How To Color Grade Photos In Capture One

Hello what's up In this video I'll show you how to color grade your images when using Capture One So many of you have been asking for a Capture One tutorial video and here it is So I want to show you how I color grade in Capture One using masking and layers So I want to show you how I achieve beautiful skin tones in Capture One Understanding color grading is essential and color Grading can vary from one person to another and the test itself may differ between individuals With that in mind I'll begin by importing the necessary components I'm going to color grade one image in Capture One and then copy and apply that color grading to the next image since they're identical basically the same person under the same lighting conditions So what I'll do first is address the exposure and contrast issues Regarding this image you can see in Capture One we have layers and various masking options such as subject background and people so for this we're I'll be working directly on the layer for basic adjustments to contrast and lighting so I'll simply reduce it here The highlights and also slightly reduce the whites just like this Once I'm done with that I'll go to my shadows and slightly open them up add a touch of shadows and a bit more contrast to this photo then I'll adjust my levels and drag the black point slightly to increase the image's contras and I'll do the same for the white point So once I've corrected the whites contrast or exposure issues in the image I'll just come over to our layer panel right here and in the layer panel as I said we have subject background and people So in this case I'll go to the people mask Click the drop-down arrow and select what I want in this case depending on the color grading I don't want to color grade the hair so I'll Uncheck the hair option and the lips That way once I'm done you can keep the lips on and remove the mask later So I'll jus leave the lips turned off so when I click on create mask and for example I press M on the keyboard the mask will appear So whe I press M and you can see it's highlighting the areas we're going to color grade and you can see this red overlay will cover all those areas at we'll be color grading the selected footage under the people masking option so to hide the mask simply press M on the keyboard the you'll scroll down to where we see the color editor with options for basic advanced and skin tone we'll select skin tone and pick the color picker tool and zoom in So just want to choose the right skin tone for the subject So depending on how you're shooting the image in the studio you'll need to adjust accordingly deep down you already know exactly the color or skin tone you're aiming for so just come and test that shade For this I'll simply come over and I feel this color looks okay so I'll just sample from around this area and as soon as I do that as soon as you click you ca otice that the color range will be displayed right here in the skin tone panel we have uniformity—this is one of the most important tools whe comes to using Capture One So when you move the hue slider forward you're going to notice that the rest of the skin starts to take on the same tone as the area you're adjusting e area we sampled in this case and simply adjust the hue setting to your preference or taste—just like adjusting the saturation slider upward at and this will help me achieve an even uniform skin tone especially in cases where the face differs in makeup from the rest of the subject's body This tool is going to be extremely important to you as a photographer so I'll just move it forward like this and since the subject wasn't wearing any makeup I'll color grade it to my preference and at this point I think it looks good—now that the skin appears nice and even you can see the difference and even take this to extremes if you'd like As I mentioned color grading is going to be subjective and will vary from one photographer to another So do whatever works best for you as a photographer In this case I'll simply go with the IC amount and if needed you can adjust the amount accordingly adjust the color to your preference Sorry about that The hue option will allow you to correct the skin tone if it appears too greenish or too reddish o the hue option and experiment with it if it looks too reddish adjust it toward the green side to reduce the red intensity e reds and if the skin tone appears too greenish you can shift this toward the left-hand side to add more reds to the skin tone So I'm just going to leave it here set it around 0.5 and if the skin appears too saturated you can adjust the saturation accordingly and experiment with it You can also move on to the next step basic slider and bring the oranges down slightly to reduce the lightness —just like that to add a touch of contrast to the skin tone So once we're done with this—let's take a look at the before and after This was our photo initially: before this is the raw image and after Before after before You ca see just how much of a difference we've achieved So if you want to manipulate the background and change the colors or adjust the brightness level of you can simply go to the layer panel click on Background and it will create a separate background mask for your image So you can see Right now it has generated the mask for the background so when I press M on the keyboard you can see the background mask has been created automatically So if you want to adjust the background color or reduce its brightness simply lower the exposure to darken it background in this case or to your liking So if you overdo the color grading for example on the skin you can use the people mask to reduce it opacity in case it's too intense with the color grading sometimes it can go overboard which is why we've included this optio for reducing the opacity So right now I feel this works fine If you want to adjust anything in the image related to color grading click on the e layer you want to modify and scroll down to the adjustments you made For instance with skin tone you can adjust it to your preference or to your liking liking So I feel that’s excessive Once you’re done with this in Capture you also have color balance so you can just as well apply the desired colors to the mage For instance with skin tone you might just adjust the midtones and add a touch of orange The further you move this toward the edge the more pronounced the effect becomes e more of that color that is added the closer it is to the center the less of that color you'll see the target color is orange So the less of that color being added to the image So once you've finished color grading the image and you're happy with the result just come and adjust it o adjustments and proceed to copy adjustments Select the other image you want to color grade in this case which is this image Then proceed to adjustments once again and click on apply adjustments and it will apply the adjustments to this new image so it will be color graded So If you have around 10 images select all of them after copying the adjustments return to adjustments and apply You'll notice it also has color grading applied s second image So one thing I forgot to show you—just in case you want to adjust the image For example if you feel the color grading needs tweaking was not done in specific areas I'll show you how you can address that So I'm just going to return to this image So if you want to make changes anything you can achieve using the brush tool to apply a specific effect to a designated area such as the hair region—for instance pressing B to select the brush and E to switch to the eraser So if you want to apply color grading for instance to the lips in this case—simply use the brush tool and the brush will restore the effect back in a smooth natural way given area so you might as well apply color grading to the lips for instance if you want them to be included or affected in this case or if you wish to To remove the color grading from the lips simply select the eraser tool and gently wipe away the color from the desired areas effectively masking them can be perfectly tailored to your taste or preference so once you're done with that simply export the images into Photoshop for you to perform skin retouching So here's how I approach color grading when using Capture One and here's how I copy and apply adjustments from from one photo to another I hope you enjoyed this video and to import the images select both of them by pressing Ctrl+A then go to Edit mage and come to edit with and come to Photoshop 2025 and click on that So I prefer editing files because they contain more information and greater detail prefer 16-bit images click on edit variants and it will open these images in Photoshop for you to access additional editing options processes So this is how you can edit using Capture One and I hope you've learned a thing or two from this video Ronix from Ronix Photography Thank you for watching and I'll see you in more videos on this channel Don't forget to keep practicing and keep creating