This feature is available in Capture One Pro 23 (16.0) and later. Face Focus requires 16.2 or later.
Image culling is a common term used to describe the process of selecting the most notable images in a collection, usually achieved by assigning a Rating or Color Tag to images.
Capture One 23 makes this process easier by introducing a set of features designed to Cull images from a larger group or collection, during import, or simply when organizing images already contained in a Catalog or Session.
Culling images
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Select Import from the Toolbar.
OR
If you wish to cull images that have already been imported, then select Cull from the Toolbar.
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Use the following available tools to Cull images:
- Group Overview
- Star Rating
- Color Tags
- Filters
- Face Focus -
Pick which images to import, by clicking the checkmark contained on the image thumbnail: (only applicable when importing images, not when using Cull view)
- Auto-advance when culling images by going to Select > Select Next When (in the menu bar) and choosing between Star Rated or Color Tagged to greatly speed up the culling process.
Tip: Consider using Smart Albums which intelligently collect images together based on criteria such as Star Ratings or Color Tags to group the culled images into a virtual location, without having to move files around on your machine. This is particularly useful when using Catalogs.
Culling interface explained
After clicking Cull or Import you will be presented with the following window, which can be displayed in two different ways: Grid or Viewer.
Grid (default)
- Group Overview: enables grouping of images based on content similarity. Drag the slider from left to right in order to adjust the level of content similarity.
Decreasing the similarity value will result in groups that contain more images, whilst increasing the similarity value will have the opposite effect. - Change between Grid and Viewer: this changes the layout of the culling window, allowing you to see multiple images at once, or have more of a focussed view on a particular group of images, similar to how images display in the main viewer when editing
- Change the sort order of images
- Adjust the size of thumbnails displayed in the Grid view
- Face Focus Settings – change the default level of zoom on faces contained within an image
- Filter images based on Rating, Color Tag, and various other sets of Metadata.
- See which keyboard shortcuts are available when navigating the culling menu.
Note that some standard Capture One shortcuts can also be used, such as the delete key (macOS) or the backspace key (Windows) to move the image to the trash.
Viewer
With Groups disabled:
- Enable or disable Groups – images are grouped together based on content similarity. The Viewer will change slightly when this option is enabled and it can take a moment for your images to be analyzed and grouped together.
- Change between Grid and Viewer: this changes the layout of the culling window, allowing you to see multiple images at once, or have more of a focussed view on a particular group of images, similar to how images display in the main viewer when editing
- Toggle Face Focus - introduced in Capture One 23 (16.2) - this allows you to see faces contained in your images at 100% zoom in order to check focus and overall sharpness.
Face Focus contains five different options for the zoom level:
50%, 100%, 200%, Limit to Eye, and Limit to Face.
The two options for limiting the zoom level (Limit to Eye and Limit to Face) will make sure Face Focus doesn’t zoom in too much if the eye or face of your subject are very big compared to the resolution.
However, Capture One will not zoom in more than 100% to make sure a proper sharpness evaluation is possible.
- Browse through your images and apply ratings and tags as you go along. Consider enabling Select > Select Next When and choose whether you want the next image to be selected when you rate or color tag an image.
With Groups enabled:
1. Enable or disable Groups
2. Browse through groups of images
3. Apply color tags and star ratings
4. Apply color tags and star ratings
5. Toggle Face Focus
6. Number of images contained in your group – will display as "1" if no similar images can be found
N.B. You may find that your images look different in the Import window or in the Cull window. This is due to the embedded preview being used, and not the RAW file – this provides a significant performance boost and allows you to scroll through thousands of images at a time.