Capture One to LR workflow questions

[jli_jon]

Apologizes if any of these questions are silly, obvious, etc.

Having mostly shot jpg only for several years now, I'm currently playing around with the free Capture One Express version for Fuji to process RAF files. I still want to do most of my work in LR legacy version.

1) When I import a fuji RAF file into CaptureOne, I see that the software recognizes what film sim I used in-camera and applies it to the image under the 'auto' curve profile. Great, one less step for me. Is Capture One doing anything else?

2) I've read that people use raw file engines like Capture One and X-Transformer to demosaic the files. Do I need to set anything else up for Capture One to properly demoasaic the fuji RAF files?

3) What are good export settings to have in CaptureOne before I move the files to LR where I will continue my PP work? What format should I export as? (DNG, TIFF, JPG?) Again, I just have a legacy LR without the support for the latest cameras and lenses. I'm ultimately going to export from LR as jpgs.

4) I noticed when comparing a raw file to a jpg side by side, that the raw file requires a bit more sharpening probably because the fuji camera is already applying some sharpening to the jpg file. Where would you apply sharpening in this workflow, in CaptureOne or LR?

 

[RetiringGuy]

Apologizes if any of these questions are silly, obvious, etc.

Having mostly shot jpg only for several years now, I'm currently playing around with the free Capture One Express version for Fuji to process RAF files. I still want to do most of my work in LR legacy version.

1) When I import a fuji RAF file into CaptureOne, I see that the software recognizes what film sim I used in-camera and applies it to the image under the 'auto' curve profile. Great, one less step for me. Is Capture One doing anything else?

I use 'Sessions' in Capture One Pro so I do not actually import images however, I believe that the C1 importing facilities allow you to tell C1 to automatically apply certain settings to your images as they get imported into C1. So, if you have selected some C1 settings to be applied to images on import C1 will be performing these tasks for you. C1 will also automatically apply some lens corrections (but not all by default) as well as some automatic cropping to edit-out the distorted parts of the image after lens corrections have been applied. Other settings applied by C1 are default sharpening and noise reduction settings (which will change dependant on the ISO of each image). Also most settings in C1 can be set to a apply default values of your choice for each particular camera type that you use (X-T1, X-T3, Canon 5DMk2 etc. etc.).

2) I've read that people use raw file engines like Capture One and X-Transformer to demosaic the files. Do I need to set anything else up for Capture One to properly demoasaic the fuji RAF files?

Capture One automatically demosaic the image RAW data. You don't need to do anything.

3) What are good export settings to have in CaptureOne before I move the files to LR where I will continue my PP work? What format should I export as? (DNG, TIFF, JPG?) Again, I just have a legacy LR without the support for the latest cameras and lenses. I'm ultimately going to export from LR as jpgs.

I would reccommend you export to LR using the TIFF format at 16bit depth. (These will be large files but after creating your jpeg you can delete the TIFF files as C1 will still have the developmet settings you used and another TIFF can easily be creataed later.)

4) I noticed when comparing a raw file to a jpg side by side, that the raw file requires a bit more sharpening probably because the fuji camera is already applying some sharpening to the jpg file. Where would you apply sharpening in this workflow, in CaptureOne or LR?

The amount of sharpening to use is very much down to personal opinion. I have never used LR so don't know its capabilities with respect to sharpening. If you decide to sharpen in C1 I would suggest that you use the 'Structure'slider under the 'Clarity' tool to apply fine detail enhancement. Try to keep the amount of structure low (say below 20, start at about 10). Basically enhance fine detail with the Structure slider and sharpen edges using the 'Sharpening' tool. I would also recommend ticking the 'Diffraction Correction' checkbox under the 'Lens' tool tab if your image was taken with a f/5.6 or smaller aperture.

Hope some of this helps.

RG

 

[jli_jon]

Thanks, this is very helpful.

I did notice that C1 also applies default sharpening and NR on import. Which is okay, with some tweaks. Strangely, there's no option to have default settings on import for certain things like sharpening in the Express version, at least from what I can tell.

Alright, I'll try out exporting as 16 bit Tiff files before finishing in LR.

 

[RetiringGuy]

As I don't import images this is just a guess;-

As sharpening (detail enhancement and sharpening) are very much down to each individuals taste and is also image content dependant I would expect that Capture One does not offer sharpening as import settings.

Capture One assesses each camera that they support and set their default sharpening and noise reduction default settings (for each camera) to what they think is a good starting point dependant on the ISO setting for the image. Those default values are what you see if you just import an image without any import settings.

If you want to change those default sharpening settings for a camera then set-up your new default setting requirements in the Sharpening tool then click on the ellipsis (...) at the top right of the sharpenig tool and select 'Save as default for - name of camera -'. This will set any newly imported image to those sharpening settings. (As existing images will already have some sharpening settings applied your new sharpening default settings will not be applied to them. But, as any newly imported image will not have had any sharpening settings applied to it then C1 will apply your own new default settings to the new image.)

If you later find that you don't want your new sharpening settings any more then when you click on the ellipsis you will also see that there is the ability to delete your new defaults by selecting 'Reset defaults for - name of camera -'.

You can use this technique of setting new defaults (for new images) for a lot of the C1 tools.

You can also setup 'presets' for each tool as opposed to 'defaults' by selecting the hamburger icon (3 stacked lines) just to the left of the ellipsis. Any preset that you make can be applied either by itself or stacked with any more of your presets or any built-in C1 preset.

I have to admit that over the years I have discovered that for the way I work I now find it better to just leave the C1 default settings alone. Your experience may be different.

RG