Photo Editing
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Lens Cast Calibration in Capture One
Introduction to Capture One [Part 2]
The Lens Menu
Lens Cast Calibration (LCC)
Lens Cast Calibration as to be done specifically for a shot setup hence it’s grayed out until a preset is created and applied. Each lens, camera, setting and lighting situation requires a unique calibration.
What is Lens Cast Calibration?
In short we are trying to minimize the uneven white balance throughout the image introduced due to a various factors. In many cases we can ignore it since it’s not noticeable unless we have a side-by-side comparison. But there are cases where it’s important to have an even white balance.
One of these cases are snowy landscapes, which I’ve been shooting recently. This type of photography exposes issues in the white balance as illustrated in the photo below. See how the color shifts towards the edges into a bluish darker tone?
Wide angle lenses are impacted the most as they gather light from more directions.
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Lens Correction in Capture One
Introduction to Capture One [Part 1]
The Lens Menu
Lens Correction
Depending on your lens and camera you might get either one of the following profiles.
Manufacturer Profile: Manufacturers supply enough data in the RAW file to generate a profile.
Lens Specific Profile: Means Capture One has a profile of your lens with additional Sharpness Falloff correction.
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New Raw Editor - Capture One
New Camera, New RAW Editor
I recently upgraded my camera and thought this was a good opportunity to re-evaluate my choice of RAW editing software. In the past I tried a few open source options, RawTherapee and darktable. They are both pretty good but I was missing a few features that forced me to keep falling back on Photoshop plus Camera RAW and I never got used to the in my view slightly confusing interfaces.
Eventually I gave Phase One’s Capture One 30 days demo a go. It loads quick, the interface is super responsive and most importantly everything was just were I would expect it to be. One of my main criteria when testing a new tool is usually how far along do I get until I need to ask Google. In the case of Capture One pretty much everything is self-explanatory. I watched some tutorials to improve my workflows but that’s about it.
There’s one big drawback and that is the price. Capture One is more expensive than most of its competitors including Lightroom. That been said, as a Sony or Fujifilm user you can get a discounted version that only supports their RAW files. Since I’ve been using Sony cameras for the past 10 years I’ve decided to go with this option. There is also a free Express version which is missing layers, masking and tethering features but has most of the grading tool. So if you are just starting out with RAW editing or generally limit your editing to grading this might be your choice.
As always there’s a few features that would be nice to have such as merging different exposures and stitching panoramas inside Capture One. Hopefully plug-ins will provide solutions in the near future.
Coming Soon…
I’m about to start writing an overview of the Capture One features. It should pop up here in the coming days!