capture One Pro will au-
tomatically set the black Target level to 5 and the white Target Level to
250 in the Levels tool while also adjusting the levels based on the image
content.

Changing Channel Mode for scanned images
By default, Capture One Pro sets the black and white for the combined
RGB channel when making an automatic adjustment of the Levels. You
can change this behavior in the Preferences to make an individual ad-
justment to the red, green and blue channels. This can give improved
results if you are working with scanned positive and negative black &
white film, as Capture One Pro will then try to minimize any color cast.
If you are working with scanned images, you can try to set the Channel
Mode to Red, Green, and Blue Channels in the Exposure tab in the pref-
erences.
It is, however, not recommended to use this mode when working on im-
ages capture directly from a camera as it might introduce a color cast. It
reason being is that the black and white point will often be set differently
on the red, green and blue channels, leading to unexpected color shifts.
In this case, remember to set Channel Mode back to the default RGB
Channel.

Using Levels to play with color
The Levels tool can be very powerful when you want to be creative and
achieve a unique color style or look. This is done by diving into the Red,
Green and Blue channels. When you drag either the black or white point
marker or the midtone marker, a specific color cast will be introduced
to the image. Here we have opened the Levels tool three times and
stacked the three color channels on top of each other to have a more ef-
ficient workflow.
Working with the separate color chan-

nels takes a little getting used to before
you fully grasp how the colors are af-
fected. Here is how this works:
When you move the white point marker

or the midtone marker towards to the
left, the colors of that channel will be in-
troduced as a cast. For example, if you
move the midtone marker in the Green
channel to the left, the whole image will
become more greenish. So far, things
are working intuitively.
However, when you move the black

point marker or the midtone marker to-
wards to the right, you are in fact boost-
ing the opposite color, called the com-
plementary color. The complementary
color to red is cyan, the complemen-
tary color to green is magenta, and fi-
nally, the yellow is complementary to blue. So, if you move the midtone
marker in the Green channel to the right, the whole image will become
more magenta. This will be easier to remember if you find a color wheel
graphic on the web as a reference.
You can also mix two color channels to introduce a certain tint. If you
for example want to add a yellow cast, you should move the white point
marker in the red and green inwards.
Note that you can also set the Target Level marker for each color chan-
nel individually. If you move the black Target Level inwards, it will intro-
duce a shadow color cast of the channel you use it on. However, if you
move the white Target Level inwards, it will introduce a highlight color
cast that is the complementary color of said channel. So, if you move the
white Target Level in the Blue channel, you will introduce a yellow color
cast primarily in the highlights. All this power can also be used to color
correct an image that has a specific color cast.
It might take a bit of time to wrap your head around all the combinations,
and for most people, it will be far easier to do this kind of creative color
styles with the excellent Color Balance tool (covered in a later chapter).
The possibilities are greater when using the separate channels in Levels,
however, so keep that in mind if you can’t quite accomplish what you are
after with the Color Balance tool. Note that the Color Balance tool is de-
signed not to change the contrast of the image, which this will happen
when you play around with the black and white points in the color chan-
nels of the Levels tool.
Saving as a Preset
for other images in the future, you should save them as a Preset that can
easily be reused. Click on the Preset icon in the upper right corner and
select Save User Preset....
You now get to choose which kind of adjustment you want to include.
drop-down menu under User Presets. This feature probably makes the
most sense to use if you have made a creative style with the Red, Green
and Blue channels as the white and black point should always be set on
an image-per-image basis.
If you want to copy adjustments made with the Levels tool to other se-
lected images, just click on the Copy icon. You now get the option to
choose whether the Target Levels or just the normal Levels adjustments
should be carried over to the other images.

Using Layers and Mask will be explored in full detail in a later chapter,
for now you just need to know that you can limit the effect of the Level
tool to a specific area of the image by creating a new layer and painting
a mask with the brush. This is done in the Layer tool placed near the top
of the Exposure Tab.
want to affect, you can go ahead and make your selective Levels ad-
plored above. Note the small brush icon next to the tool name; it is indi-
cating that you are now working on a Layer, not on the Background base
image.
The Levels tool can be used to achieve a wide variety of selective image
adjustments because it is versatile. Here is a couple of tips and tricks to
get your imagination going.
You can increase the contrast by setting the black or white clipping point
as explained earlier in this chapter and then isolate the effect to a specif-
ic part of the image with a mask. This can also be useful if you just need
to crush the shadows or highlights a bit in a specific area of the image.
You might prefer to use the gamma adjustment (middle grey marker) to
adjust the overall brightness of the image instead of using other adjust-
ments like the Curve tool or the Brightness slider in the Exposure tool.
As mentioned earlier in the chapter, the main advantage of using the
gamma point to adjust the brightness is that it doesn’t change the black
or white clipping point.
You can also use Levels on a Layer and change the black and white out-
put markers to make sure that a certain part of the image doesn’t reach
pure black or white. As explained earlier, you need to use the markers at
the top of the histogram to achieve this. It can be very useful to use this
feature in a specific area instead of just applying it globally.
Finally, you can make creative color changes to the images with the Red,
Green and Blue levels and then limit those by using a mask. This is an
area where using a Layer and Mask is especially powerful because you
easily can limit the effect to a particular part of the image. It gets even
better, as you can control the strength of the color adjustment by brush-
ing it on with a low Opacity setting, gradually painting in the effect. Us-
ing the Levels tool globally to make creative color adjustment can quick-
ly go a bit over the top but doing the work on a layer and using a mask
can greatly expand the usefulness of the tool for creative color adjust-
ments.
Recovering details with High Dynamic
Range
The High Dynamic Range tool is extremely useful when you need to re-
cover details in the shadows or highlights. It works best with raw files
because of their large dynamic range where you can retrieve unseen im-
age detail. This is especially true in the highlight area where the detail in
for example a bride’s white dress might look burned out at first sight, but
actually have plenty of image information to work with.
The tool is very straightforward to use. If you need to recover detail in

the brightest part of the image, you move the Highlight slider until the
detail is retrieved. If you want to get more detail in the darkest areas of
the image, you move the Shadow slider.
Note that it is possible to overdo the effect and create an image that
looks washed out and artificial if you crank the sliders all the way up.
There is no hard rule on when that point is reached as it depends on the
image content and your taste.
The High Dynamic Range tool is very useful when you want to be sure
that the image data isn’t clipped in either the shadows or the highlights.
Therefore, you should use the tool in combination with other tools like
Exposure, Levels, and Curve. Once the exposure, brightness and con-
trast have been adjusted, you should tweak the image with the Highlight
and Shadow sliders to recover any blown-out detail.
It is not always possible to adjust the exposure perfectly to avoid some

detail being clipped in either end of the histogram, and in those cases,
you should turn to the High Dynamic Range tool as a solution. A raw file
can easily contain a larger range of image data than a screen or printer
can reproduce and this is the reason that you sometimes need to com-
press the image data to fit within a narrower tonal range with this tool.
The Exposure Warning feature is very helpful when you are using the
sliders and need to determine when the image data is no longer clipped.
You turn it on by using the keyboard shortcut command + E (Ctrl + E on
Windows). Read the Using Exposure Warning section for more informa-
tion about how to set it up.
Note that the Exposure Warning will show you a warning even if just
one of the color channels is clipped. As long as at least one of the color
channels contain data in the highlights, you will be able recover some
detail in that area. The reason being that the human brain isn’t very sen-
sitive to colors in the highlights, so even some shade of grey will often
do fine.
Things are different in the shadow areas, but the dynamic range cap-
tured by the image sensor on new cameras have improved a lot. Today
you can brighten the shadow areas about three to four stops of light
without running into problems with noise. Moving the Shadow slider all
the way to the max value of 100 is more or less the equivalent to adding
two stops of light to the shadow area.
You should note that both the Highlight and Shadow slider can affect
the brightness of the midtones, so you might want to readjust the con-
trast or the light balance of the image with either the Exposure or Curve
tool after the fact.
Adjusting Highlight and Shadow automatically

If you click on the little A icon at the top of the High Dynamic Range tool,
Capture One Pro will adjust the Highlight and Shadow slider automati-
cally.
You can also use the keyboard shortcut command + L (Ctrl + L on Win-
dows) if you go to the main menu, chose Adjustments > Auto Adjust-
ments and ensure that High Dynamic Range is selected.
Saving as a Preset
for other images in the future, it would be a good idea to save them as a
Preset that can easily be reused. Click on the Preset icon in the upper
You now get to choose whether you want to include both Highlight and
Shadow or just one of them. Then click Save, and the preset is ready to
be applied from the Preset drop-down menu under User Presets.
If you want to copy adjustments to other selected images, just click on
the Copy icon. You now get the option to choose whether both High-
light and Shadow or just one of them should be carried over to the other
images.

High Dynamic Range tool to a specific area of the image by creating a
new layer and painting a mask with the brush. This is done in the Layer
tool placed near the top of the Exposure Tab.
Once you have created a new Layer
and have masked the area you want
to affect, you can go ahead and make
your selective High Dynamic Range
adjustments. They work exactly the
same way as the main, global tool ex-
plored above. Note the small brush
icon next to the tool name; it is indicat-
ing that you are now working on a Lay-
er, not on the Background image.
Since both the Highlight and Shadow sliders affect the midtones some-
what, you might want to limit their effect to certain parts of the image
with a mask. If you experience that for example the bride’s white dress
becomes a bit too grey after having used the Highlight slider to recov-
er detail, you can reestablish some of the brightness by adding a slightly
brightening Luma curve in the Curve tool on the same layer.
The same trick can be applied if you think that the darker tones have be-
come a bit too bright after having used the Shadow slider. In the case,
you might want to add a slightly darkening Luma curve in the Curve tool
on the same layer.
Getting the perfect contrast
with the Curve tool
When you need precise control over the contrast and the light balance
in your images, the Curve tool should be your preferred choice. It let you
tweak the brightness level at any given point in the tonal range by in-
serting a point on a curve. If you move the point up, that range will get
brighter, while it will get darker if you move it downwards.
The most classic use of the Curve tool is to increase the contrast by cre-
ating an S-shape. This is done by adding points to both the shadow area
and the upper midtone area and then making that tonal range darker
and brighter respectively.
If you want to get a hard start, click on the Preset icon in the Curve tool
and select the built-in preset Contrast Luma or Contrast RGB to have an
S-shape applied automatically.
Note the other presets Mid tones – brighter, Mid tones – darker and
Shadows – brighter. The Curve tool is not just for adding contrast; it can
also be used to great effect when you need to tweak the light balance in
the image.
Using RGB and Luma curves
One of the most powerful features of the Curve tool in Capture One
Pro is that you can work with both an RGB curve and a so-called Luma
curve. Luma stands for luminosity and means that the only the bright-
ness levels in the image are changed while the hues and saturation
of the colors are kept constant. If you use the RGB curve, on the other
hand, the colors will also be affected by adding a good deal of satura-
tion and some slight color shifts.
The RGB curve is great when you want to add contrast with some col-
or punch to it, for example to landscape photos or other subjects where
you want the colors to pop more with some added saturation. Converse-
ly, the Luma curve is an excellent option when you want or need to re-
tain colors in subjects with delicate tones or fine color graduations. This
is often the case with skin tones, particularly women, but it might also be
important with product or fine art photography where the colors should
not shift.
You can combine the use of both curves to great effect once get you a
feel for how they behave. In fact, chances are that you will quickly appli-
cate the power and freedom they provide in combination.
This why some power users add an extra version of the Curve tool by
right-clicking in the Tool Tab and choose Add Tool > Curve and then
stack them together, having one set to RGB and another to Luma.
There is no right or wrong way on how

to split the work between the RGB or
Luma curve as it depends highly on the
image, the subject, and your prefer-
ence. A good approach, however, could
be to add the base contrast with the
RGB curve and then tweak the bright-
ness levels with the Luma curves. One
reason why you might want to do it this
way is that the RGB curve does affect
the color saturation quite a bit, more so
than the Contrast slider in the Exposure
tool. Sometimes that is exactly what you
want, other times you might not want all
the additional boost to the colors. You
should note that when adding contrast
using the Luma Curve, your brain may
miss the addition of saturation in the
image, so sometimes you should add
some with either the Saturation slider
in the Exposure tool or add some of the
contrast with the RGB Curve too.
Adjusting and adding a curve point

Adding a curve point is as simple as hovering the mouse over the line
and clicking on it. You can then move the inserted point with the mouse
to adjust the brightness level while seeing the result update in the View-
er.
You can also use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move the point
around, just make sure that it is selected with a filled orange rectangle
first. The arrow keys will move the point one luminosity level per tap, but
if you hold the Shift key down and hit an arrow key, it will move five lev-
els.
Clicking on the curve and hoping that you have hit the right spot to con-
trol the tonal range is not the most intuitive way of working, so luckily
that is a better option.
At the bottom-right of the Curve tool you can select the Pick Curve Point
cursor tool, and when you click with it on the image in the Viewer, a
point will be inserted on the curve that match the corresponding lumi-
nosity level. You can click and add as many as you want.
Note that there is a separate pick Cursor tool for both the RGB curve
and the Luma Curve. You can enable both with the keyboard shortcut U
and hit Shift + U to switch between them on the fly.
Deleting a curve point
If you need to delete a point, just select it, right-click and choose Re-
move Selected. You can also delete all the points by selecting the Re-
move All command.
Be aware that if you click on the Reset adjustment icon at the top of the
tool, it will delete all the points on the RGB, Luma, Red, Green, and Blue
curves. If you only want to reset one of them, hold command and click
on the Reset icon. Then only the selected curve will be cleared.
Making precise adjustments
There are two tricks you should know in order to make very precise ad-
justments. The first is to open the Curve tool as a floating window by
either dragging it out on the viewer or going to the main menu and se-
lecting Window > Create Floating Tool > Curve. Now you can resize the
window and make it nice and large which will enhance your ability to
move the points with greater precision.
The other tip is to add some neutral anchor points on the curve to make
sure your adjustments don’t affect a certain tonal range. Think of these
points as a way to lock the curve to the neutral line. If you go to the
Curve tool’s Presets and select 5-point-AllChannels you will have a
great starting point.
Setting the black and white point
You can set the black and white point with the Curve tool. By setting
these correctly, you are making sure that the image spans the full tonal
range from pure black to white. If your image looks flat and dull, chances
are high that it doesn’t contain any tones near or at the blacks or whites.
Most prefer to set these with the Levels tool (see a prior chapter) be-
cause it can be done automatically and have the dedicated Pick Shadow
Level and Pick Highlight Level cursor tools.
If you want to do it with the Curve tool, just select one of the anchor
points in the lower left corner or the upper right corner and move them
inwards. The correct way is to move them, so they just touch the edge of
the histogram (see next page):
You can use these anchor points to create special effects like inverting
the image. This is done by moving the black anchor point all the way up
vertically to the Input 0 and Output 255 position, while the white anchor
point is moved all the way down to the Input 255 and Output 0 position.
You can also create a solarized special effect by making a U-shape

curved as shown here:
Creative color adjustments
Like with the Levels tool, you can work on the individual color channels
with the Curve tool. This can be a very powerful way to achieve a unique
color style. When you add a point to either the Red, Green or Blue curve
and move it, a specific color cast will be introduced to the image. If you
want to work efficiently with this ability, you should consider opening the
Curve tool three times and stacked the color channels on top of each
other to have an efficient workflow.
As mentioned, you will introduce a cer-

tain color cast when you are working with
the separate color channels. It is fairly
straightforward as long as you move a
point on the curve upwards as this will
add the color hue of the channel to the
image. For example, if you add a point
in the highlights of the Red channel and
nudge it up, the highlights in the image
will become more red.
However, when you add a point and move
it downwards, below the neutral line, you
will be boosting the opposite color, called
the complementary color. The comple-
mentary color to red is cyan, the comple-
mentary color to green is magenta and
finally the complementary color to blue
is yellow. For example, if you add a point
in the shadows of the Green channel and
nudge it down, the shadows in the image
will become more magenta.
You can also mix two color channels to
introduce a certain tint. If you for exam-
ple want to add a yellow cast, you should
move a point on the red and green curve upwards.
Note that you can also set the anchor point for each color channel indi-
vidually. If you move the white anchor point inwards, it will introduce a
color cast of the channel you use it on. However, if you move the black
anchor inwards, it will introduce a color cast that is the complementary
color of the channel in use.
All this power can be used to color correct an image that has a specific
color cast. The color channels in the Curve tool are arguably more pow-
erful than those in the Levels tool as you can make more precise adjust-
ments and for example limit a change of color to the highlights, midtones
or shadow regions.
For most people, it will be more intuitive and faster to make creative col-
or styles with the excellent Color Balance tool (covered later). Working
on the individual color channels in the Curve tool does however give
you the additional option to limit the tonal range where the adjustments
happen, so keep that in mind.
Saving as a Preset
for other images in the future, you should save them as a Preset that can
easily be reused. Click on the Preset icon in the upper right corner and
select Save User Preset....
Then click Save, and the preset is ready to be reused from the Preset
drop-down menu under User Presets.

If you want to copy adjustments made with the Curve tool to other se-
lected images, just click on the Copy icon.
Note that you won’t get an option to choose between the RGB, Luma,
Red, Green or Blue, all adjustments will be included. Select Curve and
hit Apply to reuse them.

Curve tool to a specific area of the image by creating a new layer and
want to affect, you can go ahead and make your selective Curve ad-
image.
Using the Curve tool on a specific area of the image is a very powerful
feature of Capture One Pro because it let you make precise adjustments
to contrast and brightness to that particularly region.
The possibilities are vast, so here is just a couple of ideas to get your
imagination going (see next page):
Superior Dodge and Burn
Most people use the Exposure slider (in the Exposure tool) when do-
ing a selective Dodge or Burn on the image to either brighten or dark-
en the area. The Exposure slider is a bit of a blunt instrument, however,
because all tones are shifted equally. A better option would be to use
the Curve tool with a Luma curve where you brighten or darken the mid-
tones with higher precision.
Using Curves and Linear Response

If you want to have to ultimate control over your raw file, you should con-
sider going to the Base Characteristics tool and choose the Linear Re-
sponse from the Curve drop-down menu.
Then add the base contrast and

light balance with the global
Curve tool using both the RGB
and Luma curves as described
above. Finally, add the optimal
contrast and brightness for differ-
ent areas of the image, using the
RGB and/or Luma curves where
suitable.
You will be hard-pressed to find

a better solution to get the very
best out of your raw files, but it is
obviously a more involving work-
flow that might be best reserved
for your top images because it is
more time-consuming.
Removing color cast locally
You might encounter an unfortunately color cast in certain parts of the
image, for example in some of the shadow areas. You could use the Col-
or Balance tool (more on that in a later chapter) to correct the color cast
in the shadows, but the Red, Green or Blue channel curves can be very
effective to remove a color cast and then only apply the mask over the
troubled area. This technique can also be used to add a creative color
cast to a specific area in the image.
Adding punch and micro-contrast
with Clarity tool
The Clarity tool is an excellent way to add some punch, clarity and bite
to your images. It should be thought of as a way to boost the contrast,
but it relies on some tricks that have more in common with sharpening
techniques.
In a way, you could say that the Clarity slider applies sharpening with a
very broad brush, while Structure does it with a fine brush. Another way
to think of the relationship between contrast and sharpening is the fol-
lowing hierarchy; Contrast > Clarity > Structure > Sharpening going from
a global to a more local adjustment for each step.
The Clarity slider works a bit like using the Unsharp Mask Filter in Pho-
toshop and setting the Radius very high to for example 50 to 100 pixels
wide. The Structure slider works with a much smaller pixel radius and
enhances the micro-contrast, not unlike the regular sharpening tools.
The net effect is that Clarity adds some punch and pop to the image,
while Structure adds some bite.
Clarity can help reduce the effect of haze in the image, but it is most of-
ten used when the image looks a bit flat and lacks some presence, pop
or just clarity as the name implies. It is typically something you would
add a landscape image, but it is down to taste. Some love it and apply it
generously while others just add a touch. It obviously also depends on
the subject as Clarity will not work well with female skin tones, for exam-
ple. Note however, that you can also add a negative Clarity value which
will smooth out the image and give a dreamy look with a slight glow that
can look great on female portraits if not overdone.
As mentioned, Structure adds some bite and micro-contrast and is a

great feature if the details in your image look a bit soft. It is closely relat-
ed to the sharpening tools in Capture One Pro but is faster and easier to
use for most when you just want to enhance some texture or structure
in your images. A negative value will smooth out the details and make
them look softer. It is probably rare that you want to make an entire im-
age softer, but a negative Structure value can help reduce noise in an
image or be used creatively if you want a soft look to mimic an old im-
age for example.
Choosing the right method

You can choose different techniques to calculate the Clarity and Struc-
ture adjustments from the Method drop-down menu. There are four
methods, but the most useful are Natural and Classic, as Punch and
Neutral are slightly tweaked versions of the default Natural method.
Punch applies the strongest effect but can introduce false colors and
clip highlights, so be aware of that. The Neutral method doesn’t have
the problem with false colors, but can still clip highlight, and finally, you
have Natural that takes care of both those issues. In other words, Natu-
ral is less likely to introduce any unwanted side effects.
The Classic method originates from Capture One Pro version 6 and
applies a very different local contrast than the other three methods. It
gives a more localized, crunchy effect that makes details stand out more
than the newer Natural method which works with a broader brush, so to
speak.
Natural is better suited to add overall clarity and pop to for example
landscapes, while Classic will accentuate edges and details more, per-
fect for architecture and other subjects where the details make the im-
age. The difference between Natural and Classic is also quite apparent
when using a negative value. Where Natural will apply a dreamy look,
Classic will smooth details out in a way that looks more natural on for ex-
ample skin tones. This makes Classic a great option for female portraits
when a negative value is used.
Note that the Structure slider is less affected by the different methods
than the Clarity slider.
Saving as a Preset
If you have found some settings that will work great for other images
in the future, you can save them as a Preset that can be reused easily.
Click on the Preset icon in the upper right corner and select Save User
Preset....
You now get to choose whether you want to include both Clarity and
Structure or just one of them. Then click Save, and the preset is ready to
be applied from the Preset drop-down menu under User Presets.

If you want to copy adjustments to other selected images, just click on
the Copy icon. You now get the option to choose whether both Clarity
and Structure or just one of them should be carried over to the other im-
ages.

Clarity tool to a specific area of the image by creating a new layer and
want to affect, you can go ahead and make your selective Clarity ad-
plored earlier. Note the small
brush icon next to the tool
name; it is indicating that you
are now working on a Layer, not
on the Background image.
You can select a different type

from the Method drop-down
menu for each layer, making it
possible mix them on the same
image. You can for example use
Natural on the base layer and
add a new layer with the Clas-
sic method on top. This is a new
feature in Capture One Pro 11 and was not possible in version 10.
There are several reasons why you might want to limit the Clarity tool to
a specific part of the image by using a layer and a mask. Here is a cou-
ple of ideas to get your imagination going.
You can use clarity to reduce the haze in an image, but typically haze will
be more pronounced in the distance, so applying some extra clarity in
this part of the image is the best way to do it.
Using a generous amount of Clarity can really make a blue sky with
clouds pop, but it would be overkill for the rest of the image. Create a
layer for the sky only and use the Gradient Mask tool to limit the effect
to the sky. You might also want to use the Highlight slider in the High
Dynamic Range tool to recover some highlights in the clouds.
Using a negative value with a Clarity slider can be a great way to

smooth out skin tones in a portrait, but the effect needs to be isolated
to just the skin. Otherwise crucial details in for example the eyes will be-
come soft. Remember to try out Classic from the Method drop-down
menu for this trick.
Adding Structure can greatly enhance the details, but not everything in
the image might look better with the higher micro-contrast. It can also
pronounce the noise in the image, so sometimes you need to keep the
extra Structure local with a layer and mask.
Using a negative value with the Structure slider can help get rids of
noise and smooth out unwanted detail in skin tones. These kinds of im-
age adjustments are normally best kept local and painting them in with a
brush on a mask.
Improving colors with the Color Editor tool
One of the most powerful image editing tools in Capture One Pro is
without a doubt the Color Editor tool which allows you to select a cer-
tain range of colors and then tweak the hue, saturation, and lightness to
taste. The Color Editor tool also has a fabulous feature that can even out
a selection of colors, like skin tones, for a more clean and smooth look.
The Color Editor tool has three tabs. We will cover the first Basic tab
somewhat quickly, as the really cool features are found in the Advanced
and Skin Tone tabs.
Basic Tab
The Basic tab is the only one available
in the free Capture One Express for
Sony version of the software. It con-
tains six predefined color segments
(red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, magen-
ta) as noted on the color wheel and in
the color correction list below.
Once you have selected one of these

predefined color ranges, you can
tweak the colors of the segment with
the Hue (color balance), Saturation
and Lightness (brightness) sliders. If
you are not certain which color seg-
ment you should select to target a spe-
cific color, choose the Pick Basic Col-
or Correction cursor and click on the
color in the image. The corresponding
color segment will then be selected.
Note that you can expand or contract

a color segment by selecting it and
moving the handles on the outside border of the color wheel. You can
also control how smooth the transition should be between the color seg-
ments with the Smoothness slider. These adjustments are easier to vi-
sualize and fine-tune if you select the View selected color range option
at the bottom. This excellent little feature makes sure that you can see
clearly what color range you are currently affecting; all the other colors
will be set temporarily to black and white.
Advanced Tab introduction
The Advanced tab is a much more powerful version of the Basic tab be-
cause you can select exactly the colors you want to affect and fine-tune
how narrow or broad the color range of that selection should be. The
color correction abilities in the Advanced tab are also more powerful as
you can tweak hue, saturation, and lightness to a larger extent.
Selecting the color range

You need to select the color seg-
ment that you want to affect first be-
fore you can do any color corrections.
This is done by selecting the Pick Col-
or Correction cursor from either the
Advanced tab or the Cursor Toolbar.
Then click on the desired color on the
image in the Viewer. Capture One Pro
will now make an initial color selection
as noted in the color wheel and the
color correction list.
You can create up to 25 different col-

or selections by using the Pick Color
Correction cursor to target additional
color ranges on the image. Note that
a new color correction is added to the
list each time you click on the image
with the cursor tool, so it might be a
good practice to select the Pan cur-
sor tool (H) once you are done, so you
don’t accidentally add more color cor-
rections than needed.
If you want to delete one of the entries, click on the – (minus) icon under
the list. Note how you can hide and show a color correction by clicking
on the box with a checkmark.
Tweaking the color range selection
You have full control over which colors
that you want to include in a certain col-
or correction. Once you have made the
initial selecting of a color, you can tweak
the affected color range by dragging its
boundaries in the color wheel. You can
expand or contract the color range by
dragging either the handles at the bor-
der of the color wheel or by dragging
the highlighted boundaries on the se-
lected color range itself. You can also
expand or contract the saturation range
by dragging on the inner and outer
highlighted boundaries.
You can adjust whether the color range

should have a smooth or more abrupt
roll off with the Smoothness slider. A
low value can result in a harsh transi-
tion from the colors that are affected to
those that are not. Other times a low Smoothness value can be neces-
sary in order to limit the color range precisely, so just be mindful of that.
Two things will make it much

easier to fine-tune the affected
color range. First, you should
enable the View selected col-
or range option at the bottom
of the tool. This excellent fea-
ture will only display the affected
range in colors while all the unaf-
fected colors are muted to black
and white.
This makes it very easy to see

which colors are part of the cur-
rent color selection and which
are not. The other tip is to drag the Color Editor out from the Tool Tab
and resize the tool so that you will get a larger color wheel to work on,
making precise adjustments that much easier.
You can make sure that all saturation lev-
els are included in the color range by click-
ing on the Span Full Saturation Range icon
near the bottom.
It will not change the selected range of

hues, but you will notice how Capture One
Pro expands the color selection from the
center to the border, making sure that the
full saturation range is selected.
Inverting the color selection

If you want to invert the color selection,
just click on the Invert Slice icon near
the bottom. This is very handy if you for
instance want to convert most of the col-
ors to black and white while keeping the
selected range in colors.
The workflow is pretty simple. You first
select the color range that you want to
preserve in colors, then click on the In-
vert Slice icon and finally set the Satura-
tion slider to -100.
You are obviously not limited to just re-

moving the colors from the inverted
color range; the technique can also be
used to tweak the color balance with
the Hue slider, controlling the brightness
with the Lightness slider or just reducing
the saturation a bit to say, -30, with the
Saturation slider.
Selecting all colors
If you click on the + (plus) sign at the

bottom of the list, Capture One Pro
will add a color correction that con-
tains all colors in the image. This
might be useful if you want to tweak
the color balance of the whole image
at once with the Hue slider.

Making the color adjustments
Once you have selected the color range that should be affected, you
move onto the Hue, Saturation and Lightness sliders under the color
wheel.
The Hue slider is used to shift the
hue (color balance) of the select-
ed color range. A positive value will
shift the colors counter-clockwise
on the color wheel, while negative
values will shift them clockwise. For
example, a red color will become
more magenta with negative Hue,
while it will become more orange
with a positive Hue value.
Adjusting Hue can be extreme-
ly useful for improving colors that
might be a bit off like skin tones in
mixed lighting or tweaking the col-
ors to get a nicer, deep blue in the
sky or adding warmer tones to parts
of a sunset.
The Hue slider can only shift the
color 30 degrees on the color
wheel, but you can actually move
beyond that if you need to. Here is
the trick: Once you have adjusted
the Hue slider all the way to one side, choose the Pick Color Correction
cursor and click on the same color area again. Then tweak the Hue slid-
er again. This hidden functionality means that you can in effect replace a
selected color with any color you like.
The Saturation slider increases or decreases the saturation of the se-
lected colors. You should note that the saturation will not be added in
the same adaptive way as with the Saturation slider in the Exposure
tool, so it is easier to clip colors if you’re using a high amount of Satura-
tion. A value of -100 remove all colors from the selected range.
The Lightness slider is a powerful and convenient way to increase or de-
crease the brightness of the selected colors. It is an excellent tool to re-
trieve some color detail in bright areas like for example a very pale, blue
sky where you want the blue colors to be more apparent. A negative val-
ue will darken those colors similar to the effect you get by using a neg-
ative value with the Exposure or Brightness slider in the Exposure tool.
The difference obviously is that the effect is limited to the selected color
range and this makes it a very useful tool in conjunction with your more
global adjustments of brightness and light balance.
If you are using a very low negative value, you might need to add a bit
of saturation, otherwise the colors can get flat and dull. You might also
need to tweak the Saturation if you brighten the color range a lot by us-
ing a high positive amount.
At the bottom of the tool, you

have two color patches that
show the color before and after
the correction as well as image
data readouts for the two colors.
The H, S and L readouts can be
very useful to keep an eye on as
they will show any shift in hue
(H), saturation (S) and bright-
ness (L). When you increase
the saturation, for example, the
hue might shift too, and you can
then tweak the Hue slider un-
til corrected color matches the
original hue.

Working with Skin Tone
The Skin Tone tab is an excellent feature that is used when you want
to even out certain colors, like the skin tones, making them look more
clean and smooth. While the name implies that the tool is meant for skin
tones, it can be equally powerful when you want to even out any col-
or range, like a blue sky with noise or any other undesirable variation in
hue, saturation or lightness. The tool can even be used to reduce noise
efficiently.
You need to be aware of one important difference compared to the way

the Advanced tab work. With the Skin Tone tool, the selected colors are
adjusted towards the color of the
central reference point in the col-
or pie as you move the sliders
under Uniformity. In other words,
the colors will become more uni-
form in appearance, and the ref-
erence point controls what the
target color will be.
Selecting the color

You select both the initial color
range and the reference point
by choosing the Pick Skin Col-
or Correction cursor from either
the Skin Tone tab or the Cursor
Toolbar and then clicking on the
desired color on the image in the
Viewer. As noted above, it is im-
portant to pick the desired target
color correctly, but you can move
it after the fact by dragging the
central point in the color range to
a new location if need be.
Tweaking the color range selection
Once you have made the initial se-
lecting of a color, you can tweak
the affected color range by drag-
ging its highlighted boundaries in
the color wheel. You can both ex-
pand or contract the color range
by dragging either the handles at
the border of the color wheel or by
dragging the highlighted boundar-
ies on the selected range. You can
also expand or contract the satura-
tion range by dragging on the in-
ner and outer boundaries.
Note that the Skin Tone tab has

two additional sliders on both
sides of the color wheel compared
to the Advanced tab. The lumi-
nosity slider on the right controls
whether the full brightness level of
the selected colors should be in-
cluded or not. If you set this slider
low, only the darker tones of the
color range will be affected. The saturation slider on the left of the color
wheel controls the saturation level of the reference point, and you will
see the point moving out from the center of the color wheel towards the
edge as you increase this slider.
You can adjust whether the color range should have a smooth or more
abrupt roll off with the Smoothness slider. A low value can result in a
harsh transition from the colors that are affected to those that are not.
It is much easier to fine-
tune the affected col-
or range if you enable
the View selected color
range option at the bot-
tom of the tool as this
will only display the af-
fected range in colors
while all the unaffect-
ed colors are muted to
black and white. The
other workflow tip is to
drag the Color Editor
out from the Tool Tab and resize the tool so that you will get a larger col-
or wheel to work on.
Making color adjustments

Once you have selected the col-
or range that should be affected,
you can tweak the color with the
Hue, Saturation and Lightness
sliders as explained under the
Advanced Tab. Just note that
these sliders provide a smaller
amount of adjustment, making it
easier to edit skin tones without
overdoing it.
Increasing color uniformity
The real magic with the Skin Tone tool happens when you start to use
the sliders under Uniformity. Every color within the selected color range
will be moved towards the selected target point, making the colors in
the area more uniform.
You can even out the color area

by Hue, Saturation, and Light-
ness independently, making it
both fast and powerful to get
smooth skin tones or even out
other colors that you want to be
more uniform.
You might find that the correct-

ed colors didn’t quite end up
with the overall tone you had
envisioned, and in that case,
you just need to move the tar-
get point in the color pie in the
wheel until you get the desired
color. If you just want to tweak
the saturation of the target col-
or, then use the big Saturation
slider on the left side of the col-
or wheel. Also remember that
you can tweak the color with
the Hue, Saturation and Light-
ness sliders under Amount to
reach the desired result.
The uniformity effect can be overdone, of course, and you should be es-
pecially careful about moving the Lightness slider all the way up to 100
as this can lead to a washed-out and unnatural looking result.
There is one circumstance where setting all the Uniformity sliders to
near the max makes good sense. If you want to get rid of noise in a par-
ticular color area, the Skin Tone can be an excellent solution, but you
should use it on a layer in the Layers tool so that you can limit the effect
with a mask.
Save a color selection as mask
A very powerful feature of Capture One Pro and the Color Editor is the
ability to convert any color selection into a mask which can then be used
as a Layer. Once you have selected the color range, you just need to
click on the options icon and choose Create Masked Layer from Selec-
tion.
Capture One Pro will now automatically create a new layer with the
mask applied in the Layers tool, ready to use. This is very powerful be-
cause you now get access to tools like White Balance, High Dynamic
Range, Curve, Clarity and even the Color Editor tool itself and those ad-
justments will only be applied to the mask area the mirrors your color se-
lection.
As a very nice feature, the mask will be created with varying opacity if
the selected color range has a gradual transition as controlled by the
Smoothness slider. This will ensure that you won’t get a harsh transition
when applying a local adjustment.
You should remember that you can edit the auto-created mask further
with the brush as we will explore in a later Layers chapter. This makes
the feature very powerful because it can greatly speed up the work
when you have to make a complex mask that might match certain colors.
Save color adjustments as ICC Profile

A very cool feature of the Color Editor is the ability to save a color cor-
rection as an ICC Profile and then use that as the base profile for your
camera. You might for example capture a test shot of a color checker
chart and use that to tweak the colors to get a neutral reproduction.
When you have made your color adjustments, just click on the options
icon and choose Save as ICC Profile…
Then give the color correction a name and save it. Once saved, you can
choose it from the Base Characteristics tool under ICC Profile where it
usually will be named Color Corrected (see next page):
You can save several ICC Profiles that are optimized for different sub-
jects or lighting circumstances. The saved ICC profiles are based upon
the selected camera ICC profile, so if you want to reuse a certain color
correction for several cameras, it is a better option to just save those as
Presets.
Saving color adjustments as a Preset
If you have found a color correction that could work great for other im-
ages in the future, you should save them as a Preset that can easily be
reused. Click on the Preset icon in the upper right corner and select
Save User Preset....
You now get to choose which kind of color edit you want to include, di-
vided by the Basic, Advanced and Skin Tone tabs.

If you want to copy a color correction to other selected images, just click
on the Copy icon. You now get the option to choose whether the Basic,
Advanced or Skin Tone corrections should be carried over to the other
images. Select the desired one and hit Apply to reuse them.
Level tool to a specific area of the image by creating a new layer and
near the top of the Color Tab.
want to affect, you can go ahead and make your selective color adjust-
ments with the Basic, Advanced and Skin Tone tabs. They work exactly
the same way as the main, global tool explored above.
Note the small brush icon next to the
tool name; it is indicating that you
are now working on a Layer, not on
the Background image.
Note that you can use the excellent

feature to convert any color selecting
into a mask with the Create Masked
Layer from Selection command di-
rectly from the local Color Editor tool,
making it a very fast and convenient
workflow to create an initial mask
that you can then refine to taste with
the brush.
It is generally a good practice to

work with the Color Editor in the Lay-
ers tool because it let you limit the
affected area by both the selected
color range in the tool and by the
mask on the layer.
This powerful combo gives a lot of

freedom that might even be a neces-
sity in certain situations. Imagine that
you have to correct the red color of a
car without changing the colors of a
red dress on a woman standing next
to the car. By using the Color Editor
in the Layers tool, you can first limit the affected adjustments to the red
car color, and if some of the red tones in the dress are included and af-
fected, you can just quickly erase the mask in that area.
In most situations, this workflow will be substantially faster than having
to draw a mask precisely over the red car. You should also keep the Cre-
ate Masked Layer from Selection command in mind, as this could speed
things up further.
While on the subject of creating masks from a color selecting, you

should remember that the White Balance tool is also a part of the Lay-
ers. This means that you can fairly quickly convert a color area to a mask
and tweak the white balance to taste. This can be very handy because
some color corrections are easier to do with the White Balance tool. You
might for example select a pale,
blue sky and turn it into a more sat-
isfying deep blue by lowering the
Kelvin value for just the color range.
One, last important tip: Using Lay-

ers is the only way to apply more
than one Skin Tone adjustment to
the same image. Using this tip, you
can have a separate Skin Tone ad-
justment for each new layer.
Getting the composition right with Crop
Making a crop to the image is straightforward as you just need to hit
the keyboard shortcut C or select the Crop cursor tool in the Toolbar or
from the Crop tool. Then drag with the mouse on the image to select the
area where you want the crop to be, and the crop is applied without you
needing to do anything further.
This is nice because you can immediately select the next image and
make a crop on that for a fast workflow. Once done, exit the Crop tool by
selecting for example the Pan tool by hitting the keyboard shortcut H.
Selecting an Aspect Ratio
You might want to change the aspect ratio of the crop, and this can be
done from either the Crop cursor tool drop-down menu (by clicking and
holding on the Crop cursor tool icon) or from the Ratio drop-down menu
in the Crop tool.
Note that the Ratio drop-down menu in the Crop tool has exactly the
same options, just use what suits you the best.
Capture One Pro comes with a number of predefined aspect ratios to

choose from. Unconstrained let you make the crop free for any ratio
constraints while Original locks the aspect ratio to that of the image.
Note that it is not necessary to have both a portrait or landscape ver-
sion of the same aspect ratio because the Crop tool will automatically
change the orientation on the fly depending on which direction you drag
in when creating the crop. You can also rotate the crop after the fact by
hovering the mouse over a crop corner until the rotate icon is visible.
Then drag to rotate the image.
The Output option will mirror the crop

to what you have selected on the Pro-
cess Recipe tool in the Output tool
Tab, so if you have set the dimension
the be 5 by 4 inches, then the Crop
tool will be locked to a 5 x 4 aspect ra-
tio.
Adding an Aspect Ratio
You can add your own ratio by selecting the Add Aspect Ratio… option
from the Ratio drop-down menu and then enter the ratio values you
want.
It will now be added to the bottom of the Ratio drop-down menu.
Readjusting a crop
Once you have applied a crop, you can move it around by clicking inside
the cropped area and dragging it to a new location. If you are using the
Unconstrained ratio, the cropped area can be adjusted freely to click-
ing on a border and dragging, but if you have selected a locked ratio,
you need to click and drag on one of the four corners to resize the crop.
Clicking and dragging on a border will merely move the crop in this in-
stance.
Removing a crop
If you want to remove a crop entirely, you need to click on the Reset
icon in the Crop tool.
You cannot run this command from the Crop cursor tool. Here is a neat
trick though; if you right-click in the Viewer while the Crop cursor tool is
selected, the Crop tool will pop up temporarily, and you can make any
changes you want, including hitting the Reset icon. Note that the Crop
tool will stay on the screen as long as you hover the mouse pointer over
the tool, once you move the mouse away, the tool will disappear.
Setting a specific crop size
You can set your own specific crop size by entering the values in the
Size fields and choosing the size unit from the Size drop-down menu.
There is a couple of things you need to be aware regarding the size for-
mat options in the Crop tool as these can be restricted depending on
the settings in the Process Recipe tool in the Output Tool Tab. This can
be a bit confusing for new Capture One Pro users.
You might experience that the Size

unit drop-down menu in the Crop
tool is greyed out so that you can-
not select another desired unit. This
will happen if you have selected
anything other than the Fixed op-
tion in the Scale drop-down menu
in the Process Recipe tool.
If you for example select Dimen-

sions and set the size units to cm
in the Process Recipe tool, then cm
will also be set in the Crop tool and
cannot be overridden there. In other words, remember to set the Scale
drop-down to Fixed, if you want to change the size unit in the Crop tool,
or change the value in the Process Recipe tool.
Another thing to be aware of is that the Crop tool will always respect the
chosen resolution in the Process Recipe tool. This means that you can-
not use a crop size that would demand a larger resolution than the im-
age file entail. For example, if the Resolution is set to 300 px/in in the
Process Recipe tool, and the maximum printed image would be 60 x
40 cm base on the number of pixels in the image, then you cannot set a
crop size to 80 x 50 cm. Capture One Pro will readjust the entered num-
ber to fit what is possible based on the chosen resolution.
Just remember to keep an eye on the chosen Resolution in the Process
Recipe tool and change that if need be.
The Crop Outside Image option is useful if you rotate an image and
need to crop outside its borders.
Controlling the image crop for export

You can choose to either apply the crop to the exported images, ignore
it, or include it only as a Photoshop Path. These options are selected in
Process Recipe tool under the Output Tool Tab. Go to the Adjustments
tab and see the options from the Crop drop-down menu.
The Respect crop option will include the crop as expected, but you can
also choose Ignore crop and export the image in its original resolution.
You also have the Crop to path (PSD) option where Capture One Pro
will embed the crop outline as a Photoshop Path in the exported PSD
file. The crop outline can then be found in the Path panel in Photoshop
where it is called Crop (Capture One). You can load it by clicking on it.
Note that this feature is only available if you have selected PSD as the
file format from the Basic tab.
Working with a crop grid as aid
You can change the type of grid shown as a compositional aid when do-
ing a crop in the preferences. The easiest way to change this is to click
on the options icon and select Preferences….
By default, Capture One Pro will show you a 3 by 3 rectangular grid as

the visual aid to get a proper composition, but you can change this from
the Type drop-down menu.
The most useful alternatives
are 3x3, Golden Ratio and
Fibonacci Spiral. Note that
you get different options
based on which type you
select. For example, the Fi-
bonacci Spiral let you flip
its position by selecting the
Clockwise and Mirrored
checkboxes, as well as
changing the color.

Another useful option you
should pay attention to is the
Show drop-down menu. The
default will only show the aid
while you’re dragging and
adjusting the crop, but some
might prefer that it is dis-
played all the times when the
Crop cursor is selected. You
do this by selecting the When
Grid and Guides are On. If
you choose this option, you
should consider setting the
Show drop-down menu under
Guides to Never, otherwise
the guides will be shown too.
Note that if you select When
Grid and Guides are On, you need to go to the View menu and make
sure that Grid and Guides are turned on.
Changing the mask opacity
While in the Crop preferences, you should note how the masked area
outside the crop can be adjusted to taste. By using the Opacity and
Brightness sliders, it is possible to turn the mask into a fully black or
white color or any tones within those two extremes. You can also choose
whether you would like to always see the two labels showing the image
dimensions, show them only while dragging the crop, or never. This is
done from the Show Labels drop-down menu.
Working with custom guides
If you need to use compositional lines that are always visible, even when
you are not in cropping mode, you should use guides. First, go to the
View menu and select Show Grid and Guides.
You can insert a guide by choosing View > Add Guide and then select-
ing to create either a Horizontal Guide or a Vertical Guide. These can
be moved into the desired position by clicking on the lines and dragging
with either the Pan or Select cursor tools.
Note how these guides are always placed inside and relative to the
cropped area and will automatically reposition themselves if you change
your crop.
You can delete a single guide by dragging it to the edge of image bor-
der or removed them all at once by selecting View > Clear Guides.
You can also hide them by selecting View > Hide Grid and Guides or us-
ing the keyboard shortcut command + G. The color of the guides can be
changed from orange in the Crop preferences.
Getting the angle right with Rotation & Flip
The Rotation & Flip tool can both be used to rotate your image in fixed
increments like 90 degrees or at a specific angle to get it level. You can
also use the tool to flip the entire image if you need to change it in a hor-
izontal or vertical direction.
The four different rotate cursor tools are the same whether you choose
them from the Cursor Toolbar or the Rotation & Flip tool. You can switch
between them by using the keyboard shortcut Shift + R.
The Rotation & Flip tool gives you some additional options as you can
fine-tune the rotation by dragging the Angle slider or enter a specific val-
ue on the box. The Left and Right buttons rotate the image 90 degrees
left or right.
Getting your images level
It is easy to make sure that your images are level with the Straighten
cursor tool. It can be activated from the Rotation & Flip tool, the Cursor
Toolbar, or by hitting the keyboard shortcut R. Once the Straighten cur-
sor is selected, you simply click and drag with the tool along a line in the
image that should be level.
When you let go, Capture One Pro will automatically rotate the image, so
the chosen line is level in either the horizontal or vertical direction. The
image is also automatically cropped for you. Once done, you can easi-
ly exit the Straighten cursor tool by selecting the Pan tool with the key-
board shortcut H.

You also have the option to rotate the image freely with the Rotate Free-
hand cursor tool. Note how a grid overlay is shown on the image once
you drag with the cursor tool to help you get the image level.
Finally, you can rotate the image in 90 degrees by choosing either the
Rotate Left or Rotate Right cursor tools. They will rotate the image each
time you click with them selected and note how they respect the initial
angle you might have applied with the Straighten or Rotate Freehand
cursor tool.
Note that you can fine-tune the crop after the fact by choosing the Crop
cursor tool and adjusting it to obtain a better composition. For this rea-
son, it is recommended to straighten the image before you apply the fi-
nal crop.
Getting the image level automatically

You can ask Capture One Pro to perform
an automatic level by clicking on the A
icon, but this only works with a Phase
One IQ-series digital back. The backs
have integrated sensors that automati-
cally logs the angle and pitch of each captured image, and the automatic
feature rely on this information to correctly level the image.
Flipping the image
You can flip the image on either a horizontal or vertical axis by choosing
the desired direction from the Flip drop-down menu in the Rotation &
Flip tool.
Resetting the tool

If you want to reset a rotation or flip, you need to click on the Reset icon
in the Rotation & Flip tool.
You cannot do this from the Rotate cursor tool. However, if you right-
click in the Viewer while the Rotate cursor tool is selected, the Rotation
& Flip tool will pop up temporarily, and you can make any changes you
want, including hitting the Reset icon.
If you want to copy an adjustment to
other selected images, just click on
the Copy icon.
You now get the option to choose

whether Rotation, Orientation, and
Flip should be carried over to the
other images, then hit Apply to re-
use them.
Getting the perspective right with Keystone
Capture One Pro has an excellent feature to correct for the perspective
distortion that happens when a subject is not captured in perfect level
vertically and horizontally. This is very common when photographing tall
buildings and pointing the lens upwards, and it is easily corrected with
the Keystone tool.
You activate the Keystone cursor tools by selecting them in the Cursor
Toolbar, clicking on the desired keystone correction in the lower-right
part of the Keystone tool or by using keyboard shortcut K.
There are three different cursor tools to choose. One that only corrects
for vertical distortion, one for horizontal distortion and finally one that
corrects for both types at the same time.
Using the Keystone feature

Once you have activated one of the cursor tools, you will notice that four
markers and two (or four) lines are now displayed over the image. Posi-
tion the markers by dragging them so that they align with lines in the im-
age that should be parallel.
If you are using the Keystone Vertical tool, you should align the markers
to vertical lines in the image, and to horizontal lines if you are using the
Keystone Horizontal tool. You should place the markers in the intersect-
ing points between vertical lines and horizontal lines if you are using the
full Keystone perspective distortion tool.
Once you have set the markers, just click on Apply in the middle of the
image and Capture One Pro will correct the perspective distortion. The
image will also be cropped automatically.
Fine-tuning the correction

If the correction isn’t perfect on the first go, you can tweak it in the Key-
stone tool by moving the Vertical and Horizontal slider. Note how a grid
appears over the image to help you get the lines straight.
A perfectly corrected perspective might even look a bit unnatural if you

are used to the distortion, so you can dial the correction a bit back with
the Amount slider to 80 percent. This can also be very useful if the im-
age is auto-cropped too much because a heavy correction was needed.
By reducing the correction effect with Amount, you can expand the crop
and keep the main subject in the image frame while still having some
correction applied.
Note that you can also stretch the image either vertically or horizontal-
ly with the Aspect slider if the proportions of the subject become slight-
ly distorted from the perspective correction. A negative value will com-
press the image on the vertical axis, while a positive value will compress
it horizontally.
A very slight negative Aspect value can also be used to make people
and faces look slimmer and taller, but this is a trick that obviously should
be used with caution.
Readjusting the crop

It is often a very good idea to check whether you can obtain a better
crop after the Keystone correction has been applied. The most efficient
workflow is to activate the Crop cursor tool from the Cursor Toolbar
while still having access to the Keystone tool. Then you can both adjust
the sliders in the Keystone tool as well as fine-tuning the crop with the
Crop cursor tool.
It might be a good idea to enable the Crop Outside Image option in the
Crop tool if your subject is getting clipped by the crop. This allows you
to expand the crop beyond the image borders, and you can then fill in
the empty areas with for example the Content Aware tools in Photoshop
or a clone tool.
Resetting the Keystone adjustments

If you want to reset a keystone correcting, you need to click on the Re-
set icon in the Keystone tool.
A handy trick to get to the tool fast is to right-click in the Viewer while a
Keystone cursor tool is selected, then the Keystone tool will pop up tem-
porarily, and you can make any changes you want, including hitting the
Reset icon.
Automatic Keystone corrections

You can ask Capture One Pro to perform
an automatic keystone correction by click-
ing on the A icon, but this only works with
a Phase One IQ-series digital back. The
backs have integrated sensors that automatically logs the angle and
pitch of each captured image, and the automatic feature rely on this in-
formation to apply the perspective correction of the image.
Note that this feature corrects the vertical distortion as well as straight-
en the image, so if you want to reset the correction, you should also re-
member to reset the automatically applied rotation in the Rotation & Flip
tool if needed.
By default, Capture One Pro will set the Amount slider to 80 when it
has applied an automatic keystone correction. As noted earlier, this will
make the correction look more natural to the eye.

If you want to copy an adjustment to oth-
er selected images, just click on the Copy
icon. You now get the option to choose
which adjustments that should be carried
over to the other images.
Select the desired ones and hit Apply to re-

use them.
Save Keystone settings as a Preset

You can also choose to save a keystone correction as a preset by click-
ing on the Preset icon and choosing Save User Preset….
You can then reuse the preset by selecting it under User Presets. One
word of warning though; a Keystone Correction should ideally be done
on an image-per-image basis, so only reuse a Keystone Preset on imag-
es are exactly the same as the Preset-based image.
Optimize the details with Sharpening
Getting the optimal sharpening is always a matter of compromise be-
cause overdoing it can introduce artifacts like halos and amplify the
noise in the image. The Sharpening tool is a couple of features to help
mitigate these problems so that you can retrieve even the finest details
without issues. Before getting into the features, you need a short intro-
duction to the sharpen concept in Capture One Pro.
3-step sharpening workflow

Capture One Pro follows a three-step sharpening workflow that was
originally conceived by Bruce Fraser.
The first step is called Capture Sharpening, and the aim here is to coun-
teract the loss of fine detail that happens during image capture. This
softness comes from anti-aliasing filters on the sensor, the demosaicing
process that all raw files must go through, and of cause the slight blur
the lens might add on top. This first-step Capture Sharpening is handled
by the Sharpening tool that will be covered in a moment.
The second step in the workflow is called Create Sharpening and is

used when you might want to improve the clarity or add some bite to the
finer details with the Clarity and Structure sliders in the Clarity tool. You
might also want to enhance the details in specific areas of the image
with the Layers tool (covered in a later chapter) where you can use both
the Sharpening and the Clarity tools.
The third and final step in the workflow is called Output Sharpening
and is handled by the Process Recipe tool where you can apply extra
sharpening that is optimized for either print or screen. This part will be
covered in the later chapter about the Process Recipe tool. The Output
Sharpening is detached from the rest of the sharpening process so that
you can easily print and share the same image in the different sizes and
formats without having to redo the sharpening for each new output me-
dia.
The important point to be made regarding Capture Sharpening is that
the Sharpening tool should only be used to restore the capture details,
not to prepare the image to be printed, for instance. This means that less
sharpening should typically be applied at this point than one would nor-
mally do with a one-step sharpening workflow.
Sharpening is adding contrast

When you add sharpening to an image, you are in reality increasing con-
trast along edges at the pixel level. This will enhance the appearance
of detail by increasing small-scale acutance and trick us into thinking
that the image is getting sharper, but no real additional detail is actual-
ly created. The sharpening amount can get too high which will turn the
edge contrast areas into pure black or white halos, and the increased
acutance will not look natural anymore. Too much sharpening will also
increase unwanted noise in the image.
There is no firm rule as to when the right balance is reached. It depends

on the resolution of the image file, the amount of noise in it, and your
preference to name just the most obvious. The good news is that Phase
One has already optimized the sharpening settings for your particular
camera, so in many instances, you might be pleased with the defaults.
It should be noted that Capture One Pro tends to apply more capture
sharpening than for example Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw, but on
the other hand it will also add a touch of Luminance noise reduction to
counter any increased noise. You may very well be satisfied with the de-
faults, but you can easily tweak this to taste and set it as a new default
for your camera.
Getting the know the Sharpening tool

The Sharpening tool in Capture One Pro is similar to the Unsharp Mask
filter in Photoshop and works by detecting the presence of edges and
other high contrast image detail at the pixel level. The appearance of
the sharpening happens when contrast is increased along these edges.
Let’s first look at what the different sliders do, then move on to looking
at the best workflow for obtaining the optimal sharpness level.
The Amount slider obviously adjusts the overall amount of the sharp-
ening, and in reality, it increases the contrast along edges by making
them darker and lighter until they ultimately turn black and white. A very
high amount like in the example below will introduce the so-called halos
where the dark and white edges will look unnatural.
It will also increase the noise in the image and make fine lines jagged in-
stead of being rendered smooth. You will probably find that a value be-
tween 100 and 300 achieve the best results.
The Radius slider controls how wide an area, measured in pixels, the
sharpness should be applied to. Remember that the tool looks for edg-
es, so the Radius determines how many pixels on each side on a detect-
ed edge where the contrast will be increased. Ideally, the Radius should
be set so that the fine details are enhanced, but this depends heavily
on the captured quality. A landscape or architecture image captured by
high-quality camera and lens at low ISO can benefit from a low Radius
amount, while an image with a lot of noise might need a higher value.
A high amount like in the example above will introduce halos with dom-
inant dark and bright edges that will obscure the finer details and in ef-
fect be counterproductive. A value between 0,7 and 1,3 should strike a
good balance in most cases.
The Threshold slider is used to suppress or even remove the sharp-

ening in the image areas that have little or no contrast. This will make
sure that noise in the image isn’t affected by the sharpening. It can also
dampen the halo artifacts like in the example below.
Note that a high Threshold value can also remove the sharpening ef-
fect from the fine detail with low contrast, so be careful not to adjust it
too high. A value between 0,5 and 1,0 will strike a good balance in most
cases. Note that it might be a better solution to use the Noise Reduction
tool to reduce noise rather than increasing the Threshold.
The Halo suppression slider is extremely useful to counteract some of
the halos that appear when you need to use high Amount and/or Radius
values like in the example below.
It will require some additional processing in Capture One Pro, so ideal-

ly you should only use it if you experience halos after having found the
best sharpness level with the Amount and Radius sliders. You simply in-
crease the Halo suppression value until the halos go away, so there is
no rule as to what amount to use.
How to obtain to optimal sharpness level

As already mentioned, there is no firm rule on how much sharpening you
should apply; it depends on the quality of the capture, the image sub-
ject at hand as well as your preferences to some extent. However, there
is obviously a recommend workflow that will get you the best results as
quickly as possible.
Using the Focus tool

You need to evaluate the image
detail at 100%, and while you can
zoom into the whole image and
pan around at better approach is
to rely on the Focus tool. The tool
makes it easy to check a new area
by using the Pick Focus Point cur-
sor at the lower right of the tool.
You can also activate it by using the
keyboard shortcut P.
The Focus tool let you zoom all the way into 400%, and you can resize
it by either dragging it out from the Details Tool Tab or by selecting Win-
dow > Create Floating Tool > Focus. Another handy workflow is to zoom
the whole image to 100% in the Viewer and then inspect the details at
200% with the Focus tool.
Note that if you are working with a high-resolution monitor with a Retina
screen, you should consider checking the sharpness at 200% because
the pixels are by design made so small that you cannot distinguish clear-
ly between them.
Once you selected an area to eval-

uative for proper sharpness with the
Focus tool, you should increase the
Amount slider temporarily to a high
value between 600 and 800. This
will help you determine the best
possible Radius amount, which is
really the first thing you should get
right.
Then move the Radius value up to
the point where the halo artifacts in
the form of dark or bright edges be-
come distracting. Once they appear,
back off one notch. The easiest
way to do this is to click in the Radi-
us value field and press the up and
down arrow keys on your keyboard
while reviewing the effect on the
screen.
The next step is to readjust the Amount slider until you achieve a sharp
looking image at 100% without halo or the details looking unnatural.
Shift your focus to a part of the image with smooth tones like a sky or
a blurred area and adjust the Threshold slider until the low-level noise
here is no longer sharpen by the tool. A value of 1 is often a good bal-
ance, but at higher ISO values you could increase it to 1,5. If you must go
beyond the value of 2, chances are high that you need to apply noise re-
duction instead.
If there are halos in the image from the sharpening, you should increase
the Halo suppression value until they go away. Just keep an eye on a
high detailed part of the image and adjust accordingly. Note that you can
get away with higher Amount and Radius values if you combine them
with some Halo suppression. For example, if you have a slightly soft im-
age, you can try to increase the Radius to 2,0 and add Halo suppression
to counteract the halo effect.
Tip You can assign keyboard shortcuts to control the four sliders. Go to
the menu and select Capture One > Edit Keyboard Shortcuts…, then
open the Other and Sharpening list to see the options. This can greatly
speed up your workflow if you find yourself tweaking the sharpness lev-
el often.
Use and saving Presets

Capture One Pro comes with a number of predefined sharpening pre-
sets that you can try out and apply by clicking on the Preset icon in the
upper right corner.
You can also save and reuse a sharpening setup easily by selecting
Save User Preset... instead. You now get to choose whether you want
to include all the four sliders or only some of them. Then click Save, and
the preset is ready to be applied from the Preset drop-down menu un-
der User Presets.
If you want to copy an adjustment to other selected images, just click on
the Copy icon. You now get the option to choose whether Sharpening
Amount, Sharpening Radius, Sharpening Threshold and Sharpening
Halo Suppression should be copied over to the other images.
Select the desired ones, then hit Apply to reuse them.

If you have found a combination of sharpness settings you want to be
applied as the default for all the files from the specific camera, you can
speed up your workflow a lot by doing this. Just click on the options icon
in the top-right corner and choose Save as Default for xxx.
Additional lens-based sharpening

In addition to the Sharpening tool, Capture One Pro also has Diffraction
Correction that helps to restore the fine detail which is often lost due
to so-called diffraction when shooting at small apertures like f/16. Once
you select the Diffraction Correction option in the Lens Corrections tool
(covered in a later chapter), Capture One Pro uses a sophisticated de-
convolution algorithm to sharpen the image and restore some of the
fine detail. If you are shooting at small apertures, it is a good idea to en-
able this option and check the result before increasing the sharpness
amount.
Capture One Pro also has a nice feature to help resolve the issue with
soft corners in the image. You can correct this with the Sharpness Falloff
slider in the Lens Corrections tool, but make sure that you have made
the proper global adjustments with Sharpening tool first. Once you have
done that, mitigate the soft corners issue with the Sharpness Falloff fea-
ture.
Improving sharpness with Structure
As a part of the Creative Sharpening step, you might want to enhance
the sharpness further with the Clarity tool. The Clarity slider is mostly
suited to add punch, presence, and clarity to the image, but the Struc-
ture slider is closely linked to sharpening as it enhances the micro-con-
trast in the image.
It works in a slightly different way than the Sharpening tool and should
be your go-to feature when you want to add some bite to the captures.
In some cases, you might not need to tweak the sharpness value at all
but can go straight to Structure to get the result you want.
Sharpening tool to a specific area of the image by creating a new layer
and painting a mask with the brush. This is done in the Layer tool placed
near the top of the Details Tab.
want to affect, you can go ahead and make your selective Sharpening
adjustments. They work exactly the same way as the main, global tool
explored above. Note the small brush icon next to the tool name; it is in-
image.
Adding sharpness locally is considered to be a part of the Creative

Sharpening step when you need to add some additional sharpness to a
portion of the image on top of the Capture Sharpening.
For example, you might want to enhance the sharpness of the eyes and
eyelashes in a portrait without affecting the subtle skin tones. Another
use could be to improve the details of the fur or feathers in a wildlife im-
age, a subject of interest in a landscape photograph, the name label in a
product shot, and so forth.
The localized Sharpening tool can also be used to increase sharpness

in a part of the image that is slightly soft because it was a touch out of
focus. Note how the Amount slider is set to 0 (zero) in the local Sharpen-
ing tool by default and how you can tweak all four sliders independently
of the global sharpening settings.
Removing noise with Noise Reductiom
Capture One Pro can remove both the luminance and color noise from
your images with the Noise Reduction tool. Note that some color noise
reduction is applied automatically to raw files because there almost al-
ways is some base color noise present in a raw file even at low ISO val-
ues.
All cameras have their own customized noise reduction that is optimized
for each ISO value by the team behind Capture One Pro. This means
that the hard work is already done, and Capture One Pro will provide
you with a tailored noise reduction that can be fine-tuned further if need
be.
There is one important thing to be aware of when you work with the
Noise Reduction tool. As you will note, both the Luminance and Col-
or noise reduction sliders are by default are set to 50, but this does not
mean that a heavy dose of noise reduction is applied, or that all images
receive the same amount of noise reduction.
You should instead think of the sliders of a way to control the balance
between preserving detail and reducing noise. When at 50, it merely
means that this is what Phase One regards as the best balance. You can
increase the amount of noise reduction by setting the Luminance and
Color sliders higher than 50 or decrease the amount by setting them
lower than 50.
The Details slider works in conjunction with the Luminance noise reduc-
tion amount and lets you increase micro-detail at the expense of more
noise when you move it above 50, while you can smooth out the noise
at the cost of detail with a value below 50.
Removing hot pixels with Single Pixel

The Noise Reduction tool also has a very nice feature called Single Pix-
el. With this slider, you can remove those nasty, hot pixels that often
shows up on long exposures, especially during the night.
You should be aware that Phase One might have added some Single
Pixel noise reduction by default to help get rid of some of that fine-
grained “salt and pepper” pixel noise.
Finding the best noise reduction amount

You should always tweak the
noise reduction when you are
looking the image at 100%. The
Focus tool can be a nice help to
quickly check different parts of
the image.
It is impossible to recommend
certain values to use with the Lu-
minance, Detail and Color slid-
ers because this depends on
the noise level in the image, the
quality of the light and your pref-
erence. In most cases, you will
probably find that the default Col-
or noise reduction works great.
The only thing you need to pay
attention to is that the colors can
be blurred too much and lose definition if you set a high amount, like
100.
The hardest part about removing noise is to strike the right balance be-
tween applying a nice luminance noise reduction and still retain the de-
tails. Instead of just increasing the Luminance slider to the max to get rid
of the grain, you might want to reduce Detail the same amount as you
increase the Luminance so that the values would be Luminance 70 and
Detail 30 as an example.
If you still struggle with getting rid of the noise, there is a couple of addi-
tional tricks you can use.
You can increase the Threshold value in the Sharpening tool to make
sure fewer details get sharpening applied, and you can use a negative
value with the Structure slider in the Clarity slider.
Finally, if you have trouble with a lot of noise on an even surface like the
sky, the Skin Tone tab in the Color Editor tool has a marvelously Unifor-
mity feature that even out the tones and thus mitigate the noise. This
trick will be covered later in this chapter.
Both the Structure and Skin Tone trick is probably best applied on a lay-
er with the Layers tool because you can then limit their effect with a
mask.
You should be aware that Capture One Pro might automatically add
some simulated grain with the Film Grain tool to help get a more natural
noise look at higher ISO values. If you find that this adds more grain that
you like, remember to set the Impact slider back to 0 (zero) in the Film
Grain tool.
Saving as a Preset
If you have found a combination of noise reduction settings that work
very well for you, it would be a good idea to save them as a Preset that
can easily be reused. Click on the Preset icon in the upper right corner
and select Save User Preset....
You now get to choose whether you want

to include all the four sliders or only some
of them. Then click Save, and the preset is
ready to be applied from the Preset drop-
down menu. One word of caution; A preset
that works great on one camera at a certain
ISO value, might not work well on anoth-
er camera or ISO value. Ideally, you should
create a number of presets to cover differ-
ent cameras and ISO values.
If you want to copy a noise reduction adjustment to other selected imag-
es, just click on the Copy icon. You now get the option to choose wheth-
er Details Noise Reduction, Color Noise Reduction, Single Pixel Noise
Reduction and Luminance Noise Reduction should be carried over to
the other images (see the screenshot on the previous page). Select the
desired ones and hit Apply to reuse them.

If you have found a combination of noise reduction settings you want
to be applied as the default for all the files from a specific camera, then
click on the options icon in the top-right corner and choose Save as De-
fault for xxx. Since the same settings will be applied for all ISO values,
it might be a better idea to create different Presets instead per ISO and
use them instead.

so, for now, you just need to know
that you can limit the effect of the
Noise Reduction tool to a specific
area of the image by creating a new
layer and painting a mask with the
brush. This is done in the Layer tool
placed near the top of the Details
Tab.
Once you have created a new Layer

and have masked the area you want
to affect, you can go ahead and make
your selective Noise Reduction ad-
image.
Note that you only get the option to
apply Luminance noise reduction
and tweaking this with the Details
slider. Color and Single Pixel are only
global adjustments.
As already mentioned briefly, you can

help reduce the luminance noise fur-
ther by adding some negative Struc-
ture in the Layers version of the Clar-
ity tool as well as using the Skin Tone
tab in the Layers adjustment version
of the Color Editor tool.
The Skin Tone trick will be explored

later, so here is a quick explanation.
With the Pick Skin Color Correction
cursor tool, you select a color range
that you want to become more even
and smooth. Then you increase the
Hue, Saturation, and Lightness slid-
ers in the Uniformity area for the Skin
Tone tab. This can be an extremely
effective noise reduction technique,
but you need to make sure that it
only affects the intended areas which
are why it should be used as a Layers
adjustment.
Fixing lens flaws with Lens Correction
Most lenses have some degree of minor lens flaws like distortion, vi-
gnetting and chromatic aberration that can be fixed with the Lens Cor-
rection tool.
Capture One Pro will automatically recognize the used lens and apply
a correction profile if the lens is supported. If your lenses aren’t recog-
nized, click on the Profile drop-down menu and select Show All.
Then check the list to see whether your lens is supported, and select it.
Note that Capture One Pro sometimes offer both a Manufacturer Profile
and another profile with the lens name; in the case below it is Zeiss Dis-
tagon T FE 35 mm F1.4 ZA (SEL35F14Z).
You can use both, but there is a distinct difference you should be aware
of.
The Manufacturer Profile is based on information available in the raw

file that Capture One Pro can retrieve and use for applying the correc-
tions. The named profile, on the other hand, is a lens that Phase One
has tested in-house. The biggest difference is that the in-house lens pro-
file can also correct for soft corners, called Sharpness Falloff. You will
note that this slider becomes active if you switch from the Manufacturer
Profile to the named lens profile.
Another difference is whether additional settings like distortion and

chromatic aberration are applied or not. With the Manufacturer Profile,
the default settings selected by the camera manufacturer is typically
used. When you choose a specific lens profile, however, it will depend
on what Phase One determines as suitable for that lens.
Finally, you should note that a lens might be listed as supported on

Phase One’s website, but is only available as a Manufacturer Profile.
This doesn’t imply a lower quality of the corrections; you will just mainly
lose the Sharpness Falloff feature.
Removing Chromatic Aberration

Chromatic aberration will appear as color fringes on edges of high con-
trast areas and can be removed by selecting the Chromatic Aberration
option. The issue occurs because the light wavelength of different colors
isn’t focused on the sensor at exactly the same distance, and it can vary
depending on the used aperture amongst other factors. For this reason,
you might obtain better results by letting Capture One Pro analyze the
image and correct it based on that data. You do this by clicking on the
options icon by Chromatic Aberration and choosing Analyze.
Correcting distortion
Lens distortion can either be barrel or pincushion distortion, and Capture
One Pro can correct for both with the Distortion slider. When the slid-
er is at 100%, the distortion in question is fully corrected. With a normal
zoom lens, the Distortion slider will usually correct for barrel distortion
at the wide end and pincushion distortion at the long end. Capture One
Pro will change this behavior depending on the focal length data in the
image file. Once you move the slider, a grid is displayed temporarily over
the image to help you set the correct amount by comparing the grid
lines to vertical or horizontal lines in the image.
Note that even when Capture One Pro has recognized a correct profile
for your lens, a distortion correction might not be applied automatical-
ly. In this case, the slider is set at 0%. Distortion correction is enabled
(the slider is at 100%) for lenses where the distortion exceeds a certain
amount that Phase One sees suitable, and they accept more barrel dis-
tortion than pincushion. With a zoom lens, where the distortion amount
and type usually change based on the focal length, you might see distor-
tion correction enabled at some focal lengths and not others.
Correcting soft corners
Capture One Pro has a very nice feature to help resolve the issue with
soft corners in the image. This is mostly known with wide-angle lenses
where the aperture has not been stopped down. You can correct this
with the Sharpness Falloff slider but be aware that the lens profile must
support this feature. The areas you want to correct should be in focus
for it to work properly.
Zoom into a corner of the image in the Viewer and move the Sharpness
Falloff slider until the details become sharper. Note that you can move
the slider all the way up to 250% which is probably excessive for most
uses, but the option is there if needed.
Correcting Vignetting & Light Falloff
Vignetting – called Light Falloff in Capture One Pro – happens when
more light reaches the center of the frame than in the corners. This issue
is mostly seen when you are shooting at wide apertures and on wide an-
gle lenses. You can correct this with the Light Falloff slider.
Note that Capture One Pro does not correct for light falloff by default.
The only exception is if the correction is turned on in the camera settings
and you are using a Manufacturer Profile (see above).
If you prefer to apply the vignetting correction often, it might be a good
idea to create a preset for it. Set Light Falloff to 50% or 100%, then click
on the Preset icon and select Save User Preset…
In the next dialog box make

sure to only select Light Fall-
off and click Save. You can of
course add other corrections
to the preset if wanted.
Now you only need to select

the saved preset the next time
you want to apply it. It is faster
than having to move the slider.
Adding Diffraction Correction

The Diffraction Correction is a powerful feature for landscapes or other
subjects that need a large depth of field. The feature helps to restore the
fine detail that is often lost due to so-called diffraction when shooting at
small apertures like f/16. Once you select the Diffraction Correction op-
tion, Capture One Pro uses a sophisticated deconvolution algorithm to
sharpen the image and restore some of the fine detail.
Note that is not enabled automatically because it will cost additional pro-
cessing time. The feature is not tied to a lens profile, so you can enable
it even if Capture One Pro doesn’t recognize the used lens.
Hide Distorted Areas

The Hide Distorted Areas option is mainly useful when you have applied
a Keystone correction (see the chapter for this tool). When it is enabled,
distorted edges will automatically be clipped.
Accounting for a Shift lens

If you have been using a lens with shift functionality, you can tell Capture
One Pro to account for that when calculating the corrections. Select the
Movement tab and enter the shift data for the Shift x-axis and Shift y-ax-
is that were used shooting with the lens.
This will mainly benefit the corrections for distortion and light falloff.
Note that you might also have to enter the used Focal Length and Aper-
ture (f) if the camera didn’t record the information correctly.
Using a generic profile

In the case that Capture One Pro
cannot recognize the lens, a lens
profile called Generic will be chosen
so that you can still apply the correc-
tions. These will not be tailored to
the lens of course, but it gives you
the option to correct Distortion, Light
Falloff and enable Diffraction Cor-
rection and removing Chromatic Ab-
erration. If you can manually find a suitable lens profile from the Profile
drop-down menu, it would be recommended.
If you want to copy some of the Lens Corrections to other selected imag-
es, just click on the Copy icon. You now get the option to choose which
adjustments that should be carried over to the other images.
Select the corrections that you want to copy, and hit Apply to reuse
them.
Disable Lens Corrections by default

You can tell Capture One Pro not to do any corrections automatically by
clicking on the options icon and selecting Disable Default Lens Correc-
tion.
Note that this will not affect the images that you have already imported
or opened. It will only take effect once when you import images in the
future.
Removing purple fringing
Purple fringing can be reduced or removed altogether with the Pur-
ple Fringing tool. Purple fringing is similar to chromatic aberration as it
shows itself on the edges of very high contrast. This will typically occur
with metallic products or other subjects shot against a bright sky or light.
While chromatic aberration will often show fringes of different colors,
purple fringing is normally just a magenta color. You can remove it by
moving the Defringe slider towards 100%.
Saving as a Preset
You can save a certain Defringe amount and save it for later reuse by
clicking on the Preset icon in the upper
Select Fringing, click Save, and the preset
is ready to be applied from the Preset drop-
down menu under User Presets.
If you want to copy a Defringe amount to
other selected images, just click on the
Copy icon.
Select Fringing, and then click Apply to

copy it to the other selected images.

Purple Fringing tool to a specific area of the image by creating a new
layer and painting a mask with the brush. This is done in the Layers tool
placed near the top of the Details, Colors and Exposure Tab.
want to affect, you can go ahead and make your selective Purple Fring-
ing adjustments. It works the same way as the main, global tool explored
above. Note the small brush icon next to the tool name; it is indicating
that you are now working on a Layer, not on the Background image.
Correction for lens cast with the LCC tool
If you are shooting with a Technical Camera, chances are high that the
image will have a notable color cast. This can be removed with the help
of the Lens Cast Calibration (LCC) tool. It should be stressed that the
LCC tool can also be used to correct for vignetting and remove dust
spots for a normal lens and camera combination, so the tool is more ver-
satile that it might appear at first.
Capturing a reference LCC image
For the LCC tool to work, you need to capture a reference test shot to
create an LCC profile first. This LCC reference capture needs to be cre-
ated under the same conditions as the image that you want to apply
the corrections to, otherwise the result will be less than optimal. This
means using the same lens and camera, the same aperture and compo-
sition. Any Tilt or Shift adjustments should be kept the same too. In other
words, it makes the most sense to capture the LCC reference shot just
before or after having captured the real images.
Once you are ready, hold a neutral translucent plate in front of the lens
and make the capture. If you don’t have a plate purposely made for the
task, you can use a white paper as long as the material is translucent
and even. Note that you might need to increase the exposure time about
two or three stops compared to the real image in order to get a good ex-
posure.
Creating an LCC profile

Once you have imported the images, select the LCC reference test shot,
and click on Create LCC in the LCC tool. You can also right-click on the
image in the Browser and select Create LCC….
An LCC Profile will always remove the color cast, but you also get the
option to create a map that will automatically remove any dust by select-
ing the Include Dust Removal Information in the dialog box.
This will take a little extra time to compute, so keep that in mind. If you
are using a technical camera with a wide-angle lens that has some
movement, you should select Wide Angle Lens with Movements. This
option initiates a special LCC process that is designed to correct for spe-
cific banding at the extreme edge of the image circle on higher resolu-
tion digital backs. Once ready, click Create.
The LCC calibration might take a few seconds. The created LCC Profile
will be applied automatically to the refer-
ence shot, letting you check immediately
whether it was successful. It should show
an even light grey image without a color
cast, vignetting or dust spots if you have
selected that option.
Note how the image will have an LCC la-

bel attached in the Browser to help you
keeping track of it.
If you have multiple LCC reference shots

to calibrate, you can save time by selecting them all and click on Create,
then Capture One Pro will work through them one by one.

Applying an LCC profile
You apply an LCC profile to an image by selecting both the LCC refer-
ence shot and the image, then right-click on the image in the Browser
and select Apply LCC.
Note that you can select multiple images and apply the same LCC profile
to them all by using the same process.
Once an LCC profile has been applied, you can fine tune its effect on the
image with the LCC tool. You can turn the color cast correction on and
off with the Color Cast option as well as the Dust Removal, if any dust
was found on the reference image. You can also control the correction
of vignetting with Enable Uniform Light and the Uniform Light slider. You
might for example want to dial the correction down a bit to 75% with the
slider in order to retain some of the light falloff.
You can remove a LCC profile from an image by clicking on the Reset
icon at the top of the tool.
Applying multiple LCC’s in a batch

It is not unusual to have several LCC reference images from the same
shot location because you ideally need to create a new one each time
you change for example camera position or subject. Luckily, it is possible
to apply multiple LCC profiles to different images in one go which can
greatly speed up your workflow. There is only one rule that you must
obey for this to work: Once you have created the LCC profile images,
they must be positioned either before or after the images that should
have the LCC’s applied.
If the first selected variant is an LCC profile, all the subsequent images in
the Browser will have this profile applied until Capture One Pro notice a
new LCC. Then all the subsequent images will have that profile applied,
and so forth. If the first selected variant is an image, Capture One Pro
will look ahead and apply the first LCC profile it encounters. Depending
on this position, you will either get a dialog box that asks whether you
want to apply the LCC reference shots to the subsequent or preceding
variants.
You can rearrange the position of the images in the Browser if need be.
Changing the defaults
You can change whether the options Include Dust Removal Informa-
tion and Wide Angle Lens with Movements should be enabled by de-
fault each time you create a new LCC profile. This is done by click-
ing on the options icon and choosing Creating LCC Options and
then making sure they are enabled if so desired. The option Include
Technical Lens Correction Data includes any offset Shift data that
you have entered in the Movement tab of the Lens Correction tool.
You can also change what amount the Uniform Light slider should be
set to by default when the profile is applied to an image. Select the Ap-
ply LCC Options…, check the Uniform Light box, set the slider to the de-
sired amount, and click OK.
Saving as a Preset
You can save and reuse an LCC profile easily by adding it as a Preset.
Click on the Manage Preset icon and select Save User Preset...
You now get the options to choose which corrections that should be a
part of the Preset. You should deselect Dust Removal as dust spots will
change over time.
Then click Save, and the preset is ready to be applied fast and quick to
several images.
If you want to copy an LCC adjustment
to other selected images, just click on
the Copy icon. You now get the option
to choose which of the corrections that
should be carried over to the other im-
ages. Select the desired ones and hit
Apply to reuse them.
Removing moiré
You can remove the artificial color patterns known as moiré with the
Moire tool. Moiré can occur in areas of the image that contain very fine
details like clothing and architecture and will show up as an abnormal
color pattern on top of high-frequency details in the photo.
You are most likely to encounter moiré in parts of the image that con-
tain narrow stripes or patterns that have a lot of fine lines. A shirt with
detailed fabric is a prime example. It is important that you zoom to 100%
when you are checking for moiré because the preview image might
show moiré even if it is not there. The reason for this is that the preview
image is of lower resolution than the real image and this can create in-
terference that looks like moiré.
The Moire tool can be used both globally on the whole image and as a
Layers adjustment. It is however unusual that you will encounter moiré
over the entire image, so for the most part you should apply the cor-
rection as a local adjustment because you might otherwise risk some
unwanted color bleeding in parts of the image that have no issue with
moiré.
but you can limit the effect of the Moire tool to a specific area of the im-
age by creating a new layer and painting a mask with the brush. This is
done in the Layer tool placed near the top of the Details Tab.
Click on the + (plus) icon and select New Empty Layer to create a new
layer. Then use the keyboard shortcut B to select the brush and paint
over the area with the moiré.
It can be a great help to inspect

the areas with moiré at 100% by
using the Focus tool. You open
it by selecting Window > Create
Floating Tool > Focus and then
click on the Pick Focus Point to se-
lect the area with the issue.
The process of removing moiré

with the Moire tool is the same
whether you are using it globally or
locally on a layer.
The Pattern slider controls how

wide an area the tool should
search within to correct for color
moiré. The value is the pixel radius
and setting it temporarily to 50 is a
good start.
Next, drag the Amount slider until

the color moiré disappears. Make
sure that you don’t use a higher
value than needed. If nothing hap-
pens, you might have to raise the Pattern slider higher than the initial
value of 50.
Finally, readjust the Pattern radius as low as possible while still removing
the moiré. Keeping the Amount and Pattern values as low as possible is
important as it will reduce the risk of unwanted color bleeding.
Removing moiré in the image editing process can be time-consuming, so
it is always better to try and avoid it when shooting. Often the moiré will
disappear if you move the camera a bit forward or backward or change
the aperture.
Saving as a Preset
If you have found some settings that will work great, you can save them
as a Preset that can be reused easily. Click on the Preset icon in the up-
per right corner and select Save User Preset....
You now get to choose whether you

want to include both Moire Amount
and Moire Pattern or just one of
them. Then click Save, and the preset
is ready to be applied from the Preset

If you want to copy the Moire adjust-
ments to other selected images, just
click on the Copy icon. You now get
the option to choose whether both
Moire Amount and Moire Pattern or
just one of them should be carried
Select the desired ones and hit Apply

to reuse them.
Eliminating spots and sensor
dust with Spot Removal tool
The Spot Removal tool is a fast and efficient way to get rid of dust spots
on the sensor as well as other spots like a blemish on a skin. It is import-
ant to use the right type for the job from the Type drop-down menu as
they work in different ways to eliminate the spot.
If you are having problems with spots from the sensor, you should
choose Dust. This method is optimized to remove only the slightly
blurred, round dark spots you get from dirt on the sensor. It will for ex-
ample not remove a bright or colored spot.
The Spot type has a more profound effect. When using this method, the
colors and textures from the surrounding areas are used to replace the
content of the spot which is excellent when you want to remove a blem-
ish in a portrait or an unwanted mark in the image.
You remove a spot by choosing the Remove Spot cursor from either the
tool, the Cursor Toolbar, or by using the keyboard shortcut O. Move the
Radius slider to adjust the size of the spot removal area, which should
be somewhat larger than the dust in order to remove it efficiently. Then
click right over the dust spot on the image to remove it. You can add as
many spot removal areas as you like. Note how a Dust and Spot circles
are different so that you easily can differentiate between them when
looking on the image:
You can resize a spot removal area after the fact by dragging the edge
of the spot or adjust the Radius slider. This might be necessary if the ini-
tial circle wasn’t big enough to remove the spot completely. If you right-
click on the image, the Spot Removal tool will pop-up temporarily for you
to adjust the Radius slider. The spot circle can always be repositioned by
clicking on it and dragging it to a new position.
If you need to delete a spot, click on the - (minus) button in the Spot Re-
moval tool or select it and hit delete on the keyboard.
If you have added multiple removal spots, you can select a specific one
by either clicking on it, choosing it from the Spot drop-down menu or cy-
cle through them by clicking on the arrows.
Keep in mind that you need to have the Remove Spot cursor tool acti-
vated to see where the edits have been made. You can active the Re-
move Spot cursor tool by using the keyboard shortcut O and deactivate
it again by selecting for example the Pan cursor tool by using the key-
board shortcut H.
Changing the spot type

You can always change the type from Dust to Spot or vice versa after
you have created a spot removal point. This can be very useful because
sometimes the Dust type isn’t efficient enough to remove the sensor dirt
completely, while the Spot method should get the job done. This can be
the case if the sensor dirt shows up on a mixed background like halfway
on a cloud and a blue sky.
Copy and reuse dust removal
Removing dust sensor spots can be time-consuming, so it makes great
sense to copy and reuse your work from one image to several others.
You just need to make sure that the spots on the sensor appear on the
same positions in the image sequence. This will typically be the case if
you only select the photos from the same shot.
It is only recommended to copy and reuse spot removal points that are
using the Dust method as it has much less of an effect on the image. If
you want to reuse areas with the Spot type, you certainly can, just keep
in mind that you should review how those copied spot removals effect
the images.
If you want to copy and apply the spot re-

moval from one image to other, then first
select the image that you have done your
spot removal adjustment on. Then select
the target images and click on the Copy
settings icon at the top of the tool.
You can now select whether you want to

copy both Dust and Spots, or just one of
the types. Then click on Apply to copy
them. Note that you can copy from a land-
scape to a portrait orientation or vice versa,
the spot corrections will be placed in the
correct position. For example, a spot on the far right in a landscape for-
mat will be copied to the top in a portrait position image.
Layers and spot removal

Note that this tool is not available as a Layer, but you can instead create
a specialized Clone Layer or Heal Layer to remove or clone small de-
tails. This will be covered in a later chapter about Layers. While the glob-
al Spot Removal tool explored above is less advanced, it will typically re-
quire less processing power.
Converting to greyscale with Black & White
Capture One Pro has an excellent and easy to use feature to convert
your image to black and white. Simply go to the Black & White tool and
select the Enable Black & White option. The colors are now converted
to greyscale, and you can adjust the brightness level of six different col-
or segments in the photo.
If you move a slider to a negative amount, that color area will become
darker in the image, while a positive value will brighten it. For example,
if you want to darken a blue sky to add drama to your black and white
landscape conversion, you should move the Blue slider to a negative
value.
You might find situations where the six

base colors in the tool don’t cover a
specific hue that you need to darken or
brighten to get the black and white im-
age just right. Luckily, you can turn to the
Color Editor tool’s Advanced tab for help.
Just use the Pick Color Correction cur-
sor and select the color that you want to
adjust the brightness of. Don’t worry; this
trick will work even though the image
is now converted to black and white as
Capture One Pro will still have access to
the original colors. Then adjust the Light-
ness slider to either darken or brighten
the color range. You can fine-tune the af-
fected color range or add more color cor-
rections with the Pick Color Correction
cursor (see the Color Editor tool chapter
for more information).
Creating a Split Tones look
You can also add a tint to the highlights and the shadows of your black
and white image by using the Split Tones tab. Select the Enable Black &
White option if it is not already checked.
You can now control what color tint you want to apply to the highlights
and shadows respectively with the two Hue sliders and adjust their color
intensity with the Saturation sliders. You will find it easier to discover the
right Hue setting by using a high Saturation amount temporarily. Once
you have dialed in the desired tint, move the Saturation slider back
down to a good-looking amount.

Using Color Balance for Tri-Tone styles
One of the very nice improve-
ments that were introduced in
Capture One Pro 11 is the ability
to add Color Balance tool ad-
justments on top of black and
white conversion. Since the Col-
or Balance tool adds a custom
tint to the Shadows, Midtones,
and Highlights respectively, you
can in effect create beautiful Tri-
Tone images.
You can even create the Color

Balance adjustments on a Layer
and thereby limit the tinted col-
or range to specific areas with a
mask or simply tone them down
with a lower Brush Opacity (see
the Layers adjustment chapter
for more information). This can
be a very powerful workflow.

Using a Built-In Preset as inspiration
The Black & White tool
comes with a long list of
ready-made presets that is
a nice resource for inspi-
ration and can serve as a
good starting point. Click
on the Preset icon in the
tool and hover your mouse
over each preset to see
the effect temporarily on
the image. Then select the
one that suits you best.
Note that you can also
save your own Preset for
later use by selecting the
Save User Preset… from
the drop-down menu.

If you want to copy a black and white ad-
justment to other selected images, just
click on the Copy icon. You now get the
option to choose whether the black and
white conversion, the color adjustments or
split tones should be carried over to the
other images.
Note that you can copy the color adjust-

ments and split tones to another image
without having the black and white con-
version enabled. Select the desired op-
tions and hit Apply to reuse them.
Tips for improving black and white adjustments
A black and white conversion is rarely looking perfect just by removing
the colors. We have already explored how you can control the bright-
ness of certain color areas in the image, but most of the time you will
need to tweak the overall contrast too.
Using the Curve tool in the Luma

mode is an excellent way to get the
contrast just right in a black and white
image. Since the Luma mode only af-
fects the luminosity values, it will give
you’re a more predictable result since
you are working in greyscale.
As very nice workflow is to select

the Pick Luma Curve Point cursor on
the Curve tool (or use the keyboard
shortcut U) and then click with it on
the part of the image that you want
to brighten or darken. A point is now added to the Luma curve, and
you can move it up or down depending on whether the area should be
brighter or darker.
Most black and white images look best if you have the black and white
point set correctly, which is easily done automatically by clicking on
the A icon in the Levels tool. This will make sure that the image has a
good-looking base contrast that you can fine-tune. You can then use the
Highlight and Shadow sliders in the High Dynamic Range tool to help
recover details in the darkest and brightest areas of the image.
You might think that the white balance is irrelevant when working on a
black and white conversion, but it can actually have a big impact on the
light balance and contrast of the image. Don’t forget to try and use the
Kelvin and Tint sliders in the White Balance tool creatively to get a good
starting point.
The Black & White tool is not present as a Layers adjustment, but this
shouldn’t be an issue as you can use the other tools like White Balance,
Color Balance, Exposure, Curve, and Clarity locally with layers and
masks on your black and white image. These are really all you need to
tweak the light balance and contrast to perfection.
Tip: If you want to make just a part of the image black and white, you
could create a Layer and mute the colors with the Saturation slider in ei-
ther the Exposure or the Color Balance tool. Then apply a mask to the
area where you want to remove the colors.
Adding photorealistic grain with Film Grain
Capture One Pro has an excellent tool to add natural looking film grain
to your images. The grain is based on a computer algorithm instead of
just adding a pre-cooked texture upon the image and simulates the be-
havior of different traditional silver halide films. This means that the Film
Grain tool preserves the underlying detail and structure in the image.
You can choose between different types of grain algorithms from the
Type drop-down menu, and they will alter the shape, distribution, and
size of the grains.
You should note that the default Type called Fine Grain is actually not
one of the advanced simulated types, so it is highly recommended to
use one of the others. The Silver Rich type is an excellent choice.
Note that you should always zoom into 100% in the Viewer in order to
fully review and adjust the appearance of the added grain.
You have two sliders to tweak the look of the film grain. The Impact slid-
er controls how strong the effect of the film grain should appear. When
at 100, you are simulating how the grain would look in a real film. The
Granularity slider controls the amount of grain. The higher amount, the
more course and strong the grain will show up. At the maximum, you will
get a lot of salt and pepper-looking grain in the image, so if you want to
simulate a fine-grained film, you should not use an amount over 30-40.
A good approach to get the right look is to set the Impact slider all the
way up to 100 temporarily. Then tweak the Granularity slider to find a
pleasing level of grain, and finally adjust the Impact slider again to get
the perfect level.
When you want to explore the look of the different film grain types, it is a
good idea to set Impact to 100 and Granularity to 30.
Using a Built-In Preset

The Film Grain tool comes
with a nice list of ready-
made presets that can
serve as a good starting
point. Click on the Preset
icon in the tool and hover
your mouse over each pre-
set to see the effect tem-
porarily on the image. Then
select the one that suits
you best.
Note that you can also save

your own Preset for later use by selecting
the Save User Preset… from the drop-down
menu.

If you want to copy a Film Grain adjustment
to other selected images, just click on the
Copy icon.
Select Grain, and then click Apply to copy it

to the other selected images.
Alternative uses for Film Grain
The most common use for adding film grain is obviously getting the film
look in conjunction with black and white images, but it can be used to
great effect on color images too. Capture One Pro actually add a touch
of film grain as a part of the noise reduction to high ISO images in order
to get a more pleasing looking noise structure.
Adding some film grain makes great sense when you’re trying to mimic
older color photography or just want to add a bit of texture to an image
that looks too “clean” or sterile for the subject at hand.
You will find that the Film Grain tool does a good job of preserving the
details in your images, so don’t hesitate to experiment with it since you
can fine-tune the visual impact to be subtle. It also works great with the
creative color styles that you can achieve with the Color Balance tool
(covered in a later chapter).
Adjusting film grain for output and print

It can be very difficult to predict how a certain amount for film grain will
look when printed because it both depends on how large your print and
how much your printer tend to smooth out the noise and fine details. Be-
cause of this, it is recommended that you do some test prints where you
keep Method and Impact fixed and then experiment with different val-
ues of Granularity until you find the proper look.
If you want to add film grain to an image that is going to be resized, you
need to use a special trick. First, select the desired recipe in the Process
Recipes tool.
Then go to the menu and select View > Show Recipe Proofing. Now the
image will be resized automatically to the target output, and you can add
the film grain that will suit your resized image perfectly.
Creative color styles with Color Balance
It is both easy and fun to make your own creative color styles with the
intuitive Color Balance tool. The tool is very similar to the color grad-
ing tools you might know from video editing software, and it let you add
a color tint separately to the shadows, midtones, and highlights for a
unique look.
By default, the Color Balance tool has the 3-Way tab active, where you
can control the tint of both the Shadow, Midtone, and Highlight. It gives
you a nice overview, but the color wheels are fairly small, so it can be dif-
ficult to adjust the tint precisely. Therefore, you might want to select the
other tabs in order to tweak the color with greater control for each tonal
range.
Adding a color tint
It is straightforward to add a tint to either the whole image (Master tab)
or the shadows, midtones, and highlights. Just click on the color wheel
in the hue area you want to add. You can hold the mouse button down
and drag around in the color wheel to see the effect on the image. Note
that the closer to the center, the lower the saturation of the tint will be,
and vice versa if you drag the point towards to outer border.
The level of saturation can also be adjusted with the big slider on the left
of the color wheel. To get the tint just right, it can be helpful to start with
a high level of saturation to be able to judge the hue more clearly, then
lower the saturation to a pleasing level with the slider on the left. The ef-
fect can be quite subtle when you use a very low saturation setting.
You can also adjust the brightness of the applied tint with the slider on
the right, making it either darker or brighter. Note that this slider will
work in the Shadow, Midtone and Highlight tab even if you haven’t se-
lected a hue yet.

Using a Built-In Preset as inspiration
The Color Balance tool comes with a list of readymade presets that can
serve as an inspiration or a good starting point. Click on the Preset icon
in the tool and hover your mouse over each preset to see the effect tem-
porarily on the image. Then select the one that suits you best.
Once you have created your own a great looking color style, remember
to save it for later reuse by selecting the Save User Preset… from the
drop-down menu.

If you want to copy a Color Balance adjustment to other selected imag-
es, just click on the Copy icon. Then select Color Balance, and click Ap-
ply to copy it to the other selected images.
Tips for Color Balance adjustments
The most classic look done with the Color Balance tool is to make the
shadows colder and give the highlights more warmth. This is done by
adding a blueish tint in the Shadow tab while adding an orange hue in
the Midtone tab and a slightly more yellow tone in Highlight tab.
If you want to achieve a color style that has a more distinct look like an
old-school color film, don’t forget to use the Master tab too. Adding a tint
here will cover the entire tonal range which can then be tweaked further
with the Shadow, Midtone and Highlight tabs.
The Color Balance tool does work on images that you have converted to
greyscale with the Black & White tool. This can be used to create some
beautiful Tritone black and white images by adding a tint in the Shadow,
Midtone and Highlight tabs.
Instead of removing the colors entirely with the Black & White tool, you
can choose to mute them a bit by setting the Saturation slider in the Ex-
posure tool to for example -60.
This will retain some of the original colors in the image while making
your Color Balance tool adjustments more noticeable. This combination
is a great foundation for creating some very nice color styles.

Working efficiently with the Color Balance tool
Getting the color look just right often
requires that you go back and forth
between the different tabs to tweak
each tint. Luckily, you can setup the
tool to show a big version of the color
wheel in both the Shadow, Midtone
and Highlight tab simultaneously.
This is done by going to the Window
menu and selecting Create Float-
ing Tool > Color Balance three times.
Then drag them underneath each
other until they snap into one panel.
Next, you just select a different tab in
each version of the tool, and you get
a great working setup.
Note that you can also create a fourth

version of the tool and set it to Master
so that you get a 4-way color grading
setup to play with.
It can be a good idea to save this set-

up as a Workspace by going to the
main menu and selecting Window >
Workspace > Save Workspace… and
give it a fitting name like 3-Way Color
Balance.

Using Layers and Mask will be explored in full detail in a later chapter,
for now, you just need to know that you can limit the effect of the Col-
or Balance tool to a specific area of the image by creating a new layer
and painting a mask with the brush. This is done in the Layer tool placed
near the top of the Color Tool Tab.
want to affect, you can go ahead and make selective Color Balance ad-
plored above. Note the small brush icon next to the tool name; it is indi-
cating that you are now working on a Layer, not the Background image.
Creating Color Balance adjust-

ments in a layer can be extreme-
ly useful. You might have a situ-
ation where you want to tint the
highlights with a warm color tone,
but the effect needs to be isolat-
ed to a specific subject instead
of affecting all the highlights on
the entire image. This is easily
achieved by creating a new Layer
and brushing the Color Balance
effect in on the desired areas.
You might also find that the af-

fected range in either the Shad-
ow, Midtone or Highlight Tab is
simply too broad and includes
too many tones by default. In this
case, you can limit the effect in
certain parts of the image by us-
ing a Layer and a Mask.
Using Color Balance on a Layer can also be very effective when you
need to counteract an unwanted color cast in the shadows. Just dial in
the complementary color in the Shadow Tab to cancel the color cast out,
then limit the effect by a mask, making sure only the needed areas get
the treatment.
Adding a border shadow with Vignetting
If you want to darken or brighten the edges and corners of an image, the
Vignetting tool is the solution. This tool is meant to be a creative look
adjustment and shouldn’t be used to counteract any vignetting your lens
might have. If you want to do an optical correction, you should use the
Light Falloff slider in the Lens Correction tool instead.
The Vignetting tool is straightforward to use. The Amount slider will con-
trol how much the corners and edges will either be darkened or bright-
en, where a negative value will darken, and a positive will brighten.
The amount is expressed as an exposure value, so if you turn the

Amount slider all the way down to -4, the corners will be darkened by
what equals to four stops of light. Note that the full effect will only be ap-
plied to the most extreme of the corners.
You can change how the vignetting is applied from the Method drop-
down menu. In most cases, you will probably choose between Elliptic on
Crop or Circular on Crop as these will be applied within the cropped im-
age.
The Elliptic form will look more natural on images that have an aspect
ratio other than square as the edges on the long side will get some
amount of vignetting. If you select the Circular form, those edges on the
long side will have less of an effect applied.
Be aware that if you select the Circular option and crop the image, the
vignetting can be applied off-center, so the image will get an uneven ex-
posure that might look unnatural.
Saving as a Preset
You can save a Vignetting adjustment and save it for later reuse by click-
ing on the Preset icon in the upper right corner and select Save User
Preset....
Select Vignetting, click Save, and the preset is ready to be applied from
the Preset drop-down menu under User Presets.

If you want to copy a Vignetting adjustment to other selected images,
click on the Copy icon.
Select Vignetting, and then click Apply to copy it to the other selected
images.
Reviewing colors with Lab Readout
Capture One Pro will by default display the Red, Green, and Blue image
channels as well as the Luminosity value when you hover the mouse
over an area on the image. You can also use the Color Readouts cursor
tool to add several RGB and Luminosity value readouts on the image in
the Viewer.
This is a great feature when you want to monitor a number of areas si-
multaneous when doing image editing, and this has gotten even better
in version 11 because the Lab Readout has been added.
The Lab Readout feature has the advantage of being able to describe
the luminance levels separately from the color values in a pixel. This is
in contrast to the more commonly used RGB readouts, where both col-
or and luminance levels are represented by the same Red, Green, Blue
channels.
It can be difficult to figure out whether a part of the image has become
brighter just by looking at a change in the Red, Green, or Blue color val-
ues. The Red might get be a bit brighter, and the Blue somewhat darker,
but it might not be evident whether the combined brightness stays the
same or not.
The Lab Readout solves this issue because the L value only reports the
Luminance level in the pixels, and never includes any color information.
The a and b readout, on the other hand, only reports color information,
and never includes any luminance data.
While the Lab Readout makes it much easier to inspect the Luminance
levels, it is trickier for most people to use it for color evaluation. The
reason for this is that the a value defines color ranging from -128 (a blu-
ish green) to +127 (a pinkish magenta), while the b value defines a color
ranging from -128 (blue) to +127 (yellow). If both a and b are at 0, the col-
or is a perfectly neutral gray.
It is important to note that the Lab Readout feature is NOT converting

the image to the Lab color space, Capture One Pro is only displaying the
color values in the Lab color space.
You activate the Lab Readout by going to the View menu, selecting Lab
Readout and one of the built-in settings.
Explaining the different profiles goes beyond the scope of this eBook,
but keep in mind that these Lab profiles should match the destination
ICC profile to give a correct reading.
Unless you know exactly what you’re doing, it is recommended to

choose Adobe (generic) and select Adobe RGB as your destination ICC
profile in the Process Recipe Tool (covered in a later chapter). The Lab
readouts will then correspond to the Adobe ACE color management en-
gine, but you will need to disable Black Point Compensation in Photo-
shop in order to get a fairly accurate match.
If you want to dig deeper into Lab readout feature in Capture One Pro,
please consult the online help at Phase One here:
Making local adjustments
with the Layers tool
One of the most powerful image editing features in Capture One Pro is
without a doubt the Layers tool. 12 different tools can be used on a spe-
cific area of the image with the help of layers and masks, giving your
full control over localized adjustments of exposure, contrast, and colors
amongst other image editing features.
The layer and mask system in the Layers tool work a lot like the adjust-
ment layers in Photoshop, so if you are familiar with those, you should
feel right at home in Capture One Pro.
The Layers tool is available in multiple Tool Tabs such as the Color, Ex-
posure, and the Details Tool Tab. Any local adjustments that you make
in the Layers tool in one of those tabs are automatically mirrored to the
other instances of the tool in Capture One Pro.
Layers is placed in multiple Tool Tabs as a convenience and as a way to

speed up the workflow of doing selective image adjustments.
Note that this arrangement is a change from version 10 of Capture One

Pro, where the Local Adjustments tool had its own separate Tab and
came preloaded with all the adjustment tools that could be used to edit
a masked area in version 10.
Creating a new layer
You can create a new layer in the Layers tool by clicking and holding on
the + (plus) icon and choose the type, you want.
The two first layer types are for image adjustments, and you can cre-
ate up to 16 different layers. You can either choose a New Empty Layer,
where the mask is blank, or a New Filled Layer, where the mask is pre-
filled. If you choose the first option, you will need to draw something on
the mask before any image adjustment on that layer becomes visible.
You also have the option to choose a New Clone Layer or a New Heal
Layer if you need to remove some distracting elements in the image. We
will explore how the clone and heal layers work later in this chapter.
If you just click once on the + (plus) icon, a New Empty Layer is created
by default.
You can also create a layer automatically if you start drawing a mask with
the Draw Mask or the Gradient Mask. Those can either be selected from
the bottom of the Layers tool or from the Cursor Toolbar.
Note that you can use the keyboard shortcuts B for Draw Mask (B =
Brush) and G for Gradient Mask. If you want to deselect either of the
cursor mask tools at any time, just hit H on the keyboard to return to the
Pan cursor tool. This way you won’t accidentally change the mask.
Renaming a Layer
You can rename a layer by either hitting Enter or double-click on it and
then type in the desired name. This can help to keep things organized. It
is also possible to toggle the visibility of the layer by clicking the check-
mark next to it.
Creating a mask
As mentioned earlier, you can either create a new layer with an empty
mask (New Empty Layer) or a prefilled mask (New Filled Layer). If you
choose the first option, you will have to draw on the mask before any im-
age adjustment on that layer becomes visible. This is the default behav-
ior in Capture One Pro and is the opposite of adjustment layers in Photo-
shop where the mask comes prefilled, and the whole image is affected
by default.
Select the Draw Mask as explained earli-
er and start brushing on the image in the
viewer. You can adjust the Size, Hardness
(or feather), Opacity and Flow by either
right-clicking on the image in the View-
er or clicking on the Cursor tool Settings
icon at the bottom of the Layers tool.
The Size and Hardness sliders should be self-explanatory, and you will
be able to see any changes reflected on the brush as an example as you
drag them.
The inner part of the brush circle will apply a full amount, while the effect
will gradually taper off to the outer part based on the chosen Hardness
amount.
Tip: You can use the keyboard shortcuts ] and [ to change the brush size
and the shortcuts Shift + ] and Shift + [ to change the hardness on the fly.
The Opacity slider controls how strong the effect of the adjustment tools
will be applied to the image. A value of 100 is equal to a full, 100 percent
strength. Using a low value like 5 or 10 is a good way to gradually built
the effect of an adjustment onto the image. Each new stroke with the
brush will, in this case, add another 5 or 10 percent on top of the mask
that you have already drawn.
The Flow slider needs a bit more explanation. It allows you to control
how many strokes it will take before you reach the maximum amount set
with the Opacity slider. The Flow value is a percentage, so if it is set to
10%, it will take ten strokes before the selected Opacity amount is ful-
ly reached. The combination of a 30% Opacity and 15% Flow is a great
way to gradually build up the effect of the mask and thus the selected
image adjustment.
Note that this only works if your brushstrokes are contiguous. Once
you start a new series of brushstrokes on the same area, the maximum
Opacity will in effect be the double. You should also be aware that a low
Flow amount can create a stepped effect if you use a high Hardness
amount setting for the brush; it clearly works best with a very low Hard-
ness value.
Showing and hiding the mask
You can toggle the visibility of the mask on and off by clicking on the
mask option icon and choosing between Always Display Mask and Nev-
er Display Mask or by using the keyboard shortcut M to toggle it on and
off while the brush tool is selected.
The mask will be displayed as a red transparent overlay over the image
in the Viewer to make it easy to see what part your mask is covering.
Note that if you instead select the Only Display Mask When Drawing
option, the mask will only be visible while you use the Mask tools. Once
you stop drawing, the mask will be hidden.
Displaying the mask in Greyscale

When you work on more advanced masks, it can be difficult to judge
precisely what the mask is covering by just looking at the red overlay on
the image. This is where the Display Greyscale Mask option can be very
handy since it will only show you the mask without the distraction of the
image (see next page):
Click on the mask option icon and choose Display Greyscale Mask or
use the keyboard shortcut Alt + M.
The mask will now be shown in greyscale.
The white areas are where the image adjustments in the selected layer
will have full effect, while the black areas will have no effect. Note that
the grey areas will have different degrees of coverage.
The greyscale mask is a superb feature when you need to inspect your
mask for flaws and correct them easily. You can obviously paint directly
on the greyscale mask, just remember that you need to use the Erase
Mask (explained below) if you want to paint a “black” color on the mask
in order to remove the coverage on a particular area.
Once done, select Display Greyscale Mask or use the keyboard shortcut
Alt + M again to turn it off.
Erasing a part of the mask
You can delete a part of the drawn mask with the Erase Mask, which is
selected from the bottom of the Layers tool or by using the keyboard
shortcut E.
A small – (minus) will appear in the center of the brush to indicate that
you are now in Erase mode. You can change the Size, Hardness, Opac-
ity, and Flow of the Erase brush just like the normal brush by right-click-
ing on the image in the Viewer.
Tip: If you want the mask to cover almost the entire image, it is faster to
combine the Erase Mask with the Invert Mask option instead of painting
a lot with the Draw Mask. Here is how you do it; right-click on the layer
and select Invert Mask.
Now the mask will cover the entire image, and you can quickly use the
Erase Mask to remove the small part you don’t want to include.
Erasing the whole mask

If you want to erase the entire mask and begin from scratch, just right-
click on the layer in question and select Clear Mask.
Additional brush options

The Airbrush option will gradually build the mask as you click and hold
the mouse down until the full amount set with the Opacity slider is
reached. You can control the speed by adjusting the Flow slider.
If you are using a graphics tablet like a Wacom, Capture One Pro can
detect the pen pressure and change the brush size accordingly if you
select the Use Pen Pressure option. Note that it is the Size of the brush,
not the Opacity, that is being adjusted by the amount of pen pressure.
If you select Link Brush and Eraser Settings, Capture One Pro will make
sure that both the Draw Mask and Erase Mask are using the same val-
ues and options. Remember that you can quickly change between the
two by using their keyboard shortcuts B and E.
Using the Auto Mask feature
Capture One Pro has a nice brush feature called Auto Mask that can de-
tect edges and create an automatic mask selection. This is very handy
when you want to isolate one part of the image from another, like a
building from the sky or a model or product from the background. You
need to select the Auto Mask option first, and it is recommended to set
Hardness to 100.
Note how the Auto Mask brush cursor has an inner circle with a cross
in the middle. Everything within this circle will be sampled and included
in the automatically created mask, so it is important that it doesn’t touch
anything that you don’t want to be masked. The outer circle controls the
area where the mask will be auto-generated.
The Auto Mask feature works best with clearly defined edges that are in
focus, and you will get better results by using a number of smaller brush-
strokes instead of a single, long one. Note that the Auto Mask brush
will paint the mask temporarily over the full brush size area while you
draw with it, then the mask will snap to the edges when you release the
mouse button. This is normal behavior.
Tips: There is a couple of tricks that can increase your chances of suc-
cess with the Auto Mask feature. You should always try to paint on the
part in the image which is the most uniform and clearly defined. This
might be the opposite of the subject you wanted to mask, and if that
is the case, use Auto Mask on that part instead of on the main subject,
then invert the mask after the fact. This is done by right-clicking on the
layer and choosing Invert Mask.
You should also note that the Auto Mask feature works nicely with the
Erase Mask. Sometimes you will find that it actually does a better job
of detecting the edges correctly when you use it to remove an unwant-
ed area of the current mask. This means that the most efficient work-
flow would be to paint a broad, rough mask with the normal Draw Mask
brush without the Auto Mask feature enabled. Then use the Erase Mask
with the Auto Mask feature selected to detect and select the edges au-
tomatically.

Creating a Gradient Mask
You can easily create a mask similar to a graduated filter with the Gradi-
ent Mask. You can either select it from the drop-down menu in the Lay-
ers tool or use the keyboard shortcut G.
The graduated mask is used by

clicking and dragging with the cur-
sor tool. The area where you start
dragging will get the full amount of
the image adjustment, and the ef-
fect will then taper off towards to
place where you release the tool.
Note that you cannot readjust the
gradient after the fact, you will have
to redo it if it turns out that it wasn’t
positioned perfectly. You can, how-
ever, erase a part of the gradient
mask with the Erase Mask, if need
be. You might for example want to
remove the clouds on a blue sky
from the gradient mask to make
sure their exposure isn’t changed.
Using Fill Mask
There is no need to painstakingly paint in a mask over a large area. If
you have drawn around the borders of a subject, just right-click on the
layer and select Fill Mask. Now Capture One Pro will fill in the empty
space in the middle of the area.
Note that you can also draw straight lines between points on the mask
by holding Shift down while you click. Using these two shortcuts in com-
bination makes it very fast to mask a subject with straight lines, like a
building.
Feathering a mask
When you are working on a complex mask, the edges might end up
being too hard and leave harsh look where the transitions should be
smooth. This can easily be fixed by the Feather Mask feature. Right-click
on the desired layer and choose Feather Mask…
You will now get a dialog box where you can dial in the amount of feath-
ering with the Radius slider. The value is presented in pixels, and the
max goes all the way up to a radius of 100 pixels.
You can preview the effect on the mask by choosing the Display Mask
option. When you’re happy with the result, hit Apply.
Note that once you have softened the edges of the mask, you cannot go
back and readjust the feather to a lower amount later on. You can always
add more softening effect, but you cannot remove the feathering unless
you choose Edit > Undo Feather Mask.
Feather Mask is extremely useful if you have used the Create Masked
Layer from Selection option explained later on in this chapter. The mask
from that operation might not always make perfect transitions, so adding
a touch of feathering, say at 0,5 to 1,5 pixels, is often very helpful.
Note that if you have selected the Display Greyscale Mask (explained
earlier in this chapter), you will have to option to show the mask instead
of the image.
This can be very handy when you need to judge how much softening is
required. It gets even better if you remember to zoom the view into 100
percent before selecting the Feather Mask feature because this combi-
nation makes it really easy to hit the perfect amount of smoothing.
Using Refine Mask to improve the mask
It can be very difficult (and time-consuming) to select finer details like for
example hair or fur against the background when working on a mask.
Luckily, the Refine Mask feature can be a super helpful to solve this is-
sue as its edge-detecting technology will analyze the image content
and help to select the intricate details of the subject. You need to mask
the subject first, then right-click on the desired layer and choose Refine
Mask…
You will now get a dialog box where the Radius amount will tell Capture
One Pro how broad a range in pixels the feature should analyze and in-
clude details from.
It is highly recommended that you choose the Display Greyscale Mask

option (or use the keyboard shortcut Alt + M) before activating Refine
Mask. This will make it much easier to judge the effect as you adjust
the Radius slider. A higher amount will typically add more details to the
mask, but it can also remove some parts from the mask.
It is often a good idea to zoom into the image in order to judge how the
Refine Mask affects your mask. You can toggle the Display Greyscale
Mask option on and off in the dialog box.
Refine Mask works the best when the edge between the subject and the
background have fairly high contrast, so black hair against a bright back-
ground will work great, whereas blond hair against white will not. Refine
Mask is a contrast-detecting technology, so keep that in mind.
Because if this, it is also an excellent tool to improve the mask when you
have used the Auto Mask brush feature to select, for example, a build-
ing, the horizon or a dark or white bird against a clear, blue sky.
You should also note that the Refine Mask will vary the opacity of the af-
fected mask. This will ensure that any transitions look more natural, but
you might need to tweak the mask as certain areas of the adjusted mask
will no longer have a 100 percent coverage (not pure white anymore).
Just something to keep in mind.

Adjusting the Opacity of a Layer
A very nice feature of the Layers system is that you control the strength
of the adjustments on a layer per layer basis with the Opacity slider.
Sometimes you will realize that certain adjustments are a bit over the
top, and you can then easily tone them down by selecting the Layer in
question and lower the Opacity slider.
This is much faster than having to tweak all the different adjustments
used in the layer. Note how each Layer has its individual Opacity
amount, giving you a nice way to mix the strength of each one after the
fact.
Tip An extremely useful workflow is to use Opacity in conjunction with a

Heal type layer to clean up skin tones. You might need to remove wrin-
kles, blemishes or other imperfections, but it often looks unnatural if they
are removed completely. The trick here is to repair the areas as normal
(see below for more information) and then dial down the Opacity to, say,
80%. This ensures that the healed area blends nicely with the surround-
ing details and looks much more natural.

Reusing a mask in another Layer
A very powerful feature of the layer and mask system in Capture One
Pro is the ability to copy a mask from one layer to another. This is a great
timesaver as it allows you to reuse a complicated mask fast and easily.
Imagine that you have spent some time perfecting a mask for the sky
and you now need a mask for adjustments on the opposite part of the
image, for example, a layer for the foreground. The workflow is easy.
Select the target layer, right-click on it and select Copy Mask From and
then the desired layer mask.
You can then click-right on the layer again and choose Invert Mask, and
you will now have a mask that is a perfect opposite of the copied mask
from the other layer. The copied mask can obviously be tweaked to taste
with the Draw Mask or Erase Mask tools.
Reposition a mask after the fact
Most don’t know about it, but you can actually reposition a mask. Just
hold Command (Ctrl on Windows) and drag in the Viewer to reposition
the mask. Note that either the Draw Mask, Erase Mask or Gradient Mask
needs to be selected first.
You can also click on the mask drop-down menu and select Show Selec-
tion Points. An orange dot will now appear over the mask. Click on that
to drag the mask to a new place.
The ability to move a mask is particularly useful if you have copied a set
of layers from one image to another. As a cool feature, the associated
masks will be copied too, and if the covered subject has moved a bit,
you will be able to reuse the mask by dragging it to the new location on
the new image. You might need to tweak the mask, but it should still be
way faster than having to redo the mask from scratch.
Note that you can also reposition a gradient mask, but it is normally not
very useful as it will often create gaps on one or two sides of the mask
when it is moved.
Changing the Mask overlay

color
The red default color of the
mask might not be the most
convenient depending on
the subject you are trying
the draw a precise mask
over. Luckily, you change
the color of the mask in the
Preferences in the Appear-
ance tab by clicking on the
Mask Color.
Using a color selection to create an automatic mask
A very powerful feature of the Color Editor tool (covered in an earlier
chapter) is the ability to convert any color selection into an advanced
mask. Start by selecting a color range as explained in the Color Editor
tool chapter, then click on the options icon and choose Create Masked
Layer from Selection.
Capture One Pro will now au-

tomatically create a new lay-
er with the mask applied in
the Layers tool, ready to use.
The mask is created with

varying opacity if the select-
ed color range has gradual
transitions. This will ensure
that you won’t get a harsh
transition from full effect to
none when applying an im-
age adjustment.
You can obviously edit the

auto-created mask further
with the Draw Mask and
Erase Mask. You might have
selected a range of blue col-
ors that cover both the sky and a shirt in the image, but if you only want
to adjust the sky, simply erase the mask part over the shirt.
Another thing to remember is that you can invert the mask. If you want
to affect almost the entire image besides a subject with a certain color,
then select that color, create an auto-mask of it and invert the mask. Fast
and efficient.
Repair or clone details
The Layers tool allows you to clone in detail or remove distracting part
as well as heal image areas such as a blemish on skin tones. This is
done with so-called repair layers that you create by clicking on the +
(plus) icon and choosing the desired type.
The difference between to the two types of layers is that a Clone Lay-
er will just clone the details without altering them while a Heal Layer will
try to blend in the details from the surrounding area in order for the re-
pair to look more natural. Beyond that, the Clone Layer and Heal Layer
work the same, and you can convert one type into another after the fact
by right-clicking on the layer and choosing the alternative method. This
gives you the freedom to select the one that works best.
Once you have created a repair layer, select the Draw Mask cursor tool
(B) and paint over the area in the image that you either want to heal or
clone detail to. Capture One Pro will now automatically insert a point
where the detail is sourced from, and an arrow will appear, pointing from
the white source circle to the orange target circle (see next page):
The sample area might not be the best suited, so just drag the white
source circle to a new area that contains the most suitable detail. Note
how the target area will update and reflect the new source area if you
hold and wait a second. You can also hold down the Alt key and click on
the image to select the source area.
Note how it is also possible to drag and move the target circle and that
you can add to the target area coverage by painting with the Draw Mask
or remove parts with the Erase Mask. If you tap M to show the mask,
Capture One Pro will not only show the masked area but also the origi-
nal detail, making it much easier to tweak the mask coverage if need be.
You need to be aware that each repair layer can only contain one source
area, so if you need to sample detail from more than one position, you
will need to create a new repair layer for each one. You can, however,
paint in several target points based on the same source area. This is
useful if you need to remove for example multiple blemishes from facial
skin where one smooth source area on the face will work great.
If you need to remove a lot of minor spots or blemishes, it might be bet-
ter to use the global Spot Removal tool (covered in an earlier chapter)
with the Type set to Spot. This will give you faster performance. Howev-
er, the advantage of the local repair layers is that you can remove an ir-
regular area whereas the Spot Removal tool only works with a round tar-
get.
Making a local image adjustment
Once you have created a Layer and a Mask, you simply use the Lay-
er-aware tools as normal to do localized image adjustments. Tips on
how to take advantage of local image editing have been explored in
each chapter of the tools that are available to work in conjunction with
layers and masks, so please refer to the Layer section of those tools.
To recap, the image editing tools that can be used on a Layer are:
• White Balance
• Exposure
• High Dynamic Range
• Levels
• Curve
• Sharpening
• Clarity
• Noise Reduction
• Moire
• Color Editor
• Color Balance
• Purple Fringing
When you are working with a tool on a Layer, a small brush icon next to
the tool name will be displayed and indicate that you are currently doing
adjustments on a layer. Once you select the background again, it disap-
pears, and you are working with the global tool again.
Remember that by default no area is masked when a layer is created, so

nothing will seemingly happen if you make a Layer adjustment with one
of the tools. You will need to draw a mask first or choose the New Filled
Layer option.
Stacking image adjustments

If you find that one of the global image adjustment tools cannot provide
enough of an effect on its own, it can be combined with a Layer to stack
the effect. Let’s say that you need to boost the shadows beyond what
the Shadows slider in the High Dynamic Range tool can do even at the
full 100 amount. The solution would then be to create a New Filled Lay-
er (or mask the whole layer with the Invert Mask command) and then in-
crease the Shadows slider in the High Dynamic Range tool on that layer.
This approach can be used with all of the tools that work as both a glob-
al and a local tool, so you can for instance also increase Exposure, Satu-
ration, Clarity or Sharpening beyond their apparent maximum.
Work faster with keyboard shortcuts
If you work a lot with Layers – and you should – you can speed up the
workflow quite a bit by using keyboard shortcuts. By default, Capture
One Pro has only assigned keyboard shortcuts for the brush Size and
Hardness, but you can control other commands. Go to the main menu
and select Capture One 11 > Edit keyboard shortcuts… (Edit > Keyboard
Shortcuts on Windows).Click on the arrow by Other and then the arrow
by Layers. You now get a list of all the commands that you can assign a
keyboard shortcut to.
Commands like Decrease

Brush Opacity, Increase
Brush Opacity, Add New
Filled Adjustment Layer, In-
vert Mask and Fill Mask is
especially useful. You can
also create keyboard short-
cuts to change the Layer
Opacity or selecting the
next layer.
You will need to create
your own keyboard short-
cut set by clicking on the
Create button first. Once
that is done, just select the
desired command and hit
the keyboard shortcut you
want to assign. Note that
Photoshop uses the com-
mand + I to invert a mask or
image, but since that keyboard shortcut is already used to invert a selec-
tion of images in Capture One Pro, you could instead assign Alt + I. Click
Close when you are done.
Copy and reusing Layer adjustments
If you want to copy a collection of Layers and their adjustments to other
selected images, just click on the Copy icon at the top of the Layer tool.
A dialog box now pops up.
Select Layers, and then click Apply to copy it

to the other selected images. Note that both
Layers, Masks and all the different adjustments
used are copied and applied to the other im-
ages. You can of course always tweak or reset
parts of these adjustments as well as making
edits to the different masks on an image after
they have been applied, so the fact that you
cannot select which layers to copy is not a big
deal in practice.
Adding Presets or Styles to a Layer

Presets and Styles are a great way to save and reuse certain adjust-
ments with a single mouse click. They will be covered in full detail in a
later chapter, for now, you just need to be aware they can be applied
to any layer as a pre-made adjustment. It is simple to do. Right-click on
a Layer, then choose Apply Settings From and select the desired type
from the submenus.
Note that Presets only contain the adjustments for a specific tool, like
the Curve tool. Styles, on the other hand, contains all the adjustments
from the different tools. You can think of Styles as a collection of Pre-
sets.
Be aware that not all tools can be used on a Layer as a local adjustment,
like for example the Black & White tool. If that is the case, any Presets
or Styles based on that tool will just not be available to choose from the
submenu.
If you select a Style that contains Presets from tools, where some are
supported by Layers and others are not, you get a warning. Capture One
Pro will notify you about which adjustments that cannot be applied to
the layer.
Just click Apply Partially to continue. You can select the Do not show
this message again to bypass this warning once you feel more comfort-
able with applying Styles to Layers.
Tip: If you’re not sure which kind of adjustments that are used in a spe-
cific Style, hover the mouse over it, and a tooltip will show you which
settings are in use.
sSaving Layer Adjustments as a Style

If you have made a selection of adjustments to a Layer that would be
great to reuse later on, you can easily save those as a Style. Just right-
click on the layer and choose Save Settings as Style….
You will now be greeted by a dialog box, where you can choose all the
adjustments that you want to include as your Style.
Note that the adjustments are only cop-
ied from the specific layer that you have
selected, not from all the layers in use
on the image. Remember to deselect
any adjustments that you don’t want to
be part of the Style even if you have not
changed those adjustments from their
default value. For example, if the Ex-
posure slider is set at 0 (zero), and you
select Exposure as part of your Style,
the Exposure slider will also be set to 0
when you apply the Style to a new im-
age, potentially overwriting any adjust-
ments you have made prior. Once you
are ready, Click Save, give the Style a
name and saved it.
It is important to point out that the mask
associated with the layer is not being
saved as a part of the Style. If you want
to copy both the adjustments and the
mask to other images, you need to use
the Copy and reuse an adjustment fea-
ture mentioned earlier in this chapter.
Copying edits with Adjustments Clipboard
Capture One Pro has a very powerful feature that can copy any image
adjustments from one photo to multiple others, potentially saving you
tons of time. You can both copy and reuse adjustments for a single tool
at a time or for all the tools used on an image.
We will explore both options in this chapter, and you should note that
you can always pick and choose exactly which image adjustments you
want to copy from one image to the others. If you just want to copy
White Balance, Exposure, and Keywords, for example, you can easily do
just that and make sure that all the other edits are not overwritten on the
target images. Since Capture One Pro uses a non-destructive workflow,
you can always readjust any adjustment afterward.
Note that you can choose to either copy adjustments directly to a num-
ber of selected image or save the adjustments and apply them ad hoc
on an image by image basis. You can save adjustments as Presets or
Styles which will be covered in a later chapter.
Selecting the source and the target images

If you are copying adjustments from one
image to other selected photos, Capture
One Pro will always copy from the Primary
Variant, denoted with the bold white bor-
der, to the other selected images that have
a thin white border around them in the
Browser.
Primary selected Variant
Secondary selected Variant

Copying adjustments per tool
If you only want to copy the adjustments done within a single tool to oth-
er images, the most straightforward way is to click on the Copy Adjust-
ment icon with the double arrow in the top row of the tool.
You will now be greeted by the Adjust-

ments Clipboard window that let you select
exactly what adjustments you want to copy
If you don’t want to overwrite certain ad-

justments in the target images, make sure
that you deselect those options. By default,
Capture One Pro only auto-selects the ad-
justments that have been used in the tool.
This behavior can be changed in the global
Adjustments Clipboard tool which will be
covered a bit later.
Once you have selected the desired adjustments, you can either click on
Copy or Apply.
Apply will copy the adjustments over to the other selected images and
apply them. Note that you do not need to have the Edit All Selected
Variants command enabled in the Edit menu for this to work.
If you click on Copy instead, the adjustments are copied over the glob-
al Adjustments Clipboard tool but are not applied to the other selected
images. This provides an alternative workflow where you can apply the
selected adjustments ad hoc to different image as you go through them.
This can be done by going to the main menu and selecting Adjustments
> Apply Adjustments.
Note that you can speed the process up and bypass the Adjustments
Clipboard dialog. If you hold Shift down and click on the Copy Adjust-
ment icon, the adjustments will be copied and applied to the other im-
ages immediately. If you instead hold down option and click on the icon,
the adjustments will be copied to the global Adjustments Clipboard tool.
Copying all image adjustments

Copying adjustments for each tool individually would obviously be
time-consuming, so luckily Capture One Pro also has a global Adjust-
ments Clipboard tool that contains all the possible image edits gathered
in one place.
The Adjustments Clipboard tool is

found in the Adjustments Tool Tab and
is the place to go when you need to
copy and apply adjustments from sev-
eral tools simultaneous. The clipboard
has the different tools grouped so that
you can easily control which to include
when copying certain adjustments.
If you click on the top name of a tool,

like Exposure, you can toggle on and
off whether all adjustments within this
group is copied or not. If you want to
select or deselect a specific adjustment,
then just click on that. You can open
and close a group by clicking on the ar-
row to get a better overview.
Note the Include style layers at the top.
If you select this option, any Style or

Preset that is applied to the image will
also be copied as separate Styles and
Presets that you can manage in the
Styles and Presets tool (covered in a
later chapter). This makes it easy to re-
move a Style or Preset later on, for ex-
ample.
Once you have selected the desired ad-

justments, you can either click on Copy
or Apply.
Apply will copy the selected adjustments to all selected images and ap-
ply them. Note that you need to have the Edit All Selected Variants com-
mand in the Edit menu enabled when copying adjustments this way.
If you click on Copy instead, the adjustments are stored for later use
but are not applied to the other selected images. Pay attention to the
file name near the top of the tool. This is the image where all the adjust-
ments are currently being copied from, and you can now apply those ad
hoc to the different images as you select them. This can be done by go-
ing to the main menu and selecting Adjustments > Apply Adjustments.
Copying Annotations and Metadata

Because the list of image adjustments
at the top of the Adjustments Clipboard
tool is so long, it is easy to overlook the
fact that you can also copy and apply
Annotations and different metadata like
Rating, Color Tag, and Keywords.
Note that Annotations and the Meta-

data group are separate. The Metada-
ta group have 36 different options to
choose from, so pay close attention to
which you have selected, so you don’t
override important information by acci-
dent.
Copying Layers
You can copy and apply Layers from one image to multiple others with
Adjustments Clipboard tool by selecting the Layers option.
Note that there is no way to select

which parts of the Layers adjustments
that you want to copy. Everything in-
cluding Layers, Masks, and the asso-
ciated adjustments will be copied to
the other images, so keep that in mind.
You can, however, reposition a copied
mask on the new image, so this can
be a handy way to reuse a complicat-
ed mask. This workflow can potentially
save you a lot of time, even if you have
to edit the mask or the layer adjust-
ments a bit on the new image.
Working faster with the Adjustments Clipboard tool

The list of possible adjustments in the Adjustments Clipboard tool is
rather long and it can be difficult to navigate. Luckily, the options drop-
down menu has a number of features to help you out.
You can either choose to se-

lect all adjustments with Se-
lect All and then untick those
you do not need or choose to
deselect all adjustments with
Select None and then just
add the few you want.
If you choose Select Adjust-

ed, Capture One Pro will au-
to-select only those adjust-
ments that have been used
on the selected image. This
is also the default behavior,
which can be toggled on and
off by selecting the Autose-
lect Adjusted option.
Another nice feature is the Expand All and Collapse All options that will
open and close all groups respectively.
Applying Styles and Presets
You will typically copy adjustments from a specific image, but you can
also copy those from a Preset or Style. To do so, click on the options
drop-down menu and select Copy to Clipboard and then the desired
Style or Preset.
It will probably make more sense to use the Styles and Presets tool cov-
ered in a later chapter to apply those, but doing it via the Adjustments
Clipboard tool has one neat benefit. Once you have copied the Style
or Preset to the clipboard, you can use keyboard shortcuts to apply the
copied Style or Preset in question.
Note that you can also save a certain combination of adjustments from
the options drop-down menu by selecting Save As Style…. You can do
this from the Styles and Presets tool too, so this is just a convenient
shortcut.
Work faster with shortcuts and cursor tools
There is a number of ways to speed up the work when are copying and
applying adjustments. You can go to the Adjustments menu and choose
either Copy Adjustments or Apply Adjustments or use their correspond-
ing keyboard shortcuts Shift + command + C and Shift + command + V
(Ctrl + Shift + C or V on Windows). Note that you can change these key-
board shortcuts if they don’t suit you.
You can also use the Copy Adjustment and Apply Adjustment icons on
the main Toolbar.
Remember to enable the Edit All Selected Variants command (the icon
is orange when active) if you want to apply the adjustment to multiple
selected images. If you hover the mouse over the Apply icon, the Edit All
Selected Variants icon will show how many images you have selected.
It is important to stress that the Adjustments Clipboard tool still controls

what is copied or not, so if you don’t want to copy all adjustments from
an image, you will need to deselect the unwanted functions in the clip-
board before hitting Apply Adjustments.
Another very useful way to apply adjustments on the fly is with the Copy
Adjustments and Apply Adjustments cursor tools in the Cursor Toolbar.
These are very cool because you can just click away on images in the
Browser to apply a specific combination of adjustments without having
to select them first and then use a keyboard shortcut. This can be partic-
ularly useful if you want to apply a certain metadata like a keyword of a
person when reviewing a lot of images from an event in the Browser.
The trick with using the Apply Adjustments Cursor can greatly speed up
the work with applying any adjustment or metadata to a noncontiguous
group of images when viewed in the Browser. Just make sure that you
are copying the right adjustments by checking the Adjustments Clip-
board tool. As already mentioned, keep an eye on the file name at the
top of the tool to ensure you are indeed copying from the right image.
You can select the Copy Adjustments and Apply Adjustments cursor
tools with the keyboard shortcut A and switch between them with Shift +
A.
Saving and reusing adjustments
with Styles and Presets
Styles and Presets in Capture One Pro is a great way to save specific
adjustments which can then be reused later with a single mouse click. A
Preset only contain the adjustments for a specific tool, so as an example,
the Exposure tool and the Curve tool will save their own separate sets of
Presets. Styles, on the other hand, contains all the adjustments from the
different tools. You can think of Styles as a collection of Presets.
Remember that Capture One Pro is using a non-destructive workflow
which means that you can always tweak any adjustment that has been
applied with a Preset or Style. As we will explore later in this chapter, you
can also combine several Styles and/or Presets with the Stack Styles
feature, so keep in mind that you’re not constrained to using only one
Preset or Style set at a time.
Applying Styles and Presets
The Styles and Presets tool in the
Adjustments Tool Tab gives a nice
overview of all the available Styles
and Presets. They are organized in
four groups; by Styles and Presets
respectively, and by the built-in that
ships with Capture One Pro and
those you have created and saved
yourself. Note that all the Presets are
organized by tool.
Applying a Style or Preset is as sim-

ple as clicking on the one you want,
and it can be deselected again by
a second click. Notice how you can
hover the mouse over a Style or Pre-
set and see an example of the effect
on the selected images in the View-
er and Browser.
Once a Style or Preset has been selected, it will appear in a list at the
top of the tool. A Preset is denoted with hamburger icon while a Style is
indicated with a brush icon.
You open and close a group by clicking on the arrow in front of its name
or by double-clicking on the group name. A very handy keyboard short-
cut is that a whole group can be expanded or collapsed at once by hold-
ing Alt down while clicking on a group name.
Note that if you want to apply a Style or Preset to more than one image,
you need to make sure the Edit All Selected Variants command is en-
abled in the Edit menu or making sure that the corresponding icon in the
main Toolbar is active with an orange color.
Using Stacked Styles or Presets

You can combine more than one Style or Preset by using the Stack
Styles feature. This is enabled by clicking on the options drop-down
menu in the Styles and Presets tool and making sure the Stack Styles is
selected.
Once it is enabled, the selected Styles and presets will be added on top
of the others as noted in the list at the top of the Styles and Presets tool.
The order in the list is very important; if two Styles or Presets are trying
to apply the same adjustment, like adding some Saturation. If there is
a conflict, the top listed Style or Preset takes precedence, and Capture
One Pro will add (Overridden) to the name of the Style or Preset where
an adjustment is overwritten (see next page):
This ensures that you get a predict-
able outcome when applying con-
flicting adjustments, so just keep
in mind what order you apply the
Styles and Presets in. Also, remem-
ber that you can always readjust
anything in Capture One Pro, so no
harm is ever done.
Note that Stack Styles feature can

also be turned on and off in the
Presets drop-down menus in other
parts of Capture One Pro.
Adding Presets or Styles to a Layer

You can add Presets and Styles to any Layer adjustment. You will need
to create a Layer first, then right-click on it, choose Apply Settings From,
and select the desired type from the submenus.
Be aware that not all tools can be used on a Layer as a local adjustment,
like for example the Black & White tool. If that is the case, any Presets or
Styles based on that tool will simply not be available to choose from the
submenu.
If you select a Style that contains Presets from tools, where only some
are supported by Layers, you will get a warning. Capture One Pro will
notify you about which adjustments that cannot be applied to the layer.
Just click Apply Partially to continue.

Creating a Preset
Creating and saving a Preset for later use is best done directly from the
tool where you have made your adjustments. Remember that if you want
to add adjustments from several tools, you need to create a Style in-
stead, which is covered next. Once you have made your edits, click on
the Preset icon in the upper right corner for a tool and select Save User
Preset....
You now get a dialog box where you can

choose which kind of adjustment you want
to include in the Preset.
Remember to deselect any adjustments that

you don’t want to be part of the Preset even
if you have not changed said adjustment
from its default value. For example, if the Ex-
posure slider is set at 0 (zero), and you se-
lect Exposure as part of your Preset, the Ex-
posure slider will also be set to 0 when you apply the Preset to a new
image, potentially overwriting any adjustments you have made prior.
When you have decided which adjustments to include, click Save. The
preset is now ready to be applied from the Preset drop-down menu un-
der User Presets or from the Styles and Presets tool.
Creating a Style
Creating and saving a Style for later use is done from the Styles and Pre-
sets tool. You first need to make all the adjustments that you want to be
part of a Style in the various tools. Once ready, click on the options icon
in the upper right corner and select Save Style....
You now get a dialog box where you can

choose which kind of adjustment you
want to include in the Style. The list of
possible adjustments is the same as you
encounter in the Adjustments Clipboard
tool (covered in an earlier chapter) with
the notable exception that you cannot
save a Layer as part of a Style.
Capture One Pro will automatically prese-

lect all the adjustment options based on
the edits that you have performed on the
selected image. Remember to deselect
any adjustments that you don’t want to
be part of the Style even if you have not
changed a specific adjustment from its
default value. If you add Saturation with a
default value of 0 (zero) that will be applied to an image as a part of the
Style. Once you are satisfied, click Save. The Style can now be found un-
der User Styles.
Saving Layer Adjustments as a Style
It is also possible to create a Style based on all the adjustments you
have made on a specific Layer for later reuse. Just right-click on the lay-
er and choose Save Settings as Style….
You will now be greeted by a dialog box,

where you can choose all the adjustments
that you want to include as your Style.
Note that the adjustments are only copied
from the specific layer that you have se-
lected, not from all the layers in use on the
image. Remember to deselect any adjust-
ments that you don’t want to be part of the
Style. Once you are ready, Click Save, give
the Style a name and saved it.
It is important to point out that the mask as-
sociated with the layer is not being saved
as a part of the Style. If you want to copy
both the adjustments and the mask to other
images, you will need to use the Copy and
reuse an adjustment feature mentioned in
the Layers chapter.
Removing and deleting a Style or Preset
You can remove a Style or Preset from an image by clicking on it in the
list and choosing Clear. You can also remove all of the Styles and Pre-
sets at once by clicking on the Reset button in the top-right corner of the
Styles and Presets tool.
If you instead want to delete the Style or Preset from Capture One Pro,
then right-click on it under User Styles or User Presets and choose De-
lete. Note that you cannot delete the Built-In Styles and Presets.
You also have the option to delete a User Preset from the Preset drop-
down menu in each tool by choosing Delete User Preset…
Copying styles to other images

You can copy the applied Styles and Presets from one image to another,
but the workflow may not be immediately
apparent as it involves the Adjustments
Clipboard tool. Once you have applied
one or more Styles or Presets to an im-
age, go to the Adjustments Clipboard
tool. Make sure the Include style layers
box at the top is selected, then click on
Copy.
Next, select the images you want to copy

the styles to, and click Apply in the Ad-
justments Clipboard tool. The Styles are
now copied to the other images, and
you can remove them and their associ-
ated adjustments by selecting them and
choosing Clear.

Importing and exporting Styles
You can easily import Styles that other people have made by clicking on
the options icon and choose Import Styles… from the drop-down menu.
If you have downloaded a collection of Styles, you also

have the option to just double-click on the file, and
Capture One Pro will automatically install the collec-
tion. You will then find it under User Styles.
It is a bit more involving when you need to export or

backup a User Style or a User Preset. They are by de-
fault saved in folders that are located in the file path
Library > Application Support > Capture One. Here
are two folders called Styles and Presets60, where
the last contains a number of subfolders for each tool.
If you want to share or backup the User Styles or User
Presets, you need to navigate to these folders and
copy the .costyle and .copreset files from there.
The Library folder is hidden by default on a Mac, but

if you hold Alt down and choose the menu Go in the
Finder, you can select Library from the menu and open the hidden fold-
er. Then it is easy to navigate the Application Support > Capture One
folders.
You could also just apply a specific Style or Preset to an image and then
save a copy with the Save Styles… or Save User Preset… command and
then navigate to the desktop and save them there. That will, however,
be time-consuming if you have to export a lot of User Styles or User Pre-
sets.
Applying Styles and Presets during import
Adding a Style or Preset during import can greatly speed up your work-
flow by making sure that all the basic adjustments are applied right
away. This is done from the Adjustments part of the Import Images di-
alog box. Just click on the Styles drop-down menu and choose which
Styles and Presets you want to apply. Remember to enable Stack Styles
if you need to apply more than one.
Adding Presets during import can also be a very useful way to add all
the basic metadata like copyright and your contact information from the
start. Just remember to create a Metadata Preset with the required infor-
mation first from the Metadata tool (covered in an earlier chapter).
Applying Styles and Presets during tethered shooting
Just like you can add a Style or Preset during image import, you can also
add those when shooting tethered. These are selected from the Next
Capture Adjustments tool. Click on the Styles drop-down menu and
choose which Styles or Presets you want to apply. Remember to enable
Stack Styles if you want to apply more than one.
Adding a Styles and Presets menu to the Toolbar
If find yourself adding Styles and Presets all the time, you can speed up
your workflow by adding a Styles and Presets menu to the Toolbar.
This is done by right-clicking on the Toolbar and choosing Customize

Toolbar…. Then drag the Styles icon (it looks like a brush) from the grey
dialog box and onto the Toolbar area. Then click done.
You will find the same submenu by going the main menu and select Ad-
justments > Styles, but that is a slower workflow. Notice how you get the
option to delete a User Style from this submenu.
Exporting images with Process Recipes
Capture One Pro has a very powerful feature that makes it easy to out-
put your images in multiple formats, resolutions and locations simulta-
neously. This is done by creating and saving different export presets
called Process Recipes that you can easily tailor to specific tasks and
then reuse with a single click of a mouse. This means that you can have
one preset optimized for print, another
for web and output the same image in
both formats at once.
A Process Recipe will also handle
things like output sharpening and ap-
plying a watermark. All in all, they let
you assemble a very fast and efficient
workflow once you have learned to
take advantage of all the features.
A Process Recipe – or export preset, if

you like - is created and managed by
two tools, the Process Recipes tool,
and the Process Recipe tool. You will
find them in the Output Tool Tab, and
we will cover both tools in this chapter.
Selecting and creating a Process Recipe

The Process Recipes tool is basically a list of all the built-in output reci-
pes that comes with Capture One Pro as well as those you create your-
self. Note that you need to add a checkmark in front of a recipe before it
will be used, just selecting its name will not enable it.
Once you have enabled a recipe, the selected images will be processed
and exported based on the options you have chosen in the Process
Recipe tool below. A key advantage is that when you enable several rec-
ipes, all the images will be exported in the different file formats, resolu-
tions and locations specified in each of the recipes.
You can create a new recipe by clicking on the + (plus) icon and give it a
suitable name.
If you want to duplicate and tweak an existing recipe instead, then select
it, click on the options icon and chose Duplicate Recipe from the drop-
down menu.
You can delete a recipe by selecting it and clicking on the - (minus) icon.
You can delete the default built-in recipes, and if you want to recreate
those, just select it from the Add Recipe submenu in the drop-down
menu.
Working with the Process Recipes tool

Once you have created a new recipe in the Process Recipes tool, you
move on to the Process Recipe tool. Note that you need to select the
name of the desired recipe in the Process Recipes tool first in order to
edit it. The tool is divided into five tabs; Basic, File, Adjustments, Meta-
data and Watermark. We will cover them all, one by one.
The first tab, Basic, controls things like file format and resolution. We will
cover those options on the following pages.
Selecting the output file format
You choose to export the images in either the file format JPEG, TIFF,
DNG, PNG or PSD from the Format drop-down menu.
Note that you can select a color depth of 8 bit or 16 bit if you choose
TIFF or PSD as the file format. A 16-bit file will be twice the size, but will
also contain more image data and is highly recommended if you are go-
ing to do further edits on the image file outside Capture One Pro in for
example Photoshop.
The JPEG QuickProof reuses the preview file that Capture One Pro has
already generated, and it is therefore the fastest way to process and
export an image. JPEG XR and JPEG 2000 can save the image in high-
er quality than normal JPEG, but the files are larger and not all external
software can read those formats.
Depending on the selected file type, you might get access to other op-
tions that are relevant to that file format. This is the case with TIFF and
JPEG.
TIFF gives you the option to compress the file during export to save
size. Both LZW and ZIP are so-called lossless compression methods, so
no data is lost using them. ZIP is a bit more effective regarding file size,
but will also take much longer processing time, so LZW is recommend-
ed when exporting to 8-bit. Note, however, that you can only use ZIP as
compression if you are outputting TIFF in 16-bit.
Using Show Recipe Proofing to perfect JPEG compression

If you select JPEG as the file format, you can adjust the degree of com-
pression with the Quality slider. Capture One Pro will give you an es-
timative on the file size in the Process Summary tool as you move the
Quality slider. This will make it easy to reach a given target on file size.
A high level of JPEG compression will introduce artifacts and lower im-
age quality, but luckily Capture One Pro has a great feature called Show
Recipe Proofing to help you obtain the perfect balance between quality
and file size.
Show Recipe Proofing will show you exactly how the final image will
look once it has been exported out of Capture One Pro with regards to
file format, jpeg compression, final pixels dimensions and color space.
You can enable the feature by going to the main menu and selecting
View > Show Recipe Proofing or clicking on the googles icon on Tool-
bar.
You can also use the keyboard shortcut Shift + command + backslash.
The image will now be resized to its output dimensions, and a Proofing
label will be displayed over it in the viewer. If you zoom into 100%, you
can perfect the JPEG compression and sharpening and see exactly what
the image will look like when it is processed and exported.
Note that Show Recipe Proofing will also reflect the selected color
space and other settings in the Process Recipe tool like output sharpen-
ing and applied watermarks.
Selecting the right ICC Profile color space

You need to select a suitable color space as the target from the ICC Pro-
file drop-down menu. The colors in the original image will then be con-
verted to match within the color gamut of the selected ICC profile. You
would typically choose between sRGB, Adobe RGB, and ProPhoto.
Note that you will need to select the Show All option to get access to all
the ICC Profiles on your computer.
In most cases, you should choose the sRGB Color Space Profile if the
file is indented to be viewed on a screen. There are exceptions to this
rule, but unless you know that the images will only be viewed on a
high-quality screen with a wider color gamut than sRGB, stay with sRGB.
Otherwise the color might look off.
For print, you would normally choose the Adobe RGB profile which can
reproduce a wider range of colors than sRGB, particularly in the green
hues. Note that if you were printing directly from Capture One Pro, you
should use an ICC profile that is optimized for the printer and paper in
question, but this chapter only focusses on exporting images.
The ProPhoto color space contains a larger range of color hues than
Adobe RGB and is the best solution if you want to preserve pretty much
all the original colors from a raw file and edit the image further in for ex-
ample Photoshop. You should, however, only use the ProPhoto color
space in conjunction with a 16-bit TIFF or PSD file, as 8-bit might limit
the available amount of subtle tones and thus be counterproductive in
regards to image quality.
Adjusting the output resolution

You can set the resolution in either pixels per inch, pixels per mm or pix-
els per cm from the Resolution drop-down menu and enter the chosen
resolution in the field.
Note that this doesn’t affect the over-
all image resolution in pixels if you
are not resizing the image. The val-
ue will affect the image size in pix-
els, however, if you choose to set the
width or the height of the output im-
age in inches, mm or cm under the
Scale options, which will be covered
next.
Selecting specific image dimensions for output

Capture One Pro has a number of
options to control precisely what
dimensions you want to resize and
output the images to. Those are
all accessed from the Scale drop-
down menu.
Fixed will respect how you have

cropped the image with the Crop
tool and will not change the number
of pixels even if you change the val-
ue in the Resolution from for exam-
ple 300 to 600 px/in.
You can, however, change the resolu-

tion of the image by changing the de-
fault 100% value (see next page):
Using a value higher than 100% will

upscale the image, and vice versa with
a lower number. The maximum image
upscale is 250%.
Width and Height options in the Scale drop-down menu will let you
specify exactly how wide or tall the image should be in either inch-
es, mm or cm. This will respect the selected value in Resolution, and if
the image is going to be upscaled
above 250% as a result, you will get
a red warning in the Process Sum-
mary tool, noting that Capture One
Pro will automatically limit the resiz-
ing of the image to 250%.
The Dimensions option in the Scale

drop-down menu let you specify
the exact dimensions of the image
in pixels, inches, mm or cm for both
width or height. Note that it will re-
spect the aspect ratio of the crop, so
if there is a mismatch, Capture One
Pro will automatically adjust either
the entered width or the height to
match the crop. The altered value
will be shown as a red warning color
in the Process Summary tool.
The Width x Height option in the

Scale drop-down menu is very simi-
lar to Dimensions, but they differ on
how Capture One Pro will handle a
conflict if the aspect ratio given here
is different from the crop. Let us say
that the image has a crop of 60 cm
width and 40 cm height. If you enter
the reverse 40 cm x 60 cm with Di-
mensions, Capture One Pro will au-
tomatically flip the numbers to match
the crop ratio perfect. But if you enter
40 cm x 60 cm with Width x Height,
the 40 cm in width is being respect-
ed, but the height is automatically be-
ing limited to 26,67 cm to match the
crop aspect ratio.
The most straightforward workflow is to select Dimensions and type the
size you want in inches or cm. Then in the Crop tool select Output from
the Ratio drop-down menu and make your crop.
The Crop tool will now respect the aspect ratio and dimensions in size,
and you can make either a landscape and portrait ratio crop that be
saved out as a 60 x 40 cm or 40 x 60 cm, depending on your need.
The Long Edge option in the Scale drop-down menu is an excellent fea-
ture that will let you define exactly how wide or tall an image should be
in pixels, inches, mm or cm. The aspect ratio of the crop will be respect-
ed, so if you have specified that the longest side of the image should al-
ways be 2000 pixels, the shorter side will be adjusted accordingly.
This can be very convenient when you need to match a specific size tar-
get in only one dimension, for example for a web banner.
Short Edge is similar to Long Edge; the only difference is that you here
specify exactly how wide or tall the short side of the image should be in
pixels, inches, mm or cm.
Never Upscale is a feature that you can turn on and off. It makes sure
that the image is never scaled up beyond 100%, even if the value in Res-
olution and the dimensions entered in Scale would demand it if they
were meet. If Never Upscale is en-
abled, it will be added to the name in
the Scale drop-down menu, and you
will notice that the Scale data in the
Process Summary tool will never go
above 100%.
Opening the exported images automatically

You can specify that the images should be opened in a specific appli-
cation when they have been exported. This is done with the Open With
drop-down menu where you can either select the software from the list
or browse to another by choosing Other….
You can for example create a Process Recipe for a very specific task like
focus stacking or HDR where you want the images to be opened auto-
matically in the specialized software like Helicon Focus or HDR Efex Pro
2.

Setting the export location
The Process Recipe can also dictate where you want to export the imag-
es for the selected recipe. This is done from the File tab in the tool and
can be very handy if you for example want to save all images for your
web portfolio to a specific folder.
Some of the options in the File tab might be a bit confusing because
they work in conjunction with the Output Location tool and the Output
Naming tool, but this will be explained as we go through it.
By default, the Root Folder of the

selected recipe is set to Output Lo-
cation. This basically means that
the images will be saved to what-
ever you have selected in the Des-
tination drop-down menu of the
Output Location tool. In the case
to the right, all the images will be
stored in the Pictures folder. If you
are not certain of the location, you
can click on the grey arrow at the
end, and Capture One Pro will
open the target folder.
You can also override the connec-

tion to the Output Location tool al-
together by clicking on the Root Folder drop-down menu and choosing
Select Folder… and then set the output folder from here.
This is a great choice if you want to be sure that the images are always
store in a specific folder when you used the selected Process Recipe.
Once you have select the Root Folder location, you can let Capture One
Pro create subfolders within the root folder to keep things organized.
This is done in the Sub Folder field.
Note that Capture One Pro can use the so-called Tokens to create and
name the subfolders automatically based on metadata from the files.
The use of Tokens was explained in full detail in an earlier chapter. You
can, for example, use the date of capture, the rating, the camera seri-
al number or the collection name to create and name the subfolders.
Click on the tree-dotted icon to get access to this feature. In the exam-
ple above, subfolders are created automatically based on image capture
date and then divided into further subfolders based on rating.
Note that you create hierarchical subfolders by adding a forward slash /

between each folder name. (On Windows use a backward slash instead).
Be aware that the Sub Folder option will work regardless of whether the
default Root Folder is set to Output Location – and thus are controlled
by the Output Location tool – or you have chosen a specific folder.

The Sub Name field needs a bit of
explaining as it is tied to the Output
Naming tool. You can enter either a
text or use Tokens to automatically
create a specific way of renaming
the files during export.
The only thing you need to remem-

ber is to insert the Sub Name token
in the Format field of the Output
Naming tool as shown above. Cap-
ture One Pro will then automatically
retrieve whatever you have entered
in the Sub Name field and use it to
rename the files during output. You
can check the result by looking at
the Sample string at the bottom of the Output Naming tool.
Tokens were explained in great detail in an earlier chapter so just re-

member that you can use any metadata like Rating or Color Tag to cre-
ate the names automatically. Click on the tree-dotted icon to get access
to this feature. One cool feature is that you can use the Recipe Name
token to make sure that the selected recipe is added to the file name
during export. The Token can also be useful to automatically create sub-
folders based on the Recipe Name.
The Output Location tool and Output Naming tool will be covered in full
detail in next chapter of this eBook.
Controlling the image crop for export

You can choose to either apply the crop to the exported images, ignore
it, or include it only as a Photoshop
Path. These options are selected in
the Adjustments tab from the Crop
drop-down menu.
The Respect crop option will ob-

viously include it as expected, but
you can also choose Ignore crop
and disable the crop and export
the image in its original resolution.
This might be handy if the image is
handed over to an image retoucher or art director. However, if you use
the Ignore crop option, other people have no way of knowing how you
would have liked to crop the image. This dilemma can be solved with the
Crop to path (PSD) option.
With this selected, Capture One Pro will embed the crop outline as a
Photoshop Path in the exported PSD file. The crop outline can then be
found in the Path panel in Photoshop where it is called Crop (Capture
One). You can load it by clicking on it.
Note that this feature is only available if you have selected PSD as the
file format from the Basic tab.
Applying output sharpening during export

As explained in the Sharpening tool chapter, Capture One Pro follows a
three-step sharpening workflow that was originally conceived by Bruce
Fraser.
The first step is called Capture Sharpening and is handled by the Sharp-
ening tool, while the second step called Create Sharpening is typically
applied with the Clarity and Structure sliders in the Clarity tool and add-
ed to specific areas of the image with Layers.
The third and final step in the workflow is called Output Sharpening and
is handled by the Process Recipe tool where you can apply extra sharp-
ening that is optimized for either print or screen. The Output Sharpen-
ing is detached from the rest of the sharpening process so that you can
easily print and share the same image in the different sizes and formats
without having to redo the sharpening for each new output media.
Capture One Pro handles Output Sharpening for a screen and print dif-
ferently, and you choose the desired target media from the Sharpening
drop-down menu in the Adjustment tab of the Process Recipe tool.
If you have selected Output Sharpening for Screen, you will get the
options to adjust the added sharpening with the Amount, Radius and
Threshold sliders that are also present in the Sharpening tool. You can
refer back to the chapter to get them explained in detail.
Getting the output sharpening perfect with Show Recipe Proofing

It is highly recommended to use the Show Recipe Proofing feature to
help obtain the perfect amount for sharpening because it will show you
exactly how the final image will look once it has been processed by Cap-
ture One Pro with regards to file format, jpeg compression, final pixels
dimensions and sharpening.
You enable the feature by going to the main menu and selecting View
> Show Recipe Proofing or clicking on the googles icon on the Toolbar.
You can also use the keyboard shortcut Shift + command + backslash.
The image will now be resized to its output dimensions, and a Proofing
label will be displayed over it in the viewer. If you zoom into 100%, you
can perfect the sharpening (and JPEG compression) and see exactly
what the image will look like once it is processed and exported.
If you select Output Sharpening for Print, the options are a bit differ-
ent. You still get to adjust Amount and Threshold, but Capture One Pro
will help determine the best sharpening based on the distance from the
viewer to the printed image.
By default, the viewing distance is set to by 100% of the diagonal of the

printed image, but you change this and select either cm or inches from
the Distance drop-down menu. Then you can for example set the view-
ing distance to 120 cm and Capture One Pro will calculate and apply the
optimal dose of sharpening.
You can also use the Show Recipe Proofing feature to check the level
of sharpening, but this should always be reviewed on the final print with
the target viewing distance in mind.
You can also choose to export the

image without any extra sharpening
by selecting the No Output Sharpen-
ing option from the Sharpening drop-
down menu.
The final option, Disable all, will ex-
port the image without any of the
sharpening that you have applied in
the Sharpening tool. This can be a
great feature if you or another image retoucher need to work on a file
without any sharpening and want to use a specialized workflow in an ex-
ternal application.
Controlling exported metadata

The Metadata tab lets you control what kind of metadata should be in-
cluded in the exported image files. You can choose whether to include
the Keywords in the exported file and have to option to either select All
or only those that appear in a specific keywords library by selecting it in
the From selected keyword libraries drop-down menu.
If you choose the last option, Capture One Pro will only include the key-
words from the image that are also found in the selected keywords li-
brary. This can be a handy way to safeguard which keywords you will
grant permission to be exported.
Most of the options under Metadata should be self-explanatory as you

can choose to remove the information about Rating and Color Tag, your
Copyright notice, GPS Coordinates geodata and the Camera Metadata
like shutter speed, aperture and ISO values.
The All Other Metadata option is all the IPTC metadata that you have
entered with the Metadata tool like a Headline and Description, City
and Location or your IPTC Contact information.
Adding Annotations during export

You can either bake any added Annotations into the images during ex-
port or include them on a separate layer in a PSD file format. If you are
exporting in TIFF, JPEG or PNG file formats, you will get to option to
bake the annotations in with the original file. This is done by choosing
the Annotations option under Workflow.
You can always deselect the option and re-export the images later to
output them without the Annotations, if needed.
However, it makes much more sense to export the Annotations as a
separate layer on the image file for two reasons: First, you can always
toggle the layer on and off in Photoshop as needed. Secondly, the notes
will be added non-destructively without affecting the image data in the
base layer, which is exactly what you want when further image adjust-
ments are needed. In order to export the Annotations as a separate lay-
er, you need to save the file in the PSD format. Then choose the Annota-
tions (as a Layer) option under Workflow.

(Capture One)” in the PSD file (see next page):
Adding Overlay during export
Just like with Annotations, you can either bake any Overlay into the im-
ages during export or include it on a separate layer in a PSD file format.
If you are exporting in TIFF, JPEG or PNG file formats, you will get to op-
tion to bake the Overlay into the original file. This is done by choosing
the Overlay option under Workflow.
If you instead wish to export the overlay as a separate layer, you need
to save the file in the PSD format. Then choose the Overlay (as a Layer)
option under Workflow.
The overlay will then be added as a separate layer called “Overlay (Cap-
ture One)” in the PSD file (see next page):
Remember that all the options in the Metadata tab are saved as a part
of the selected Process Recipe. This makes it easy to remove a lot of
metadata from the images that you want to show online while preserving
most for those you share with a client or friend, for example.
Adding a Watermark during export

Capture One Pro can automatical-
ly add a watermark to your images
during export, and you can either
use text or a prepared graphics file.
You chose the type from the Kind
drop-down menu that is set to None
by default.
If you select Text from the Kind
drop-down menu, you get the op-
tions to control the Font, Size, Opac-
ity, Scale, and placement of the watermark.
Once you have entered a text, the

Watermark will show up on your
image in the Viewer. You can ei-
ther position it with the Horizontal
or Vertical sliders or activate the
Move Watermark cursor tool and
drag the text to the right position
in the Viewer.
Note that you can also use Tokens

to automatically create a Water-
mark text based on metadata like for example the Copyright Notice or
Creator to insert your name. See the Tokens chapter for more informa-
tion on how to use them. Note that you can combine Tokens with text
that you enter yourself.
Adding a graphics file as a Watermark instead of text works pretty much
the same way. Here you just need to select Image from the Kind drop-
down menu. You can now drag and drop the wanted graphics file on the
box or click on the 3-dotted box by File and navigate to it.
Once it is loaded, you can adjust Opacity and Scale and drag it to the
right position in the Viewer with the Move Watermark hand cursor tool.
Saving the Watermark as a Layer

You can also export your water-
mark as a separate Photoshop lay-
er instead of baking it into the im-
age. You need to select the PSD
file format for use this feature. Then
choose either Text (as a Layer) or
Image (as a Layer) from the Kind
drop-down menu and adjust your
watermark text or images as ex-
plained above.
Once exported, the watermark will then be

added to the exported file as a separate layer
called “Watermark (Capture One)” layer in the
PSD file:
Remember that the Watermark options are
saved as a part of the selected Process Recipe
so you can easily have one optimized for on-
line use and another for printed versions.
Creating target folders and
renaming files for export
Capture One Pro has excellent features for automatically creating fold-
ers and subfolders as well as renaming the images during export. These
features are handled by the Output Location tool and the Output Nam-
ing tool, and it is highly recommended that you take advantage of the
so-called Tokens to automate and speed up this workflow.
Creating folders for export

You chose the location of the root folder for the exported image in the
Destination drop-down menu of the Output Location tool. If you are us-
ing a Session, this will typically be the Output subfolder that is automat-
ically created when you start a Session. You can change the root folder
to any folder by selecting Choose Folder… from the Destination drop-
down menu and navigate to the desired folder.
If you are not sure of the location, you can click on the grey arrow at
the end, and Capture One Pro will open the target folder. You can also
check the file path in the Sample Path field.
To keep all the files organized after output, you should definitely consid-
er adding subfolders to separate the images into different locations. This
is best done by adding the powerful Tokens in the Sub Folder field. To-
kens were covered in an earlier chapter and enable Capture One Pro to
automatically create and name subfolders based on metadata retrieved
from the files like Rating, Color Tag, IPTC metadata, image dates, collec-
tions and a host of other information. The beauty of the Token system is
that Capture One Pro will not only create and name several subfolders
automatically, the images are also saved into the corresponding subfold-
er, basically keeping things organized outside Capture One Pro.
You get access to the full list of available Tokens by clicking on the
3-dotted box at the end of the Sub Folder field.
A dialog box now appears will the list of Tokens. To insert them, you can
either drag them into the Format field or double-click on them. See the
Tokens chapter for tips on which of the Tokens that could be the most
useful for your scenario.
In order to create a system of subfolders within subfolders, you need to

add a forward slash (backward slash on Windows) between each Token
as shown above. This is important, so remember that. Also, note that
you can add text in front of, or after, a Token to clarify its purpose better,
like adding “Star” in front of the Rating Token, so the subfolder is named
“Star4” instead of just “4”. When you have selected the desired Tokens,
click on OK.
The setup is now transferred to the Sub Folder field in the Output Loca-
tion tool (see next page):
In this example, we have created a folder hierarchy with three subfold-
ers. At the top, a folder is created based on the selected collection in
the Library tool, here an Album called “Shot1”. When you select another
collection in the Library tool, another folder will automatically be created.
Within these folders, different subfolders will be created and named af-
ter the used Recipe Format, like TIFF and JPEG, and finally, within each
of those folders, a number of subfolders are created after the used star
rating. You can check an example of the generated subfolders in the
Sample Path field.
Note that you can also add Tokens directly in Sub Folder field by start
typing the name of the Token and then selecting it from the drop-down
list that appears. This will speed things up for the power user.
It is not necessary to use Tokens to create subfolders, you can just enter
plain text to create them, but you will miss out on the powerful feature of
having the exported images saved in different folders based on metada-
ta. In a sense, Tokens allows you to transfer the organization of the im-
ages done inside Capture One Pro to the outside world. This can be ex-
tremely valuable when you need to share the images with other people,
like an art director or a client for review.
Saving and reusing a Folder Preset
If setting up a string of Tokens might seem a bit tiresome, remember that
you can save and reuse your setup as a Preset. Just click on the Preset
drop-down menu and choose Save User Preset…, and give it a name.
You can now quickly reuse it the next time by selecting it from the Preset
drop-down menu.
Note on subfolders and Process Recipe
Be aware that if you have added any subfolders as a part of your Pro-
cess Recipe, those will be added first at the top of the folder hierarchy.
If Capture One Pro creates unwanted subfolders, always check the Sub
Folder field in the File tab of the Process Recipe tool.
Renaming files during export
Capture One Pro has an excellent feature for renaming files during ex-
port with the Output Naming tool because you can use the so-called To-
kens to automate the creation of names.
By default, the images will retain their file name during export since the
Image Name Token is inserted in the Format field. If you delete every-
thing in this field, the images will be called “EmptyName,” “EmptyName
1” and so forth, which is not very useful. In other words, something has to
be present in the Format field, and Tokens are your best friend. You get
access to the full list of available Tokens by clicking on the 3-dotted box
at the end of the Format field.
A dialog box now appears will the list of Tokens. In order to insert them,
you can either drag them into the Format field or double-click on them.
See the Tokens chapter for tips on which of the Tokens that could be the
most useful for your scenario.
It is recommended to add an underscore between each inserted Token

to make the naming clearer. Also, note that you can add text in front of,
or after, a Token to clarify its purpose better, like adding “Star” in front of
the Rating Token, so the name is “Star3” instead of just “3”. When you
have selected the desired Tokens, click on OK. The setup is now trans-
ferred to the Format field in the Output Naming tool.
In the example above, we have used three Tokens to rename all the files
automatically. They will all start will the Job Name, which is entered in
the Job name field below. Then the star rating for each image is added
to the name, and finally, a counter is added at the end to make sure no
files have the same name. Note the small arrow on the 3 Digit Counter
Token. If you click on that, you can change the number of digits in the
counter from 1 to 6. You can see an example of the file name in the Sam-
ple field.
Note that you can add Tokens directly in Format field by start typing the
name of the Token and then selecting it from the list that appears.
If you need to reset the counter back to zero, just click on the options
icon and chose Reset Output Counter from the drop-down menu.
Be wawre that you can also use the Set Output Counter… command to
start at a specific value, like 100, or change the increment from the de-
fault of 1 to 2 or 5 if need be with Set Output Counter Increment…. If you
want to reset the naming format back to default, select Reset Tool. The
tool will then revert to use the file name during export.
Remember that you can save and reuse your Token naming setup as a
Preset. Just click on the Preset drop-down menu and choose Save User
Preset… and give it a name (see next page):
You can now reuse it next time by selecting it from the Preset drop-down
menu. Note that the User Presets are shared with the Naming tool in the
Import Images dialog box, and that the Next Capture Naming tool has
different Built-in Presets.
Process images for export
Once you have setup your Process Recipes as well as the Output Loca-
tion and Output Naming, you are ready to process and export the imag-
es. Enable the desired formats in the Process Recipes tool and select all
the images that you want to export, then click on Process in the Process
Summary tool or hit the keyboard shortcut command + D (Ctrl + D on
Windows).
Note that if you have selected multiple images, but have not enabled
Edit All Selected Variants, Capture One Pro will help you out with a
warning. In most cases, you want to hit the All button.
Capture One Pro will now start to process and export all the selected im-
age in the background, and you can proceed to do another task mean-
while.
You can monitor how far Capture One Pro is in the Process task by se-
lecting the Queue tab in Batch tool (see next page):
Capture One Pro will estimate how long time the whole operation will
take, and you can hit the Stop bottom to halt the processing task tempo-
rarily. Then click on Start, when you are ready to resume the processing.
This can be very useful if you need to process a ton of images but want
to wait until you are away from the computer.
Once Capture One Pro is done with processing an image, it will disap-
pear from the Queue tab in the Batch tool and appear in the History tab.
Here you have the option to select a number of processed image and
hit Reprocess Selected if you want to redo the processing. This might be
useful if you had to readjust something on the images or found out that
the location or naming wasn’t perfect on the first go.
Exporting images directly
You do not need to go through the Process Recipes tool in order to out-
put images from Capture One Pro. Sometimes it is just easier to use the
more simple Export Images command, especially if you just need to ex-
port a few images fast.
The Export Images workflow also happens to be the recommended
way to export the original files together with the associated adjustments
saved as separate files. This makes it possible for other Capture One
Pro users to open the files and continue to work on their adjustments in
a fully non-destructive fashion.
Exporting original files
If you want to export the original files untouched rather than having them
processed with your adjustments applied, go the main menu and choose
File > Export Images > Originals…. The original files do not have to be in
a raw format; this will work with any TIFF, JPEG and PSD files that you’re
working on.
You will now get a dialog box where you can choose where to export the
images as well as rename them. Pay special attention to the Include Ad-
justments option.
If you select Include Adjustments, Capture One Pro will export your ad-
justments as a separate file together with the original image file in the
same location. When the original file is opened in Capture One Pro later
on, all of the adjustments will be loaded automatically with it and can be
readjusted as you – or another user - desire.
This is a very powerful workflow when you need other people to have
access to the image adjustments in order to edit them further. Incidental-
ly, this is the exact same setup as if you were working in a Session and
shared the Session folders with someone else. If you take a look in the
export folder, a subfolder called “CaptureOne” will be created and con-
tain both the adjustment files and preview files, exactly the same way a
Session folder is set up.
The advantage of using the Export Images > Originals instead of just
sharing your whole Session is that you can limit the exchange to a few
selected images. It is also the best way to share the original files and ad-
justments if you are working in a Catalog.
Pack files as EIP

The Pack as EIP option makes things a bit more convenient as it takes
the original image file, the adjustment file and the preview files and pack
them into one single file. This way you are sure that other people don’t
displace the associated adjustment files. Note how the file type changes
to EIP when you choose this option.
You can also create an EIP package without export-

ing the image first. If you want to do that, go the main
menu and select File > Pack as EIP. The package
can be opened again by selecting File > Unpack EIP,
which is useful when you want to separate the original
file from the associated adjustment and preview files.
You can also pack and unpack an EIP file by right-click-
ing on any image and choose the Pack as EIP or Un-
pack EIP command. It is worth to point out that you
will only get the option to choose Pack as EIP when you have selected a
raw file.
The Location tool and the Naming tool works the same way as the Out-
put Location tool and the Output Naming tool from the Output tool Tab.
They are covered in the Creating target folders and renaming files for
export chapter, so please read this for the full detail.
Note that the Naming tool has an additional option that you can access
with the Method drop-down menu. By default, you can rename the files
with Text and Tokens, but there is also the option to choose a Find and
Replace method. This will let you replace a particular text string with an-
other, like changing “Model1” with “Sophia.”
Exporting processed files

If you want to apply your adjustments to the original files and save them
in a new format, go the main menu and choose File > Export Images >
Variants….
A dialog box will appear with the same features and options if you had
chosen to work from the Output Tool Tab instead.
The Recipe tool works exactly the same way as the Process Recipe tool
covered in the Working with the Process Recipes tool section. Please
read this for the full detail.
Likewise, the Location tool and the Naming tool works the same way as
the Output Location tool and the Output Naming tool from the Output
Tool Tab. They are covered in the Creating target folders and renaming
files for export chapter, so please read these for the full detail.
Don’t get confused by the Variant naming. When you click on the Export
Variant button, Capture One Pro will export a normal image in the file
type you have specified in the Format drop-down menu. This works the
same way as Photoshop would.
Note on exporting in DNG format

It is worth to point out that if you choose to export in the DNG raw for-
mat, your adjustments will NOT be applied to the image or saved along-
side it. If you want to export a raw file together with the adjustments,
chose the File > Export Images > Originals… instead and remember to
check the Include Adjustments option.
Open and Edit files in external applications
You can easily open and edit the images in another application from
within Capture One Pro, but there is one important decision you need
to make upfront; do you want the image adjustments from Capture One
Pro to be applied when opening the image in the external application or
not?
If you want to bake the Capture One Pro adjustments into the file, you
need to choose the Edit With command in the File menu, while the
Open With > command will basically just open the original file without
any adjustments applied. We will cover both workflows in this chapter as
they also influence how Capture One Pro handles layers created in oth-
er applications like Photoshop.
Edit files in other applications
As mentioned, the Edit With command is used when you want to apply
any image adjustments in Capture One Pro to the file before opening it
in the external application. Go to the main menu and choose File > Edit
With…
You now get a dialog box where you choose the file Format, ICC Profile
and the Resolution or dimensions of the exported file.
Selecting the file format
You can either choose JPEG, Tiff or PSD from the Format drop-down
menu. If you choose JPEG, you can adjust the level of Quality, and it is
highly recommended to set this to 100% if you are going to do further
image adjustments in the external application.
With TIFF, you can choose whether to save the file in 8 bit or 16 bit. It is
recommended to use 16-bit if you are going to make substantial image
adjustments to exposure, contrast or colors in the external application.
You can also choose to compress the file to save space with ZIP from
the Options drop-down menu, or just keep it as Uncompressed. ZIP
takes a bit longer to save but doesn’t affect image quality.
The PSD format is a great choice if you’re just going to edit the file in
Photoshop. Here you also have the option to save the file in 8 bit or 16
bit. Again, 16-bit is recommended, if you are going to make substantial
image adjustments to exposure, contrast or colors in the external appli-
cation.

Selecting a ICC Profile/color space
You need to select a suitable color space as the target from the ICC Pro-
file drop-down menu. The colors in the original image will then be con-
verted to match within the color gamut of the selected ICC profile. You
would typically choose between sRGB, Adobe RGB, and ProPhoto.
In most cases, you should only choose the sRGB Color Space Profile if
the file is indented to be viewed on the web. Since you are going to edit
the file further, it is recommended to choose either Adobe RGB or Pro-
Photo and then convert to sRGB at the end if needed.
For print, you would normally choose the Adobe RGB profile which can
reproduce a wider range of colors than sRGB, particularly in the green
hues. Note that if you were printing directly from Capture One Pro, you
should use an ICC profile that is optimized for the printer and paper in
question, but this chapter only focusses on exporting an image for fur-
ther edits in another application.
The ProPhoto color space contains a larger range of color hues than
Adobe RGB and is the best solution if you want to preserve pretty much
all the original colors from a raw file and edit the image further in for ex-
ample Photoshop. You should, however, only use the ProPhoto color
space in conjunction with a 16-bit TIFF or PSD file, as 8-bit might limit
the available amount of subtle tones and thus be counterproductive in
regard to image quality.
Adjusting output resolution
You can set the resolution in either pixels per inch, pixels per mm or pix-
els per cm from the Resolution drop-down menu and enter the needed
resolution in the field (see next page):
Note that this doesn’t affect the overall image resolution in pixels if you
are not resizing the image with the Scale drop-down menu. The val-
ue will affect the image size in pixels, however, if you choose to set the
width or the height of the output image in inches, mm or cm under the
Scale options.
Selecting specific image dimensions

Capture One Pro has a number of options to precisely control what di-
mensions you want to resize and output the images in. Those are all
accessed from the Scale drop-down menu. However, it is highly recom-
mended to export the file in full resolution when doing further edits in
another application, and then change the dimension when saving the fi-
nal image. The different options the Scale drop-down menu is covered
in full in the Exporting images with Process Recipes chapter. Please
read that section if you need the information.

Choosing the external application
The file will be opened with the application that you choose from the
Open With drop-down menu.
If the desired application is not on the list, select Other…. and browse to
it on your computer, select it and click Open.
Adding output sharpening
You have the option to add Output Sharpening for either screen or print.
This is done from the Sharpening drop-down menu in the Adjustments
tab.
In most cases, you should choose No Output Sharpening or Disable All

if you are going to make further image adjustments to the file. The rec-
ommended workflow is to wait with any Output Sharpening until you
have done all your adjustments and is ready to save or print the final im-
age in the final resolution.
No Output Sharpening means that all the sharpening that you have
done in Capture One Pro will be applying, but no specialized output
sharpening will be added.
The Disable All option means that none of the sharpening done in Cap-
ture One Pro will be applied at all to the original file. This can be a great
option if you have a specialized sharpening workflow in the external ap-
plication or just want the file to be untouched regarding sharpening be-
fore a major image editing session.
Note that you can also use the Crop drop-down menu to disregard any
crop you have made to the file by choosing the Ignore Crop or Crop to
Path (PSD) options. Another nice option if you want the file to be export-
ed in pristine condition.
Adding Metadata and Annotations
The Metadata tab lets you control what kind of metadata should be in-
cluded in the exported image. You can choose whether to include the
Keywords in the exported file and have to option to either select All or
only those that appear in a specific keywords library by selecting it in the
From selected keyword libraries drop-down menu.
Most of the other options under Metadata should be self-explanatory

as you can choose to remove the information about Rating and Color
Tag, your Copyright notice, GPS Coordinates geodata and the Camera
Metadata like shutter speed, aperture and ISO values. The Include Oth-
er Metadata option is all the IPTC metadata that you have entered with
the Metadata tool like a Headline and Description, City and Location or
your IPTC Contact information.
You can either bake any added Annotations into the images during ex-
port or include them on a separate layer in a PSD file format. If you are
exporting in TIFF, JPEG or PNG file formats, you will get to option to
bake the annotations in with the original file. This is done by choosing
the Annotations option under Workflow. In order to export the Anno-
tations as a separate layer, you need to save the file in the PSD format.
Then choose the Annotations (as a Layer).
(Capture One)” in the PSD file.
Just like with Annotations, you can either bake any Overlay into the im-
ages during export or include it on a separate layer in a PSD file format.
If you are exporting in TIFF, JPEG or PNG file formats, you will get to op-
tion to bake the overlay into the original file. This is done by choosing
the Overlay option under Workflow. If you instead wish to export the
overlay as a separate layer, you need to save the file in the PSD format.
Then choose the Overlay (as a Layer) option. The overlay will then be
added as a separate layer called “Overlay (Capture One)” in the PSD
file.
Editing workflow in another application

Once you have all the options set and hit Edit Variant, Capture One Pro
will process the file, apply the adjustments, save the file, and finally open
the new file in the chosen application.
Note that the new file is automatically saved in the same location next
to the original file in Capture One Pro, making it easy to keep track of it.
This means that you do not need to import the new file.
When you save your edits in the external application, Capture One Pro
will automatically stay updated with all the changes to the image file.
Working with Photoshop layers in a file

It is very important to point out that Capture One Pro will flatten any lay-
ers created with Photoshop when you use the Edit With command. This
will happen regardless of whether the file format is TIFF or PSD.
If you want to preserve the layers created in Photoshop, you need to
use the Open With command. However, in this case, none of the adjust-
ments done within Capture One Pro will be applied. In other words, you
need to choose whether you want to preserve the Photoshop layers or
want to apply the Capture One Pro adjustments when you open a file in
example Photoshop. You cannot have both.
It should be noted that you can view and work on files that contain lay-
ers from Photoshop in Capture One Pro. This is true for both TIFF and
PSD files. You just need to make sure to select the Maximize Compati-
bility option when saving the files.
This will make sure that Photoshop creates and embed a flatten version
of the image in the file so that Capture One Pro – and other applications
– can recognize the effect of the layers. Note that Capture One Pro will
not have access to editing the Photoshop layers, it will only be able to
work on what is equal to a flattened version of the file.

Open files in other applications
As mentioned before, if you need to edit the file with full access to the
Photoshop layers, just use the Open With command. Capture One Pro
will not flatten the image – and thus remove the layers – unless you use
the Edit With… command. Go to the main menu and select Edit > Open
With and choose the desired application. If the application is not on
the list, select Other…, browse to it on your computer, select it and click
Open.
The original file will now be opened in the application without any of the
Capture One Pro adjustments being baked into the file.
Note that if you are opening a raw file, the raw converter in the external
application will be used. This is important to be aware of as the raw im-
age will look different if you, for example, use Photoshop because the
raw file will then be converted with Adobe Raw Converter. It will render
colors, contrast, and sharpness differently than Capture One Pro.
If you open a file saved in JPEG, TIFF or PSD, the file will open in that
format, but you can choose to save it in another format by using the
Save As command in the external application. As noted before, Capture
One Pro will happily accept TIFF and PSD files saved with layers created
in Photoshop - or a similar application. Once you save the file, it will by
default go in the same location as the original file, and Capture One Pro
will automatically recognize it. Just remember to select the Maximize
Compatibility option if there are any layers in the file. Otherwise Capture
One Pro will not be able to display the image content.
File formats that Capture One Pro accept
There is a couple of things to be aware of when you save in different file
formats.
Capture One Pro will import and show the image content of files saved
in Greyscale and CMYK modes for both TIFF and PSD, but you cannot
edit those types of files. In other words, you can use Capture One Pro to
keep the Greyscale and CMYK files organized with the rest of your im-
ages, but there is no way to make any adjustments on them. The same
is true if you save a Greyscale image as JPEG and PNG. Since these
two file formats cannot be saved in a CMYK format, so you don’t have to
worry about compatibility.
When in doubt, just select an image and go to one of the adjustment

tools. The sliders will be inactive if the file format isn’t supported for im-
age editing.
Note that you can save and edit TIFF and PSD files in both 8-bit, 16- and
even 32-bit formats. The 32-bit support is important if you’re working
on HDR (High Dynamic Range) images where multiple exposures have
been merged to a 32-bit HDR file in for example the free and excellent
HDR Efex Pro 2 application.
Simulate the correct colors
with Proof Profile
There can be a large difference in which colors different devices like
printers and monitors are able to reproduce. For example, a CMYK-
based news print can only reproduce a much smaller color gamut than
a high-end photo printer. To complicate matters, your monitor has its
own limitations on what colors it can display, and it emits colors as light
where a print reflects them.
Luckily, most of these issues are taking care of automatically by a color

management system and the use of the proper ICC Profiles. Each device
- from camera over monitor to printer - has its own unique ICC Profile
that tells the color management system which colors they can produce
or reproduce (as well as other color characteristics for the device), mak-
ing it possible to manage the color discrepancies behind the scene.
In this example, the sRGB color space is inserted within the larger Ado-
be RGB color space.
Imagine that your photo contains some of the green colors only covered
in the Adobe RGB, and you need to save the image with a sRGB profile
for web view. The color management software will - based on the ICC
Profile - know whether to disregard those out of gamut green colors or
to convert them to comparable greens that the sRGB color profile can
reproduce.
Color management is much more complex than just that, but this is the
basic concept you should be familiar with.
When you import an image into Capture One Pro, an ICC Profile is auto-
matically attached to it (see the Base Characteristics tool chapter). You
can go ahead and make image adjustments without changing anything,
but it is highly recommended that you select a proper ICC Profile be-
cause Capture One Pro will then simulate the colors of that profile when
viewing the images in the Viewer and Browser. This is called soft proof-
ing and is done with the Proof Profile feature.
Selecting a Proof Profile

By default, soft proofing is actually already enabled in Capture One Pro
right out of the box. It uses the ICC Profile in the selected Process Reci-
pe, and since the default selected Recipe uses Adobe RGB, that is what
Capture One Pro will use as soft proof until you select another.
When you want to select a specific ICC Profile, go to the main menu and
select View > Proof Profile and then choose the desired one from the
submenu.
The soft proofing feature is very flexible because you can either chose
to view the colors based on the selected Recipe, a specific output reci-
pe, or a specific ICC profile like Adobe RGB. Note that you can expand
the list by choosing Show All, which will get your access to all the ICC
profiles on your computer. This can be very handy if you need to load a
specific printer profile or want access to the very wide ProPhoto RGB
color space.
Another nice bonus to the soft proofing feature in Capture One Pro is
that it is always on regardless of what part of the user interface you are
working in.
You obviously need your monitor to be properly color calibrated in order

to trust the soft proofed colors, but you do not need to select your moni-
tor’s ICC Profile for the feature to work correctly. The color management
system will take care of that automatically.
Gamut warning
The soft proofing feature in Capture One Pro is unfortunately not able to
give you a visual warning if certain colors in the image are outside what
the target device can reproduce. If this feature is critical to you, then
open the image in Photoshop and select View and enable Gamut Warn-
ing. Then select Proof Setup > Custom and select the target ICC profile
to Simulate.
Having said that, the Exposure Warning in Capture One Pro can still be
helpful when adjusting colors according to the output ICC Profile. The
warning is based upon which color profile is selected in the Proof Profile
submenu. A sRGB profile contains a smaller color gamut than the Ado-
be RGB profile and will therefore show certain colors as clipped which
might get no warning if the Adobe RGB profile is selected. If you want
the Exposure Warning to more closely mirror the full-color gamut in a
raw file, you should consider choosing the ProPhoto profile.
You can check this behavior by adjusting the Saturation slider all the
way to max and turn on Exposure Warning by using the keyboard short-
cut command + E (Ctrl + E on Windows) and then try to change between
ProPhoto, Adobe RGB, and sRGB. You will see that certain colors are
marked as burned out with the sRGB profile and maybe even with the
Adobe RGB compared to the ProPhoto profile.
Working with multiple profiles

It is highly recommended to work on a couple of different Variants of the
same original image if you need to adjust colors to match an output ICC
target with a narrow color space like sRGB or CMYK.
One nice workflow is to start out with working on a Variant with the Pro-
Photo ICC profile selected. As noted above, this will get you a very wide
color gamut that closely mirrors all the colors available in a raw file. This
will exceed the colors that your monitor can reproduce, but relying part-
ly on the Exposure Warning will still help you get the best possible base
file.
When done with all of your image adjustments, you can make a copy of
the file by selecting Adjustments > Clone Variant (or hit the keyboard
shortcut F3), change the ICC Profile to the target output, and then tweak
the colors. This workflow allows you to have a master file and a number
of cloned Variants that can be optimized to match for example a specific
printer ICC profile and the sRGB profile used for web usage.
Most photographers work with the Adobe RGB as the base color profile
because it roughly matched what you can reproduce on a good printer.
It also matched the colors that the best monitors can reproduce, but it is
worth to point out that the ProPhoto color space can contain a fair deal
more colors. Here you can see the Adobe RGB color space inserted
over the ProPhoto profile.
There is no right and wrong as to whether you prefer to make your im-
age adjustments with the Adobe RGB or the ProPhoto profile selected.
Adobe RGB is more straightforward to use, whereas ProPhoto is the
choice if you don’t want to exclude any of the captured colors.
Using Show Recipe Proofing for output

The Show Recipe Proofing feature is primarily suitable for checking the
image quality of a final processed file regarding resizing, output sharp-
ening and jpeg compressing. It also automatically activates the soft
proofing feature based on the chosen ICC Profile in selected Process
Recipe.
In fact, you cannot select anything from the Proof Profile submenu when
you have Recipe Proofing activated. You will instead get a message to
turn Recipe Proofing off if you want to enable the Proof Profile submenu
again. This is done to make sure that two different output ICC Profiles
cannot be selected at the same time; the one on the in selected Process
Recipe will always be used.
The Recipe Proofing feature is meant to be used when you adjust and
review the settings in the Process Recipe Tool. It will show you exact-
ly how the final image will look once it has been processed by Capture
One Pro with regards to file format, final pixels dimensions, output sharp-
ening, jpeg compression, and selected ICC Profile.
You enable Recipe Proofing by going to the main menu and selecting
View > Show Recipe Proofing or using the keyboard shortcut Shift +
command + backslash. The image will now be resized to its output di-
mensions, and a Proofing label will be displayed over it in the viewer.
If you zoom into 100%, you can perfect the sharpening (and JPEG com-
pression) and see exactly what the image will look like when it is pro-
cessed and exported.
This feature was introduced in Capture One Pro version 10 and is a great
time saver as you no longer need to export the image and open it in for
example Photoshop to review the final image quality on a pixel level.
Printing directly from Capture One Pro
You don’t have to export the images first in order to print them; it can be
done with great results directly from Capture One Pro. You can control
color management for the print, adjust layout and margins on the page
and even add a watermark or print several images as contact sheets.
Everything is controlled within the Printer dialog box that is accessed by

going to the main menu and select File > Printer… or using the keyboard
shortcut command + P (Ctrl + P on Windows).
Choosing the right paper

The paper size needs to be select-
ed from the printer’s own page setup,
so if you need to change the default,
click on the Page Setup… button in
the Printer tool section.
Then select the desired Paper Size.

On this Canon printer, the option is
under the Page Attributes drop-down
menu.
Setting resolution
You can either let Capture One Pro
and the printer decide the resolution
of the print by choosing Automatic or
set it yourself in the Resolution drop-
down menu.
Print Sharpening
You can add some additional print out-
put sharpening with the Sharpening
slider. There is no firm guideline as to
what amount is perfect; you will just
have to experiment a bit and do a cou-
ple of test print on the target paper
with different levels of sharpening un-
til you get it right. A value between 10
and 25 should do the trick.
Note that any output sharpening add-

ed in the Process Recipes tool is not
applied, so using the Show Recipe
Proofing doesn’t help you with review-
ing the level of output sharpness.
If you want to take advantage of the

Output Sharpening for Print feature
in the Process Recipe as well as the Show Recipe Proofing feature, you
can process an image under the Output Tool Tab, select it and then print
it with no further sharpness applied. You do this by setting the Sharpen-
ing slider to 0.
Letting the printer or Capture One Pro manage the colors
When printing an image, you can either chose to let the printer or Cap-
ture One Pro manage the colors. This is chosen from the Color Pro-
file drop-down menu, and since the workflow is slightly different, we
will cover those separately. Letting Capture One Pro manage the col-
ors gives you a bit more control, but this mainly needed if you print on
third-party paper from for example Ilford or Hahnemühle.
Colors managed by Printer

Letting the printer’s driver handle
the color management is the most
straightforward. You just select Man-
aged by Printer from the Color Profile
drop-down menu.
When using this method, it is very

important that you ensure that color
management is enabled in the print-
er’s driver. This is done by clicking on
the Print Settings… button. Then find
the color management option in the
driver; on a Canon printer, it is called
Color Matching. Make sure that Can-
on Color Matching is selected. The
option might be called something else
with your printer.
While you still have the Print Set-
tings dialog box open, you need
to ensure that the printer knows
what kind of paper you are using.
This information is both used to
get the colors right and to ensure
the right amount of ink is added
because the texture and smooth-
ness of a paper can vary greatly.
You can find that under Quality &
Media.
On this Canon printer, we have

chosen the Premium Fine Art Smooth paper from the Media Type drop-
down menu. You might also want to select High from the Print Quality
drop-down menu. Click Save, and you’re ready to print with the desired
paper type and quality.
Colors managed by Capture One Pro

It can be useful to let Capture One Pro handle the color management if
your printer software doesn’t have a profile for the specific type of pa-
per you are using. This is the case for third-party paper from for example
Ilford or Hahnemühle. In order to get a proper print quality, you will first
need to go to the paper manufacturer’s website and download a specific
ICC printer profile for your printer and paper. Capture One Pro – or Pho-
toshop for that matter - needs this profile to handle the color and print-
ing process correctly.
Once you have downloaded the profile, you will need to install it. The
installation process might be handled automatically, but otherwise you
can copy them manually to Macintosh HD > Users > User > Library > Col-
orSync > Profiles (or C:/windows/system32/spool/drivers/color on Win-
dows). Then restart Capture One Pro.
You can now select the desired profile from the Color Profile drop-down
menu. Note that you might have to select the Show All option at the bot-
tom of the Color Profile drop-down menu to get access to all ICC Pro-
files on your computer (see next page):
Make sure that you select the correct printer and paper combination –
this is very important in order to get the correct print quality regarding
both colors and the amount of added ink. Notice how the Preview im-
age window in the Print dialog box will change as you select a new pro-
file. Capture One Pro is automatically showing you a soft proofing of the
ICC profile, just as if you have selected it from the View > Proof Profile
menu.
When you’re letting Capture One

Pro handle the color manage-
ment, it is very important to turn
it off in the printer’s driver. Oth-
erwise, you will have two differ-
ent color management systems
working against each other. This
is done by clicking on the Print
Settings… button. Then find the
color management options in the
driver, on a Canon printer it is
called Color Matching. Make sure that ColorSync is selected.
The option might be called something else with your printer, with Epson
the right option is Off (No Color Adjustment). Then click Save to commit
the changes. Note that sometimes the printer driver is clever enough to
notice that Capture One Pro has taken over control of the color manage-
ment and has disabled it automatically for you.
Rendering intent
Once you have selected a specific Color Profile, the Rendering Intent
drop-down menu becomes available. This option is used by the color
management system to determine how colors in the image will be con-
verted to fit within the color space of
the ICC printer profile. There will often
be certain colors in the image that the
combination of printer and paper can-
not reproduce, and Rendering intent
will tell Capture One Pro what to do
with these out-of-gamut colors.
Perceptual is the default and is typ-

ically that most suitable for photo-
graphs where a wide color space has
to be converted into a smaller one.
Perceptual tries to preserve the visual
relationship between colors in a way
looks natural to the human eye. The
colors may change slightly, but the re-
sult should still look natural.
Relative Colorimetric shifts all out-of-

gamut colors in the image to the closest reproducible color in the des-
tination color space of the printer and paper. Relative Colorimetric pre-
serves more of the original colors in an image than Perceptual, and it
might be worth to try them both to get the best-looking print.
Absolute Colorimetric leaves all colors that fall inside the destination
gamut unchanged, while all of the out-of-gamut colors are discarded.
This intent will maintain color accuracy, but you will probably be losing
certain saturated colors. Absolute Colorimetric can, however, be useful
for previewing how your selected paper prints colors.
Saturation will produce vivid colors at the expense of color accuracy. It

can be useful for graphics like graphs or charts, but it is not suitable for
photographs.
Notice that Capture One Pro will show you the effect of the different
Rendering intent options in the Print preview window since this is part of
the soft proofing process. In some cases, the difference will be very no-
table.
Black Point Compensation

An image will often contain very dark details that the paper cannot re-
produce correctly and will render as pure black instead of shades of
black. The Black Point Compensation option takes care of this issue by
making sure that those areas retain some deep shadow detail instead
for being just uniformly black. This feature should always be on unless
you know what you are doing and have a specific reason for not wanting
to recover some of the shadow detail in the print.
Selecting units and showing guides

You can decide which units to use
when you are adjusting the margins
and layout of the print page. This is
done in the Units and Guides tool
from the Units drop-down menu
where you can choose between Inch-
es, Centimeters, Millimeters, Points or
Picas.
When you change the units, it will au-

tomatically be used in the Margins
tool and Layout tool covered a bit lat-
er. The Show Guides option will show
guides in the print preview window
that represent the chosen margins,
rows, columns and cell sizes that you
select in the Margins tool and Layout
tool. These will not be printed unless
you also select the Print Guides option.
Selecting and saving a print Template
Capture One Pro has a number of
built-in print templates that you can
explore and select from the drop-
down menu in the Template tool.
There are several useful ones like

Full Page, a specific size image on
an A3, A4 or US Super A3 page.
There are also Contact Sheets with a
specific number of images like 3 x 3.
It is important to note that all of these
templates can be adjusted further in
the Margins tool and Layout tool, so
it is often a good workflow to select
one and tweak to taste.
Once you have made the adjust-
ments, you can save the print tem-
plate for later use by selecting the
Save User Template…. They will then show up under the User Tem-
plates and will be saved in the Capture One > Print folder. If you want to
delete one, select Manage User Templates…, highlight one of them and
click on the - (minus) icon.
Adjusting the print margins
The settings in the Margins tool
should be self-explanatory. Be aware,
however, that if you enter a value that
is either too small or high, you will get
a warning and the number will be col-
ored red.
If you need to make a margin larger,

check whether you can increase the
Cell Height and Cell Width values in
the Layout tool covered next. The Cell
Height will influence Top and Bottom
Margins, while the Cell Width will af-
fect Left and Right Margins.
Adjusting the print layout
The Layout tool is primarily useful
when you want to print more than one
image on a sheet of paper, but some
options work even if you are only
printing a single image.
The options in the Resizing drop-

down menu determines whether Cap-
ture One Pro should prioritize either
the spacing between multiple image
cells on a page or the size of each im-
age cell instead.
If you select Prioritize Cell Size, Cap-

ture One Pro will try not to change
the cell width and height, but the cell
spacing instead. The opposite hap-
pens when you select Prioritize Spac-
ing from the Resizing drop-down menu, where Capture One Pro will
change the cell size first.
The Rows and Columns should be self-explanatory as they are used to

set the number of image cells vertically and horizontally on the print.
You can add a bit of extra space between each image cell both vertical-
ly and horizontally with the Row Spacing and the Col. Spacing sliders.
The Cell Border slider also adds space around the image cells, but this
is done uniformly whereas the Row Spacing and the Col. Spacing sliders
adjust the spacing separately vertically and horizontally.
The Cell Height and Cell Width controls how big each of the image
cells should be. These are tied with the Row Spacing and the Col. Spac-
ing sliders so when you decrease for example the Cell Height, the Row
Spacing value will automatically go up.
As mentioned, Cell Border adds an even space around the image cells.
Image settings
The options in the Image Settings
panel is fairly self-explanatory, but we
will go through them briefly.
The Zoom to Fill option will enlarge

the image until it fills the whole cell.
Note that either the vertical or hori-
zontal side will be cropped for the im-
age to fit.
The Rotate to Fill option will automat-

ically rotate the image to fit the cell
best, but it will not be cropped. Note
that if you print multiple images, Cap-
ture One Pro will only rotate those in
need of the action.
The Repeat One Image per Page op-

tion will add the same image to all cells on a piece of paper. If you have
a 3 x 3 cell layout, the image will be repeated nine times on the first
print, and if you are printing four different images, you will get four prints
– each with the same image repeated nine times on the same page.
The Include Overlays option will add and print any graphic on top of the
image that is inserted with the Overlay tool. You will need to move the
overlay to the correct position with the Overlay tool before entering the
Print dialog.
The Include Annotations option will add and print all the notes on top of
the image that you have entered within the Annotations tool.

Adding a Caption to the print
You can add a note below each print-
ed image with the Caption panel.
From the Type drop-down menu, you
can either chose to print the Filename
of the image or the Description meta-
data. The Description metadata needs
to be entered under IPTC – Content
in the Metadata tool to show up.
You can change the font and size by

clicking on the three-dotted box, but
you cannot change the positioning of
the text. It will always be printed just
below the image. Note that the image
will automatically be resized smaller
if you select a large font size. If you
want to print a caption inside the im-
age itself, you should use the Water-
mark feature instead.
Adding a Watermark to the printed image

Capture One Pro can automatically
add a watermark to your images when
printing them and you can either use
text or a prepared graphic file. You
chose the type from the Kind drop-
down menu that is set to None by de-
fault.
If you select Text from the Kind drop-

down menu, you get the options to
control the Font, Size, Opacity, Scale,
and placement of the watermark.
Once you have entered a text, the wa-

termark will show up on your image
in the print preview window. You can
also use Tokens to automatically cre-
ate a Watermark text based on meta-
data like for example the Copyright
Notice or Creator to insert your name. You get access to all the Tokens
by clicking on the three-dotted box at the end of the Text field.
See the Tokens chapter for more information on how to use them, just
note that you can save a certain setup as a Preset for later use.
Note that you can combine Tokens with text that you enter yourself.
Once the Token or text is entered, you can position the text with the Hor-
izontal and Vertical sliders. A value of 49 and -49 respectably will place
the watermark in the lower-right corner of the image. You can also con-
trol the font type and size by clicking on the three-dotted box at the end
of the Font as well as the Opacity of the text. The Scale slider will make
the text smaller or larger, just like changing the font size.
Adding a graphic file as a watermark instead of text works pretty much
the same way. Here you just need to select Image from the Kind drop-
down menu. You can now drag and drop the wanted file on the box or
click on the 3-dotted icon by File and navigate to it. Then use the Hori-
zontal and Vertical sliders to position the watermark on the image and
adjust Opacity and Scale to taste.
Note that the watermark is a sticky setting in the sense that it will be
added to all prints going forward until you change it. If you don’t want to
include the watermark on certain images, just select None from the Kind
drop-down menu.
Tip: Change Viewer background to white
The background of the Viewer is set to a dark tone by default in Capture
One Pro which makes it difficult to correctly judge colors and the light
balance of the image, particularly for a print that will end up on a white
media. It is therefore highly recommended that you change the back-
ground color to White. This is done by opening the Preferences and
choosing the Appearance tab. Then change the background color to
White from the Color drop-down menu.
You might also want to enable the Proof Margin option in the top-left
corner of the Viewer in order to get a bigger, white frame around the im-
age.
This will aid you in getting a better feel for how the image will look when
printed on a white piece of paper. You can expand the Proof Margin in
the Preferences under the Appearance tab.
Simulate the correct colors with Proof Profile
As explored in a prior chapter about using the Proof Profile feature, you
should remember to select the target ICC Profile when doing the final
adjustments and review of the image you are going to print. Go to the
main menu and select View > Proof Profile and then select the desired
one from the submenu.
Remember that it has to be the exact combination of printer and paper,

otherwise the colors and contrast displayed will be incorrect.
Note that you might have to choose Show All in the Proof Profile sub-
menu in order to get access to all the ICC profiles on your computer.
Working with multiple profiles
It is highly recommended to work on a separate Variant optimized for
print if you need to adjust colors to match a specific ICC Profile target.
This is done by making a virtual copy of the adjusted file by selecting
Adjustments > Clone Variant (or hit the keyboard shortcut F3). Then
change the Proof Profile to the targeted print ICC profile and tweak the
colors and contrast based on that profile.
This way you will retain a master version of the file separate from the
specialized Variant that is optimized for print only. Remember to set the
Proof Profile back to a more common ICC profile like Adobe RGB when
done. The Proof Profile is not set per image; it is always a global setting,
so keep that in mind.
Viewing your images as a Slide Show
Capture One Pro has a nice slide show feature that will show one image
at a time in full-screen mode, perfect for presenting a series of image or
just enjoying your finish work.
Go to the main menu and select View > Slide Show (or use the keyboard
shortcut command + <). The slide show will now start automatically from
the first selected image and show all the images in the selected image
collecting. If you want to exit the slide show, just hit the Esc key on the
keyboard.
The Slide Show has some settings, but those will only be available once
you have started it. When the first image appears, move the mouse.
Then click on the settings icon in the control panel that appears.
You can now choose between 10 different types of transitions from the
Transition drop-down menu (see next page):
You can also adjust the Slide Duration from 1 to 60 seconds and select
whether the slide show should restart once it has displayed the last im-
age in the collection. This is done with the Loop option:
The control panel also lets you pause and restart the slide show as well
as moving to the prior or next image. You can also operate the show
with the keyboard: Spacebar pauses and restarts the presentation while
the left and right arrow keys let you move through the images. Finally,
you can exit the slide show by clicking on the cross icon.
Making a Contact Sheet for Web
Capture One Pro has a very nice web-based contact sheet feature that
let you share selected images with others for review. You can also use it
as the photo gallery. The exported contact sheet is based on HTML and
can be viewed in any web browser, and all the required web data and
images are exported to a single folder to keep things organized. If you
want to share it by email for example, just compress the main folder as a
zip file and send it.
Note that if you want to print a contact instead, you need to use the Print
feature and select one of the built-in Contact Sheets print templates
from the Templates panel.
When ready, you should first select all the images that you want to be in-
cluded in the web contact sheet, then go to the main menu and choose
File > Make Web Contact Sheet….
Selecting a Contact Sheet Theme

You select the type and color theme of the
web contact sheet from the Theme drop-
down menu. The two Classic themes will list
a row of images that people need to click on
in order to view them, while the Fullscreen
(Dark) and Fullscreen (Light) themes will fill
the entire screen with an image while the
other images are shown as small thumbnails
of at the bottom. Both layouts come with a
Dark and Light color theme.
The currently selected Theme will be shown

in the contact sheet preview window, so it
is fast and easy to decide the right choice.
Note that you can use the left and right ar-
row keys on your keyboard to move be-
tween the images. This is true in both the
preview window and the final exported con-
tact sheet.
Adding Title, Description, and Copyright
The content in the Text panel will be shown
in the contact sheet gallery, so it is a good
idea to add something telling and relevant to
Title and Description. You should obviously
also add your Copyright.
The Web link will not be displayed, but when

the viewer clicks on your copyright notice,
they will open the webpage you have en-
tered.
Adding a caption to the images

Capture One Pro will automatically add a caption to all the included im-
ages, and you have a number of options to choose from in the Caption
drop-down menu.
Date, as well as Date Time, will insert the

time and date the images were captured.
The File Name and Rating options should be
self-explanatory.
Sequence Number will just assign the num-
bers 1, 2, 3 and so forth to the images. It
might be tempting to use this if you need
someone to choose their favorites between
the images, but it is probably a better idea
to use File Name as you can then use the
Select By > Filename List… feature to select
those fast and easy.
The Variant ID is a unique file name that
Capture One Pro adds to every Variant in-
ternally, so it is probably not the most useful
choice.
Variant Name can be quite useful if you in-
clude more than one version of the same im-
age, for example, one in colors and another
in black and white. The Variant Name will use the file name as the cap-
tion but also add a number in parentheses for each version of the same
file.
Setting image size and quality
You can adjust the size of the images with the Preview Size slider as
well as the thumbnails with the slider of the same name. All images as
saved as JPEG and you can control the balance between image quality
and size with the Quality slider.
You can set the Preview Size slider all the way up to 2400 pixels if you
want the images to be of fairly high resolution in the gallery, just remem-
ber that they will take longer to upload and download. When you adjust
the Thumbnail slider, the size will update live in the preview window,
making it easier to visualize the right amount.
Exporting the Contact Sheet for Web
Before hitting the Export button, you need to decide where to save the
contact sheet. This is done by clicking on the three-dotted box to the
right side of Path. Navigate to the desired location – like the desktop –
give the contact sheet a name, and click OK.
Capture One Pro will now create a root folder with the name and put all
the web pages, thumbnails, images and web-scripts inside it. Inside the
root folder is a file called index.html which will launch the contact sheet/
photo gallery.
The Export Photo XML Data option will not add any extra visual data to
the contact sheet but add an XML file to the root of the folder.
Putting it on a website
It is very easy to put the contact sheet/photo gallery on a website be-
cause it is entirely based on web standards and everything is neatly or-
ganized inside the root folder. You just upload everything within the root
folder to the root directory of your website, and it will just plain work.
Note that this will overwrite the current index.html file on the website, so
in most cases, it is recommended to upload the root folder with all the
content to your site. Then direct people to the index.html file within the
root folder. So, if your website is www.reallygreatsite.com and your up-
loaded contact sheet is named “greatlooks”, you should share this link;
www.reallygreatsite.com/greatlooks/index.html. This way you can have
several photo galleries on your site.
Backup your catalog and session data
Since Capture One Pro is using a non-destructive workflow - where your
adjustments are kept as separate files from your images - you need
to have a solid plan for backing up both types of files. Depending on
whether you are using Catalogs or Sessions, the backup workflow will
be slightly different because the important files are saved in different lo-
cations.
Making backup of a Catalog
Capture One Pro will automatically remind you to make a backup of the
Catalog at regular intervals. This can be set in the Preferences in the
General tab under Catalog Backup.
You can either choose every time Capture One Pro is closed, once a
day, once a week or once a month. You can also turn the automatic re-
minder off, although that is not recommended unless you have another
solid backup system in place.
When the reminder pops up, just click Backup or dismiss it with Not
Now.
Note that you have the option to perform a test of the catalog’s integrity
as well optimizing it during the backup process. You can also change the
Backup Location by clicking on the three-dotted box.
You can always invoke the backup manually by going to the main menu
and selecting File > Backup Catalog….
It is important to stress that all the original image files are NOT backed
up with this procedure unless you have chosen to store the files within
the catalog itself. Please see the chapter on importing and file manage-
ment for more information on how to do this. You will need to back up
the original image files separately with another piece of software.
By default, the Catalog is backed up to the “Backups” folder. On a Mac,

the path is: Users > Your User Name > Library > Application Support >
Capture One > Backups. To access the User Library on a Mac, go to
Finder and select the “Go” menu while pressing the Option key.
On Windows the path is: Users > Your User Name > My Documents >
Phase One.
The backup folder will be named after the time and date of the backup
and contains both the catalog itself as well as an Adjustments folder with
three subfolders called ICC, LAM, and LCC. They will contain any creat-
ed ICC Profiles, Local Adjustment Masks, and LCC profiles respectively.
One important difference between the original Catalog and the backed-
up Catalog is that the last does not contain any of the preview files. This
makes the backup Catalog file significant smaller because the preview
files can demand several gigabytes of space.
The big advantage to this approach is that the Catalog is backed-up very
fast even to the cloud. However, all the preview files need to be ren-
dered again if you open the backup catalog.
Catalog difference between Mac and Windows

Capture One Pro handles the Catalog a bit different on Mac and Win-
dows. If you are using a Mac, the Catalog and the preview files will be
packaged together in one, big file, while they are kept separate on Win-
dows. It is, however, possible to open the package on a Mac and gain
access to the different files. Right-click on the Catalog in the Finder and
choose Show Package Contents.
You will now notice that the package contains the Catalog itself (xxx.co-
catalogdb), the Adjustments folder (with the three subfolders ICC, LAM,
and LCC) and a folder called Cache. This is the same as the default file
structure on Windows.
All the preview files are stored in the Cache folder in two subfolders.
The one called Previews contains the larger xxx.cop proxy files for the
Viewer, while the Thumbnails subfolder contains the smaller xxx.cot
files for the Browser.
The only critical files to remember to backup is the Capture One Pro Cat-
alog database file (called xxx.cocatalogdb) and the content within the
Adjustments folder. The preview files can always be rendered again, as
long as you have a backup of Catalog database file, the Adjustments
folder, and the original image files.
Making backup of a Session

Creating a backup of a Session can be as easy as just copying the top
Session folder because it contains everything, including the original im-
age files and the associated adjustment files. You can even drag and
drop the root Session folder to an external storage drive, open the Ses-
sion from there and keep working exactly as before.
This is a great advantage of using a Session, but sometimes you might

only want to make a backup of the most critical files to save space. This
can certainly be done, but you need to have a clear, visual overview of
the folder hierarchy and location of the different files in a Session:
First, you have to decide whether you want to have a backup of all the
images in both the Capture, Output, Selects and Trash subfolders. You
might for example only want to keep the images in the Output and Se-
lects folders to save space. Note that is it very important to back up the
Settings110 subfolder in each image folder as this is where all the image
adjustments are kept!
Secondly, you should decide whether you want to back up all the associ-
ated preview files in the Cache folder or save space by discarding them.
Capture One Pro will re-render them as needed when you select the
images in the Session next time, so there is no harm done in excluding
them from your backup plan.
A typical backup plan of a Session could look like this;
Backup these files:

1. The Session Database.
2. All the Original images within the Capture, Output and Selects folders.
3. All CaptureOne > Settings110 subfolders within the Capture, Output
and Selects folders.
Skip these files

1. The Trash folder (if you’re certain they should be deleted).
2. The Capture > Cache subfolders in all folders.
Excluding preview files from backup

If you have an automatic backup system to take care of everything, you
can tell the software to exclude all the
preview files from being copied. It will
both save space and time.
You just need to add the *.cop and
*.cof files extensions to the list of files
that should be excluded from a back-
up. This is typically done with a Set-
tings or Backup Rules option in your
backup software application.
It is very important that you do not en-
ter the wrong file extension and type
*.cos by accident as those are the
Capture One Pro adjustment settings
files. You definitely want to keep those
backed up!
A solid backup plan
It is probably impossible to be 100% sure that nothing will ever happen
to your image collection if a disaster really strikes, but you can get close
by following a golden rule: Always have three copies of your image col-
lection, where at least two of them should be kept safe in different loca-
tions.
It doesn’t help you to have all three copies in your home or office be-
cause theft or a fire can wipe them all out at once. So at least keep a
copy on an external drive in another location like a bank box, at some
family or a friend’s house.
Backup to the cloud is another excellent choice, but it can be expensive

if you need a lot of space. Amazon Glacier is an excellent option, how-
ever, as the price is low at $0.004 per GB / month. The only major down-
side to Amazon Glacier is that takes time to retrieve the data – you will
have to wait a couple of hours - and there is some cost associated with
downloading the images. Still, it can give peace of mind if you only up-
load the most precious images in your collection.
Getting help
Please note that this eBook doesn’t include support for the use of Cap-
ture One.
If you run into any technical problems, please contact Technical Support
for the Capture One software. The Phase One support crew has a repu-
tation for being quick and helpful, so do not hesitate to contact them to
get your issue resolved.
Go to http://support.phaseone.com, click on Contact Support, then se-

lect Technical Support.
On the Phase One support webpage you will also find a Knowledge
Base, a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and a helpful user to
user forum where you might find answers to your questions or issues.
Feedback
Any feedback on how to improve this eBook would be more than wel-
come. This is also that case if you believe that you have found an error
or there is something that could be explained more clearly.
For any feedback, please contact: rawcaptureguide@outlook.com

Christoffersen Nils Wille - Photographers Guide To Capture One

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Christoffersen Nils Wille - Photographers Guide To Capture One

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Contents

This guide is a fusion between a traditional text-centered book and a

I have tried to maintain the most logical workflow possible throughout

Image editing is highly dependent on your visual preferences and the

It might be useful to mention a bit about my background for writing this

As I started on the path to master Capture One Pro, it occurred to me

Disclaimer: I’m currently working part-time as a technical writer for

For any feedback, please contact: rawcaptureguide@outlook.com

Changing the version type

Then click on Change License and restart the

The Grand Overview

The Viewer shows the image or images that you have

The Browser will show thumbnails of all the images

Search You can either type in a word for a

Zoom This slider will set the size of the

Chapter continues on next page >

Viewing and editing multiple images

The first selected image will have a

5 Cursor Tools you should know

Draw Mask and Gradient Mask

These Cursor tools are used to create a mask on a layer in combination

Copy / Apply Adjustments

Overview of the Tool Tabs

Chapter continues on next page >

It is very straightforward to add or remove a Tool from a Tab. Just right-

Then give it a name, choose an icon, and click Add Tab.

Taking advantage of Floating Tools

Tips for working faster with sliders

The Workspace sub-menu also contains a number of prebuilt workspac-

The Migration Workspace is an excellent choice for everybody who

What does non-destructive mean?

The arrangement with preview files is essential for a non-destructive

This graphic will give you a visual presentation of the non-destructive

The benefits of working non-destructive

The most fundamental distinction between a Catalog and a Session is

A Catalog uses a centralized database to keep track of where all your

Being in sync with the file system

Not so with a Catalog. A Catalog depends on its database to keep track

Pros and Cons for Catalogs and Sessions

Note that when you remove an image from a Catalog, it is actually

The Library tool is a bit different in a Session than in a Catalog. Notice

Deleting an image from a Session

Chapter continues on next page >

One key benefit of storing all the adjustments in a subfolder, as done

Importing a Lightroom Catalog or Aperture Library

While several of the image adjustments done in Aperture or Lightroom

Importing a Catalog into a Session

Getting to know the Import Images dialog box

In the left panel

This option let you choose whether to go

You can choose to eject the memory

You can choose

It is possible to erase the images Click to Import. The

The options in Import From tool are straightforward.

Under the Source drop-down menu, you either choose an inserted

Collection option is a cool way to organize the images already during

The Adjustments tool give you a great opportunity to speed up your

Chapter continues on next page >

If checked, Auto Adjust will apply automatic adjustments to the image

How to check if your camera is supported

Importing and working with TIFF and PSD files

Importing files with Photoshop layers

Support of DNG raw files