Who trains the trainers?
At Capture Integration we are constantly working to improve our customer support. With the release of Capture One 4.1 and the Phase One 645 Camera we’re holding educational seminars (dates and locations here). But who trains the trainers?
In advance of our Atlanta and High Point seminars our head of tech support, Tim Palmer, spent a week training with Jon Gilbert, from Phase One US Tech Support. With our seminars in Miami and West Palm Beach approaching it was my turn this week to spend time with this guru of Phase One. I’ve been shooting fashion, portraits, and product shots with Capture One 4.1 since the beta, but there were no shortage of tips, tricks, and behind-the-scenes knowledge. For those unable to attend the coming seminars I’m listing some of what I took home.
Tips, Tricks, and Background knowledge after the break…
Capture One 4.1.1 released
4.1.1 released this week is a minor upgrade. Mainly they compressed the installer file compared to 4.1 so it is faster to download. If you installed 4.1 and everything is working, you can probably skip 4.1.1. If you haven’t installed 4.1 yet, then you might as well download 4.1.1.
DB Only mode
4.1 can be run without a serial key or activation in “Digital Back Only” mode. This allows full functionality when working with Phase One digital backs, but disables functionality for viewing/editing dSLR files. For digital techs on a Phase One shoot this means no serial key / activation is required.
Installing Capture One 4.1
Make sure you remove any previous version of Capture One 4.X before installing Capture One 4.1. This includes, on a mac, deleting the com.phaseone.** files from {User}/Library/Preferences and the Phase One folder from {User}/Library/Cache and the Capture One folder from {User}/Library/Preferences. For more details see the Phase One KB article.
Soft Proofing in Capture One 4.1
In 3.7.8 soft proofing could be set to “selected destination” or to a specific color profile. Capture One 4.1 also does soft proofing, but does so only to the profile currently selected for processing. So if you set your processing to sRGB in preparation for processing some JPGs for the web then make sure to set it back to Adobe 1998 or ProPhoto for the most accurate color.
Check Focus While Continuing to Shoot
Digital Techs have always wanted a way to hold on to one particular image for focus/exposure evaluation while a photographer continued shooting. In previous versions Capture One always switched to the most recent version which made this impossible. In 4.1 Phase One has really hit a home run, giving techs (and photographers) three great options for accomplishing this goal.
Under the “camera” pull down menu you can disable “Auto Select New Capture”. This leaves the selected image on the screen even as new captures stream in.
By pressing the Return key (a.k.a. Enter) a user can lock on to a particular image as a Compare Image. The Compare Image will be highlighted with a orange box and will be shown along with any other selected images. So while new images continue to be shown as they are captured, you can zoom in on, make adjustments to, and evaluate the exposure of the Compare Image. To release the compare item simply press Apple-Enter. This workflow is superb if only one computer is available and the digital tech wants to continue having new captures show up while also having a chance to pull one image aside to evaluate it in detail.
Finally, Capture Integration has developed a unique workflow to allow two or more mac computers to be tied together. One computer can be set to show the most recent image for the photographers review, while a second computer is used by a digital tech to make detailed assessments of focus/exposure, and if desired, another computer can be used to allow an art director to browse all images marked as “select” (with prior review and adjustments by the digital tech). I’ll be posting a full tutorial (with videos) on this powerful technique next week.
Focus+ is great!
Capture One 4.1 brings a suite of lens correction tools to bring the best detail and quality out of your lenses. Right now that support is limited to chromatic aberration and purple fringing for autofocus Mamiya lenses (and the Phase One 80mm lens). Phase One will be adding a detail enhancing algorithm for lenses which exhibit slight drops in sharpness at the frame edge. I saw some early development examples of this algorithm and the results are very surprising. This technology is not just sharpening existing detail, but rather is progressively changing the raw development algorithm to be more aggressive at bringing out details towards the edge of the frame. The results are natural and pleasing while resolving significantly more detail than is possible through any other method.
Vibrance vs. Saturation
Capture One 4.1 has changed the way the saturation slider works. In the positive direction the saturation tool now increases vibrance. Vibrancy is similar to saturation, but creates a more natural look even when applied aggressively. In the negative direction Capture One 4.1 still uses saturation.
Monitor Profile Required
Capture One 4.1 requires a calibrated monitor profile to run. If no calibrated profile can be detected, or if the selected profile is damaged in some way then Capture One 4.1 will display exclamation points instead of thumbnails in the browser. If you need to generate a profile in a pinch you can go to System Preferences > Displays > Color > Calibrate to create a calibrated profile. It won’t be as accurate as using a monitor calibration tool [LINK], but it will allow you to use Capture One.
Only the default monitor is color controlled
Currently Capture One 4.1 only manages color based on the profile of the default monitor. To see which of your monitors is registered as the system default launch ColorSync Utility and under devices check to see which Display is marked by a blue dot.
Upload to FTP doesn’t work (yet)
In Make Web Contact Sheet Capture One 4.1 shows an option of FTP under output. This feature is not enabled yet, although it will be in Capture One 4.2 Pro. Additional features will be added to Web Contact Sheet in the pro version. If you haven’t used this feature yet, give it a try. It is incredibly fast and simple.
What’s digital in the digital lenses?
The 16 bit chip in the new Mamiya / Phase One digital lenses store information about the lens. The Phase One body can access this data to make better decisions when focusing. The result is faster, more precise autofocus when using the new digital lenses. I don’t have any objective test results yet, but as soon as we’re able we will post results on just how much faster. Until then, take this with a grain of salt.
The 16bit chip will also allow precise tethered-computer control of the aperture (and shutter speed) for remote operation of the camera system. This feature will be implemented in 4.2 Pro.
Auto Bellows = tilt/shift
The Mamiya Auto Bellows is compatible with the Phase One body. This device could transform the Phase One 645 into a powerful but portable still-life tool.
Hand Tool: Zoom to 100% and quick navigator
Select the hand tool (shortcut: “H”) and double click on an image to zoom to 100% or zoom-to-fit. Hold Shift while you double click and all images will zoom to 100% or zoom-to-fit.
The thumbnail navigation provided in the details-tab is great for navigating around large images at 100%, but there is an even better way. Simply switch to the hand tool (shortcut: “H”) and right click within the image (control-click on a mac). A quick-navigator will appear. Combined with the shift-space-drag technique to pan all shown images this makes Capture One 4.1 the most powerful tool on the market for quickly editing a shoot with multiple similar images.
Near-Full-Screen Workflow
This is not a new feature, but Capture One 4.1 allows you to hide the browser (Apple-B) or hide the toolbar (Apple-T).
IIQ File Extension
To finally break the confusion between *.TIF (Phase One Raw files) and *.tif (processed tiff files) Capture One 4.1 allows you to assign captured images the extension *.IIQ. This is ONLY a change in extension and not in file format, however other programs (e.g. Lightroom, Photoshop, Capture One 3.7.8) may not read an IIQ file unless you rename it to a TIF extension.
Speed for the future
All P+ Phase One digital backs are fully UDMA-compliant. UDMA is a transfer protocol currently associated with SanDisk Extreme IV cards. Currently Extreme IV cards only run at about 50% of the total speed allowed by the UDMA spec. This means P+ digital backs will be able to take advantage of faster write-speed if and when Extreme V cards are released at full UDMA speed. Your digital back may very well get faster for free!
Also, because Phase One IIQ technology compresses the RAW data BEFORE writing it to the card these digital backs are uniquely situated to write at ultra-fast effective speeds without relying on a buffer.
80mm Phase One lens
Objective tests will be posted as soon as we are able, but all indications are that the new Phase One 80mm is a major step up from the current Mamiya 80mm lens. Sharper detail from edge to edge, reduced chromatic aberration, an all metal barrel (instead of plastic), a more tactile manual focus ring, faster autofocus operation, and the optional 3 year warranty are all significant improvements.