Colors in Capture One

This article contains essential information regarding colors in Capture One.

• Capture One deals with colors in two ways: internally and for output.

• Capture One works in a very large color space, similar to that captured by camera sensors. A large color space ensures that little clipping of the color data can occur. Clipping is the loss of image information in a region of an image. Clipping appears when one or more color values are larger than the histogram (color space of the output file).

• At the end of the workflow, the RAW data has to be processed to pixel-based image files, in defined color spaces. These spaces are smaller than the internal color space used by Capture One. When processing, some color data will be discarded. That is why it is crucial to perform color corrections and optimizations before processing images in a smaller color space.

• Capture One provides accurate color by reading the camera-generated RAW information, file header, and settings file.

• A RAW file is assigned a color profile once Capture One defines which camera model is being used. The RAW data is then translated to the internal working color space of Capture One so that adjustments could be applied.

• Image data is converted to the industry-standard spaces such as Adobe RGB or sRGB during the processing stage by the means of ICC profiles.