Capture One 21 (14.1) is here. Raise the bar on editing with Style Brushes that let you target specific parts of your photo, an Import Viewer that helps you quickly review images so you only import the best shots – and more. Capture One 20 Pro v13.0.4.8 Key here Capture One 20 Pro 2020 most powerful photo editing software just got better. Having read very favourable reviews towards Capture One 20, I decided to have a 30 days free trial. Looking for a user guide of this highly developed application, I am very disappointed seeing that.

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• Capture One 20
• Capture One 2020

A new license Capture One Pro 20 costs $299, with an upgrade $159. Sony and Fujifilm versions can be licensed for $129. A monthly, subscription is $15 a month. The Sony and Fujifilm subscriptions are $8 per month. If you want to give it a try there is a 30-day fully-featured free trial. Capture One Pro 20. 4.4 out of 5 stars 20. Hardcover $57.61 $ 57. Capture One Pro 10: Mastering Raw Development, Image Processing, and Asset.

The new version of Capture One 20.1 was released today, approximately six months after the release of Capture One 20. I am happy that this version brings some great and useful improvements – brand-new retouch tools and before/after view. An affordable version targeted on Nikon cameras shooters is available too.

First of all, I have to say that users were asking both main new features for a while and adding them is a step to catch up with the competition, but it doesn’t matter – they are very useful and make editing easier for current users and may be important for other users considering switching to Capture One.

Brand new retouch tools

Healing brush and clone stamp tools are closely bonded to the concept of layers in Capture One. This brings certain advantages like the possibility to switch on and off the edits temporarily, naming them or copying them selectively between photos. On the other hands, this concept had limitations too: every layer had a single source for retouching relative to every brushstroke, how it is shown on the following image:

As you can see, more retouching layers were needed for complex retouches. And the total number of layers is limited in Capture One. This problem is a thing of the past starting from version 20.1. Now you can easily use as many sources for retouching in a single layer as you need:

Even though the basic usage of the tools is similar to previous versions, there are some differences. The main one is that original single brush for all was split into three separate tools which create corresponding layers automatically when you start to paint over the Background layer:

• Draw mask (keyboard shortcut B as a Brush) is a brush for adjustments layers
• Draw Healing Mask draws masks for healing layers. Its keyboard shortcut is Q (you may easily remember it as the Q letter resembles the circle with the arrow which represents the retouch in the photo)
• Draw Cloning Mask draws masks for cloning layers. Its keyboard shortcutS (like (clone) Stamp) is the same as in Photoshop or Affinity Photo
  

New tools required some changes in the main toolbar:

The Layers tool changed similarly:

This new approach may divide users – some would like to stay with a single brush with different behavior driven by layer type, and some will appreciate the behavior similar to other editors like Photoshop. You will probably need some time to adapt because drawing with the standard brush like before into the repair layer will automatically create a new adjustments layer or will paint into the topmost existing adjustments layer. The Eraser tool (keyboard shortcut E) erases masks for each type of layer.

All tools now have new mouse cursors so it is evident, which tool is active:

The great thing is, that each stroke can be easily modified later by brush or eraser. You just need to select a circle representing single retouch by clicking it, it’s color will change to orange and then drawing and erasing will modify its mask:

You can create a series of retouches of different parts of the image this way, if the same relative source will work:

Anyway, this concept similar to the way how retouches worked in older Capture One versions probably has no other advantage than less of the visual clutter in the photo with a smaller number of arrows representing individual retouches.

The second click on the circle deselects the retouch, and a new brush stroke will create a new retouch with an automatically selected source. If you prefer to use a different source for your retouch, you can easily drag the circle with the mouse. Alternatively, you can choose the source manually before you start to draw a mask by clicking the appropriate area with holding the Alt key. If you decide to remove a single retouch, just select it by clicking on the circle and then press Backspace (on Mac) or Delete (on Windows).

It is still true that individual retouches do not “see” each other. If you select the retouched area as a source, the new retouch will use the original unretouched image. This is probably for performance reasons because you can edit all existing retouches and this way Capture One has not to recalculate the result of each retouch after changing the other one. It is still a bit limiting but with the ability to choose multiple retouch sources in a single layer, it matters less.

It is a bit disappointing, that you can reposition the retouch source, but not its target. I used it a few times in case of a series of very similar, but not exactly the same images. Anyway, I am personally very satisfied with retouching tools now. Probably the last thing I miss is the ability to put multiple radial gradients into a single layer. Hopefully Phase One will bring this feature into future versions.

Unexpected regression is, that you cannot use retouches when editing offline files in version 20.1. It is true, that preview, which you edit in such a case, differs from the original as it is smaller and compressed, so the result of such a retouch may be inaccurate, but it is still pity, that we lost this ability.

Before/After view of the edited photo

Until this version, the Capture One used a temporary reset of settings to display images before edits. Actually, I liked the idea and didn’t miss a different approach (especially because with Capture One I started to use before/after view for individual tools more often than globally), but I know, that many people were asking for a solution that better fits their needs. And Phase One was finally listing to them and created new Before/After tool available from the main menu View → Before/After, with keyboard shortcut Y or from the main toolbar:

There are two modes of displaying the before and after image: the first one is called Full View and switches between both states of the image, the second one called Split View Slider splits the image into two halves – left one displays the unedited image and right one edited version. In this view, you can drag the boundary between both views by mouse.

You can switch between these two modes from the main menu View → Before/After Mode, from the context menu which appears when you click and hold the Before/After button in the toolbar and with keyboard shortcut Shift+Y. Like always, you can change keyboard shortcuts to find your needs, if you want.

Funkce Before/After in its current state will probably work for most users. Ony missing mode known from other applications is side by side view of edited and unedited photos. Because Capture One doesn’t offer an editing history, you cannot choose the state of the “before“ image – it is always original unedited RAW. It is still true that Capture One doesn’t disable geometric adjustments (crop, rotation, keystone, and geometric distortion fixes made by lens profile) for the unedited image. It makes a good sense and other photo applications behave mostly the same.

Editing in before/after view behaves differently in each mode. When you use Full View mode, any adjustments made will automatically switch you back to the edited image. If you are in Split View Slider, you can continue with editing the photo and changes display in After area of the image (with exception of geometric adjustments which are disabled in this mode).

With the new Before/After function the temporary reset of edits by clicking on reset and holding the Alt key is gone, which I think is a shame. Of course, you can still use this feature to temporarily reset individual tools.

Other news

There are a bunch of smaller features for new users of the Capture One. Maybe most important is improved import of Lightroom catalog, which can now handle offline images too and reports failed imports (i.e. for unsupported file formats) better than before.

Onboarding for new users has improved a lot. The process of logging to users’ account and license activation is more convenient and understandable. The simple wizard offers an option to adapt the user interface a bit (for example to move tools to the left side).

If you want to just test Capture One, you can start with the bundled catalog with sample images. I am honored, that you will find one of my photos in this sample catalog, so you start to play with it or just look at the details that the medium format Fujifilm GFX100 can capture.

Version 20.1 changed preload workspaces – some similar ones were merged into one and the special black and white editing workspace is gone. You can easily create your own if you like it.

Big news for Nikon shooters is a special Nikon edition. Similarly to existing Fujifilm and Sony versions, the Capture One for Nikon offers all features of the Pro version limited to RAW files from Nikon cameras only for a lower price. You can choose a perpetual license or subscription and a more limited free Express version is available too. With a new version, Nikon shooters get the simulation of Picture Control profiles too – it is supported for these cameras: D6, D5, D850, D810/D810A, D800, D780, D750, D610, D500, D7500, D5600, D5500, D3500, D3400, D3300, Z7, Z6 a Z50.

As usual, the new version adds support for few more cameras:

• Canon 250D
• Canon PowerShot G5 X Mark II
• Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III
• Nikon P950
• Leica M10 Monochrom
• Olympus E-M1 Mark III
• Phase One iXH-150
• Zeiss ZX
  

and lenses:

• Sony FE 20mm F1.8 G (SEL20F18G)
• Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 Di III RXD (Sony FE)
• Fujifilm FUJINON XF16-55mm F2.8 R LM WR
• Phase One XT – Rodenstock HR Digaron-W 50mm f/4
• Ricoh GR III fixed lens
• Canon PowerShot G5 X Mark II fixed lens
  

The last news is a new logo. OK, I will get used to it, although I preferred the previous logo. The change is related to the fact that individual editions now have a different branding using the corporate colors of cooperating camera manufacturers.

Capture One 20.1 is a free update for users of version 20. You can upgrade to it from versions 11 and 12. The prices of new licenses are as follows:

• version Pro: perpetual license starts from 349 euro, subscriptions starts from 220 euro/year
• Fujifilm/Nikon/Sony editions: perpetual license starts from 149 euro, subscriptions starts from 109 euro/year
• Fujifilm/Nikon/Sony Express versions: free
  

(European prices with VAT)

You may support my work by buying Capture One license, subscription, or styles using this partner link. As a great bonus, you can save 25% on Capture One Pro annual subscription – just enter code ANNUAL25 during checkout. The offer is valid till November 2nd, 2020.

As a non-native speaker, I use Grammarly to proofread my English texts. Try it for free.

Learn to understand the new High Dynamic Range tool in Capture One 20. In particular, what can you achieve with the Black and White sliders, both compared to and combined with the familiar Shadow and Highlight adjustments? Time for an investigation.

High Dynamic Range In Capture One 20

Capture One 20 surprised us with a makeover of the High Dynamic Range tool. As I already explained in my Capture One Pro 20 Review, there are two significant changes.

In the first place, the sliders now work in two directions from a neutral position (0 or zero) in the center. You now can both brighten and darken your highlights and shadows.

In addition to the broader range, the tool gave us two extra sliders, White and Black, next to the existing Highlight and Shadow sliders.
In this post, I look into how these new sliders work and compare them with the existing and well-known two sliders. To prevent losing oversight due to an overflow of information, I use all the sliders in their conventional way, meaning to brighten dark areas and darken bright areas.

Please note that this is not a tutorial as usual. It is a rather technical study of a feature in Capture One. That said, it helps me with my day-to-day editing in Capture One. Hopefully, it helps you as well.

Other Applications

Please be aware that the Black and White sliders in Capture One should not be confused with similarly named sliders in some other applications. In those other apps, you can use their black and white sliders to set the black and white points. Capture One has the Levels tool for that purpose.

What I Wanted To Know

I wanted to know how the sliders work on different brightness levels within the dynamic range of my camera. What can I achieve with the new sliders, and when is it best to use the Black slider over the Shadow slider and the White slider over the Highlight slider? And last but not least, does combining sliders – Shadow + Black or Highlight + White – bring any additional benefit?

I assumed that the Black slider affects the darkest areas of an image, in contrast to the Shadow slider, which works more towards the mid-tones. Likewise, my assumption about the White slider is that it affects the brightest areas only, where the Highlight adjustment works on bright areas towards the mid-tones.

I wanted to test my assumptions.

What I Did

With my Sony A7R III and its presumed dynamic range of approximately 15 stops, I decided to create a range of exposures from a gray area. I decided to stick to a continuous light source: daylight, a cloudy sky. With the aperture set to f/16 I pointed my Zeiss Batis 135mm lens to the sky, intentionally set out of focus.

Capture One 20 Youtube

The 1/60 second exposure was the nominal exposure, which gave a luminance level of approx. 128 in the Capture One Viewer with all settings in their default position. My shortest exposure time is 1/8000 second, which equaled the -7EV exposure in the range. The longest exposure was 2 seconds, representing the +7EV exposure in the range.

All images were captured with Capture One Pro 20 within a minute to minimize atmospheric changes messing with the exposure. I made several sequences on several occasions and took the best sequence to work on.

Results Of Individual Adjustments

Let us start with a baseline: a graph representing the brightness levels of all 15 images, without any High Dynamic Range tool adjustment. Note that apart from a White Balance adjustment for a neutral gray image, no other adjustments were made in this test.

What you see in the chart above is an S-shaped curve, which is typical for the applied film curve in the Base Characteristics tool. If I had chosen another curve than the default Film Standard (or Auto for that matter), the baseline would be different.

Note that this blue curve will appear in all other graphs below, as a reference.

Highlight Or White

In the next graph, you see a -100 adjustment for either Highlight (green line) or White (yellow), sequentially, not concurrently.

What becomes immediately apparent is that for the brightest levels (+4, +5, +6, and +7EV), there is no difference between the Highlight or the White slider adjustment.

For the medium bright levels (+1, +2, and +3EV), the White slider is less effective than the Highlight slider. Note that the Highlight slider is effective below the 0EV exposure, although to a very little extend.

Beach Scene Adjusted with White Slider

Before we look at the Shadow and Black sliders, I like to share an image to demonstrate the differences between the Highlight and White sliders.

The differences are subtle, but visible in the before/after comparison. The bright sky at the right has a luminance value of 200 in both cases (originally 240). The difference is towards the mid-tones.

The sand area is 139 (Highlight adjustment) or 152 (White adjustment). Because the White adjustment is less effective towards the mid-tones, the overall impression of the image is brighter with the same amount of darkening the bright sky.

Long story short: White is the new Highlight.

Shadow Or Black

How does brightening the dark areas of our images work with the Shadow and the new Black slider? When you look at the graph below, you immediately see an entirely different picture.

The Shadow slider (green line) at +100 has little to no effect on the darkest area (-7 and -6EV). It starts to become effective from -5EV and becomes most effective around -4 to -2EV region and works beyond the 0EV exposure, just like the Highlight slider does from the other direction.

Capture One 20

The Black slider (yellow line) at +100 tells an entirely different story. It loves brightening the darkest areas in the range from -7 to -4EV. Beyond that, its effect weakens and becomes almost zero around -1EV.

As a result, the curves of the Shadow and Black slider cross each other halfway between -4 and -3EV. Both the Shadow and Black sliders each have their working area, and they perfectly complement each other.

Results Of Combined Adjustments

Apart from comparing siblings in adjustments, Highlight versus White and Shadow versus Black, I am also interested in the potential benefit of combining them.

So the question is: does a combination of Highlight and White and similarly Shadow and Black bring some extra dimensions in adjusting my images or does it not makes any sense? Let us take a look at the graphs and another image.

Combining Highlight and White

In the graph below, you see four colors. Blue is our baseline, with no adjustments. Green is a Highlight -100 adjustment and the yellow line the -100 White correction as in an earlier example. The red curve shows -100 for Highlight and White combined.

As you see, there is a little cumulative effect in combining both adjustments, but not much. You could see it as a slightly stronger Highlight adjustment.

Interior Adjusted With HDR

Before we dig into the next graph on combining Shadow and Black adjustments, let us have a look at this castle’s interior image. In the before/after comparison, you see the image without adjustments and with multiple High Dynamic Range adjustments.

The High Dynamic Range adjustments that I made in this image were Highlight/White both -100 (for the window), Shadow/Black both +35. The combination of Shadow/Black made it easy to find the right balance between brightening the shadow to a reasonable level and prevent the overcooked HDR look.

In the collage above you see the effect of the individual Shadow and Black adjustments, and the combined Shadow/Black adjustments. When you see the graph in the next section, it starts making more sense.

Combining Shadow and Black

In the following graph, you again see four colors. And when you compare the graph with the previous one, you immediately notice an entirely different behavior.

Again, the blue curve is our baseline, with no adjustments. The green line represents the +100 Shadow adjustment and the yellow line the +100 Black adjustment. I discussed these earlier in this post.

The red line is the result of the +100 Shadow and Black adjustments combined. The cumulative effect is evident. But note the darkest area at -7EV. The combined result is much stronger compared to what I would expect from the individual adjustments. Here some magic is going on.

Using Presets

I am a big fan of using presets for my day-to-day adjustments, for several reasons. One of the reasons is that I can make combinations of sliders in a single preset or range of presets and apply them in a single stroke. Hovering over a list of presets let me review the effect of each one before making one effective with a mouse click.

For the High Dynamic Range tool in Capture One 20, I made a new set of presets. The collection not only covers the new sliders and all sliders in both directions but also combines several sliders in different combinations.

The Highlight and White sliders have combined presets, as do Shadow and Black. But there is also Highlight-Shadow range as well as a White-Black range, and all four combined, either in a symmetrical fashion as well as asymmetrical, like more Highlight than Shadow, for example.

You can find the High Dynamic Range presets in the webshop, where you also find a free subset to try.

Conclusions

When you look at the effect of the Black versus the Shadow slider, it is clear that the Black slider adds new capabilities. It is a new tool, that on its own or combined with the Shadow slider, opens up entirely new abilities.

Its effect covers my assumptions very well, and add some more. Black is indeed for the darkest tones in the image, an area the Shadow slider does not touch.

The Highlight and White combo is a different story. You can not compare it to the Shadow and Black combination. The Highlight slider is already working on the brightest areas in the image, where the Shadow slider was not for the darkest part.

The new White slider can only copy the correction of the brightest tones. In addition, the White slider is affecting mid-tone to brighter areas less than the Highlight slider. That is a big bonus, although more subtle when you compare it to the Shadow and Black sliders. Combining the Highlight and White does sliders can be beneficial as well.

The bottom line is that both new sliders, White and Black, open new capabilities not available earlier with the Highlight and Shadow sliders. How to use them is a matter of practice. Hopefully, this post points you in the right direction.

Thank you

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Best Regards,

Image Alchemist