The September 25th, 2018.
On September 25, 2018, Fujifilm and Phase One wrote history. For the first time, Capture One Pro opened its door to a new Medium Format brand and my phone started ringing all day long. We have to understand that maybe 80% of studios around the world use Capture One Pro, so the lack of FUJIFILM GFX support was very restrictive for those who worked in studio and loved the GFX system.
I can’t remember how many colleagues started to think different about the FUJIFILM GFX the day the support has been announced. And for myself, a lot of new opportunities, like being able to start working tethered with my clients or finally developing all my RAW shot before the support, stored in a folder named “Maybe one day !”.
Why Capture One Pro ? Because I believe that the science under the hood is superior, from color to tonality. Why mostly ? Because of the Color Editor ! In my experience, the best post-production tool with the best science ever created. Period.
Post-production is exciting, magical.
Post-production is exciting, magical. Here is a demonstration which resume all the fundamental principals.
Imagine you photographed a red flower in a meadow. Remove the details, the variations and simplify the shapes. You get the left image above. Does it look like a RAW, isn’t it ? This image represents approximately 80% of the rendering quality of your photograph.
Does the right image look like a post-produced image, isn’t it ? Add back the details, the variations and complex shapes and you get your red flower in a meadow photograph, ready for a Vanity Fair cover !
Which tools have been used to retouch this image ? Contrast ? Brightness ? Saturation ? Clarity ? No, only the Color Editor.
The fundamental principal of post-production.
Because the fundamental principal of post-production is to find the perfect harmony between the different color patches which compose the image. The color theory.
Each patch can be summarized by a median color, which can be represented in LAB, RGB or HSL mode. As humans, our most natural way to describe colors is by using Hue, Saturation and Luminosity values. So, post-producing or retouching an image is to find the best Hue, Saturation and luminosity values for each patch in order to create a harmony.
Because each patch create then a Hue contrast, a Saturation contrast and a Luminosity contrast, the absolute values of this green is not the answer. It’s rather which red for this green ! So we understand that working on a photograph, a painting or a drawing is strictly identical.
And this is why the Color Editor in Capture One Pro is so efficient. You isolate your patch and you choose its best HSL values. Whether it’s a post-production on Annie Leibovitz, Erwin Olaf, Dan Winters, etc… it’s the same principal. And this work is responsible for approximately 80% of why some people stopped on your image.
McDonald’s campaign shot on FUJIFILM X-T2.
Here we can see this process on a campaign I created, with the White Dog Agency, for McDonald’s with the FUJIFILM X-T2 and Capture One Pro. The left image above was my study to find the HSL values of each patch for a beautiful harmony. The middle one was the RAW. And the right image was the final one.
What I did ? Almost no global adjustments, only the Editor Color which allowed me to isolate and to recreate the same HSL values for each patch. The RAW doesn’t work, the final image works. I believe that in color theory, there isn’t different level of quality, either it works or it doesn’t work.
The November 29th, 2018.
On November 29, 2018, Fujifilm and Phase One presented a new collaboration with Capture One Pro 12 and the new Fujifilm Film Simulations. A new demonstration of their excellence.
Believe it or not… but the left image above is a SOOC CLASSIC CHROME Jpeg and the right one a RAW developed with the new CLASSIC CHROME Film Simulation inside Capture One Pro 12!
Same here… the left image above is a SOOC ACROS Jpeg and the right one a RAW developed with the new ACROS Film Simulation inside Capture One Pro 12. Try to spot the differences!
A great time for Fujifilm and Capture One.
It’s a great time for photography, a great time to try the Fujifilm & Capture One Pro association. We have now more opportunity to access medium format quality with all the options needed in studio.
It was a dream, Fujifilm and Phase One did it !
