Capture One by Phase One

Monday, September 26, 2011

Capture One by Phase One

Please Click >>>> PHASE ONE SITE 

Part I :

An Introduction to Some of the Features

   Capture One is a software program similar to  Adobe Lightroom 3 or Adobe Aperture 3. It downloads the images from your camera, and then it allows you to sort, rate, and repair the images. It's produced by the Hasselblad/Digital Back People, and so we know that the quality will certainly be there.

     The appearance of the program projects a certain level of "sophistication, which one would expect from Phase One (cameras and software). Because of the level of sophistication, it takes one longer in time to figure out what does what, how to bring up new menus, how to save files, and the whole array of the program. However, the steeper learning curve is a small sacrifice to pay for the high quality of this program!
     

The Opening Window

Gather Your Images to Develop and Sort


When you open the program, you are asked to work on an old session, or start afresh.

The Working Window

It looks simple enough until you start to work with it.

An Open File

Measuring and Reading the RGB+ Density

The Left Side Menu 

This menu deals mostly with color.

Close Up of One of The Left-Sided Menus

You can work on just a Certain Color

THe above Shows you Specific Work in the Blue Layer

Working with the B & W Menu

Split-Toning Menu

You Need to Checkmark the "Enable Black & White" Square

Data Information Menu

 A Menu That Allows you to Place Specific Menu Items at the Top of the Working Menu Bar

 A Working Window

AS with Lightroom and Aperture,working with a specifi image provides tou with a copy, rather than a new image form the old one.

Working With A Specific Color

This Image Illustrates Just the Color That You are Working With

(Please refer to  the Screen Capture above this photo)

You can Make Adjustments Just for 1 Color at a Time - Clever!

Part II :

Working on An Image

1. As usual, you never work on the original image.

In Capture One, you can make a "New Variant" or a "Clone Variant".

2. The # 2 is now the "New Variant".

This sounds more like a term form a Sci-FI movie!

  You can have the images in a folder appear in different ways at the bottom of the working window.

In the image above, there are small icons of your images, along with some brief data.

3. When you start with the histogram, you'll see red areas that represent "washed out detail". 

The term "Washed out" means that there is no detail, but just white.

The washed out areas in the photo.

The washed out areas can be reduced or eliminated by moving the slider of the histogram.

An attempt to "tone down" the washed out highlights.

"Tone down" means to make less apparent by reducing the intensity of the highlight.

In this case, now much could be done!

You can adjust one colour at a time.

In the above, I've worked with red.

Here is the histogram again.

Clicking on wither of 4 options (RGB, R, G, B) will allow you to work on any of the 4.

You can move the red line simply by holding the pointer (mouse) on the bottom red arrowhead and dragging it to the right or left.

I pulled it heavily to the right to exaggerate the effect (by adding lots of cyan)

Cyan is the opposite colour to Red.

Lots of Cyan

Even more Cyan

Here's an interesting feature.

In this menu, you have 2 options:

a. Review all of the images that you've recently worked in

b. Place a group of new images in a line (queue) and process them automatically - clever!

Here's how the window for the "queue" looks before adding your images for automatic professing

Here's the window for importing images

You can enlarge the image, once you've imported it, and then proceed to work on it.

So what do I think?

As usual, I try not to make not to make any judgements on what I write about. The cost of this software is $ 399.00 U.S. Perhaps, you can wait until it goes on sale to save on the cost.What I did find is that the software has a good learning curve. If you're familiar with Lightroom and Aperture, then it helps with the learning. Howoever, I personally found this program to be easier to work with.

Aesthetically, the window and menus are quite sophisticated and feel more like the controls of a high-end car.  The software also functions superbly. This software is used by many pro photographers around the world,and I can see why.So if you take lots of photos and haven't yet purchased Lightroom or Aperture, then you might want to think about Capture One. It probably doesn't sell as many copies as  Lightroom or Aperture, but then again neither do Rolls Royce or Porsche for that matter! 

Phaseone This is a link to phaseone.com/4/Software.