Adobe

Of course, when it comes to photo editing, we have to start Adobe, the leader in the industry in terms of the number of users, name recognition, and overall company value.

Adobe is constantly updating its software and adding features based on AI to Photoshop and Lightroom.  For example, they added a Denoise features that automatically removes noise/grain from images shot at high ISOs.  This new feature goes beyond the previous, simple tools, and creates a whole new raw DNG file.  They also added the ability to make precise edits to clothing and facial hair, as well as new AI mask categories (eyes, eyebrows, lips, hair, etc) for automatically generating a mask in any portrait. These are just a few of the features powered by AI in the Adobe ecosystem.

When it comes to photo editing software, the question, for most photographers, is not whether you should use Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, but, what else should you add on top of Adobe Lightroom to help your workflow? In other words, most photographers’ workflows will begin and end in Lightroom. Beyond that, however, you may add additional apps, extensions, or plugins.

Luminar Neo

Luminar Neo is a standalone photo editing software application developed by Skylum, a Ukrainian company. Luminar NEO is the newest version in their long line of capable software; this one adds the power of AI to almost every feature. Primarily, Luminar Neo includes what they call Enhance AI, which has two components, Sky Enhancer AI and Accent AI.  Accent AI balances hue, saturation, highlights, contrast, and details, while Sky Enhancer AI automatically detects and enhances the skies in a photo.

You might consider Luminar NEO if you’re a landscape photographer, a photographer who edits each image individually, or a photographer with a bold and vibrant style of photo editing.  You could also consider Luminar NEO if you don’t like the pricing structure of Adobe and you’re looking for Adobe alternatives, however, the overall workflow is more convenient in Lightroom.

Impossible Things

Impossible Things is a new AI Photo Editor from the creators of DVLOP and SLR Lounge.  The AI works inside Adobe Lightroom, automatically adjusting 38 different settings for each image to arrive at a final result.

In addition to its advanced capabilities, Impossible Things is the only AI editing solution that natively works with Lightroom Presets, allowing it to adjust itself situationally without requiring extra training or uploading new catalogs to a cloud or server. For photographers who don’t have their own presets, Impossible Things provides an expanding collection of “cloud styles” that offer instant access to a range of popular looks. (DVLOP is known for its world-class development of “looks” that range from vibrant & punchy to muted, pastel colors, as well as accurate film emulation.)

The AI also incorporates camera profiles and features a patent-pending “Lighting Condition Based Development” system that adapts image color, contrast, and dynamic range to specific lighting conditions.

Retouch4me

Retouch4me specializes in creating A.I. powered photo retouching tools, which you can use as standalone apps or also as plug-ins for Photoshop. Portrait photographers, in particular, will appreciate Retouch4me’s current selection of AI plugins. Among the collection, you’ll find specialized plugins for masking and healing skin, dodging and burning, smoothing fabric, cleaning up backdrops, and color matching, among others.

Check out the video below to see how SLR Lounge Co-Founder Pye Jirsa made the plug-ins a regular part of his post-production workflow.

These AI plugins are available for individual purchase (prices range from $124-$149), but they can be stacked together. Retouch4me delivers on quality and the time saved from using their tools adds immediate value. After all, the real benefit of integrating AI tools like this into your workflow is to get professional-quality results and streamline your workflow to make time for other, non-editing tasks. It’s worth noting that you can try each plugin for free before you purchase it (and pick up a free plugin for frequency separation).

Special Offer: 20% Off for the SLR Lounge Community

SLR Lounge community members can save 20% on any or all of Retouch4me’s plugins. Just use the following code during checkout: SLRLounge20

Topaz Studio

Topaz Labs is a software company that creates powerful and easy-to-use editing tools.  Topaz offers three primary pieces of software that use AI for more technical tasks:

• Topaz DeNoise AI – Eliminate noise while recovering detail in high-ISO and low light images.
• Topaz Sharpen AI – Sharpen images without artifacts to help with shake reduction, focus correction, and blur removal.
• Topaz Gigapixel AI – Get better photo quality by enhancing the detail and upscaling for printing, cropping, restoration and more.

You can purchase any of these applications separately and integrate them into your Lightroom workflow, or you can purchase Topaz Photo AI, which offers a combination of all three applications. Topaz Photo AI offers slightly less advanced tools than the individual applications.

Topaz is a great tool to have in your software lineup, as it can help you save photos that might otherwise be discarded. On the one hand, things like noise, sharpening, and enlargement all lend themselves very well to being assisted by AI. On the other hand, of course, these aren’t the artistic aspects of photography itself, so they are definitely meant to just complement your main creative workflow.

Aftershoot

Aftershoot CULL is a feature that enables you to sort through each pose, variation, or group of people in a photo shoot and select the best image. You can set your own preferences and determine the “keepers” based on factors such as image sharpness or the subject’s smile. You can also adjust the number of keepers for each pose, selecting only a few images based on specific criteria.

Aftershoot EDITS is another feature that allows you to apply your own personal style of color correction and artistic editing to your photos. It learns from your existing work and can automatically perform technical corrections such as straightening and cropping. You can also use your own creative profiles to switch up your editing style.

See our full Aftershoot Review here.

ACDSee

ACDSee, which has been in existence since the early days of digital photography, is comparable to Adobe in terms of its longevity. Although it is not as well-known, the company’s Photo Studio Ultimate software for photo workflow and editing has garnered a loyal following among users who prefer it over Lightroom.

ACDSee’s Photo Studio Ultimate 2023 has been updated with an emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, including a fresh Face Edit feature and subject removal, aligning it more closely with rival offerings from Adobe, Capture One, and Skylum.  The latest version of the app, released in 2023, features layer-editing capabilities similar to Photoshop, and some of its tools, such as Light EQ adjusters, are particularly effective.

However, it lags behind top competitors in areas such as initial raw camera file conversion quality, import speed, the effectiveness of some corrections, and interface usability. For these reasons, our Editors’ Choice photo workflow app, Adobe Lightroom Classic, is recommended for those with higher volume workflows.

Spyne

Spyne AI is an app that takes advantage of AI’s powerful ability to identify mechanical things, cars in this case. Entirely dedicated to auto vehicle photo editing, Spyne allows users to create a “Virtual Car Studio”, putting your car on a showroom floor, and making adjustments such as controlling tint on windows.

The app offers over 100 backgrounds, from showrooms to on-location photo scenes, and a scalable (high-volume) workflow. Last but not least, you can use their technology to turn your own car

Remove.bg

With a straightforward interface, Remove.bg allows you to easily eliminate the background of an uploaded image. Within moments, Remove.bg will return the image without the background.

The standard definition image is available for free download, but higher resolutions require credits, which must be purchased.  Remove.bg also provides options to replace the background with a new one. You can choose from the given backgrounds or upload your own. If you prefer, you can blur the background of the image instead of removing it.

While Remove.bg is free to use, there are limitations. The tool allows unlimited low-quality versions of an image for free. Additionally, creating a free account enables you to download one high-quality image for free.  To access further features, payment is required. As you purchase more image credits, the cost per credit decreases. If you plan to use Remove.bg programmatically, you must pay for API calls too.

autoRetouch

This AI-powered retouching software is made for all types of product photographers, it offers a host of features that may be attractive to e-commerce type businesses.

In addition to basic tools such as automatically removing and changing subject backgrounds, autoRetuoch offers tools such as various cropping, alignment, and border padding tools. Also, besides simple portrait retouching and background “cleanup” tools, there are advanced tools  for product photographers such as extracting a fabric swatch from clothing photos, and generating/exporting different vector paths.

Pixlr

Pixlr is a photo editing software that comes in both free and paid versions. The free version includes standard photo editing features such as background removal (with a separate app available), filters, effects, animations, and collage creation.

The paid version provides access to a vast selection of photo overlays, stickers, assets, exclusive editing tools, and tutorials. Additionally, Pixlr allows users to open images from cloud storage platforms like Google Drive and Dropbox, making it a preferred choice for professionals who need to make quick and simple edits.

Capture One

Capture One is the biggest rival to Adobe Lightroom, because it too offers a catalog system. This means Capture One is capable of a start-to-finish workflow, in addition to special editing tools.

Catering primarily to all types of portrait photographers, the software’s Smart Adjustments tool uses AI to apply exposure and white balance corrections to any photo with a face in it. Of course, Capture One also offers some highly useful tools that all types of photographers will appreciate, and is known for film-like colors that portrait and landscape photographers alike appreciate.

Other AI Photo Editing

Below are other AI Photo Editing options to consider and research.  As we explore each of the companies mentioned below, we’ll expand on them and update this article.

• Movavi Picverse
• PortraitPro 23
• Imagen AI
• Leawo PhotoIns
• Lunacy
• Quik.ai
• Claid.ai
• Slazzer
• Prisma
• Lensa

Conclusion – AI Photo Editing Is Getting Even Better!

As artificial intelligence continues to evolve, it is clear that AI photo editing is the future. What is possible now will seem very common in a few years or less! Thanks to its ability to save time and improve results, AI is poised to revolutionize the world of photography. We created this article to help you understand and utilize this powerful tool to your advantage! Be sure to check back regularly for news about improvements and new opportunities.

In this video, and in the article synopsis below, I will dive into the Loupedeck CT, (which we’ve already reviewed here) with a special focus on how it integrates with a Capture One Pro workflow. I’ll talk about both the advantages and disadvantages; spoiler alert- if you can afford this device’s $550 price tag, and if you love editing your photos, you need to give this thing a try!

Loupedeck CT for Capture One Pro | The Perfect Tool For Editing Photos?

What Is The Loupedeck CT?

The Loupedeck is a physical device that compliments your keyboard and mouse for photo and video editing. It has physical dials and buttons. Also, with the flagship CT model, there are customizable digital buttons.

With the default setup, you’ll automatically be able to edit your photos using physical dials to adjust settings like exposure, contrast, highlights, and shadows. Plus, you can use the physical buttons to quickly access various tools or make certain changes, or just do basic things like undo/redo, or scroll from one image to the next. The digital buttons offer incredible functionality, putting all your most-used tools and adjustments literally at your fingertips!

If you have a high volume of images that you want to edit quickly and intuitively, this can save you a lot of time while also unleashing your creativity!

Of course, you’ll get the most out of the Loupedeck CT if you start customizing the dials and buttons to your personal editing needs or style.

My Initial Reaction

When I first plugged in the Loupedeck CT and installed the software, the main dial and all the buttons lit up, and I felt like I had climbed into the cockpit of a very sophisticated jet or something.

To be honest, it’s very exciting, but also a little intimidating, and definitely a steep learning curve, especially the minute you decide you want to re-arrange the functions of the dials or re-assign the buttons. Basically, to reach the full potential of the Loupedeck, I think you’ll need to be serious about investing the time to master and customize it.

Thankfully, the latest version of the software makes that easy; it’s really intuitive and runs very smoothly. I did not encounter any lag issues or other bugs.

There’s a visual layout of the Loupedeck, with each set of controls categorized, and then on the side, there’s a section with drag-and-drop functionality for the various controls you might want to assign to a button or dial.

So, within the course of a few days, I went from feeling a little intimidated to just being excited to master this thing, finding exactly which sliders and tools I used and want to have literally at my fingertips

Favorite Things I Like About The Loupedeck CT

Anyways, after using the Loupedeck for a few weeks, there’s a handful of things that really stand out to me.

For example, one neat function is how intuitive it becomes to turn the 6 small clicky dials into actually 12 dials.

You see, each dial is also a button, so, for example, when I have it set to configuration number 2, and these dials control WB, exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, and structure, …all I have to do is button-push on any of the dials themselves, and suddenly I get Tint, Brightness, Saturation, Whites, Blacks, and Clarity!

Overall, this adds up to pretty much every adjustment I commonly use for basic color correction, right here on these six dials.

There are many other very handy tools that you can use, such as doing slight leveling corrections for your horizon with the “Rotate Image” function.

How To Customize The Loupedeck For Capture One

If it sounds intimidating to begin customizing a device with a couple of dozen physical controls and a dozen digital display buttons, don’t worry! I found the Loupedeck CT’s software to be relatively intuitive and getting “the lay of the land” is pretty quick.

Simply click on the visual interface to choose buttons or dials to customize, and then on the right-hand side, find which function you’d like to assign to which control. Personally, since there are so many controls to search from, I just used the “Search” feature at the top of the right-hand panel almost every time. Just type in something like “Exposure” or “Shadows” and it brings up all the available options!

It’s also worth noting that you can create multiple customizations to suit the different stages of your workflow. Say, for example, during the culling process, I’d love to be able to use the Loupedeck just to scroll between photos, zoom in to check sharpness, and then 5-star and/or green label the “keeper” images, plus maybe do a couple of basic adjustments like exposure and white balance, before getting into the heavy color correction process…

That’s what the numbered buttons across the middle of the Loupedeck CT are for. You can create and save a separate, customizable “Workspace” and assign one to each button. Say, for example, a culling workflow gets saved to the Number 1 button, and then, when I’m ready to switch to in-depth color-correction, I can have that different customized Workspace waiting for me, assigned to the number 2 button. Then, maybe number 3 workspace and/or number 4 workspace(s) can be used for advanced things like color grading or layer retouching tools.

Of course, by default, Loupedeck has already saved a few basic, useful Workspaces for you!

Capture One Setup | Troubleshooting

Speaking of getting advanced and customizing the Loupedeck CT for Capture One, there is one important thing to note about how it all functions. Capture One itself uses keyboard shortcuts to allow an external device to perform adjustments.

So, if you are like me and you have already customized your Capture One keyboard shortcuts, that saved customization will not be overridden by Loupedeck, and you might find that, for example, you turn a dial for contrast but nothing happens.

This is an easy fix! Lopedeck does install its own Capture One Keyboard Shortcuts file, so all you have to do is go into your Capture One Keyboard Shortcuts menu and switch from your custom-saved one to the Loupedeck Default one.

Going From Capture One To Photoshop?

Just like with Lightroom keep in mind that if you go from Capture One into Adobe Photoshop with any of your raw files, the Loupedeck will automatically notice that you’ve switched editing applications, and give you a whole new set of customizable tools at your fingertips.

Again, the default options are quite useful, but if you are interested in really speeding up your workflow and saving a ton of time, you can customize the control layout to suit your exact needs.

Loupedeck CT with Capture One | Pros & Cons

So, is it worth the investment? What do you get for the $550, plus all the time you have to invest in mastering and customizing a whole new physical device? There are a handful of major perks and a few caveats that you should consider as well.

Physical controls for sliders

The biggest advantage is the obvious one, and this is a situation where you just have to try it out to see for yourself how big a help it could be for you: having a set of physical dials for your most-used slider adjustments, instead of doing everything with your mouse/and/or keyboard.

Simply put, for some people, the tactile feel of a physical dial is a real game-changer, and it just makes editing photos feel like a smooth, intuitive process. Instead of actually looking at the slider, watching the numbers go up and down, you can focus entirely on your image, and adjust the settings by feel alone.

For others, however, it might just not feel any more convenient than using your mouse and manually moving sliders. It really comes down to whether or not it “clicks” with your brain!

Labeled buttons for direct access to things

Aside from having physical dials for direct access to 6 (or 12 or more) slider adjustments, another key feature, pun intended, that could be worth the investment is having additional physical keys beside your keyboard.

Remember, with Capture One, you can actually create keyboard shortcuts for your existing keyboard, to perform virtually any adjustment! If you wanted to completely reprogram your entire QWERTY keyboard, you could. But, then, you wouldn’t be able to do anything else!

This is why it really comes in handy to have a grid of fully customizable hotkeys, nestled right in between those useful sliders. Your keyboard is always your keyboard, and the Loupedeck is your physical editing tool.

Full-Screen Editing

One other neat trick that you might not think about is this: when you have a physical device for editing your photos, you can edit while they take up the entire computer screen!

High-Quality Physical Product

Last but not least, physically speaking, the Loupedeck is not a cheap keyboard; the build quality is excellent. The materials and surfaces feel sturdy, the keystrokes have a great tactile response. The “clicked” dials have a nice amount of resistance, and the smooth-scrolling main wheel is, well, super-smooth.

One odd thing that I’m not sure I truly appreciated was the fact that the Loupedeck CT has a vibrating haptic feedback feature when hitting the digitally displayed buttons. Also, call me one of the “kids these days”, but I wish the clock function (for when Capture One isn’t open) had both analog and digital display options. ;-)

The digital keys also have a vibrating haptic feedback function. It is helpful when you are swiping or double-tapping these hotkeys to change their function, but personally, I found it to be more of a noise distraction on my hard-surface desk than of any real use, so it’s a feature I’d probably turn off.

Who Should Buy It?

Some people might say that you should only buy this device if you’re a “serious” professional or a photo/video editor who does extremely high volume in terms of the workflow load.

However, I think this is a unique, fun way to edit photos that anyone who is on the more techy side might enjoy if they really are passionate about editing photos, and if they like the idea of physical, tactile ways to get the job done. It doesn’t matter if you edit 100 photos a week or 10,000 photos a week; if you really enjoy editing, then you’ll really appreciate this device.

Having said that, it is a $550 investment, so, it’s pretty obvious that this is for serious photographers. Which actual categories of photographers do I think it could be useful for editing?

High-volume post-producers, retouchers, or photo editors of any kind; if you edit thousands of photos a week, let alone thousands a day, then you could save hours of time per month and make your editing exciting again in the process.

Of course, in addition to Capture One, you’ll get even more benefit if you also are a video editor who does color grading regularly. (The Loupedeck has built-in functionality for both Adobe Premiere / Da Vinci Resolve users.)

Also, anyone who for any reason has to use both Lightroom and Capture One will find that the Loupedeck will bring their workflow even closer to a singular, smooth operation overall.

Loupedeck CT Conclusion

The more photos you edit, the more you’ll benefit from having a workflow tool like the Loupedeck CT.

Maybe you are techy and like advanced tools, or maybe you actually have an aversion to editing and you’re looking for a tool that makes it intuitive and fun! Either way, the overall experience can inspire creativity.

If you are either someone switching to or starting out with Capture One, for whatever reason, the Loupedeck CT could be one of the best post-production investments you make.

This morning Capture One 21 was officially released adding some speed improvements to the user’s workflow as well as many long-awaited new features and enhancements including the Dehaze tool, iPhone HEIC Support, and ProStandard camera profiles!

The new Workflow Speed Edits will let you make rapid changes to a single file or in batches simultaneously, which should go nicely with the improved performance updates making everything work just that much faster.

[Related Reading: Self-Portrait Workflow Tips with Capture One Pro From Beauty Photographer Tina Eisen]

Read the full press release below;

COPENHAGEN, Dec 8th, 2020: Capture One, the premier name in photo editing software, celebrates the release of the newest version, Capture One 21.

Linking our heritage to our future, this new version of Capture One reimagines the relationship between form and function to create a seamless bond between creator and creation. Combining its best-loved elements like personalized Workspaces and powerful Color Editor with new and exciting features like Speed Edit for immersive editing and Dehaze, to improve atmospheric conditions, Capture One 21 brings a new type of user experience; one that helps creators push the boundaries of their creativity by removing distraction and making it easy to exploit one’s creative potential.

Carrying on the tradition of development driven by user feedback, Capture One 21 is rooted in developing solutions to current challenges and anticipating tomorrow’s needs. With new ProStandard Color Profiles Capture One 21 introduces color technology that preserves authentic colors to overcome the challenge of unwanted hue changes when applying adjustments, and new HEIC support means Capture One is ready to work with cameras of today and tomorrow. It is also now easier than ever to learn Capture One with enhanced tooltips and easy access to tutorials right from within the software. Complimenting this suite of new features are improvements to current ones, bringing faster asset management and an improved importer to make organization effortless and quick.

The Fujicolor Original style pack is comprised of four Fujifilm styles that were created using heaps of actual film scans to create the closest match to real film you can find. They are Pro 400H Neutral, Pro 400H Blue, 160NS, and Fujicolor 800Z. 

Additionally, all Mastin Capture One style packs and Lightroom preset sets come with an easy-to-use system for setting white balance, adding lens corrections, film grain, and adjusting a variety of settings to match those that can be found on a Frontier film scanner (“all hard,” “all soft,” “shadow hard,” and so on.) For fans of realistic film grain, it’s worth noting that Capture One is ostensibly the better tool for that job. 

[Rewind:] Just Announced: Mastin Labs Is Coming To Capture One And The First Style Pack Is Available Now

Where Kodak Everyday has two punchy and saturated styles and one black and white, Fujicolor Original dials things back a bit, offering a highly versatile set of color film emulations. 

From Mastin:

• Fuji 160NS – Neutral and balanced, Fuji 160NS is the portrait photographers favored film stock for its smooth gradients from the highlights to the shadows and clean skin across a  broad range of tones. 

•  Fuji 400HN – The first light and airy preset, Fuji 400h is the preferred film stock for 

•  wedding and family photographers. Fuji 400h provides natural skin-tones while maintaining vivid three-dimensional color. 

•  Fuji 400HB – An evolution of Fuji 400HN, Fuji 400HB reintroduces blues into the greens to soften the vibrancy of foliage, giving you sage colored greens.  

•   Fuji 800Z – Pretty in pink, Fuji 800Z brings magenta to the forefront of the highlights creating a dream-like color scape in your photography.  

At the time of this writing, Mastin Labs has created six Lightroom preset packs and will roll out the other four as Capture One style packs over time as they translate Adobe’s particular dialect to the similar, but far from identical, language of Capture One. 

You can grab any of Mastin’s preset/style packs from their website for $99.

More Samples

The new styles are part of the Latitude Style Pack and are called “Infinite Peaks” and “Pacific.” They were developed in conjunction with pro photographers Bryan Minear and John Schell, respectively. The styles are heavily inspired by nature and are designed to work with several types of photography.

[Rewind: New Capture One Styles | ‘Latitude’ Is Inspired By Famous Destinations]

On Pacific, John Schell says:

“As someone who grew up on the beach with a camera in one hand and a surfboard in the other, I took inspiration from some of my favorite surf spots on the US West Coast to create Styles with warmth and a heightened reality of color that can be used at any time of day, in any location.

Thinking about the early-morning light on the Pacific and the golden glow of the late afternoon just before the sun dips into the ocean, I used Capture One to push colors and tones far beyond what was previously possible. The result is rich, deep tones and low-contrast images which look like they were lifted straight from memory.”

Meanwhile, Bryan Minear describes his inspiration for the Infinite Peaks pack as follows:

“This pack was inspired by some of my favorite locations around the globe. I’ve spent years developing my personal artistic vision and created these Styles to make it accessible. With contrasty, emotion-inducing looks, I hope they inspire you to become a freer artist and more seasoned traveler.”

If you’d like to pick up the new style packs, they are available now from Capture One as part of the Latitude pack or individually. As a special offer, you can grab both new packs together until June 30th, 2019.

• Price per Style Pack: EUR: 39. USD: 34. GBP: 34
• Price for Latitude Style kit including Infinite Peaks and Pacific (Limited offer*): EUR: 59. 
USD: 49. GBP: 49
• Price for Latitude Style kit including Infinite Peaks, Pacific, Deep Forest, and Sunbound: 
EUR: 109. USD: 99. GBP: 99

Capture One Studio

Capture One Studio is the newly released solution for heavy-duty commercial use, and it brings to the table some new capabilities designed to accommodate studios with high-volume workflows. Capture One Studio is geared toward “efficiency at scale, workflow management, and automation.”

Per the press release, here’s what Capture One Studio offers to photographers:

• Automation Technology – A powerful scripting language allows you to customize actions, streamline data entry and build intuitive workflows that align perfectly with your team’s needs. (Mac only)
• A single license key – Easily add and remove users with a centralized license system and eliminate extra costs due to staff turnaround. Accurately forecast expenses with a pay-as-you-go subscription model.
• Advanced Guides and Grid – Create Guides as presets for faster work. Transfer guides in the processed files for quality assurance approval or include them as Photoshop guides when exporting to PSD, so retouchers and other users stay compliant with the master specification. Create guides and grids as presets for faster work and utilize them in Photoshop. Streamline multi-user workflows and minimize composition mistakes when multiple team members work on the same image.
• Sync Grids, Guides, and Overlays with the Capture Pilot app – Capture Pilot integration for Grids, Guides, and Overlays allow multiple team members to remotely, review composition, and sizing specifications during shoots, while clients can pick their favorite shots off-set.
• Native Barcode Scanner support – Save endless man hours and redefine your workflow as a hands-free experience by connecting a barcode scanner to automatically name captures as you shoot. Mac users can script actions to further enhance the scanning workflow.
• Next Capture Metadata and Next Capture Keywords -Accelerate workflows and reduce data entry with new tools for applying metadata ahead of the shot during tethered shooting. Combine the tools with barcode scanners and spreadsheets to instantly scan metadata. (Mac only)
• Backup on capture – Reduce risk, save on back-up software costs and protect your assets as you shoot with automatic back-up from a tethered camera to a chosen destination.
• Studio workspaces – Our dedicated team of experts delivers customizable workspaces and craft the ultimate workflows to match your organization’s productivity needs.
• Workspace and Tool locks – Prevent users from altering the interface with Workspace and Tool locks and an admin pin lock for extra security. Eliminate costly interruptions and ensure compliance across multi-user workflows.
• Color reproduction and color profiling (Canon and Nikon Only) – Reduce editing time and save on retoucher costs with fine-tuned color profiling for the most popular e-commerce cameras. Minimize color discrepancies and meet the demands of specialist product photography with more accurate colors out of the box.

[Rewind:] Just Announced: Mastin Labs Is Coming To Capture One And The First Style Pack Is Available Now

Capture One Pro 12.1

Also just released was Capture One Pro 12.1, which is an incremental release to add new features and fix an assortment of bugs on both Mac and Windows. Here’s what Capture One Pro 12.1 users can look enjoy in the release:

• Even better Fujifilm X-Trans data handling
• The ability for Fuji cameras to zoom and pan in live view
• Complete Apple script support
• Support for new cameras and lenses
• A new Grid tool that overlays customizable grids to align your composition with the rule of thirds, golden ratio, or Fibonacci spiral
• Improvements in the Overlay tool

For more in-depth details on both releases, check out Capture One’s site.

That’s really one of the big draws to Lightroom as your processing engine; its ease of use especially with the abundance of one-click presets out there. So for a lot of us who’ve spent a lot of money on these presets and/or time in making our own, making the jump over to a new processing engine like Capture One, no matter HOW much more powerful it may be, is daunting and may not seem worth it.

In the last few years, I’ve been “testing the waters” of Capture One for my work, as a lot of professionals in the industry will swear by its superior color accuracy and processing power over other platforms. Having used it for a while now, I can confirm that it is a much more powerful tool, but with that comes a much steeper learning curve compared to Lightroom. Something that would make that learning curve a little easier to navigate would be the ability to pull your go-to presets into the C1 systems.

Well guess what? The team over at Picture Instruments have actually created a tool to convert your Adobe Lightroom Presets into Capture One Styles! This is especially fantastic news for anyone who has the SLR Lounge Lightroom Preset System and have been wanting to use them in Capture One! (If you’ve never tried it, you can download a trial of Capture One here).

Regarding the accuracy of the conversion, Picture Instruments has this to say;

Since Adobe Lightroom and Capture One differ fundamentally in their RAW-conversion there are a few technical hurdles that we want to be clear and honest about. Many Lightroom features cannot be converted 1:1 to Capture One since there sometimes is no equivalent feature in Capture One. In those cases the values will be transferred to another feature depending on the optical criteria. In our experience, this leads to similar results in most cases. They will certainly never be 100% identical due to different image processing algorithms. But since every image has a different exposure and since a preset usually only marks the starting point for editing, those differences are usually not very relevant.

What does this mean? Well if you watch the video, (linked below), they explain that some settings don’t have a direct applicable tool in C1. This means there will be some discrepancy from time to time, but there’s usually a very easy and quick fix. Really though, isn’t that the basis of most presets anyway? To get your creative starting point then make some minor tweaks to set the image the way you want?

Here is an example of a direct conversion from their site;

While not having had the chance yet to personally test and explore the system, I’m definitely going to try this out soon. Since the majority of my work is already done in Capture One, I’m VERY excited to be able to import some of my favorite LR Presets to see how they work and get them back into my workflow. Even if they aren’t perfect matches, I’m still pretty excited to have access to my old favorites from Lightroom.

How about you? Have you already tested these out? What is the result? Let us know in the comments below.

Gradient/Radial Masking

Capture One’s layers offer a clear leg-up over Lightroom, but while Capture One 11 did have some excellent masking features (color range masks, anyone?) the ability to make gradient and radial masks were conspicuously absent. In Capture One 12, this is no longer the case, and you can refine the masks to apply to specific tonal ranges of an image using the next cool update below. 

Luminosity Masking

Luminosity masking is a method common in Photoshop workflows that allows masks to be applied to particular areas of an image based on luminosity. If you want to apply an adjustment to only the brightest or darkest parts of an image, or only to midtones, you can use a luminosity mask to do just that. A Luma Range button now lives above at the top of the layers panel, and when clicked it opens up a panel to select the luminosity to mask.

What’s really cool for batch processing is that copying settings that include a luminosity mask from one image to another doesn’t copy the exact mask, but the mask settings. So where copying a traditional mask would put an adjustment in the wrong place on a new image, copying a luminosity mask will intelligently apply the settings to the same luminosity range as the target image. 

Fujifilm Support Improvements

The recent announcement of Capture One’s partnership with Fujifilm that includes unmatched tethering capabilities for Fuji cameras, including the medium format GFX series, was big news. Capture One 12 builds on the increased Fuji support by adding new settings to reproduce Fuji’s famous film emulations faithfully. According to Capture One, you can very nearly recreate the tones that come from a film simulation embedded Fuji jpeg, now with all the benefits you get when you shoot raw.

[Rewind:] Capture One Tips | How To Switch From Lightroom To Capture One

A New Look and Menu Structure

Capture One 12 has introduced a cleaner, more modern look and restructured the menu system to be more user-friendly. The old menu structure was a bit complex, so with the new, clearer structure, users should be able to better take advantage of features they might not have even known existed.

Plugin Support

The new update adds plugin support with an SDK for third-party development. There are currently three supported plugins with more to come as developers get their hands on the dev tools and add-on. The current plugins are as follows: integration for Format, JPEGmini, and Helicon. The latter will be really lovely for product photographers who rely on tethered shooting and focus stacking.

New Camera Support

Capture One 12 adds full support for some hot new releases including:

• Nikon Z7
• Nikon Z6
• Fujifilm GFX 50R
• Canon EOS R
• Canon EOS M50

You can check out the press release here if you want to read it all straight from Capture One. The full version of Capture One 12 costs $299; it is also available as a subscription for $15 per month. Which new features are you most excited to try?