Photography News Issue 65

Photography News | Issue 65 | photographynews.co.uk

First tests

CaptureOne Express Fujifilm12 £Free

Specs

Something for nothing is always a good thing, so if you own a Fujifilm camera then downloading this free software is a no-brainer. Sony owners have their own free version, too. Capture One software is made by Phase One and the Pro version is a highly regarded, capable editing software. Very cleverly, Phase One has collaborated with Fujifilm and Sony, and produced softwares dedicated to cameras from those brands. For each brand, two variants are available. Capture One Pro Fujifilm/ Sony costs £109 for the full, perpetual version or £8 amonth on subscription. As you’d expect, the Pro version has more editing features and such niceties as instant tethered capture with camera control. Pay the money and the Capture One Pro Fujifilm is a great value software. However, if you want a real bargain, download the free Express version that has full Fujifilm Raw support and a raft of editing features – this is the version we’re testing. The software opens with the tool tabs on the left side, thumbnails along the bottom and the selected image in the middle. You can change the window to suit how you prefer to work. The eight tabs have a left-to-right logical workflow, so Library is far left, thenQuick, Lens, Color, Exposure and so on. Under each tab are all the Raw editing controls you expect including exposure, noise reduction and lens corrections. You’ll find the Fujifilm Film Simulation settings here, too. Before you can do anything, you need to import your images and decide how you prefer to work. You can use catalogues that suit larger collections of images and you can have any number of catalogues. Or you can work in sessions, with one session per memory card/shoot, for example. The import and previewgenerating process is slower than Lightroom. Importing 196 files took just over ten minutes – those same files imported and previewed in one minute using

Prices Capture One Express Fujifilm 12 Free Capture One Pro Fujifilm 12, perpetual license £109, annual plan £8 monthly, perpetual license with three Style packs £178, perpetual license with six Style packs £247 Minimum system requirements Windows: Windows 7, 8, 10, 8GB RAM, 10GB of free hard disk space, Intel or AMD CPU with two cores, colour calibrated 1280x800 24-bit monitor Mac: OS 10.12.6 and newer, 8GB RAM, 10GB of free hard disk space, Intel CPU with two cores, colour calibrated 1280x800 24-bit monitor Fujifilm Film Simulationmodes 16 including Fujifilm Velvia, plus auto, linear, film extra shadow, film extra contrast Contact phaseone.com

Verdict

Capture One Express Fujifilm 12 is free so if you have a Fujifilm X Series (or Sony) camera it seems really daft not to download and at the very least try it. I use Adobe Lightroom for my workflow and I don’t see myself changing that because Capture One catalogues are bigger and slower, but working in sessions is perfectly fine, so it will play a significant role because it is very good with Fujifilm X-Raws. The free version lacks certain features such as spot removal and gradient tools I need, though, and if I continue to enjoy Capture One’s Raw processing skills, which is very likely, I can see myself going for the fully featured version very soon. Until then, I’m very happy with the free one. Pros It’s free, works really well with Fujifilm Raws, and it’s free! Cons Slow importing and creating previews; inevitably it is not as well endowed as the paid-for version reduction. The Sharpening menu includes a halo suppression slider. Being able to apply Fujifilm’s Film Simulation modes in post is very much a good thing, too, and of course there’s the option to use the simulation modes as starting points and fine-tuning them to produce an individual style that you can save for future use. There are plenty more built-in presets, and if you are playing with different effects you can make virtual copies with the variant feature. Of course, there are features missing – spot removal tool and gradient filter are two examples – but they are reserved for the paid version, which is fair enough. For a free software, though, Capture One Express is impressive and offers great editing potential. WC

Lightroom. In my workflow, I name and date folders so I can view files in their folders while images can be keyworded, colour labelled or starred to help find images. You can also create your own collections and drag images into them, so there are plenty of options to suit your workflow. As with using any new software, it took a little while to get into a way of working and to appreciate how it handled. I ended up exporting many versions of the same few images with different settings applied to check the final results inPhotoshop and inprint. The live preview of course gives a very good indication of effects, but the exported file can still look different, so doing this just gives a better feel of the software’s potential. The free version does offer considerable control so no problem with adjusting highlights/shadows to get rich, fully toned images and clarity/structure to crispen up mid- tone separation. As well as clarity/ structure (with the choice of four application methods) detail can also be tweakedwith sharpening and noise

Something for nothing is always a good thing

Above The interface of Capture One Express Fujifilm is clean and offers a good degree of personalisation, so for example, the top toolbar can be populated to suit your needs, and the tool bar shown here on the left can be moved to the right

Capture One Express in action

Original image

Capture One Express Fujifilm

LightroomCC

Enhanced details in Lightroom

Original shot was taken on a Fujifilm GFX 50R with GF32- 64mm f/4 R LM. The exposure was 1/450sec at f/13 and ISO 400. The Raw was processed through Lightroom (normally and with an Enhanced Details DNG file) and Capture One Express Fujifilm. Of course, given the potential of both

softwares the images here just give an idea of what is possible with not too much editing; mostly highlight and shadow control, noise reduction and sharpening. Superior quality can be squeezed out in both cases with more attention.