Capture One

Capture One is a piece of photographic software used to manage,manipulate and export image files. We are using this on macs in the studio linked up to a tethering cable to a Phase One digital back on the Hassleblad camera.

Made by the same company that produces the Phase One back it works in a very similar way to which Lightroom does,but originally designed only for medium format camera RAW files.

So,rather than go through all of the features that its capable of doing I thought it would make more sense to just go through a simple work flow.

Capture One

After its all opened up and running open up a new session and create a new folder for that. It will keep all the associated files together including the un changed RAW files,a trash can and any layer adjustment files.

All of the processing you do with Capture One is non destructive to the original RAW files to put into it,in the same way as when you use a negative to make prints. You always have the original to go back to if and when you need to.

All the lighting will be set up and camera with digital back will be ready to go so next thing to do is take a couple of test shots. These are imported in Capture One via Fire Wire or USB cable direct from the Phase One camera back unit. This technique is called tethering,as in you are tethering the images direct into the mac rather than shooting and saving to a memory card and loading them up later.

Then you can adjust the look of the test shots to somewhere near where you want them to look post shoot and apply that to each shot as it is taken. As each image comes up on the screen it takes a just a second to apply. It could be anything you like from a white balance or colour cast change to just slight tweaks to the contrast levels. Even though each image will now be set like this in Capture One,the RAW files are still unchanged and all or any of the changes can be reversed or changed more as much as you like.

The time advantage to doing this for a large number of images is obvious. Another advantage is when you add in the use of the WiFi connection to display this on portable devices in real time on an app(Android and Apple)  to either clients or others working with you so they can see the image with adjustments seconds after its taken. They can even rate the images out of 5 stars for editing later on.

That is all good then you have finished your shoot and you need to go through and pick your best ones out to make final adjustments to. The start system of grading ive just mentioned works fine here to get down your best and not so sure of . A few 4 and 5 stars later you can remove the rest from the catalog if you like or out right delete them (its what I would go with as you know your never going to need them again for what they are)

The final adjustments needed next would depend on image by image and there are hundreds of different options to choose from,some im sure will never be used by anyone most of the time. Like the keystone warping levers,but they are there is you needed them! More likely be the odd bit of highlights or spot removal rather than the heavy manipulation,this is where the similarities veer much more along the Lightroom path that Photoshop.

Once you are happy with your images you just need to export them using what they call recipes. Each image can be exported in a multitude of ways to create the TIFF,JPEG,PNG etc you need. All you have to do is tell it where you want them and what specifications you want them to. These can be done like everything else in batches and don't affect the RAW files in any way.

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