13 The Output and Batch Tool Tabs

13.1 Not surprisingly, output is the final step in the workflow pipeline.

Capture One creates image copies when you publish an image or hand it over to a third-party application for further processing. This part of the process is handled by the Output tool tab, and the Batch tool tab lists all images that are ready for export or that have already been exported. This chapter explains what process recipes (also known as output recipes) are and how to use them to create multiple copies of a single image. It also looks at how to find out what went wrong if your output doesn’t look the way you expect. As mentioned in chapter 9, we’ll also discuss output sharpening in this section.

13.1Creating and Managing Output/Process Recipes

Once you’ve processed your images, you’ll want to share them, either as prints or digitally on flickr or 500px, via social media platforms, or at home on an HD TV or a tablet computer. In the case of commercial work, most clients won’t know how to deal with raw files and Capture One settings, so you’ll usually have to provide them with a CMYK or RGB bitmap file that incorporates all of your adjustments and settings. For the purposes of this book we will call these files “copies.”

Process recipes govern the size, format, naming conventions, output sharpening settings, and metadata handling for your output.

You can create a copy at any stage in the Capture One workflow. All you have to do is select an image in the Browser and select the Export Images > Variants command in the File menu. This opens the export dialog.

13.2 The contents of the export dialog (left) are very similar to those of the Output tool panels (right).

Process recipes are used to save your export settings for later use with other images and can be stacked (that is, you can use multiple recipes simultaneously). To output images, select them in the Browser, switch to the Output tool tab, select one or more suitable recipes, and click Process. 13.3

13.3 Manage your recipes in the Process Recipes tool.

The Output tool tab is split between the Process Recipes and Output tools. Check the boxes in the Process Recipes panel to select the recipes you wish to apply. The active recipe is highlighted and is the one responsible for available settings in the Crop tool (see section 8.1.1) or how Soft Proof and Recipe Proofing work (see section 1.5.5). The tool’s action menu enables you to create new recipes and delete or tweak existing ones.

13.4 The action menu contains a list of recipes supplied with the program. The same list is revealed by clicking-and-holding the “+” button in the Process Recipes tool panel.

The lower part of the Output tool tab contains a set of output tools. The settings in the Process Recipe and Process Summary panels only affect the active, highlighted recipe, whereas the settings in the other two affect all the recipes in the list (that is, they function globally).

The settings you make here determine how Capture One names and saves your images when you export them.

13.2The Process Recipe Tool

The name of the Process Recipe tool differs by just one “s” from that of the Process Recipes tool so, to avoid confusion, we’ll call it the Recipe tool from now on. The settings you make here form the core of successful image output and are the only ones that vary from recipe to recipe. The settings in all the other tools in this panel apply to all the recipes in the list.

The settings for format, size, color profile, and so on form the core of every recipe.

13.5 The Basic tab for the active recipe

The Basic tab includes the following settings:

To cover the huge range of options it offers, the Recipes tool is separated into Basic, File, Adjustments, Metadata, and Watermark tabs.

• Format: Choose between 8 and 16 bpc (bits per color channel).
• Quality: This setting determines the level of compression when you output your files as JPEG. The higher the setting, the less compression is used (i.e., the better the quality of your processed JPEGs). To gauge potential quality loss prior to writing your copies to disk, turn on Recipe Proofing.
• ICC Profile: By default, Capture One offers sRGB and Adobe RGB, which are the two most common profiles used with RGB bitmap files. If you need to deliver your wok with a different profile (for example, a CMYK profile for offset printing), select the Show All option in the menu to list all the profiles currently installed on your computer. Capture One cannot manage profiles directly, so you need to use the ColorSync utility (Mac) or Color Management module (PC) to add, alter, and delete profiles.
• Resolution: The default units are pixels per inch (px/in), and the value you select is applied only if you select a corresponding Scale value (see the next item)—otherwise, the Resolution value is written to the file’s metadata.
• Scale: As well as outputting your files at their original size, you can scale them up or down. You can enter width or height (or both) and Capture One scales your file accordingly. If you select a unit other than pixels (px), Capture One incorporates the Resolution value you select to ensure that the scaled file contains the corresponding number of pixels. Here, too, Recipe Proofing will help you decide how scaling affects your images without the need to output the final copies first. 13.6
• Open With: Copies are stored by default in the Output folder, but you can opt to have them automatically opened in a separate application (mail, Photoshop, or Silver Efex, for example). We’ll discuss these options in more detail in chapter 15.

13.6 In this example, our image will be output with a length of 100 cm at 300 px/in, resulting in a 65-megabyte file that is 11,000 pixels long.

The File tab is important if you want to simultaneously apply multiple recipes. Here, you can enter a different output location from the one you entered in the Output Location tool (see section 13.3), which helps you sort your images into separate folders if you’re outputting various sizes (for online viewing, DVD archive, iPad display, and so forth). For the active recipe, this setting overrules the one in the Output Location tool. 13.7

13.7 The File tab in the active recipe

13.8 The Adjustments tab in the active recipe also contains output sharpening settings. These aren’t global settings; they are stored individually with each recipe.

The Adjustments tab determines whether your crop and sharpening settings (see chapters 8 and 9) are included or ignored in your output. 13.8

Far more interesting, though, are the selections you can make regarding output sharpening. You can choose between sharpening for screens or for print—for example, if you need to send your files to a copy shop for large-format printing.

13.9 Output sharpening for printing (left) offers different options than sharpening for the screen.

In both cases, sharpening for print or screen, Amount defines how strongly your copies will be sharpened. The Amount slider works pretty much the same as the one in the “normal” Sharpening tool (see section 9.2), and also goes up to 1000. Usually, though, you will work with values between 40 and 250. Threshold also works the same and defines what pixel contrast elicits sharpening. The smaller the value you choose, the more image areas will be sharpened for your output copy. In the Output Sharpening for Screen dialog, Radius defines by how many pixels your output copy should get sharpened.

Together with Recipe Proofing, these output sharpening options make it easy for you to find ideal settings for all your needs. And because they are part of each individual recipe, you can store multiple settings and switch between them via the Process Recipes tool. This is especially handy if you use various cameras that need different output sharpening settings so their images pop as they are supposed to.

In the Output Sharpening for Print dialog, Capture One removes the Radius setting, replacing it with a Distance slider. This allows the software to use an algorithm to determine what structures need sharpening at the given viewing distance. This is a sensible approach. Since human eyes only have a comparatively small resolution, it doesn’t make much sense to sharpen fine detail if the print will be viewed from several feet away. Just think of really huge billboards where you hardly ever get close enough to discern extreme fine detail as you would find in a fine-art print.

Traditionally, exhibition photographers go by the rule of thumb of “minimal viewing distance is equal to the diagonal of the print.” Most humans need to be at least this far away from a print to take it in as a whole, viewing it without moving their eyes too much. Hence, Capture One also uses “100% of diagonal” as its default option when sharpening for print. If you intend for viewers to get really close and personal with your work, reduce the Distance or set a fixed value in centimeters or inches. On the other hand, if you know your image is going up in Times Square, a couple of extra meters or yards will help the algorithm to produce optimal files.

These options determine which metadata fields are embedded in your output. Think carefully about what your client really needs to know and deactivate the options accordingly. It doesn’t always pay to let a client know how you rate the image you have just sold, and you may not want to tell Facebook the precise geolocation of your garden. If you’re in any doubt, too little metadata is always better than too much. You can always add more tags later if necessary, but tags that you’ve already published or shared aren’t going to disappear any time soon. 13.10

13.10 The Metadata tab in the active recipe

Some people hate watermarks whereas others never upload an image without one. For watermark fans, Capture One can automatically create or embed text and image watermarks during output. All you have to do is type your text, select a suitable font, and position the watermark the way you did using the Overlay tool (see section 8.4). If you prefer to use a logo, switch to Image mode and proceed as described for a text watermark. 13.11

13.11 The Watermark tab in the active recipe

13.12 In Session mode, output is saved automatically to the Output folder (see section 4.2), but as in Catalog mode, you can also choose where to send your images.

13.3Output Location

The Output Location tool determines where your copies are stored. Capture One automatically enters the previous five output folders in the Destination drop-down list. To add a subfolder at your chosen location (perhaps to keep work for a specific client separate), type a name into the Sub Folder box.

13.4Output Naming

The Output Naming tool enables you to decide whether and how you rename your files for output. By default, Capture One gives outputted files the same name as the raw original, but this won’t always be what you need.

13.13 Giving output files a new name

Renaming uses the token system described in section 4.4.

You can use tokens to number your images, too (JazzDays_01, JazzDays_02, and so on). The counter continues where it left off when you switch tools or restart Capture One. To reset it, use the Reset Output Counter command in the tool’s action menu.

13.14 The action menu enables you to set start and increment values for the output counter, and reset it if necessary.

13.5The Batch Tool Tab: Queue and History

The Batch tool tab lists images that are queued for output and copies you’ve already made, and contains no other tools.

The only options are halting the queue . . .

13.15 Stop!

13.16 If you accidentally delete a copy, the Reprocess Selected button puts things right.

. . . or clicking on Reprocess Selected.