The time
has come for us to get in action. We have loaded our RAW pictures
that we wish to convert into the Browser section of Capture One. Now
we should choose the first photo and convert it into a JPEG. You can
start it by double-clicking any of the photos in the broweser.
This
time we will show a quick conversion method, a hasty setting of explosion
and colors, which will be made easier by the use of Capture One. How?
This software has a Quick tools palette. This is located in the Tool
dialog introduced in our previous article, where Library is. There
is the Quick panel icon with all the major setting options needed
for picture conversion next to Library icon.
Histog…what?!
The first dialog
to greet us is a histogram showing the hue arrangement of the photo.
It is capable of displaying not just luminance channel but also all
three color channels of RGB color space. I’m sure I don’t have to
explain that the blue line stands for the blue channel, while the
red one shows the red color proportion. Under histogram, some information
on exposition has been given room such as sensitivity, exposure time
and shutter value. The arrow on the left side of the headline will
close or open the given window section, while the arrow on the right
will open its settings or default settings. With the help of the right
arrow in Histogram, or by hitting Ctrl+E, you can have the burnt-out
or blackened picture areas displayed. The former is a red, the latter
is a blue patch on the screen. Unless we set them another color in
the options mentioned above or at Preferences menu.
The
basic characteristics of the picture
Base
Characteristics under histogram is a very important and unique part
of Capture One. You can load various camera types’ ICC color profiles
here (ICC Profile) and you can also give the shades curve (Curve)
of the picture. You will find all the cameras supported by the software
among the color profiles, and some even have several setting options,
and so pictures taken in sunlight or with a flash can also be rendered
an appropriate profile. Apart from cameras, different color effects
can be chosen. With a single click, change to black-and-white or sepia
shade in Effects menu, and if you don’t need special color settings,
then simply turn off this function with No Color Correction in the
Other section.
Curve menu has
four shade curves for the users. Film Standard means the basic setting.
This provides the result that resembles normal contrast in the picture
the most. If a photo is originally too full of contrasts, it’s better
to use Film Extra Shadow setting, which will make the shadows lighter,
revealing more details in these areas. But if its opposite is the
problem, then Film High Contrast could mean the solution, which makes
the picture more lively. Like Film Extra Shadow, Linear Response also
yields a dull, contrast-poor result with a straightened curve, and
so the mid-tones also become a bit darker. Settings in Curves provide
ground for further work, just like the optimally selected ICC profile.
You will find on the right side of the headlines of Base Characteristics
an arrow pointing downwards, and one pointing to the left. The latter
appears in several other palettes as well and it clears the settings
used, or in other words, it returns the original state of the photo.
White
should be white
White
Balance part is surely familiar to every digital cameraman, since
they know this setting on their camera. This option is essential for
a good color balance in the photo, since a camera — in contrast with
the human eye — is unable to compensate for the discoloring effect
of the different waves of light. Therefore a camera will always have
to know what the light source was and adjust colors accordingly. If
this did not happen either because of the camera or the photographer,
we are talking about a wrong white balance, and we can only post-edit
the setting. It’s quite a nuisance with a JPEG, as there are fewer
hues, but is much less of a problem with a RAW. You can post-edit
color balance practically with no harm. If you don’t want to spend
much time with this, use the little A-icon in the headline of the
panel, which stands for automatic white balance. It’ not always perfect,
so you may well have to resort to the settings in White Balance.
The
simplest way is to use Presets also known from the cameras' settings,
use of factory settings that is. You can choose them in Mode menu.
Shot is the original state, but you’ll find Daylight, Tungsten or
Cloudy options adjusted to time as well.
If the result is
still not perfect, there are two things to choose from (third is total
despair, but that’s no way to walk for RAW). One is to click with
the eye drop icon next to Mode on a point of the photo that does not
contain color information, which means it is mid-grey or white perhaps.
It will be a piece of cake if you first take a photo of a grey or
color card, which will serve as a reference for the eye-drop sample.
Well, this would work in a studio photographing situation, but not
during action photos. So we are left with Marvin and Tint sliders.
The upper one regulates color temperature, at 1 Kelvin grades, while
the bottom one shifts amends the colors of the picture by shifting
them to the green (left) or purple (right) direction.
A
little trick for the use of these sliders: if you drag the mouse pointer
over any of them and then turn the scroll wheel of the mouse, their
value will change step by step. This method works with all the sliders
of the software.
Basic
Exposures
Factory
settings of Exposure might be quite familiar to anyone who has ever
seen a photo editing software. In case you under- or overexpose the
photo, Exposure settings can still improve it, with +/- 2.5 exposure
value (EV), with 0.5 EV steps. Contrast setting is just below it.
It turns a picture more vivid, or more dull if you wish. Brightness
will influence the lights in +/- 50 steps. If you are lucky, you won’t
even need it after setting Curve profile and the appropriate Exposure
+ Contrast settings. Finally, there is Saturation, which changes saturation
of colors. If you drag it to the left completely, the picture becomes
black-and-white, shift it to the right to strengthen colors.
Another
trick Before setting white balance with the eye drop tool, that is
when you define the mid-grey reference point of the picture, set Saturation
to the maximum. Color will be more distinct and so it will be easier
for you to define mid-grey reference point.
High
Dynamic Range
High
Dynamic panel is a big help with digital cameras, as their contrast
range is usually quite small. Definitely smaller than our eyes. As
a result, it may well be that the areas where our eyes can still see
will be too dark or bright in a digital photo. A solution is RAW,
which has the potential to display such parts correctly. Shadow and
Highlight sliders here are of help. By increasing Shadow, you’ll brighten
the shady parts, while Highlights will help darken too bright areas
without modifying other hues in the photo. Usually, it is better to
play with these sliders after setting exposure.
Conversion
If the
edited image is to your liking, conversion is the next step, which
can be started with the Process button at the bottom of the panel.
Before you start, it’s worth to take a look at the summary info above.
You can see here in what file format and quality the image converted
from RAW will be saved, what color profile the photo will have. If
you would like to change the settings, click on Output panel a few
steps away, where all these can be modified. Now is the time to push
the Process button. The result of the action can be a compressed 8-bit
JPEG, or an 8-16 bit TIFF file, or another RAW file in DNG format.
It’s
advisable to follow the conversion steps as the Quick Panel sections
were put in order by the writers of the software. So a Quick RAW conversion
looks like this:
• Load
the RAW file
• Switch to Q (Quick) panel
• Information on Exposition, tone distribution check in histogram
• Choosing ICC color profile according to the camera type
• Choosing the curve profile according to the contrasts of the photo
• Setting white balance
• Setting Exposition (brightness, contrast, saturation)
• Dynamics correction, if necassary
• Checking conversion settings, and correction if necessary in Process
panel
• Launching JPEG (TIFF, DNG) conversion
If you
feel irresistible desire to try the software even after this dry lecture,
you can find the 30-day trial version here
(new version: Capture One 6).
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