There are three strands to Capture One’s functionality, image capture, organisation and editing. The controls governing these functions are arranged into sections accessed by clicking on the icons (shown above) at the top of the control panel that by default is on the left of the screen.
The folder icon accesses the importing and cataloguing controls while the camera icon accesses the remote capture or tethering controls. Most of the editing controls are accessed via the next three icons.
The capture element is useful for studio photographers who want to shoot with their camera tethered to their computer. It enables remote control over the camera, which reduces camera shake, but more significantly, it means you can preview the image on a larger screen rather than on the back of the camera. Also, the image is stored on the drive selected on the computer, so you don’t need to transfer images from a card in the camera.
Capture One is the first software to enable tethering of Leica cameras.
Capture One Workflow
Capture One offers two workflow options, Session or Catalog. Session mode is particularly useful for photographers who shoot for clients. It’s designed to enable you to work on discrete batches of images, selecting your best shots, editing them and then sending them to the client.
Session mode is a good choice when shooting tethered, but it can also be used when you save images to a card in the camera.
Perhaps the most attractive feature for anyone thinking about switching from Photoshop, however, is that you don’t need to import images to work in Session mode. You can browse your image files wherever they are stored, then select and edit them as you like before outputting them in your preferred format to a folder of your choosing.
If you’re using the 30-day free trial of Capture One 21, it might be a good idea to use it in Session mode so that you don’t have to create a catalog or import images.
Lightroom doesn’t have the equivalent of a Session mode.
Catalog mode sets Capture One to work in a similar way to Lightroom with images being imported ready for rating, labelling, keywording and editing. It also enables you to filter images using EXIF data or keywords and create Albums based upon those filters or searches.
In Catalog mode, the images can be left in their existing storage location, but unlike Lightroom, they can also be imported into and stored within the Catalog. The advantage of the latter approach is that it means that everything is contained in one file that can be transferred, copied and backed-up without creating missing links.
Conveniently, Capture One doesn’t force you to stick rigidly to one workflow or the other, you can use Session and Catalog mode at the same time.
Capture One Editing Tools
Capture One has all the editing tools that you’d expect, including simple sliding controls to adjust aspects such as exposure, contrast, brightness and saturation as well as more sophisticated tools like the Curve tool that lets you adjust the brightness of particular tones and work on overall brightness or the three colour channels separately.
It’s also possible to make local adjustments using the brush, gradient and radial masking tools or the healing or cloning mask tools. These are all found in the Layers section. Helpfully, the brush, gradient and radial masking tools can be used to selectively apply any of the adjustments available in Capture One 21.
Crucially, the edits made in Capture One are non-destructive.
New Features for Capture One 21
Speed Edit
Speed Edit lets you adjust images without touching a slider, you just hold down selected hotkeys and scroll, drag or use the arrow keys to make quick edits. This approach can be taken with several images for fast batch editing.
Dehaze
Although haze reduction has been possible within Capture One for a while, it previously required a combination of tools to get the desired result. Capture One 21 has a dedicated Dehaze tool that uses deep analytic algorithms to assess and automatically adjust contrast, saturation and other parameters to remove haze.
Faster File Management
Capture One 21 enables files to be imported faster than the previous version and search results appear quicker. In addition, thumbnails render quicker when browsing Catalogs and Sessions.
It’s also possible to import images from several folders at once and to select specific images for import.
Enhanced Tooltips
Simply hover over a tool to see a short explanation of how it works along with links for more learning. This can be enabled or disabled via the Preferences.
Learn
A new ‘Learn’ button gives a quick route to a selection of tutorials from within the software.
HEIC Support
With support for HEIC files (8-bit), you can now edit photos from your Apple devices and more in Capture One.
ProStandard Profiles
New colour science/technology in the new ProStandard Profiles enables you to make adjustments while retaining the true colour of the scene and prevent unwanted colour shifts caused by contrast changes.
This isn’t automatically enabled for existing cameras to prevent the software from making retrospective adjustments to previously edited images, but it can be activated. The profiles will also be available for any new cameras that come along.
At the time fo writing, Capture One 21 offers ProStandard Profiles for 22 cameras from Canon, Leica, Nikon, Phase One and Sony, but more are said to be in the pipeline.
Follow the link to see the cameras with ProStandard Profiles
Easy Brush Adjusting
Capture One 21 enables the size, hardness, opacity, and flow of any brush to be adjusted using modifier keys and a mouse or trackpad or pen, removing the need to right-click.
Extended Leica support
Capture One 21 brings a new level of support for a growing list of Leica cameras, and for the first time brings tethering capabilities to those models.
This support includes the development of unique camera-specific profiles that take into account the colour, sharpness, and noise characteristics of the camera model.
Style Brushes
Style Brushes were added to Capture One 21 with the 14.1.10 update released in March 2021. They are tools that enable a selection of adjustments to be made with a brush, working directly on the image.
There’s a total of 22 different preset treatments that can be applied and they’re found in a new section under the Layers tool in the Exposure panel. They are organised into three groups, ‘Color’, ‘Light and Contrast’ and ‘Enhancements’ and they have names/functions such as ‘Color Balance (Cool), ‘Color Balance (warm)’, ‘Add Detail’, ‘Iris Enhance’, ‘Whiten Teeth’, ‘Red Skin Reduction’, ‘Dodge’, ‘Highlights (brighten)’ and ‘Highlights (recover)’.
Using a Style Brush automatically creates an adjustment layer with the name of the Brush being used, and the edits can be tweaked to get exactly the result you want.
It’s also possible to create your won style brushes, so if there’ an adjustment that you make on a regular basis, you can create a brush to apply it.