Two years ago I published an article with my ten reasons to switch to Capture One 9. It had dozens of thousands of views and hundreds of shares and comments.Thank you all for your feedback. Time has passed, and Capture One 10-12 releases brought us new robust features to be added to the list.That’s why I have updated the post and divided it into two parts. The first part is dedicated to amazing features that Capture One delivers besides the processing itself.The second part, which you’re reading, is all about the RAW editing; Layers with opacities, RGB channels Levels correction, Luma and RGB Curves, Color Editor and many more tools are waiting for you here.But if you wish to discover great features of interface customization, processing, tethered shooting and color rendering in Capture One – I recommend you to.

1. Capture One 12 Review

If you wish to learn more about Luminosity Masking, you’ll find all the detailed information in this free webinar:5.5. Layer Opacity and presets in layers.In Capture One you can not only build all the editing in layers, but you can also change opacity for each layer as well.Just imagine that at any moment you can change the opacity of all your image adjustments. What is even more important – you can change opacity differently for each of 16 available layers. On the RAW file. Just think about it for a second. Applied style – Kodak Royal Gold 400 v4 Winter from.Impressive, right?

Then, how about this: you can also apply style or preset to any layer and change its opacity as well.In Capture One 12, styles and presets can be assigned to layers. This means that you can easily create a really complicated mask and apply saved adjustments to it.Click here to see.In this post, I’ll give you just one short example of how you can apply different styles to the model on the image and environment.First of all, we’re creating a mask from skin color to have a layer with skin mask only. Then we’re copying skin mask to a new layer and inverting it to have a layer with a masked environment.Now we’re applying different to each layer and adjusting opacities to achieve the best look.Magic.In previous examples, I’ve used, they are updated for Capture One 11 and are compatible with layers.Simply try them on your images with layers, it’s entirely new experience for RAW editing.You can download five absolutely free of charge and try it on your images with layers:Here you’ll find to test.5.6. Retouch tools.In Capture One, you will also find excellent tools for image retouching: Heal and Clone layers.Clone layer works like a Clone Stamp tool in Photoshop; it simply copies the selected area. Heal layer is smarter, it also changes saturation and lightness to blend images more smoothly and accurately.With these tools, you can easily remove and replace objects on the picture and perform quite a complex retouch. You will also have all the control over Output black and white points; it’s really useful for pre-print editing.

Red, Green and Blue channels level correctionsMoreover, Levels has one not so obvious, but absolutely amazing feature which is level corrections of Red, Green and Blue channels.Have you ever seen an image with a strong color cast, which couldn’t be fixed with any of the regular tools?Then it’s a turn for the correction of R, G and B channels. With those tools, you can set black and white points for each color channel separately.In that case, you’ll get the most accurate and correct color, which may completely change your image. And the best thing is that Capture One can process it automatically!Channel level correction allows you to get the true and realistic color at the first RAW-editing stage.Viewing professional portfolios, have you ever thought: “How did they achieve such a clear color?”.

Well, that’s how they do it.And it’s only one of the tools from Capture One’s armory. Levels in layersThird unique feature – black and white points correction in layers. It’s not quite evident, but you can set local black and white points for each layer with Levels.If you’re a landscape photographer, I’m pretty sure you’ll love this tool. Luminosity masks and LayersLuminosity masks and layers capabilities in Capture One completely revolutionized Levels correction!The typical issue with Levels correction is that you have to be extremely accurate with Levels tool, otherwise, you will lose data from your RAW.Like here, I’ve applied a strong Levels correction, everything looks good, but I’ve lost lots of information in the shadows.Luminosity masks have solved this problem entirely. The only thing you need to do is to apply Levels to a filled layer and remove dark areas from Luma Range! This way Luma Range automatically restricts Levels tool from affecting deep shadows.Now, we have got a perfectly balanced image with great color and detailed shadows.

Sierra (10.12.6) – High Sierra (10.13.6) – Mojave (10.14.1) 12.0.3 Bug Fixes Mac. Fixed an issue in the Next Capture Adjustments tool where it was not possible to select a new style if it had overwritten an existing one. Capture One 12 Highlights New interface.

HDR, Color Balance and ClarityAll of these tools, in one form or another, are available on the most popular RAW-converters. The difference is that in Capture One they work much more accurately and smarter. HDRSince its first release in Capture One 6, High Dynamic Range tool was drastically updated several times. Today it provides an amazing quality of Shadows/Highlights zones correction.Here are some examples: Capture One 11 High Dynamic Range on max and Lightroom CC (2015.5.1) Shadows/Highlights on max for the same images. By the way, with workspace customizations, you may create a separate tab and place different Color Balance modes on the same screen.3.3. ClarityWhen I was talking to my colleagues, I noticed that many of them really enjoy Clarity tool, but at the same time, they are a little bit wary of its effects.The reason is that in most popular RAW-converters Clarity tool is just a single slider without any additional settings.That’s why sometimes it may work great, or it may ruin your image as well.In Capture One, Clarity tool has four different modes, and each of them provides a unique effect.For example, Punch mode works harder and seriously affects color.

On the contrary – Natural mode is very accurate with your image and almost doesn’t touch color. It’s a really useful tool when you’re editing images with stone, wood or any other texture materials.2. CurvesCurves are one of the main tools for professional image editing. It allows you to get the full manual control over image’s contrast and color.Besides all the common features like per-channel work, Capture One’s Curve tool also has several amazing unique features: 2.1. Layers supportCurves in Layers open a whole new dimension of image processing possibilities.First of all – using Curves with masks from Color Editor you would be able to change any color of the image completely:The second useful case is a local color correction, it’s absolutely irreplaceable for a wedding and portrait photography.

Advanced interfaceCurves is a considerably complicated tool in itself, and it is really important to have a convenient interface to use it.In Capture One, you can change the size of your Curve tool or create separate tools for each channel:And don’t forget to use a handy built-in preset with five standard points on the Curve. Color EditorAbove the great color rendering, Curve and Levels tools stands – the main tool for color correction in Capture One.It’s a real game-changer that makes professional work with color at times easier and faster. Basic featuresColor Editor allows you to select and to work with any color on the image.

What is really convenient is that you may see where on the image the selected color is located.For example on that image, I would like to correct shirt’s color hue without affecting the skin tone.It’s tough because skin and shirt colors are quite close, however, in Capture One, you can easily select only the necessary color.But what do you do, when few objects in the frame are absolutely the same in color? Turn on the layers! Color correction in layersColor Editor works great with masks; it allows you to process local color correction of any object in the image.

Now you see, why I put Color Editor on the first place, it’s a really amazing tool. But it has one more feature that every portrait photographer would love. Skin tone modeColor Editor has a special Skin Tone mode for detailed portrait color correction. In Skin Tone, you can select a color and unify its hue, saturation, and lightness to a chosen color.In just a few clicks, you can even out a quite problematic skin tone:In the endAs you’re reading this article, you might think, that I’m quite blind to limitations of Capture One.

This is not true: I totally agree that it would be great to add some sort of History tool and radial gradient to Capture One and to make dozens of other small improvements.But I have seen how everything was changing. The first time I tried Capture One version 3, it was a completely different application. Year after year, update after update it became better and stronger.I would understand if you have tried Capture One 6 or 7 and didn’t find enough reasons to switch. Each issue of the newsletter contains:. Latest news from Capture One community. Reading of the week.

Capture One tip of the week. A free RAW file for practiceIt’s absolutely free, and I promise not to send emails more often than once a week! 3) Download 12 film styles for Capture One for freeIn my work, I use.

There are more than 200 styles which you can quickly scroll through and immediately see which would fit your image best.You can download five film styles for free right here:You’ll find seven additional free styles at.Simply try them with your images – it’s a completely new experience for RAW editing. 4) Subscribe to my YouTube channelEach week I’m running where we’re discussing the latest Capture One news, and I’m showing my favorite tips for RAW editing.And the best thing is that you can watch it live and ask questions!Plus: you can to see how I would edit them in one of the next episodes of the show. 5) Join our Facebook group or follow me on TwitterHere I’m sharing the most interesting articles and videos about Capture One which I found recently.

Capture One 12 Review

Capture One 12 delivers even more creative control thanks to the new radial, linear and luminosity masks. A refined user interface invites for a more efficient and intuitive user experience, and the new plug-in ecosystem will open up for endless integration possibilities.Check out more resources in our Learning Hub -Capture One -Download a 30-day Capture One trial -Follow Capture OneInstagram: instagram.com/captureoneproFacebook: facebook.com/captureoneproTwitter: twitter.com/captureoneproCapture One is made by Phase One.