Consider This When Creating Styles for Capture One

Capture One is a powerful and widely used photo editing software. It can be used to create amazing images with your unique style, but it can be challenging to learn how to use the software properly for your needs.  A good style in Capture One is essential for creating beautiful, eye-catching images, and this article will outline some tips on how to achieve this. 

What Type of Photography Are You Creating Your Style for?

When creating a style in Capture One, it is important to keep in mind the type of photography you are doing and the desired outcome. For example, if you are shooting fashion photography, you may want to focus on creating a vibrant, saturated look. While for a landscape image, you may want to focus on creating a more naturalistic and muted look.

Check Basic Settings First

When editing your images in Capture One, it is important to remember the basics. This includes adjusting the exposure and white balance correctly. Adjust highlights and lowlights as well as the contrast to be pleasant. Check which colours you think are a little off and correct them with the color editor. 

You will also notice that some images, regardless of the correct white balance, will have a colour cast. Especially when you shoot at sunset, sunrise or there are large colourful spaces (e.g. trees, umbrellas) in your set that throw back a tint on your subject. If this tint is not desired, you can use the curves tool on the single RGB channels to correct it. In some cases it is also helpful to use the color balance tool to correct or apply a tint in shades, mid tones or highlights.

Think of the Mood You want to Create

For fashion photography, it is important to focus on creating a vibrant and glamorous look.

Use the levels and curve tool to push the white and black point to where you need it to be. E.g. for a film look, you can flatten the curve in the highlights and make it steeper in the shades. With the levels tool you can easily rebalance the mid tones and set the white and black point.

You can use the color editor to push colours in the desired direction. E.g. Skin tones often appear too bright in digital photography compared with film. From my experience in many cases the look of a digital image can be improved when yellow tones are taken back a little in brightness and saturation. Skin tones usually improve when they are slightly darkened and desaturated. It also often helps when the color tones of red, orange and yellow are pushed closer together.

Also check which colours are dominant in the image you want to edit. Ask yourself which of these colours you want to bring out and which of these colours you want to flatten to direct the viewer's attention. You can use the color editor to adjust the colours. Use the color wheel to check which colours go well together.

More Tipps

• When applying more contrast be careful with the contrast slider and curve tool. Too much contrast will inevitably lead to oversaturated images and in some cases weird color separation and fringing in the shades. Sometimes it is advisable to use the levels tool to compress the dynamic range of the image instead and use contrast slider and curves tool in a counteracting way. It can also help to use the curve tool in luminance mode to apply more black and white for contrast.

• To get a good idea of the saturation level of an image, color cast and “haze”, you can use the dehaze slider tool to bring the image to a good starting level for further edits.

• On super sunny days you can slide back on the clarity tool to soften hard shades and on overcast days go in opposite direction

• The structure slider is great for adding micro contrast to structures without over sharpening the image or pushing highlights and shades too much.

• When developing a style based on a “not ideally” illuminated image, consider keeping corrections and style adjustments separated by applying corrections on a different layer. This way the resulting style will be more versatile in use with other images.

Conclusions

• Finally, it is important to remember that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to creating a style in Capture One. Experimentation is key – try different settings and see what works best for you.

• Also, don’t be afraid to make mistakes – some of the best images are created through trial and error. To sum up, creating a good style in Capture One is essential for achieving beautiful images. Keep in mind the type of photography you are doing, adjust the basic settings, and experiment with the more advanced tools to create a unique look.

• For fashion photography, focus on creating a vibrant and glamorous look by adjusting the saturation, hue, and contrast settings. Finally, remember that experimentation is key, so don’t be afraid to make mistakes.

PS: Don’t forget to check our my styles shop.