Capture One Pro 7 now has the ability to store your images in a catalog.
Sessions supported in Capture One 6 and earlier versions, can still be used.
First let's look at how to populate an empty catalog with images.
There are three ways to populate a catalog in Capture One Pro 7.
Importing images from an existing folder on your hard drive or memory card,
shooting tethered from a supported DSLR
or importing an existing catalog from Media Pro.
Capture One Pro 7 will create a new, empty catalog on the first start-up
if you chose this option in the start-up screens.
Otherwise, click on the plus icon in the Library tool and choose New Catalog
to name the catalog and to choose where it is stored on your system.
To import images, press the large icon in the center of the screen
or the matching icon in the toolbar.
Select where to import image files from and click Open.
Under Import To, decide where to store the imported images.
Choosing Inside Catalog
will store the images within the catalog file itself.
The image files and catalog file can be stored in separate locations.
This is useful when storing images on external drives or servers.
In this case, choose the Current Location option.
Automatic backups can also be set
by checking Backup Enabled and setting a location.
Decide on the naming format for the imported files.
Click here to build any number of naming formats.
Using Image Name will retain the existing file name.
Finally metadata and adjustments can be set in the further two menus.
Check Include Existing Adjustments if you are importing raw files
that have already been worked on in earlier versions of Capture One.
Click Import All Images here and the import process will start.
The activity monitor will open, showing the import process.
Once the import has finished,
the images will appear as thumbnails along the bottom of the screen.
Change the thumbnail display by clicking on one of the three icons.
The current catalog is shown here, within the Library tool.
The Library tool is used to display and organize the current catalog.
You will see that it is split into three sections:
Fixed, User and Folders.
The content of the Fixed window cannot be changed
and shows fixed albums of all images in the catalog,
recent imports, recent captures and the trash.
The User area allows the creation of albums, smart albums,
projects and groups.
Any number of projects can be created within a catalog.
Subsequently that project can contain any number of albums or smart albums.
Groups are simply a way of grouping together projects or albums.
The hierarchy is very flexible,
enabling you to create the image catalog for your needs.
Images can then simply be drag-and-dropped into an album.
Albums and smart albums are the only elements that can contain images.
To create an album, click on the plus icon in the User area,
and select New Album.
Then simply drag any image or groups of images into the new album.
Recently opened catalogs are shown here.
Simply select other catalogs to switch between them
or open them from the File pull-down menu.
Now we have a populated catalog, let's adjust some images.
Capture One 7 uses individual profiles for your camera
for delivering the best out-of-the-box results
in terms of color rendition, noise reduction and detail.
There is an extensive set of adjustment tools
to give you the look you desire.
Let's look at a simple workflow to get you started.
Tool tabs are shown here on the left-hand side.
The various tools are placed within these tabs.
Hover the mouse over the icon to see the title.
First move to the color tool tab.
Take the white balance picker and choose a neutral area in the image.
White balance can also be adjusted by using the sliders here.
Images needing the same adjustment,
can easily be adjusted by using Copy and Apply commands.
Command-click other images that would benefit from the same adjustment.
For this operation, it may be helpful to see the images in a multi view.
Click here and this will tile any selected images.
Command-clicking further images will add them to the multi view.
To apply the same adjustment from the primary variant,
indicated by the white border,
Shift-Click on the Copy/Apply icon in the tool bar.
Shift-clicking is an effective shortcut to copy and apply
the adjustment to the images.
This method works with one adjustment tool.
However, it is just as simple to copy global adjustments
from one image to several as above.
Use the Copy and Apply Adjustments command
in the Adjustments pull-down menu.
Note the shortcut keys for fast access.
Each tool has a number of icons on the top bar.
If a question mark is visible here,
it gives access to useful online help about that particular tool.
If an A is present, this will action auto adjustment of the current tool
on any selected images.
The next gives access to the Copy/Apply command, as seen earlier.
Use the modifier keys to change the behavior.
The next resets the tool to default settings.
The reset action will apply for all selected images.
Hold down the Option key to temporarily reset the tool.
This is very useful for viewing the effect a tool has.
The next manages presets.
Tools can have a preset value saved
and recalled within the same menu.
Take time to browse the tool tabs
to see the extent of adjustments Capture One Pro 7 offers.
Other tutorials available on wwwphaseone.com
go into more detail on different tools.
Once you are happy with the adjustments to your images,
they can be exported in a variety of image formats.
Select one or more images to export
and then click on the Export Variants icon in the toolbar.
The Export dialogue will open.
Work through the dialogue to set up the export parameters.
First choose a location for the exported files.
Choose a naming format for the exports.
Leaving the format set to Image Name
will retain the raw file-name in the export.
Click here to adjust the naming format.
The recipe is the parameters which will form the basis of the image output,
for example, the file format and scale.
Many different file formats can be selected from the pull-down menu here.
Decide on the other parameters and then advance to the Adjustments tab.
Within this tab it's possible to disable the sharpening set in Capture One,
a useful feature if the image is going to be sharpened
after further post-production work.
Finally, the Metadata tab lists options to include various metadata.
Click on Export to complete the process.
The activity monitor will open, showing the export progress.
As this is a background process,
you can continue to work on your images.
To learn more about Capture One Pro 7,
use the help icons around the application
and view additional tutorial videos available on www.phaseone.com.