Erni - Mastering Raw Development, Image Processing and Asset Management

Sascha Erni is a freelance photojournalist and reporter. Since 2004, he has contributed images and stories to many popular agencies, newspapers, and magazines around the world. He authored his first non-fiction book Mac and iPad for Photographers in 2014. In his spare time, he writes fiction and practices fine art photography. Erni is a member of the Phase One Ambassador Program, which keeps him on the cutting edge of Capture One development. Erni lives, photographs, and writes in Switzerland.

Sascha Erni

Mastering Raw Development,
Image Processing, and Asset Management

Sascha Erni, http://www.saschaerni.com

Project Editor: Jocelyn Howell

Copyeditor: Elizabeth Welch

Layout: Petra Strauch

Cover Design: Rebecca Cowlin

Printed in China

ISBN 978-1-937538-81-1

1st Edition 2016

2016 by Sascha Erni

Rocky Nook Inc.

802 East Cota St., 3rd Floor

Santa Barbara, CA 93103

www.rockynook.com

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015954471

Copyright 2015 by dpunkt.verlag GmbH, Heidelberg, Germany.

Title of the German original: Praxis Capture One Pro 8

ISBN 978-3-86490-245-1

Translation Copyright 2016 by Rocky Nook. All rights reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher.

Many of the designations in this book used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks of their respective companies. Where those designations appear in this book, and Rocky Nook was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. All product names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. They are not intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book.

While reasonable care has been exercised in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author(s) assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein or from the use of the discs or programs that may accompany it.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

All photographs and illustrations by the author.

The title of this book says it all. Capture One Pro 9: Mastering Raw Development, Image Processing, and Asset Management is based on my many years of practical experience as a photographer and imaging specialist and, most important, on five years of hands-on experience earning a living with Capture One.

Dont worryIm not going to list the programs features and explain them to death, and my book is neither an alternative to the user manual and online help provided by Phase One nor simply a collection of tutorials. And why is this so? Because Capture One is an evolving digital product with tools and functions that are constantly being refined, reevaluated and replaced.

With the release of version 8, Phase One switched to a rolling release development model. This means that significant changes took place during version 8s lifetime and more are sure to follow with version 9s point-releases, so a collection of step-by-step tutorials in book form would quickly become outdated. The web is a much better medium for regular updates on technicalities and details, and the Phase One blog ( http://blog.phaseone.com ) does a great job of keeping users up to speed. My approach with this book is to provide you with the necessary foundation for you to learn to think Capture One, so to speak.

Capture One is an image-processing package that has developed over the course of many years, so it can take a while to come to grips with how it all fits together and learn to make the most of its fantastic features. It took me about a year to get up to speed; I know people who have been working with the program since version 4 who still have trouble with some of its basic concepts and occasionally end up frustrated because Capture One doesnt behave the way they expect.

And thats exactly where this book comes in. Within its pages, you will find a wealth of tips, examples, and explanations that will help you dramatically reduce your learning curve. I want you to understand Capture One, not just learn how to use it. This book is no substitute for learning, practice, or working on your own images, and even when I mention a specific tool or the position of a particular button, what Im really talking about is the thought processes behind them. How can you best approach the task at hand? How does tool X work and when is the best time to use it as part of your own personal workflow?

This book is also aimed at photographers who want to switch programs, and especially those on the lookout for an alternative to Apples now defunct Aperture. If you belong to this group, you will already be familiar with concepts such as nondestructive processing and the creation of image copies. However, even though Capture One is broadly comparable to Aperture and offers robust import functionality for existing Aperture libraries, the two programs still work very differently. This book emphasizes these differences in many places and offers solutions to make the switch as painless as possible.

The concepts youll encounter will help you get to know the program and speed up the process of delving into its inner workings. You wont have to guess how processes work, experiment with countless settings, or send endless support questions to get the most out of this somewhat stubborn software because Ive spent the last five years doing that for you!

In short: This book isnt an instruction manual, but rather a teaching aid and a tool to help you use Capture One Pro 9, and future releases, effectively. I hope you will find it interesting and enlighteningplease let me know if it is.

April 2015

Sascha Erni

Twitter: @nggalai

A big thank you goes to my U.S. editor, Ted Waitt, and everyone at Rocky Nook for their patience during the preparation of this book. Because of my day job as a journalist and photographer, the book was a long time in the making, and Im sure other publishers wouldnt have been so flexible and understanding.

I would also like to thank Phase One, and especially Tobias Kreusler, Gitte Maj Nielsen, James Johnson, and David Grover. Their friendliness and our close cooperation allowed me to get the early look at the beta versions of Capture One 8 and 9, which that was essential in getting this book off the ground.

Last but not least, a huge thank you (and an apology) goes to everyone who had to live with me during the research and writing phases. You know who you are, even if you dont know how much you helped!