Capture One Express (For Sony) | Getting Started with Capture One

New customers can start here to get an overview of working with Capture One Express (for Sony). Learn the interface, the basic workflow and how to adjust your images.

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Capture One Express (For Sony) is built with the same revolutionary
image quality as seen in Capture One Pro.
It is a unique tool containing flexible photo management,
essential adjustment tools and fast performance in one integrated package....
Images in Capture One are stored in the default catalog.
A catalog is a way of storing images using a database
to track the location of images and certain information about those images.
Like for example, adjustments and metadata.
By default, this database is stored in the system Pictures folder.
First lets look at how to populate the Catalog, with some more images.
Importing images into Capture One is done via the import window.
Typically, this will be images from a camera memory card,
or from your hard drive.
To import images, click the import icon in the toolbar.
Select where to import image files from, and click ‘Open'.
Check the 'Include Subfolders' box if you want to import
from the selected folder and its subfolders.
Capture One will import any supported image found in the subfolder structure.
Under ‘Import To’ decide where to store the imported images.
There are three choices here.
Current Location - The images will be left at their current location
and referenced there.
Inside Catalog - Images will be managed by Capture One
and copied inside the Capture One catalog.
This will create an ‘All in one’ catalog.
However, the size of the catalog will be limited to the size of
available hard drive space at its stored location.
The final option, ‘Choose Folder’, is most suited when
importing from memory card as it is extremely unlikely
we will reference images in a catalog to a memory card.
Therefore a suitable location can be chosen.
Automatic backups can also be set by checking ‘Backup Enabled’
and setting a location.
If applicable, decide on the naming format for the imported files.
Renaming is disabled for referenced files,
but images can always be renamed after import if necessary.
Basic Metadata can be set here.
To import images with a Capture One Style or Preset, choose it here.
A style is simply a number of Capture One adjustments saved as one selectable option.
A preset is a setting from one particular tool.
Check the Auto Adjust box and Capture One will apply a number of
auto adjustments best suited to the image.
Click ‘Import' here and the import process will start.
The Activity Monitor will open showing the import process.
Catalog information is shown here, within the Library tool.
It is split into three sections - ‘Catalog Collections’,
‘User Collections’ and ‘Folders’.
The content of ‘Catalog Collections’ cannot be changed
and shows fixed albums of all the images in the catalog,
Recent Imports and the Trash.
The User Collections area allows the creation of Albums,
Smart Albums, Projects and Groups, to help organise your collection.
The Folders area shows the exact location of images that
reside in your catalog.
The ‘All Images’ collection will show you every image in your catalog.
Now we have a populated catalog, lets look at the workspace
of Capture One Express (for Sony) and adjust some images.
On the left hand side is the tool area, divided into several tool tabs.
These tool tabs contain all the necessary tools
to work with your images in Capture One.
The toolbar contains clickable icons which enable various
functions or trigger certain actions.
For example, displaying exposure warnings.
The centre of the toolbar contains cursor tools which change
the behaviour of the cursor. For example, selecting the crop tool.
Some cursor tools have additional options by clicking and holding.
Lets begin at the Color tool tab
This contains the white balance tool and the very powerful color editor
Other common adjustments like Exposure Compensation and Shadow
and Highlight recovery, can be found in the Exposure Tool Tab.
Adjustments are made by either dragging the sliders,
entering numerical values,
or using the cursor keys to change value.
Tool values can be previewed by ‘Option’ or ‘Alt’ clicking the reset icon.
Slider values can be reset to zero by double clicking it.
Some tools have an Auto function. Click the ‘A’ icon in the corresponding tool.
Tool presets, i.e. set values of a tool,
can be saved and recalled here.
Explore Capture One’s extensive set of adjustments by clicking
through the other tool tabs.
Images needing the same adjustment, from any tool,
can easily be adjusted by using ‘copy’ and ‘apply’ commands.
Adjust an image to the desired result and then click on the ‘Copy’ icon in the toolbar.
Any adjustments that are not suitable to be copied over,
for example a crop, can be deselected before application, in the Adjustments clipboard.
Select further images that would benefit from the same image adjustments.
Now, to apply the same adjustment from the initial image
to the selected images, click on the ‘Apply’ icon in the toolbar.
This method works with multiple adjustments.
However, it is just as simple to copy individual tool adjustments
from one image to several other images.
Select Images as before and adjust the individual tool values
that are needed for multiple images.
Click on the Copy/Apply icon in the tool itself.
Select or deselect any tool parameters and then click Apply.
Now this adjustment is copied to all selected images.
Once you are happy with the adjustments applied to your images
they can be exported in a variety of popular image formats.
Select one or more images to export and then choose
File>Export Images, then ‘Variants’.
The Export dialogue will open.
First choose a location for the exported files.
Choose a naming format for the exports.
Leaving the format set to ‘Image Name’ will retain the raw file name in the export.
Click here to adjust the naming format
The ‘Recipe’ is the parameters which will form the basis of the image output.
For example, the file format and scale.
Many different file formats can be selected from the pull down menu here...
Click on Export to complete the process.
The Activity Monitor will open showing the progress of the export.
However, as this is a background process, you can continue to work on your images.