A quick HeadsUp - Capture One software at a great price
Discussion
You'll need to be quick about this ...
Capture One Pro V6 is a very powerful Photo Processing tool which produces some of the best results from RAW files that I have ever seen. It's in the LightRoom market area rather than Photoshop but so my mind far more flexible and a faster workflow.
Last night I stumbled across a site offering the full Pro version at about half price. (The standard licence includes installation on 2 machines. There are versions for Mac and for both 32 and 64 bit Windows.)
However the offer price is only available until TOMORROW 18-12-2011 so if interested you need to move quickly.
The application can be downloaded and run in Trial mode (for 30 days). Fully functional.
I've been experimenting with C1 V5 for a while and decided that is was time to go with V6 especially at the price.
http://www.captureonecomplete.com/uk/
I have no affiliation to the site - other than becoming a customer last night!
Capture One Pro V6 is a very powerful Photo Processing tool which produces some of the best results from RAW files that I have ever seen. It's in the LightRoom market area rather than Photoshop but so my mind far more flexible and a faster workflow.
Last night I stumbled across a site offering the full Pro version at about half price. (The standard licence includes installation on 2 machines. There are versions for Mac and for both 32 and 64 bit Windows.)
However the offer price is only available until TOMORROW 18-12-2011 so if interested you need to move quickly.
The application can be downloaded and run in Trial mode (for 30 days). Fully functional.
I've been experimenting with C1 V5 for a while and decided that is was time to go with V6 especially at the price.
http://www.captureonecomplete.com/uk/
I have no affiliation to the site - other than becoming a customer last night!
markmullen said:
I have Capture One Express but have never really got into it but long term am hoping to buy a phase one back so think I should, am considering upgrading to Capture One Pro.
Does it have auto lens correction?
For Phase group lenses full correction is offered. (C1 Pro version and for RAW files)Does it have auto lens correction?
For everything else they offer perspective correction facilities along with colour cast and lighting drop off analysis that allow one to create and save specific settings for each lens with or without going to the detail level of lens/sensor, lens/aperture (or whatever combination seems worthwhile) and the save the analysis for future re-use. So the options range from a fairly generic lens correction to something that is specific to the settings for a particular shot with certain kit at known settings on a given day - should that be required for the type of image being captured. Since the same facility provided for dust deletion as well the 'on the day' option is quite a reasonable thing to suggest.
I assume at some point they will hook in to the manufacturer lens correction data that is becoming a requirement for the pocket cams and smaller systems. Until then your left with a couple of DIY options in the software. The full perspective correction functionality is new to V6 but V5 had a single slider adjustment feature that works pretty well and, to my mind, gives very controllable results on, for example, Canon S90 RAW files if I compare the C1 adjusted RAW with the same shot's out-of-the-camera jpg.
I bought in the middle of the night and the codes arrived about 9.30 this morning. No big deal since trial is fully functional.
If you haven't got to them yet the Lens correction tools include options to analyse and fix images for CA and purple fringes. Works pretty well.
Some really useful things are not that obvious until you stumble across them. For example for output you can create your own 'recipes' and then simply submit the edited files, individually or in batch, to a background process that deals with the recipes. So you can output multiple sizes or multiple resolutions each with their own naming conventions, with or without watermarks, etc., etc. Plus C1 will upscale by up to 250% so if you have, say, a cropped original with too few pixel to give an output at the size you want and a quality ppi C1 will upscale on output. Won't make a 10x8 out of a thumbnail but it seems pretty good. Mind you considering it's sold as a Pro tool to go with very expensive MF backs you might expect it to be half decent.
But the main thing for me is that it just seems to produce really nice results interpreting the RAW files giving a great starting point for whatever photo processing (rather than graphics processing) you feel like doing.
Doesn't seem to have red-eye correction though .... could be a deal breaker for some ....
If you haven't got to them yet the Lens correction tools include options to analyse and fix images for CA and purple fringes. Works pretty well.
Some really useful things are not that obvious until you stumble across them. For example for output you can create your own 'recipes' and then simply submit the edited files, individually or in batch, to a background process that deals with the recipes. So you can output multiple sizes or multiple resolutions each with their own naming conventions, with or without watermarks, etc., etc. Plus C1 will upscale by up to 250% so if you have, say, a cropped original with too few pixel to give an output at the size you want and a quality ppi C1 will upscale on output. Won't make a 10x8 out of a thumbnail but it seems pretty good. Mind you considering it's sold as a Pro tool to go with very expensive MF backs you might expect it to be half decent.
But the main thing for me is that it just seems to produce really nice results interpreting the RAW files giving a great starting point for whatever photo processing (rather than graphics processing) you feel like doing.
Doesn't seem to have red-eye correction though .... could be a deal breaker for some ....
markmullen said:
I've been having a much better play than I had, I much prefer it to lightroom.
Redeye reduction isn't a problem for me, it is rare there is anyone in the majority of my pics!
Redeye reduction isn't a problem for me, it is rare there is anyone in the majority of my pics!
I've just been experimenting with the Local Adjustments. It was introduced in V6 so not something I have had access to before in C1 although my previous favourite editor, now sadly defunct, had offered it for years. One difference for C1 compared to my previous experiences that there is a full on local area exposure adjustment possible rather than just adjustment tools applied to the base exposure.
So pulling down a somewhat burned out sky by up 2.5 stops reveals a lot of information to play with - which is handy. And in fact more than 2.5 stops (though it might start to look a bit fake) since you stack layers.
Welcome to the world of C1 chaps and enjoy!
I have been using it for years and find it easily produces the best results straight out of the box of any processor. Plenty of people may tell you you can squeeze a better file out of ACR or Iriedient RAW converter and maybe you can, I wouldn't know as I get fed up spending hours fiddling in an ugly environment. Also, using sessions and organising your work that way, with the adjustments kept in a separate folder is so much tidier than having sidecar files all over the place.
For fine tuning, the color editor is a very powerful feature and when used with local adjustments is even better. No doubt you will get email notifications, but check out the blog for loads of tips and tutorials: http://blog.phaseone.com
Also plenty of resources here, including links to youtube video tutorials that will get you up to speed: http://www.phaseone.com/en/SupportMain/Resource-Pa...
Have fun!
I have been using it for years and find it easily produces the best results straight out of the box of any processor. Plenty of people may tell you you can squeeze a better file out of ACR or Iriedient RAW converter and maybe you can, I wouldn't know as I get fed up spending hours fiddling in an ugly environment. Also, using sessions and organising your work that way, with the adjustments kept in a separate folder is so much tidier than having sidecar files all over the place.
For fine tuning, the color editor is a very powerful feature and when used with local adjustments is even better. No doubt you will get email notifications, but check out the blog for loads of tips and tutorials: http://blog.phaseone.com
Also plenty of resources here, including links to youtube video tutorials that will get you up to speed: http://www.phaseone.com/en/SupportMain/Resource-Pa...
Have fun!
Edited by Bacardi on Sunday 18th December 16:13
I bought LightRoom at Version 1 and thought it was promising but the import to library stuff was a pain compared to the other editor I was using and it had fewer editing features at the time although additional features in other areas.
C1 is much much closer, especially at V6, to my previously favourite editor (now, sadly, somewhat defunct) and is faster to use for many activities. It also has a few features that are better - background batch for example - and a few that do not seem quite as powerful, even at V6. Now that's odd in a way because my old favourite had not had a major update for about 3+ years.
However C1 has always seemed able to produce a good result out of the box or with very little fiddling. My old favourite could do the same more often than not but C1 seems to have an edge for initial impact. If they keep extending the Local Adjustment capability they should catch up soon ....
On the other hand in other areas C1 has the advantage - notably lens correction facilities.
Bacardi,
I'm interested to know from your experience just how much you can do with Local adjustment layers. I know you can make local colour adjustments, albeit I find the Colour adjustment facilities the least user friendly aspect of the software in terms of being able to 'tune in' to them.
However my other application offers a local adjustment facility for every edit tool that could possibly make use of it and within that offered the option to sub-select by colour range, luminosity range (with variable feathering) and apply the edits using different blend modes together with a selectable opacity. As far as I can see so far (having used V5 for a while but V6 for only 48 hours), each layer can accomodate an instance of each available (for local adjustments) tool but none have a wide range of sub-selections. Am I missing something within the tool or within the broader concept of multiple tools that would allow me, for example, to select an area of an image, subeselct only a range of 'green' colours and then apply the tool adjustment to just the selected colour (or invert it and exclude that colour of course - inversion does seem to be offered as a matter of course.)
I will admit that it is my impression that the internal workings somehow minimise the need for hands on control of every variable but there are times when additional abilities could be useful. For example a pale bland sky that you know had detail available in the RAW file when you change the base exposure. If the sky is bounded by a dark tree line or similar it would be useful to be able to roughly mark the Local Area selection and then set a parameter that means only the lighter sky would be re-exposed and the tree top line would be left alone, thus saving the need for extreme precision at the local adjustment area boundary. Is there some way to do that that I have yet to discover? I have had a look through all the videos I have found that seem relevant and checked the knowledge base but nothing so far. Have I missed it?
C1 is much much closer, especially at V6, to my previously favourite editor (now, sadly, somewhat defunct) and is faster to use for many activities. It also has a few features that are better - background batch for example - and a few that do not seem quite as powerful, even at V6. Now that's odd in a way because my old favourite had not had a major update for about 3+ years.
However C1 has always seemed able to produce a good result out of the box or with very little fiddling. My old favourite could do the same more often than not but C1 seems to have an edge for initial impact. If they keep extending the Local Adjustment capability they should catch up soon ....
On the other hand in other areas C1 has the advantage - notably lens correction facilities.
Bacardi,
I'm interested to know from your experience just how much you can do with Local adjustment layers. I know you can make local colour adjustments, albeit I find the Colour adjustment facilities the least user friendly aspect of the software in terms of being able to 'tune in' to them.
However my other application offers a local adjustment facility for every edit tool that could possibly make use of it and within that offered the option to sub-select by colour range, luminosity range (with variable feathering) and apply the edits using different blend modes together with a selectable opacity. As far as I can see so far (having used V5 for a while but V6 for only 48 hours), each layer can accomodate an instance of each available (for local adjustments) tool but none have a wide range of sub-selections. Am I missing something within the tool or within the broader concept of multiple tools that would allow me, for example, to select an area of an image, subeselct only a range of 'green' colours and then apply the tool adjustment to just the selected colour (or invert it and exclude that colour of course - inversion does seem to be offered as a matter of course.)
I will admit that it is my impression that the internal workings somehow minimise the need for hands on control of every variable but there are times when additional abilities could be useful. For example a pale bland sky that you know had detail available in the RAW file when you change the base exposure. If the sky is bounded by a dark tree line or similar it would be useful to be able to roughly mark the Local Area selection and then set a parameter that means only the lighter sky would be re-exposed and the tree top line would be left alone, thus saving the need for extreme precision at the local adjustment area boundary. Is there some way to do that that I have yet to discover? I have had a look through all the videos I have found that seem relevant and checked the knowledge base but nothing so far. Have I missed it?
LongQ, what is this other app you talk of?
Regarding local adjustments and colour edits. Not quite sure what you mean, but within C1 you have a basic, advanced and skin tone tabs. As it suggests, basic just picks a colour, you can adjust the smoothness either with the slider or dragging the handles in the colour circle.
The advance tab lets you do more subtle changes and every time you click with the dropper, you have another level of colour adjustment, so you can build up the edit.
Picking a colour, depending on the picture may well pick other parts of the picture you don't want to adjust. Adding an adjustment layer enables you to brush on a mask to limit the area in need of changing and you can add other layers/masks for other areas.
The mask is rough, although you can change the brush size and hardness, but, depending on the subject, I find it easy to isolate an area that may need an adjustment. Some fabrics for example, due to dyes, may not reproduce accurately, so with a client looking over my shoulder I can do a quick edit to correct that colour on the fly.
When it comes to outlines like trees against skies, then no, C1 doesn't have selection tools like quick selection tool in PS with refine edge button, or a pen tool.... yet. For images with too much contrast like that, I would edit and process a file for the sky and one for the foreground and tree and blend in PS.
C1 is getting better with every release and I'm sure they will add new features. It would be nice to adjust areas of noise with local adjustments, but you can't, just yet. Apart from specific retouching and montaging, I would say I can do 85% of all my work with C1, then straight to print.
I haven't done it for a while, but every now and again I run tests with other RAW processors to see if I can achieve better quality elsewhere. Reds especially, are better compared to LR and Aperture. Maybe they have improved things with latest releases, but every time you pick the dropper to white/grey balance and click, it drops the tool in Aperture and LR, so you have to keep picking it again. Silly things like that are annoying. So I keep using C1. It just gets me to a great starting point with less fiddling, meaning less work. I'm lazy, I don't like work!
I often shoot tethered and C1 works reliably using Canon, Nikon as well as P1 backs. The capture pilot also works great with an iPad.
ETA relevant links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ehRDPvsz5k&fea...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l4WC4FGNeo&fea...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi2OUW0gSrM&lis...
HTH
Regarding local adjustments and colour edits. Not quite sure what you mean, but within C1 you have a basic, advanced and skin tone tabs. As it suggests, basic just picks a colour, you can adjust the smoothness either with the slider or dragging the handles in the colour circle.
The advance tab lets you do more subtle changes and every time you click with the dropper, you have another level of colour adjustment, so you can build up the edit.
Picking a colour, depending on the picture may well pick other parts of the picture you don't want to adjust. Adding an adjustment layer enables you to brush on a mask to limit the area in need of changing and you can add other layers/masks for other areas.
The mask is rough, although you can change the brush size and hardness, but, depending on the subject, I find it easy to isolate an area that may need an adjustment. Some fabrics for example, due to dyes, may not reproduce accurately, so with a client looking over my shoulder I can do a quick edit to correct that colour on the fly.
When it comes to outlines like trees against skies, then no, C1 doesn't have selection tools like quick selection tool in PS with refine edge button, or a pen tool.... yet. For images with too much contrast like that, I would edit and process a file for the sky and one for the foreground and tree and blend in PS.
C1 is getting better with every release and I'm sure they will add new features. It would be nice to adjust areas of noise with local adjustments, but you can't, just yet. Apart from specific retouching and montaging, I would say I can do 85% of all my work with C1, then straight to print.
I haven't done it for a while, but every now and again I run tests with other RAW processors to see if I can achieve better quality elsewhere. Reds especially, are better compared to LR and Aperture. Maybe they have improved things with latest releases, but every time you pick the dropper to white/grey balance and click, it drops the tool in Aperture and LR, so you have to keep picking it again. Silly things like that are annoying. So I keep using C1. It just gets me to a great starting point with less fiddling, meaning less work. I'm lazy, I don't like work!
I often shoot tethered and C1 works reliably using Canon, Nikon as well as P1 backs. The capture pilot also works great with an iPad.
ETA relevant links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ehRDPvsz5k&fea...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l4WC4FGNeo&fea...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi2OUW0gSrM&lis...
HTH
Edited by Bacardi on Sunday 18th December 23:45
Bacardi said:
LongQ, what is this other app you talk of?
Regarding local adjustments and colour edits. Not quite sure what you mean, but within C1 you have a basic, advanced and skin tone tabs. As it suggests, basic just picks a colour, you can adjust the smoothness either with the slider or dragging the handles in the colour circle.
The advance tab lets you do more subtle changes and every time you click with the dropper, you have another level of colour adjustment, so you can build up the edit.
OK, I've played with the colour editor and it is certainly powerful although parts of it seem a little obscure at first sight. I have to say that for most of my stuff the intial colour renditions are accurate enough (I rarely have anything that is ultra critical) and the C1 developers must have done a really good job with the camera profiles.Regarding local adjustments and colour edits. Not quite sure what you mean, but within C1 you have a basic, advanced and skin tone tabs. As it suggests, basic just picks a colour, you can adjust the smoothness either with the slider or dragging the handles in the colour circle.
The advance tab lets you do more subtle changes and every time you click with the dropper, you have another level of colour adjustment, so you can build up the edit.
The previous favourite editor was LightZone which, unusually, was available for Mac, Windows and Linux. Sadly it seems to be defunct in that the developers have stopped trading. As seems to be often the case these days, when it came to developing the next version they realised they needed to change to a new development platform (in their case from Java to Java FX) and it would seem that things did not go well enough quickly enough. It's not the first time I have observed something similar when 'progress' is made in the computer industry.
LightZone is very similar to C1 (or should it be the other way around?) in that it does not require a central database and it simply keeps a record of what is where in a sort of index file and what has been done to it in an associated jpg file which acts as both edit store (multiple edits possible) and instant display thumbnail. The look and feel and concepts are really quite similar at the base level.
LightZone uses a small set of tools that are, in effect, layers (like C1 V6 adopted) but without being called layers. You can stack the layers in any order you wish and have multiple instances of each tool. Local adjustments are possible using 'regions' which are created by marking out an area, setting feathering if require and then having the adjustments applied only with those boundaries. The sort of concepts used before the 'brush' became a standard. There is a case for both methods in my view.
The tools are: Zonemapper and Relight (think of as variants of Levels and Curves), Sharpening, Blur, Hue/Saturation, Colour Balance, White Balance, B&W, Noise Reduction and then Clone, Spot and Red-Eye. All tools except Red-Eye offer the opportunity to select, at the Tool Instance level, Blending Mode, Opacity and whether the mask it creates should be inverted. In addition you can limit the effect by Color Selection and/or opacity selection with inversion possible for that combination as well.
So for example if you had a mountain landscape shot where the shadows might be a bit bluer than you wanted you could simply add a White Balance tool, select the 'colour' of the shadow area and tweak it. That would often be enough to get th desired result, leaving any suitably lit non-shadow rocks unchanged. However the global effect seeped into other areas of the image a quick region or two can be applied to constrain the adjustment.
Adjusting noise by colour and luminosity selections and by position of required is also pretty simple in many cases.
C1 seems to have moved some way in that direction with V6 and the local area adjustments and if they add a few more bells and whistles to the layers it will become immensely flexible and I would be delighted!
Good to see the opportunity for direct printing as well. That is something else that LightZone has and it produces excellent results although the driver interface for my Canon printer on Windows has a mind of its own. Apparently it is fine on a Mac and other makes of printer usually interface well under Windows.
Thanks for the feedback. It has confirmed what I thought which will save me time by not hunting for concepts that don't exist or looking for way to achieve things that are unlikely to work!
Time to look at revising my 'workflow' to make use of the new options V6 offers.
LongQ said:
LightZone
I had a hunch that's what you might say. The guys at Outback photo used to rave about it and I certainly tried out a version, but I can't remember why I didn't take to it, there must have been a reason.If it can't process your current camera files, then fair enough, but if it still works for you, then carry on using it. I use positively ancient software. Just because it doesn't run on the latest OS doesn't make it any less capable, it's just a pain when 'progress' takes one step forward and two back sometimes.
Bacardi said:
LongQ said:
LightZone
I had a hunch that's what you might say. The guys at Outback photo used to rave about it and I certainly tried out a version, but I can't remember why I didn't take to it, there must have been a reason.If it can't process your current camera files, then fair enough, but if it still works for you, then carry on using it. I use positively ancient software. Just because it doesn't run on the latest OS doesn't make it any less capable, it's just a pain when 'progress' takes one step forward and two back sometimes.
A small group of users are gathering at the LightZombie project to try to keep things running for as long as possible. Some have the knowledge to revise the camera profiles and create new ones and there are people making updated versions of dcraw available so there is life in it.
The only problem I have with it is simply that when faced with an upload of a few thousand files from a weekend the mass process just takes too long (and I get sucked in to playing with the files as I assess them ... doh ...). C1 is much faster although on a PC you do need to be careful with keeping in mind memory usage and a few other things to avoid crashes.
With C1 V5 I always reverted to LZ when local adjustments were called for. C1 V6 seems able to do much of the local adjustment stuff but, I suspect, no faster than LZ will do it and maybe slower in severl instances.
However LZ, being a fairly old release and originally seen as much as a plug-in for PS as a stand alone program, does not have some of the useful bells and whistles that are expected these days - lens correction, perspective correction, watermarking on output for examples.
I'm pretty sure that LZ V4, had it hit the sales channels, would have had such functionality and would have been market leading in terms of features but it was not to be. In some ways I am not surprised. LZ's founder made a presentation (with Uwe Steinmuller of Outback) to a tech conference a few years ago where he suggested that many of the edit facilities that editor software provided would start to be done in camera within about 5 years. I think we see these days that he was right. In fact with entire product lines being developed on the basis that dedicated lens correction will be a requirement as part of the design philosophy he was probably understating the case. We now see cameras coming through with built in HDR capabilities, automatic panorama creation based on a contious scan and all sort os other bits and pieces that are intended to encourage people to believe that they can safely forget about post processing for the majority of their output. Or have it simplified by finding a few acceptable alternatives produced in camera.
These developments seem to be aimed as much at the Pro user as the hobbyist - perhaps more so reading between the lines of the blurb for the Canon 1D-X.
Assuming the world's woes don't result in the collapse of the photo industry there could be yet more interesting changes ahead in the near future.
Bacardi said:
LongQ said:
... dedicated lens correction will be a requirement as part of the design philosophy...
This is a path modern Hasselblad are taking. I guess I'm old school, but I don't agree with software making up for inferior lens design.The RAW files from my Canon S90 are interestingly different to their jpg counterparts at shorter focal lengths.
And then there is that focus-after-the-fact camera that appeared this year which, potentially, suggests it might be looking at 'real light' constructions unlimited by inflexible lenses.
But then again since computers can generate very realistic looking graphics output with no camera required I guess working with glass lenses, with or without correction, will become something of a curiosity in the near to medium future.
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