Lesson Info

Using Live View Focusing and Overlay

so to help you with, um, composition, tasks and things like that. There's a whole suite of things that you can do when in terms off live. You now know all cameras support live you again. You can check the Web pages of capture one to see if your camera can support it. So cut some cameras. Was she tethered? But they won't necessarily be able t o do live you so you'll see down here in also in the camera told, We've got shadow button. Next to that is the live you button. So if I turn this on, then live, you will pop open. And first of all, we can see that it's the wrong way around. So some cameras it will pick up on the tilt center. In this case, it's not. But no matter, because underlie view controls, we can change the orientation to a specific rotation. So I think I want 90. Yes, 90 degrees like so That's also really handy if you're shooting the camera overhead like flat artwork or folded fashion, something like that. Quite often, the rotational sensor can get confused. It doesn't know w...

hich way is up, so you can change it here like so, and it will also change in next capture adjustments. Over here, too, said, Now that we've got live you up, this can help us work with composition. So Alex, who's just gonna help out the second the live you feed is nice and far. So when Alex comes in and just there we go goes across the camera. If you just want to move an item for the sake of moving, then you can see straightaway that too nice Fast frame rates, like 2030 frames per second, and it's really nice and easy toe check for composition. So if you're working with the food stylist or yourself, then it's much easier to watch what's going on with live. You, um, peering through the camera, moving in a bit, going back to the camera and so on. It works really nicely, So that's if you like our four frame view. If we zoom into 100% then we can actually use this as a means to check focus as well s so you can focus the camera manually. Alex, wouldn't you just try and focus it a second? Because it's not super easy if you do it manually. Actually, Alex, just twist the lens so you can see on. It's kind of difficult, because no matter how sturdy or tripod is, everything always bounces around a little bit, so it's not super easy. So fortunately, what we can do if we go to their camera tools is that we have a whole tool here called camera Focus. So this has thes three arrows either side, which is essentially near and far, and its course adjustments and fine adjustments. So, look, I could just see a little insect on our strawberry there so that you could see the quality of life you. So if we click far, that's going to rack the focus, you know, way back in the image. But we're not touching the camera, so it's not bouncing around. It's really easy to see. So if I wanted to nail focus on our strawberry, then I can do so. So course adjustment here with the big arrows, medium adjustment on the middle, and then it's a fine adjustment with this arrow here, so it's super simple to get her focus spot on so I can zoom out and then we can check over here and see how the focus looks and so on. If any point we want to stop live, you weaken. Just close this window and it comes back out and you can hear the mirror jump back up. Then if we want to go back in, we can open live you and then we get live you back as well. Now, if you find your live, you exposure looks like really bright or really dark. There's probably a setting on your camera, which will simulate the exposure. So if you work with flash, for example, you're probably you know, it's smaller apertures F 11 on your flash sync speed and for the ambient light that's going to be under exposed if you like. So the live view of the camera will try and simulate that s O. You need to be able to turn that off on the camera. Now it's referred to as different things in different cameras. So here we go on the cannon. It's referred to his exposure simulation, and I've disabled it. So turn that off if you can. As an option, you've still got all your camera settings here as well. You've still got the camera tool so you can change settings as you're working in live you as well. So what? This point? 01 last thing. Also, to help us with our composition, you'll find a tool called overly down here in the live view menu. On what overlay allows you to do is to drop any kind of image format like a PNG file JPEG tiff onto the image itself to help for composition. So we've got a fake magazine cover right here somewhere. So this is a, um, PNG file with transparency. So if I dropped that in, we can see exactly how it's going to look so I can change the capacity. So if I need to be aware off, you know, fitting around text on the magazine and so on, I could do so. So I'm just gonna pull up this handle here, and then we can move it around. We can change the scaling like so and also its position by moving the sliders. Or we can use this particular panto here a swell. So if you're shooting packaging or feet to cover magazine or you're trying to do composite work, for example, then this could be really handy the overlay feature. So if we're shooting a background plate and then we're shooting a different plate than it can help in live you to actually be able to see Okay, I put my background plate on the overlay so I can see how the shot I'm doing now is gonna fit together if I need to need to do composite work later. So the overlay tool shows up in live you. But it also shows up in the main window as well, which you'll see when we cancel that down. There's a few other options in live you as well, eh? So we have this focus meter, which is quite handy. So if I click on this icon here and drop this on, that will give me an indication of what the focus is like on that particular part of the image. And I can drop a couple of these in. So if I wanted to maximize my depth of field, I could put one there, one here and now I can see how the focus is looking between zone one and zone two. So if you're using technical cameras with tilt and shift or tilt shift lenses, this is also a good visual way to see that, and then you'll see if I change the focus for a second. So if I throw the focus out and we go back to the tool so you can see now those bars have dropped right down because the focusing is soft. So if we change this, so let's keep these up here so we can see. So now if I optimized my focus, see, as it gets better and better, then these balls keep creeping to the right, like so and also you can see the orange lines zip around the outside as well, so you can judge the quality of the focus, too, so you can have a number of these spots. I think the limit is for there we go. Three maximum of three focus areas like so and to close them down. We just go to the X in the corner. So I'm going to check my focus once, Mawr. So let's go up here. Let's check in all strawberry. On second, let's come out of like view. Refresh that feed that's better. Focus is actually pretty good as per the focus. Me, too, said. So I just tweak and a little bit like so, So pretty happy with that. All right, let's put that away, Andi. There's a couple of other things which you might find useful depending what you're doing as well. So we've got up here grids and guides. So if we click this on, if we need to align to Horizon or something like that So we could drop that down there if we need to level the camera and also verticals Aziz. Well, okay, so I think we're almost ready to start building our shoot. So I'm gonna turn off grids and guides and right now is still in our lighting test. So I'm gonna go to shot one, and we're going to say, Set, that is the capture folder. See, the camera moves, and now we're ready to shoot in that one. So if I go Teoh back to the camera tool, let's just take a shot, see how we're looking. You can see that my overlay has popped up in there as well. By default. It's in The capture. Took a tool as well, so that's a little bit on the big side. So let's scale that down because we had a crop. We can move that around and just to give you an impression of how it's working so you could see my counter is at number 17. As I said earlier, if we want to reset that, we could if we wanted to. Let's just check my crop for a second. It's a bit bit aggressive on the crop, so let's go Something like that. We've still got the adjustments carried over because we always said Copy, next adjustment from last, So copy from last. So when the previous short, we copied that over a swell. So if I rattle off for a few more shots like son, let's get that crop a bit better. So do a few more captures and again captured from the button control K to capture or capture from the camera itself. So this is our shot one, if you like, and then we want to go through and distinguish between a few different shots are just check that were actually in focus. Yeah, pretty good. Looks good to me. Eso the next shot that we're gonna have. Let's just do a couple more to fill up this folder a bit so the next shot that we're gonna have is that we're gonna go to shot too, Right? Click said his capture folder. You can add that as a short cut, a swell. So if you look under there, uh, it it many No, it's the file menu. My mistake. You can see you've got the options here for set as capture folder. So if you wanted to make that a short cut, you could as well. So instead of having to mouse back to the photo tab and change it there, you could set up a short cut to set his capture folder so I could just go straight to shot to tempt my short cart on the capture folder is set and also for the counters. You can also use short cuts to reset the counter. So if you're a bit smarter, the mean you can remember, you can go to the folder here, click on the set this capture folder short cut, hit the reset, Countess your car, and then you're good to go. Okay, so next short, we're going to switch out or empty Joe without your let's turn live you on So Alex can see what she's doing looks pretty good. It's really an event. Invaluable tool for adjusting and composition on DSO on, especially if you're alone photographer working by yourself. Trying to do this and looking through the camera is really super difficult. So if you're working on set this working on set on your own like this, a fair amount, there's no reason why you can't run, you know, a second onset monitor that's right next to the set. So as soon as you trigger live, you you've got a monitor next to you and you're happy with moving the stuff around of being able to see. So that looks good. Let's just check. We're still in focus. Let's just tweak that ever so slightly. Is that so subject? So I think that's probably about right, so we're happy with that. So now you can see that I've switched to shot to As soon as we take you capture. Let's do another one. Look at the naming. It says shot two, and our counter is continuing to roll on. We've got the adjustments carried over as before as well. So we're rattle off a few more shots so we can fill up this folder if you need to shoot rapidly, you'll be able to do it a bit faster from the camera itself. So when I hit come on K on my keyboard, I can shoot pretty quick. But there's a slight delay just for the message is getting to the camera itself. But if you need to shoot fast like you're doing portrayed work and so on, as you saw a little bit earlier, you can rapidly shoot, depending on the camera. Let's just fire a few quickies off. 12345 You'll see if I can get back quick enough on screen. There's like an orange circle around the shutter button. So if I just trigger this one quickly again so you can see that orange circle pop up. That means there's images waiting to come from the camera. So if you're operating, capture one. Maybe is a digital tech that gives you an idea that they're still images coming down. Depending on the camera model cannon, for example, there's no way of knowing if it's one image or 10 images that is still coming. It's just images are coming. But on Nick on, for example, slightly different. You'll see a number of dots around the outside of the circle. So if you see seven dots around the outside, that means seven images are coming down the pipeline as well. That's a good little indicated to know. So if you're working with the photographer or yourself may say, Is everything safe? Is it all on the laptop? Yes, I can see that. All images down who did? Okay, now we're gonna be fancy for our third shot. So let's go to short three. Like so Right. Click. And we're set this as the capture folder. Okay, so now we're going to go back into I'm just gonna take a quick shot, Alex, to make sure everything is good. And we can actually. Yep. It's good. Let's check for focus. Yep. Nice and job. What we can actually do is shoot during live you as well. Some cameras. It's a bit dependent on the model, but with this cannon in particular, we can do so. So let me just check Harkin. Shoot. Yes, we can. So what we're gonna do is let's put our overlay back on. Let's find overly now. We can customize this as well because I must have got rid of overlay. So let's bring overlay back. Turn that on and let's fit to this. So what we're gonna attempt to do is make a beautiful magazine cover, like so and shoot with live you want. So if I hit the button, then there's a slight delay. But you see, it still pops up and then live. You comes back on again. Just put your hand in front of the Yeah, so we still got live you. And then if we shoot, we get a shot, and then it's recorded as well. So let's go for Alex. Let's see if we can create art so I can see where Alex's hand is going in. Okay, go for it. Okay, let's take a shot. Let's take another one. Okay, let's go again. So fill out some or and a bit lower, I think, but low a bit lower. Get good. Maybe next one, we try lower again. Okay. And a bit lower and lower down, I think. Yeah. Perfect. So you see, the capture rate is a little bit slower, but it still works. Let's dio another one. Yeah, same height. Good site. Okay, good. Good. Hi, I'm Amy. Perfect. like so so again, A little bit slow when live view is on, but it's still very simple to do. So this way we can really frame up, shot nicely and see what we've got. So I'm going to come out of live you. And if we just scroll back, we can see all the various different attempts that we made. So did we get something? Let's see. Almost probably one of those that we can use. Uh, a swell. Yeah. Let's try one more go for go for Max. Max. Honey, in this case, Uh, yeah, I'd say sort of somewhere in the middle. American? Yeah. Yeah. Loads of it. Need a bigger spoon. Yep. Ready? A bit lower. Great. Like son. So without live you, that's kind of really hard to do, or you've got to be at the camera and shooting as well. But then there's the chance that you're knocking the camera. It's unstable. Mean this way. We've got hands off approach on the camera on. That works really, really nicely. Okay, cool. So let's recap what we have, you know, session. So we're going to go back to this folder, so if you remember, we had lighting test like so and shot one shot to and then shot three with our spoon pause. Like so if we look in the finder itself, here it is. So we had our capture folder lighting test whips, too many lighting, test shot, one shot, two shot, three, like so. So all in their individual folders and all with their individual naming as well. So shot one shot to shot three. So it meant I didn't have to think about changing that a tool. So if we were doing something like head shots, we could set up the folders of the name of the person that we're going to shoot before we get where we're going. So, John, David, Alex and so on. So we could do it that way. And then everything is set up as soon as we're ready to shoot

Class Description

Lessons

1. Interface Overview

   Get acquainted with Capture One Pro with a quick overview of the program, including where the different controls and options are located. In the first half of the class, David walks through a quick start of the software before diving into the advanced tools.

2. Customizing Your Workspace and Keyboard Shortcuts

   Capture One Pro offers full control of your workspace, allowing you to customize where the controls are situated. Learn how to design a workspace that works for you, along with tips for creating your own custom keyboard shortcuts. In this lesson, David also notes the differences between running the image editor on Mac and on a PC.

3. Making Your First Catalog

   With a workspace in place, begin working with your images by creating your first catalog. Learn how to create an organized home for your photos in the editing software. Here, David also shares tips for organizing images and maximizing performance.

4. Importing Your First Images

   Add your RAW files to the catalog in this lesson, picking up tricks for including subfolders and avoiding duplicate images. Work on asset management essentials like where to save files and renaming images.

5. Virtual Organization

   Starting Capture One Pro with a basic organization scheme will save time and trouble in the long run. Pick up basics on getting images organized inside the imaging software -- and keeping them that way. Work with moving files, managing folders, finding images on the hard drive and more.

6. Basic Tool Behavior

   Jump into image processing by learning how the different tools work. Pick up essentials like the hidden tools for returning the settings back to zero and reviewing the before and after of just a single adjustment. By starting with an understanding of the options that comes with each type of control, you'll be better poised to diving into the nitty-gritty of photo editing.

7. Starting Approach to Editing

   What do you edit first? Establish a basic editing workflow and optimize both your time and the image quality. Dan shares tips on which edits to tackle first and why. Work with tools like exposure and white balance, then move into levels for adjusting shadows, mid-tones, and highlights.

8. Next Level Editing

   Continue layering on adjustments. Learn the difference between the brightness slider and the exposure slider, then move to next level tools like saturation, clarity, contrast, the RGB curve, and the luminosity curve. See a comparison between similar tools to see the difference between each one.

9. Color Tools Overview

   Fine-tune the colors in images using the color editor and color balance tools. Learn the difference between the two options and how to use each one. Then, move into specifics like the skin tone tool and adjusting specific colors.

10. Basic Copy Paste Workflow

    Capture One Pro includes tools to help you avoid repetitive work. See how to copy the adjustments from one image to paste them onto the next. Then, adjust the default options on how the tool works.

11. Basic Export

    Once you are finished with a basic edit, images need to be exported for sharing or printing. Navigate the different export options like file type, recipes, and more.

12. Getting Started on an Edit

    Capture One is good for more than just quick edits -- get started in more advanced editing tools in the second segment of the class. In this lesson, discuss topics like how much editing is too much, planning the edit, and more.

13. Adding Layers to Your Toolkit

    In Capture One Pro, layers allow you to apply local adjustments, or changes made only to a small portion of the image. Learn how to use separate layers and masks to fine-tune an image using the brush tools and other local adjustment options.

14. Radial and Linear Gradients

    The linear and radial gradient masks allow for creating layer masks that follow a shape for local adjustments without painting on with a brush. Work with these two types of masks to fine-tune the image through more local adjustment options.

15. Luminosity Masking

    The luminosity mask tool adjusts images based on light, applying the masked effect to just the shadows or highlights, for example. Master this more advanced local adjustment to fine-tune the photograph.

16. More Advanced Layers

    Now that you know how to use layers for local adjustments, see them in action. In this lesson, David walks through layer adjustments on a handful of images to demonstrate the different possibilities of these tools.

17. Removing Simple Objects and Local Adjustments

    Learn how to remove an object from a photograph inside Capture One Pro. Using the clone and heal layers, remove distractions from images with this toolset.

18. Advanced Color Edits

    Head back into the color editor tool and build in advanced techniques. Learn how to select and adjust specific color ranges, including helpful shortcuts.

19. Using the Color Range to Select Just What You Need

    Put those color tools in action on sample edits. In this lesson, David demonstrates how to use the color editor tool to adjust a single object, without affecting the rest of the image.

20. Editing Colors in General

    Expand your color editing repertoire with several real-world samples. Learn how to use the color tools to enhance the sky in a landscape image or to remove distractions in street photography.

21. Editing Skin Tones

    Capture One Pro breaks out skin tones into a dedicated tab to better help photo editors easily work with portraits. Find out how to correct skin color to remove redness and other imperfections.

22. Combining Color Selections with Layers

    What if you have an image with two objects that have identical color, but you only want to adjust one of them? Fine-tune your color adjustments using layers to adjust only a single area of color.

23. Creating Masks From the Color Editor

    The same selections that you make in the color editor can be converted into masks to adjust more than just the color in that area. Unlike the color tools, this technique can be used to make a selection that adjusts other elements, like sharpness, contrast, and clarity.

24. Color Grading with the Color Balance Tool

    Get creative with color grading by using the color balance tool. See how the tool works, then see real-life examples of the technique in action. Build your own color grading station by adding a custom tab into the workflow.

25. Intro to Second Day

    Ahead of a live shoot, get a jump start on what's next: tethered shooting and sessions.

26. Session Overview

    Unlike a catalog, a session is designed to organize a single event. Learn how sessions are organized, how the software manages the files, how to create a new session and more.

27. Tethered Basics

    If you've never shot with a tether before, there are a few basics you need to know first. In this lesson, David shares beginner's tips on connecting the camera and computer for a tethered session. Then, see the camera and software prepped for the tether live.

28. Setting Up Simple Sessions and Setting Naming Conventions

    Tethered sessions do not need to be organized into a single folder. Learn how to separate images into folders as you shoot and how to create a custom file name.

29. Controlling the Camera

    Adjust camera options directly inside Capture One Pro. Here, David shows how to customize the tethered workspace, how to connect the camera, and how to remotely adjust camera settings.

30. Handling Next Capture Adjustments

    Start shooting from inside Capture One, then learn how to make adjustments that will apply to all the subsequent photographs. Explore advanced options for tethered shooting.

31. Using Live View Focusing and Overlay

    See what your camera sees while working remotely using Live View. In this lesson, David shares how to use the Live View feature, along with the Overlay option when working with composites or images with text.

32. Selecting Images and Using Smart Albums

    With the tethered shooting session finished, choose the images from the live shoot using tools like color tags and ratings. Then, work with filtering options and smart albums.

33. Saving a Session Template

    Starting a new tethered shoot doesn't necessarily mean starting everything over from scratch. Learn how to save a session template so you can easily re-use that organization scheme.

34. Overview of Process Recipes

    Process recipes make exporting simple. Build your own process recipes for working with image files inside Capture One.

35. Tokens Overview

    In Capture One Pro, tokens help organize images with metadata and keywords. Learn how to use tokens to create custom file names based on factors like when the image was shot. Use tokens to save images in specific folders based on their color tag or rating, rather than doing multiple exports.

36. A Simple Round Trip

    Capture One Pro plays well with other image editors. Learn how to take a photo out of Capture One and into Adobe Photoshop or other programs, then bring the file back into the catalog. Work with a PSD file inside Capture One.

37. Sharpening Workflow

    Sharpening can be adjusted in three different ways in Capture One. In this lesson, work with lens corrections to apply specific sharpening algorithms, sharpening sliders, and sharpening at the export.

38. Creating a Recipe for Web Output

    Quickly share files online by creating your own recipe for exporting images. David walks through the options and some of the best settings for prepping images for the web as well as how to preview what the file will look like compressed.

39. Selecting with a File Name List

    Design a process recipe for uploading to cloud storage and adding a watermark. Then, learn how to easily select images based on a list of filenames, such as when a client sends you a list of the photos that they like.

40. Using Plugins and Sharing to Clients with PRODIBI

    Plugins can expand Capture One's capabilities. In this lesson, lean how to install plugins and how to use the PRODIBI option for online proofing and galleries.

41. Image Review 1 - Sometimes Simple Works!

    In the final segment of the course, walk through full edits for various types of shots. In the first set, work with an image that needs just a few basic adjustments.

42. Image 2 - Radial or Gradient Masks, Object Removal

    Continue perfecting real, RAW images with this pet shot. Work with a radial gradient mask, apply selective sharpening, and more.

43. Image 3 - Keystone Tool and Aspect Ratio

    Correct perspective on architectural images using the Keystone tool. Then work with structural adjustments, lens corrections, and other adjustments.

44. Image 4 - Using Styles in Capture One

    Work with styles to make quick adjustments to an entire image. Learn how to work with styles as a layer and further fine-tuning tips.

45. Image 5 - Black and White

    Continue building your editing strategy and workflow and work with a black and white conversion. Customize the look of a black and white conversion and make monochrome-specific edits.

46. Image 6 - Landscape

    Correct a landscape image, using tools common for the category like the Keystone tool, saturation, radial gradients, and more.

47. Image 7 - Portrait

    Explore the tools for editing a portrait. Revisit skin tone adjustments, remove distractions and more in the edit for a casual portrait.

48. Image 8 - Action in Lowlight

    Editing low light images is often a challenge -- see how to tackle this type of edit. Work with gradient masks, selective brightening, color grading and more. Finally, gain additional insight from student questions.