Accelerate your creative process

with Capture One Styles

Styles in Capture One is a great way to try out a number of ready-made adjustments on one or more images with a single mouse click.
You can tweak existing Styles further to your liking and create your very own by saving only the image adjustments you prefer.
Then reuse them later to speed up your workflow significantly.

In this chapter you will learn how to work with Styles and Presets from the Photographer’s Guide to Capture One 12 eBook.

© Ausra Babiedaite 1
Saving and reusing adjustments
with Styles and Presets
Styles and Presets in Capture One Pro is a great way to save specific
adjustments which can then be reused later with a single mouse click. A
Preset only contain the adjustments for a specific tool, so as an example,
the Exposure tool and the Curve tool will save their own separate sets of
Presets. Styles, on the other hand, contains all the adjustments from the
different tools. You can think of Styles as a collection of Presets.

Remember that Capture One Pro is using a non-destructive workflow

which means that you can always tweak any adjustment that has been
applied with a Preset or Style. As we will explore later in this chapter, you
can also combine several Styles and/or Presets with the Stack Styles
feature, so keep in mind that you’re not constrained to using only one
Preset or Style set at a time.

Applying Styles and Presets

The Styles and Presets tool in the
Adjustments Tool Tab gives a nice
overview of all the available Styles
and Presets. They are organized
in four groups; by Styles and Pre-
sets respectively, and by the built-in
that ships with Capture One Pro and
those you have created and saved
yourself. Note that all the Presets are
organized by tool.

Applying a Style or Preset is as sim-

ple as clicking on the one you want,
and it can be deselected again by
a second click. Notice how you can
hover the mouse over a Style or Pre-
set and see an example of the effect
on the selected images in the Viewer
and Browser. Once a Style or Preset
has been selected, it will appear in a
list at the top of the tool. A Preset is
denoted with hamburger icon while a
Style is indicated with a brush icon. 2
You open and close a group by clicking on the arrow in front of its name
or by double-clicking on the group name. A very handy keyboard short-
cut is that a whole group can be expanded or collapsed at once by hold-
ing Alt down while clicking on a group name.

Note that if you want to apply a Style or Preset to more than one image,
you need to make sure the Edit All Selected Variants command is en-
abled in the Edit menu or making sure that the corresponding icon in the
main Toolbar is active with an orange color.

Using Stacked Styles or Presets

You can combine more than one Style or Preset by using the Stack
Styles feature. This is enabled by clicking on the options drop-down
menu in the Styles and Presets tool and making sure the Stack Styles is
selected.

Once it is enabled, the selected Styles and presets will be added on top
of the others as noted in the list at the top of the Styles and Presets tool.

The order in the list is very important; if two Styles or Presets are try-
ing to apply the same adjustment, like adding some Saturation, there
is a conflict, and the top listed Style or Preset takes precedence. Cap-
3
ture One Pro will add
(Overridden) to the
name of the Style or
Preset where an ad-
justment is overwritten.
If you hover the mouse
over the affected Style
or Preset, a label will
tell you which adjust-
ment(S) that have be-
come Inactive (see
right).

This ensures that you

get a predictable out-
come when apply-
ing conflicting adjust-
ments, so just keep in mind what order you apply the Styles and Presets
in. Also, remember that you can always readjust anything in Capture
One Pro, so no harm is ever done.

Note that Stack Styles feature can also be turned on and off in the Pre-
sets drop-down menus in other parts of Capture One Pro.

Adding Presets or Styles to a Layer

You can add Presets and Styles to any
Layer adjustment conveniently and di-
rectly from the tool. Find the Style or
Preset, that you want to apply to a new
Layer, and right-click on it. Then choose
Apply to New Layer.

Capture One will then automatically cre-

ate a new layer with the style or preset
applied and name the layer accordingly:

4
You can also apply a style or preset to an existing layer by choosing Ap-
ply to Selected Layer instead, but it will not rename the layer to match
the applied adjustment.

The other way is to create a layer first in the Layers tool, then right-click
on it, choose Apply Adjustments From, and select the desired type from
the submenus.

Be aware that not all tools can be used on a Layer as a local adjustment,
like for example the Black & White tool. If that is the case, any Presets or
Styles based on that tool will simply not be available to choose from the
submenu.

If you select a Style that contains Presets from tools, where only some
are supported by Layers, you will get a warning. Capture One Pro will
notify you about which adjustments that cannot be applied to the layer.
Just click Apply Partially to continue.
5
Creating a Preset
Creating and saving a Preset for later use is best done directly from the
tool where you have made your adjustments. Remember that if you want
to add adjustments from several tools, you need to create a Style in-
stead, which is covered next. Once you have made your edits, click on
the Preset icon in the upper right corner for a tool and select Save User
Preset....

You now get a dialog box where

you can choose which kind of ad-
justment you want to include in the
Preset.

Remember to deselect any adjust-

ments that you don’t want to be
part of the Preset even if you have
not changed said adjustment from
its default value.

For example, if the Exposure slid-

er is set at 0 (zero), and you select Exposure as part of your Preset, the
Exposure slider will also be set to 0 when you apply the Preset to a new
image, potentially overwriting any adjustments you have made prior.

When you have decided which adjustments to include, click Save. The
preset is now ready to be applied from the top of the Preset drop-down
menu or from the Styles and Presets tool.

6
Creating a Style
Creating and saving a Style
for later use is done from the
Styles and Presets tool. You
first need to make all the ad-
justments that you want to be
part of a Style in the various
tools. Once ready, click on the
options icon in the upper right
corner and select Save User
Style....

You now get a dialog box

where you can choose which
kind of adjustment you want
to include in the Style. The list of
possible adjustments is the same
as you encounter in the Adjust-
ments Clipboard tool (covered in
an earlier chapter) with the notable
exception that you cannot save a
Layer as part of a Style.

Capture One Pro will automatical-

ly preselect all the adjustment op-
tions based on the edits that you
have performed on the selected
image.

Remember to deselect any adjust-

ments that you don’t want to be
part of the Style even if you have
not changed a specific adjustment
from its default value. If you add
Saturation with a default value of 0
(zero) that will be applied to an im-
age as a part of the Style.

Once you are satisfied, click Save. The Style can now be found under
User Styles.

7
Saving Layer Adjustments as a Style
It is also possible to create a Style based on all the adjustments you
have made on a specific Layer for later reuse. Just right-click on the lay-
er and choose Save Adjustments as Style….

You will now be greeted by a dialog

box, where you can choose all the ad-
justments that you want to include as
your Style.

Note that the adjustments are only

copied from the specific layer that you
have selected, not from all the layers
in use on the image. Remember to de-
select any adjustments that you don’t
want to be part of the Style. Once you
are ready, Click Save, give the Style a
name and saved it.

It is important to point out that the

mask associated with the layer is not
being saved as a part of the Style. If
you want to copy both the adjustments
and the mask to other images, you will
need to use the Copy and reuse an ad-
justment feature mentioned in the Lay-
ers chapter. 8
Removing and deleting a Style or Preset
You can remove a Style or Preset from
an image by clicking on it in the list and
choosing Clear. You can also remove
all of the Styles and Presets at once by
clicking on the Reset button in the top-
right corner of the Styles and Presets
tool.

If you instead want to delete the

Style or Preset from Capture One
Pro, then right-click on it under User
Styles or User Presets and choose
Delete. Note that you cannot delete
the Built-in Styles and Presets.

You also have the option to delete a User Preset from the Preset drop-
down menu in each tool by choosing Delete User Preset…

9
Copying styles to other images
You can copy the applied Styles and Presets from one image to anoth-
er by clicking on the Copy icon, selecting Style in the Adjustments Clip-
board and clicking on Apply.

It is important to point out that this workflow will only copy the adjust-
ments included on the selected Styles and Presets. It will not copy all of
the image adjustments from the source image.

If you want to include both the

Styles and Presets as well as
all the other image adjustments
from the source image, do this:
Once you have applied one or
more Styles or Presets to an im-
age, go to the Adjustments Clip-
board tool. Make sure the In-
clude Style Name in the options
menu is selected, then click on
Copy.

Next, select the images you want

to copy the styles to, and click
Apply in the Adjustments Clip-
board tool. The Styles are now
copied to the other images, and you can remove them and their associ-
ated adjustments by selecting them and choosing Clear.
10
Importing and exporting Styles
You can easily import Styles
that other people have made
by clicking on the options icon
and choose Import Styles…
from the drop-down menu.

If you have downloaded a collection of Styles, you also

have the option to just double-click on the file, and
Capture One Pro will automatically install the collec-
tion. You will then find it under User Styles.

It is a bit more involving when you need to export or

backup a User Style or a User Preset. They are by de-
fault saved in folders that are located in the file path Li-
brary > Application Support > Capture One. Here are
two folders called Styles and Presets60, where the last
contains a number of subfolders for each tool. If you
want to share or backup the User Styles or User Pre-
sets, you need to navigate to these folders and copy
the .costyle and .copreset files from there.

The Library folder is hidden by default on a Mac, but

if you hold Alt down and choose the menu Go in the
Finder, you can select Library from the menu and open
the hidden folder. Then it is easy to navigate the Application Support >
Capture One folders.

You could also just apply a specific Style or Preset to an image and then
save a copy with the Save Styles… or Save User Preset… command and
then navigate to the desktop and save them there. That will, however,
be time-consuming if you have to export a lot of User Styles or User Pre-
sets.
11
Applying Styles and Presets during import
Adding a Style or Preset during import can greatly speed up your work-
flow by making sure that all the basic adjustments are applied right
away. This is done from the Adjustments part of the Import Images di-
alog box. Just click on the Styles drop-down menu and choose which
Styles and Presets you want to apply.

Remember to enable Stack Styles if you need to apply more than one.
Adding Presets during import can also be a very useful way to add all
the basic metadata like copyright and your contact information from the
start. Just remember to create a Metadata Preset with the required infor-
mation first from the Metadata tool (covered in an earlier chapter).

Applying Styles and Presets during tethered shooting

Just like you can add a Style or Preset during image import, you can also
add those when shooting tethered. These are selected from the Next
Capture Adjustments tool. Click
on the Styles drop-down menu
and choose which Styles or Pre-
sets you want to apply.

Remember to enable Stack

Styles if you want to apply more
than one.

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Adding a Styles and Presets menu to the Toolbar
If find yourself adding Styles and Presets all the time, you can speed up
your workflow by adding a Styles and Presets menu to the Toolbar.

This is done by right-clicking on the Toolbar and choosing Customize

Toolbar…. Then drag the Styles icon (it looks like a brush) from the gray
dialog box and onto the Toolbar area. Then click done.

You will find the same submenu by going the main menu and select Ad-
justments > Styles, but that is a slower workflow. Notice how you get the
option to delete a User Style from this submenu.

13
Style Latitude | Deep Forest Style Editorial by Marie Bärsch | Heatwave

Style Black & White Style Spring

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