Capture One Pro lets you edit files from all major camera brands. Or, save on the same suite of tools with a Capture One version that's just for Nikon, Fujifilm or Sony cameras. Plus, get solutions for business and multi-user teams. Products & Plans. Scroll to explore. Capture One is compatible with Windows operating systems. However, there are changes implemented in the operating system releases that can cause earlier versions of Capture One to perform poorly (or not at all). Check the table below to see which versions are compatible with your operating system. Make a one-time payment to own your Capture One license outright, with minor software updates included. Plus, save on future versions – existing license owners get.
Some of you might remember my post about Switching to Capture One from Aperture. Since then, Capture One Pro 10 has been launched, which I’ve beta tested for a couple of months (more on that below). I would like to share some of my favorite features and tips with you. There are many, and each have proven to be useful controls I’m not sure how I previously did without. The image quality has never been greater!
Tethering Improvements with Focus Control
Capture One 10 precisely controls the camera focus when tethering, and this feature is simply incredible. I wanted to put it through the paces in a lower light situation, having less contrast for the camera to focus on. I often capture nightscapes to create dramatic images for clients, and tethered capture improves that process.
Tethering empowers photographers to more easily monitor sharpness, view the exposure on the histogram, check for composition changes, and now to also adjust focus.
You can automatically copy and apply adjustments to each new subsequent capture, which is particularly beneficial when a client observes. I’ve had as many as ten excited people gathered around a tethered computer watching an image come together. It helps observers instantly visualize the creative process, which often leads to great feedback, help with staging, and collectively achieving better results.
To test out focus control I used the following gear:
- Nikon D4 with 24-70 mm f/2.8 lens
- 13” MacBook Pro with Capture One 10
- USB 3 Cable (this will vary by camera)
- Manfrotto Tripod & Head
- Tether Tools Aero Table and Rock Solid Tether T setup. Be sure to tighten the grub screws to secure both arms
- Optional weight for tripod – a sandbag or backpack with a carabiner will do
Setting Exposure Variables
The tethering panel in Capture One 10 enables control of all exposure settings, focus, and shutter release, with incredible simplicity. Adjusting one setting or variable at a time is often easier than trying to dial in the entire scene all at once, and the interface is straight forward.
For a nightscape that involves a tripod I set the ISO 200 as a baseline starting point, once the composition is framed. That’s the lowest ISO on a Nikon DSLR within the standard range, which keeps digital noise at a minimum (ISO 100 for Canon, ISO 50 for Phase One). If you drop lower into expanded ISO territory it can diminish the dynamic range and increase digital noise. If you use a tripod (a hiking boot or tree stump will do in a pinch), start with the lowest ISO within the camera’s normal range.
Next, I set the aperture. To keep most of the scene in focus, start around f/8, which is where many lenses offer the sharpest quality. For this scene, I eventually set the aperture to f/16 to balance the exposure in achieving a longer/slower shutter speed to blur moving traffic.
Combining long exposures and narrow apertures (f/8, f/11, f/16) emphasizes sensor dirt on each image, so keep your sensor clean to avoid heavy retouching. If i’s too late, it can diminish the appearance of sensor dirt if you stop up to f/5.6, f/4 (or faster/wider). From there, you can shorten or lengthen shutter speed based on ambient light, and if there are any moving objects in the frame to emphasize or minimize, such as traffic. While the camera is steady, motion becomes blurred in longer exposures, and repetitive movements eventually smooth out in ambient light.
Focus Tweaking Using Live View
To find and adjust focus, Live View in Capture One 10 enables focus control on a tethered camera. Focusing is quite simple, with the preview exposure momentarily brightening as it searches for contrast in the frame. You can make near or far focus adjustments incrementally in three different amounts in either direction. I kept the focus about 1/3 into the frame to maximize the already large depth of field.
I’m amazed at how well Capture One finds focus at night and how much control I have even with a narrow depth of field. Focus control is quite useful to avoid disturbing the camera anytime the camera needs to be still, including commercial settings, product work, and focus stacking without using a slider. For portraits, tethering coupled with focus control helps create a more casual interaction, while it offers refinements to nail exposure using a larger monitor.
With a Phase One camera, especially the astounding XF 100MP Camera System with razor sharp focus, the most beneficial feature of Capture One 10 might be focus control.
Sharpening with Halo Suppression
Halo suppression is yet another fantastic measure to improve image quality. When heavily applying sharpening to an image, glowing halos might show up along lines of high contrast. The new Halo Suppression Tool smooths those halos over effortlessly to diminish the appearance that a photograph was sharpened.
As an experiment, I took an image slightly out of focus to sharpen it in post, using the more concise sharpening adjustments in Capture One 10. The difference was remarkable and halos were dramatically reduced while I made the photograph noticeably sharper.
Always try to get it right in camera, but if you can’t, halo suppression can really help save the day.
Workspaces
There’s a new default workspace in Capture One 10, along with some streamlining for making faster adjustments. One change eliminated the Crop Tab through reorganization, which had the same icon and close proximity as the Crop Tool.
Keeping the browser on the screen’s right side makes great use of real estate – especially for wide aspect ratio.
You can create your own customized workspaces for specific tasks, which I highly recommend. This can completely transform your Capture One experience in the best possible ways.
Hardware Tools as Time Saving Shortcuts
If you use an Intuos tablet with custom configurations specific to an earlier version of Capture One, keep in mind that you need to configure those for Capture One 10. However, this is quite simple.
I’m new to using an Intuos Pro tablet, but love it with Capture One.
I finally got to meet David Grover in person at PhotoPlus Expo in NYC and he has a literally jaw dropping workflow where he uses Tangent Element video editing controllers, which are now enabled in Capture One 10. With this, you can customize physical shortcuts and image adjustments on the controller for tangible precision and incomprehensible speed.
Also, if you’ve never been to PhotoPlus Expo, check it out next October and say hi to everyone at Capture One.
Output Proofing
A great feature to quickly review web resolution files before exporting one or many photographs in a recipe. This works quite well to see if sharpening gets affected when you resize a photograph. Output proofing helps balance quality with resolution to optimize webpage speed instantly, saving the time it would take to export a sample.
Folder Merging in Catalogs
The User Collection in Capture One 10 is one of its greatest strengths and it just got easier. I recently finished a two-week working road trip that included photographing multiple subjects on a daily basis. Capture One helped keep my work organized so when I later imported the trip catalog into my main 2016 Catalog at my desk, reorganizing was a cinch.
Beta Testing Capture One
It’s really awesome having access to new features ahead of schedule to bring your image quality to another level. If you’re already a registered Capture One Pro user, you can sign up to beta test here. You’ll have periodic downloads of beta software with release notes describing each new feature.
When the official release comes out, you’ll be fully in the know and your feedback helps improve the user experience. Capture One 10 is packed with exciting and useful features so there was much try out.
When beta testing, it’s best to create a separate test catalog for that version of Capture One. That will protect your primary catalog from any potential issues that may arise by maintaining those images when using the official release. If you back up each Capture One catalog regularly, your adjustments and image organization will be saved, should a problem arise. So, be sure to keep on top of that simple procedure. During long color correction sessions, I recommend that you back up periodically to save your work.
I’ve beta tested for a few great companies and it amazes me how frequently Capture One’s software is updated. They always update release notes correspondingly and highlight changes as well as the logic behind the improvements. It’s clear that much care goes into the development of Capture One – that it’s made by photographers, for photographers.
Tips for upgrading to Capture One 10
- Backup
Upgrading from Capture One 9 to 10, for me, was a breeze. A 450 GB Capture One catalog updated almost instantly after the prompt.
It’s always a wise idea to back up your catalog AND image files, but you need to complete it any time there’s a software change. Carbon Copy Cloner 4 makes the job increasingly simple for you this and every subsequent time. I maintain one backup on a dedicated hard drive at my desk and a second, which is off site.
To keep CCC from automatically overwriting a healthy backup, I have scheduled backups disabled.
- Styles
If you have any User Styles installed, Capture One automatically finds them, which is nice (Adjustments – Styles – User Styles).
- Intuos Tablet Shortcuts
This is quite simple. However, be aware that Intuos Tablet settings in System Preferences need to be configured if you have specific shortcuts enabled in Capture One 9 or earlier. I’m relatively new to using an Intuos Pro tablet, but love it with Capture One.
That was all from me, for now. I’ll be back in an up-coming webinar with David Grover, in which we’re going to talk about Maximizing Catalogue Organization. Feel free to join in! You can read more and sign up here.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment. You’re also more than welcome to visit my website.
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Jordan Bush
Jordan Bush is a photographer and writer based in the countryside just outside of Philadelphia, PA. Always adapting, he focuses on commercial photography and photojournalism. From snipers to social issues, his photojournalism work has taken him to five continents and counting.
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Capture One Pro is my must-have photo editing software for my professional wedding and portrait photography. It helps me edit large batches of images faster and create professional-grade photos for my clients – plus many other benefits!
In this blog, I’ll share 10 reasons why Capture One Pro is the go-to photo editor for professional work. Plus, I’ll share resources so you can learn more about the individual tools and features and discover them for yourself.
1. Customize your own Workspace
The ability to customize your own workspace in Capture One is an underrated but powerful feature – and one of my favorite things about the image editing software!
Every tool in Capture One is a “Floating Tool” and can be arranged anywhere on the workspace. You can move the tools around and customize each Tab to suit your workflow. My custom-built interface means I can quickly find the tools I need and cut down on my editing time.
I set up different Workspaces for different types of photography assignments – for example wedding shoots, portrait shoots, corporate portraits, etc.
Watch this quick tutorial to learn how to set up your perfect workspace.
2. Shoot directly to your computer with tethered capture
When I shoot portraits, it’s essential that the lighting is correct and super sharp – but it can be difficult to make sure of these details when looking at the LCD screen of my camera. That’s why I love Capture One’s tethered capture, which lets me shoot images directly into my computer and review each shot live.
Another advantage to tethered capture is that you can back up your files instantly, so you don’t risk losing your work. For professional photographers, time is money which is why it’s crucial to work efficiently.
This feature also allows me to apply the first color grading to the image, so the client can get a clear idea of my vision for the shoot.
3. Get total control of your colors
With powerful color editing tools, Capture One Pro gives you complete creative control of the colors in your image.
The color editing tools let you adjust the hue, saturation and luminance of any color – independently of any other color in the image. You can even adjust the highlights, mid-tones and shadows of any color independently from one another. This means that you can change the hue and saturation of a green leaf in sunlight without affecting the green of the grass in the shade.
There is also a tool specifically for skin tones. You can sample a subject’s skin tone, and then use a set of sliders to make the hue, saturation and luminance more uniform. This saves me from going through complex and time-consuming retouching processes.
Learn more – and check out the other posts on color editing in the Learning Hub.
4. Adjust parts of a photo with Masks and Layers
This feature is a game-changer. I use Masks to select a specific area of my image to edit – without affecting the rest. For example, in wedding photography I use masks to make edits to the sky without affecting the people in the image. I also use Layers to control the impact of certain edits by adjusting the opacity.
Check out this masterclass on Layers and Masking.
5. Choose between Catalogs or Sessions
Capture One lets you manage your files using either Catalogs or Sessions, and you can choose whichever option best suits your workflow. I personally use Sessions.
Sessions is directory-based, meaning you create one Session per project. Catalogs are database-driven, so each Catalog is organized around a theme – for example I could create a Catalog based around wedding or portrait shots.
For my work, it makes sense to have one Session per job. When I finish a job or project and deliver the images to my client, I can back up the Session and delete it from my computer – this keeps the amount of files I’m working with to a minimum.
Unsure whether Catalogs or Sessions suit you best? Learn more about Catalogs or Sessions in this webinar.
6. Save hours with Shortcut Keys
As a photographer editing large batches of photos, every second counts. If I can save 2 seconds spent editing each picture by using shortcuts, I’ve saved more than 13 minutes when editing 400 pictures (which is not an unusual amount of photos when editing a wedding shoot). That means if I shoot several weddings, I can save hours of work time by using shortcuts.
7. Export with ease using Process Recipes
Another great Capture One timesaver is Process Recipes – a fast way to export your photos for different purposes and destinations.
Think of it like a preset for export settings. Create recipes with specific settings for file naming, file format, export size – and process your photos using several different recipes at the same time. That means you can export the same photo with different settings for print and social media at the same time, instead of waiting for one export to finish before you start the next one.
Learn more about how to save time with Process Recipes in this short video.
8. Edit faster with Styles and Presets
Is there an adjustment setting that you use over and over? With Capture One Pro, you can save them as presets or set specific color grading as a Style, so you can easily access the same adjustment settings in the future.
Capture One also has a range of Styles – preset adjustments – developed in collaboration with major names in photography including Mastin Labs and Pratik Naik. They’re a great way to speed up workflows for professional photographers – use them as a starting point for your own editing or tweak them to speed up your process. Learn more about Styles in this free webinar
Image with Spectrum SP-03 Style applied
9. Software tailored to studios
Capture One also has a specific photo editing software designed for professional photo studios – Capture One Studio. With tools that automate data entry and colors profiled specifically for studio lighting, it saves photography studios both time and money and helps them shoot large volumes of photos, faster. Learn more about Capture One Studio
10. Designed with you in mind
One of the best things about Capture One Pro is that it’s designed with photographers in mind. The developers welcome feature requests, so if there’s something you’d like to see in a future version of the software, get in touch via Support or Social media.
If you don’t already have Capture One, download a 30 day trial and try it out.
Eager to learn? Access webinars, tutorials and expert help in the Learning Hub – completely free.
Jakob Boie Sørensen
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Jakob is a portrait and wedding photographer who also works as a Marketing Consultant with Capture One – his must-have tool for his professional work. Jakob is passionate about sharing his technical expertise and helping others discover the benefits of editing with Capture One.
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