Stacking Styles and Presets

You can apply or stack more than one Style (ie. Built-in Style or Custom Style) to an image (or group of images). 

What's more, with the advent of Capture One 23, it's possible to also include layers in your Styles for even more editing flexibility. 

For example, you could have a Custom Style for a certain color balance, a Custom Preset with certain IPTC metadata and keywords, and another Custom Preset for a specific sharpening routine. If you have several choices for each type, you can optimize the combination depending on the image, and even save those stacked-combinations as a new Custom Style.

Note that stacking Styles and Presets is not an additive process. Each Style and Preset is compared and, where they adopt adjustments for the same tools, the last applied Style or Preset overrides the previously applied one. For example, when Style 1 applies a +1 EV exposure adjustment, and Style 2 applies a +1.5 EV exposure adjustment, the adjustment applied will be +1.5 EV.

Capture One allows you to stack Styles and Presets from either the dedicated Styles and Presets tool or from the Adjustments menu. Note that you must enable the Stack Styles option first before attempting to stack them. Otherwise, the previous one is replaced with the newer one. 

For a clearer overview when stacking, it is recommended that the Style and Presets tool is adopted from the Adjustments tool tab instead of the Adjustments menu.

1. Navigate to the Styles and Presets tool in the Adjustments tool tab and click on the Action menu, the (…) icon. The Action menu dialog opens.
   
   
2. Select Stack Styles, adding a checkmark in front.
   
   
   
   
3. It is possible to add other Styles and the image in the Viewer will be updated with the combined result of the applied Styles. If you select the wrong Style or want to remove a Style, click on the active Style in the list to remove the checkmark. The image will be updated in the Viewer (without the previously applied Style).
   
   
4. All Styles applied to the selected image will be displayed in the upper part of the Styles and Presets tool. The last applied in the group is listed first (it will override the other adjustments for the same tools, where relevant).
   
   
5. When more than three Styles are applied, scroll through the list to see the additional Styles.

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