Presets & Styles, Tech Talk

Confessions of a software developer

NOTE: This article discusses an outdated version of Capture One. To learn more about our latest version, click here.

Hi there,

My name is Theis, I’m a software developer and this is my story…….

 

It started out as just another day at the office. Starting work at 7 in the morning, I was planning to leave somewhat early.

Everything was going according to plan, but then someone dropped the usual 3 p.m. question “Wouldn’t it be cool, if we could give the user a shortcut to………”

And yes, that would be cool, so thus started another long night in the office full of lukewarm coke and cold pizza. In this tip I will share some of the nifty shortcuts that came out of that long and lonely night.

Theis1_1280x8533 p.m. feeling good and quite clever

 1) Quick Loupe

One of these shortcuts is related to the loupe, which is a great tool for quick sharpness checks. To show the Loupe quickly press and hold down Ctrl+Space (Alt+Space on Mac). This makes the loupe show up without changing your current cursor tool.

The Loupe also works on thumbnails. Just hover the cursor over a thumbnail and you can easily do a quick focus check.

Loupe

 

2) View the same crop on multiple Variants simultaneously

If you select more than one Variant and set the viewer in “multi view” mode, you can easily compare two or more variants.

mutliviewFor detail work it is necessary to compare the exact same crop at the exact same zoom level. Fortunately that is easily achieved. Just hold down the Shift key while zooming and panning and Capture One Pro 7 will apply the exact same zoom and pan to all views.

Variants_eyes Comparison of two Variants

Theis3_1280x85310 p.m. starting to feel the pressure

3) Handling an existing crop

There are many cases where Capture One Pro 7 will apply a crop automatically to an image. If an image is rotated, keystone or lens corrected it will get an automatic crop in order to achieve a rectangular output image.

But what happens then when you try to set a new crop manually after Capture One Pro 7 has created an automatic crop? Capture One Pro 7 will think that you want to move the crop, it automatically created. To create a new crop, hold down shift while dragging the new crop and it will replace the existing crop.

If you want to change the aspect ratio of an existing crop, choose the desired aspect ratio by clicking-and-holding on the Crop Cursor Tool in the toolbar.

QuickAspectSelection

With the desired aspect ratio chosen, double-click the crop in the viewer and the crop will be corrected to the aspect ratio you chose.

To get back to the default crop you can click outside of the crop to reset it.

Theis_hero_1280x8532 a.m. really wanting to call it a night

4) Skip the trash folder

If you press ctrl+delete, Capture One Pro 7 will put your image in the trash folder. This is nice since you can easily get your images back from the trash folder. However if you are sure you will never need the image again you can press alt+delete (ctrl+command+backspace on the mac) and then Capture One Pro 7 will delete your image permanently instead of putting it in the trash. In the case where the trash folder is on different drive than the image file, this will also be a lot faster than moving the file to the trash folder.

5) Organize your styles and presets in folders

When saving a style you are presented with a standard save file dialog box.

styles in folders how

What is not clear from the dialog box is that you can actually put the style in a subfolder and then the subfolder will be shown in the styles selector.

styles in folders resultThis trick also works with Presets and “Print Templates”.

Theis4_1280x8534 a.m. somewhere at Phase One

This is what I came up with that particular night. I’ll report back to you soon with more shortcuts that will hopefully speed up your workflow.

 

All the best,

Theis Hansen

 

 

 

Theis Hansen
Theis Hansen

Theis is a senior software developer who has been part of the Capture One Windows team for the past six years. (Too) early in the morning you will often find Theis in the Phase One software department coding the idea his brain worked on last night while his baby twins refused to sleep without holding dad's hand.

Comments (60)

Very useful, thanks for this.

Theis Hansen

Hi Jean,

Glad that it was useful.

All the best,
Theis

Jaz Jablonski

Hi Theis,

I’m constantly trying to tweek my crops just right but my mouse/pen are don’t refine it fast enough for me. It would be great if I could use my arrow keys like in Photoshop to move it just alittle to get the perfect crop. Is there any chance in the future or near future for this to be a new feature of the crop tool? Thanks in advance for your reply.

Hi,
Nice article.
I work with C1 several years. And I’m still , and every day I’m wondering , why ‘user style’ are hidden so deep?
To acces to preset I have to make 3-4 clicks. It is acceptable for 1 photo. If I have to apply presets for 200 shots it is really horrbile And in LR I just select preset from panel list or drop-down list…
It would be very useful for me and all my photographic collegues…
Best Regards
Maciej

Paul Steunebrink

Presets are directly accessible from each tool’s presets menu. Presets are applied to all selected images by default, allowing to change 200 images in 1 click.

Thanks for answer.
Problem is, that I’m choosing for each photo separately (depend on case). So to do this, I vave to click make 3 or 4 clicks instead of 1 like in LR. I have to click ‘preset menu’ , than ‘ user styles’ than style or styles folder , than style.
4 clicks repetad 200 times is just very uncomfortable and tiring solution. Each time I have to perform those click sequence, I’m thinking: do They really don’t want to user use ‘styles’? In my opinion side panel with all styles listed or drop down list from main toolbar, would be much more useful solution.

Theis Hansen

Hi Maciej,

Thanks again for your feedback. I will take this back to the team.

Br,
Theis

André Maurer

How far is the implementation? Have a look at the lightroom solution…
Not efficient in C1
Thanks

David Grover

Hi Maciej,

You could also customise your toolbar to have the ‘Styles’ icon, then it is simply one click away.

David

It is still the same – ‘Styles’ icon -> ‘user styles’ -> ‘styles folder’ -> ‘style’ . 4 clicks…

Yo,

Copy the style u want once (u can chose the settings to copy or not individually: like exposure, contrast, levels, colors, lens auto-correction, copyrights or whatever) and then apply it to the images u want using a shortcut (ctrl+shift+v or other custom shortcut)

Jochen

???
1) Quick Loupe.
(Alt+Space on Mac)
I’m a greenhorn with CO7 and I don’t understand this.
When I press Alt+Space on my Mac nothing happens.
Why?

Regards

Jochen

Hover the cursor over the image while you press Alt + Space and you should see the cursor change to the loupe and a circular 100% image appear nearby.

Mathew

How about having “command n” create a new session?! Or at least allow a keyboard shortcut for “command n” to create a new session

Theis Hansen

Hi Mathew,

Thanks for question. I will forward your feedback to the team.

All the best,
Theis

To avoid confusion it’s Option+Space on Mac. I just double checked and it worked. I don’t normally use the loupe so that’s why I wanted to make sure.

Jochen

I found my mistake.
Option+Space on my iMac was defined for Ultralingua quick translation.

Jochen

Tim Stewart

option + space changes curser to the loupe, but that is all. It doesn’t magnify- even if I click. Late 2013 Macbook pro C1 v 7.22

would love to rename files in large browser window instead of being limited to thumbnail view 🙂
Old eyes 🙁

Theis Hansen

Hello Steve,

Hi Mathew,

I will make sure to forward your feedback to the team.

All the best,
Theis

Lee Peterson

I do a lot of images stacking to gain depth of focus. In CO7 I would like to selects all 10 images and apply the same CO7 adjustments at the same time before stacking the layers, aligning them and blending them. How do I achieve selecting all 10 images at once and applying my adjustments to all 10 images?

Paul Steunebrink

Correct the first image > select all 10 images > copy/apply the adjustments

There is a ‘switch’ you may need to set.
I believe it is turned on by default.

Edit > Edit All Selected Variants
CTRL+SHIFT+E

There is also a shortcut icon on the tool bar that is typically above the tool panels. The icon looks like three squares layered one behind the other.

I like that icon because it shows me which state the software is in. But, I have that toolbar hidden to give me just enough room to see the entire color correction pallet on the layers tool tab on my smaller monitor… Would be nice for that icon to be visible in the toolbar in the Viewer window on a second monitor…

Stewart Band

Hello Theis
Thanks for your helpful late night shortcuts!
How can I get a file back from the Trash folder to the Catalogue I am working in – it went in easily but I don’t know how to move it back – it must be really easy?
I use Windows 7 Pro
Thanks
Stewart

Paul Steunebrink

Try to drap-and-drop the image to the All Images collection

Nichlas

Very useful. What about shortcut keys to “Enable black and white” and “Vignette”?

Theis Hansen

Hi Nichlas,

Thanks for your input. I will also take this back to the team.

All the best,
Theis

PLEASE make a keyboard shortcut to create a new session – “command + N”
thanks!

Theis Hansen

Hi Jason,

Thanks for your request.
You are not the only one asking for this shortcut:) I will take it back to the team.

Br,
Theis

for years! always requested through a US reseller, so maybe it never got to the right person at Phase? thanks!

I am wondering why we are prevented from reinstating the keyboard shortcut for create new session? I do not need the catalog feature so I would like to restore a shortcut for create new session.

And can we get a color other than white for the thumbnail outline? Very difficult to quickly see what is selected when shooting something on a white background. Capture one version 3 used to have great outlines and it changed to the same color as the (Mac) user’s system color. At least allow us to set a color for the thin thumbnail outline.

Thanks!

Theis Hansen

Hi Edward,

Thanks for you requests. Your comments have been noted.

Br,
Theis

w.sinn

Hi,

what about a shortcut: before and after?
what about a shortcut to implement plugins? (smily)
Beside:
I am a physician: lukewarm Cola and pizza are not the best
diet, even not for a Dansk Wikinger!

Theis Hansen

Hi there,

We haven’t got a shortcut for Before and After. But instead you could either use:

1) Use variants
2) Hold the Alt (Option) key while clicking on the reset arrow on a tool to get a temporary reset.
3) Reset the image and then press undo

But your request has been noted.

And lukewarn coke is always good for developers;)

All the best,
Theis

I would love a simple on/off checkbox per panel like V3 (I know about the option shortcut).

Theis Hansen

Hi Edward,

Your request has been noted, I will let me team know. Thanks for giving your feedback.

Best regards,
Theis

Tim Stewart

+1

Erik Spaan

+1 for making a key for showing the original image. I use ‘m’ (for master) a lot in Aperture !

Peter Grifoni

i wnat to know why C1 is the only software that does not render the white balance correctly with my .orf files shot in auto white balance with my OM-D EM-1?
LR5 DXO and others have know issue with the same files only C1. very frsutrationg as i like the software but find I avoid using it becuse i have to cointinually adjust the WB on every image shot with the EM-1.

Hi Peter,

I’ve forwarded your feedback to the Quality Assurance Team. Thanks for your feedback.

Br,
Theis

On the first capture one there was a button to remove all crops …please bring this back !!

Hi Pablo,

Try the small reset button on the Crop Tool. Hope this helps.

All the best,
Gitte

Bob Shrader

The loupe shortcut is a great feature. However, on a fullsize desktop keyboard such as the Microsoft ergonomic, Ctrl+Spacebar is an uncomfortable stretch.

In Preferences -> Shortcuts, I did not find a listing for Loupe, thus I assume that can’t be customized. However, Alt+Spacebar or Ctrl+Alt would be better to reduce the finger-stretching.

Thanks.

Bob

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your feedback. I’ve forwarded your request to the team.

Br,
Theis

Alveric

Great features. Yet, C1P is still missing a way to use the PageUp/PageDown keys to scroll through the image at 100%, like Lightroom. Hunting for dust spots is a snap with such navigation. Panning manually or using the ‘hold Spacebar and mouse over the tiny navigation square’ is clumsy and cumbersome. I hope this feature can be added.

Hi Alveric,

Thanks a lot! I will talk to the guys about it.

Br,
Theis

Am I missing a way to synchronize viewing two similar photos (not variants of the same photo).

For example once photo A and B are “linked” then if I zoom or pan on one photo it does exactly the same to the second.

I am a new user, so I may have missed it.

Thanks

With two or more images in the viewer, hold the SHIFT key while panning or zooming with the mouse. Should work with different/similar images and not only variants, but I can’t double check it right now.

Thank you!! This is exactly what I was looking for!

H. M. Jones

Good lord, that quick loupe trick is absolutely brilliant. One of the classiest shortcuts I’ve seen in any program. So simple, but so elegant.

Thank you!

Theis Hansen

Good to hear.

Very best,
Theis

Arturo Cubria

hi,something that drives me crazy with your crop tool is not having the option to change the size of a crop symmetrically.
Can you give us the option of lets say hold down shift or option while resizing a crop?
thanks

Hi Theis-
I am on a MAC and I command control deleted the images accidentally. Is there anyway to recover them? They are not in the trash folder.

thanks.

Alveric

I’m positive that you’re out of luck there: C1P doesn’t seem to use the trash bin services of the OS. In Windows is the same: deletion means precisely that.

I also wish that C1P were like PhotoMechanic and Lightroom in this regard, and send the deleted images to the bin.

Gianluca

Hi there,
Thank you for your software, is a great companion at work.
Two things I like to fix are:

1- On the menu “Camera/Orientation” you can set the orientation of the image to any direction for Phase One’s Back but not for Canon, can the orientation be set for Canon? This will be very helpful on overhead shot where the camera get confused in which way the shot is orientated.

2- If on Canon I take a shot with a wide angle lens C1 will apply an automatic crop to the capture, can this be changed so I don’t get any automatic crop?

Thanks!
xx

Theis Hansen

Hi Gianluca,

To answer your questions:

1) It is true that Camera->Orientation only works on Phase One Digital backs.

However there is a workaround – see this article for details: https://www.phaseone.com/en/Search/Article.aspx?articleid=1231&languageid=1

2) The automatic crop is a side effect of the automatic lens correction. To disable automatic lens correction click the “…” in the top right corner of the “Lens Correction” tool and click “Disable Default Lens Correction”

Hope that helps!

Best regards,
Theis

Thank you for your focus on keyboard shortcuts. It’s an essential for time-saving. I especially love ctrl-space for loupe. I’ve always been a great believer in keyboard shortcuts. After all, why do racing drivers use paddles behind the steering wheel to change gear instead of using a separate gear stick like in a traditional vehicle? Because it’s much quicker and efficient for them as a professional in their field, especially when it’s something that’s being adjusted hundreds of times an hour. So your attention to keyboard shortcuts is greatly appreciated, thank you!

However, there are still (hopefully easy to implement) keyboard shortcuts missing. They could be initially unassigned in the keyboard shortcuts settings window (i.e. up to the user to assign a shortcut), but I can’t help feeling it should be possible to assign a keyboard shortcut to EVERY adjustment slider in CO. E.g. (as previously suggested by one or two commenters above) +vignette and -vignette. (probably in 0.1EV increments in the case of vignette). You have already made this possible for exposure related sliders and white balance, and other colour related settings, which works great, but this isn’t quite enough.

As a programmer myself, I know that adding these features is possible and not nearly as hard as many of the other (great) features you have recently added and I’m sure are also still working hard on. It’s now CO 8.3, yet they are still missing.

Let me explain. I’m a wedding photographer and I work with 2000+ raw images in CO at a time. After importing, choosing and cropping, I don’t want to use anything else but the keyboard for basic edits after this point (excluding local adjustments, cloning, healing etc of course), so I have set up shortcuts as follows:
left / right arrows to move between photos
ctrl + left & right arrows to adjust exposure
alt + left & right arrows to adjust contrast
alt + shift + left & right arrows to adjust WB kelvin
ctrl + shift + left & right arrows to adjust WB tint
These are now all within my reach by barely moving. I just want to focus on the work, not to keep reaching for my tools.
I also have shortcuts for increase/decrease HDR shadow and highlights and a few other things, but when I want to increase/decrease the vignette, I have to get the mouse, select the appropriate tab and move the slider left/right. Of course you could say it’s not a lot of extra work, especially if I use my custom tools tab, but using only the keyboard should always be an option with all software for ultimate efficiency.

This isn’t a complaint, as it’s clear there’s a lot of work going on all the time to add new features, improve performance, etc. I’d just like to ask you to take this on board and add it soon. I know you understand the importance of keyboard shortcuts, being programmers after all! 🙂

Thanks in advance! Keep up the good work!

Theis Hansen

Hi Dave,

Thanks a lot for your feedback.
It sounds like you have a very nice workflow.

I can assure you we are always considering new keyboard shortcuts, both when doing new features and when improving old ones.

Thanks again,

All the best,
Theis

I am currently trying your software via the 30 day demo. I am liking the software and have setup keyboard shortcuts extensively. However I don’t see a way to assign a keyboard shortcut to a style. I use your BW styles quite a bit but I really want to setup a keyboard shortcut for this. Is this possible or am I just missing it?

Michael Bobarev

Done! 2Day with CO…
Guys, amazZzing!

Thnx!