Styles as Alpha and Omega
A QUICK LOOK AT STYLES IN CAPTURE ONE.
Styles are Capture One’s answer to Lightroom’s presets, allowing multiple adjustments to be added to an image at the click of a button.
For Lightroom, presets have lead to a full-blown cottage industry and Phase One—the company behind Capture One—has joined the fray by offering its own Style Packs.
We could spend hours on the subject—and we will, as these issues are published. But for now, let’s just look at three fundamental aspects of this feature in C1.
1. Styles can be applied in one click
This is as basic as it gets: just as in LR, clicking on a Style will apply all of its settings to the current image.
2. Styles can be applied to a Layer 1
Much more interesting: right-clicking a Style provides a choice of applying all settings to the background (as described above) or to a new/existing layer. Using a layer means 1) the effects of the Style can be masked (made to appear on only certain portions of the image) and 2) the effects can be minimized by altering the layer’s global opacity. Season to taste.
3. Styles can be stacked
By default, clicking on a style will replace any previous one that was applied to the image. But it’s possible to change this behaviour and stack multiple Styles on an image’s background—as you can see on the left.
In case you’re wondering, yes, it can be a bit much. Case in point:
Three Styles, stacked: Film 2, Film 5 and Film 1.
But what’s important to remember is how productive or counter-productive Styles can become, depending on how we use them. I’ve seen photographers wander aimlessly through dozens of Styles/Presets, unable to settle on a single one. I’ve done this myself and still do at times. I have, however, minimized my options by creating a basic set of Styles that I use over and over again, as starting points.
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Unless the Style contains the Black and White adjustment tool which can only be applied to the background.
