How to control image adjustments using your mouse wheel.

I wanted to be able to control the exposure, contrast, color temp, and tint using the mouse wheel so I wouldn't have to take my hand off the mouse when adjusting RAW files. It also has a very good "feel" to be able to literally "dial-in" the adjustments in real time.

I was able to do it using a free keystroke/mouse macro program called " AutoHotKey " - www.autohotkey.com

Here's the instructions (It's not as hard as it sounds.):

1) Download and install the software.

2) Open notepad or your favorite text editor.
Type the following text into Notepad:

SetTitleMatchMode, 2
#MaxHotkeysPerInterval 700
#IfWinActive, Capture One
{
XButton1::Send ^t
XButton2::Send ^u
Control & RButton::Send ^t
Shift & RButton::Send ^u
Left::!NumpadSub
Right::!NumpadAdd
WheelDown::return
WheelUp::return
^WheelUp::^NumpadAdd
^WheelDown::^NumpadSub
+WheelUp::+NumpadAdd
+WheelDown::+NumpadSub
+^WheelUp::+^NumpadAdd
+^WheelDown::+^NumpadSub
!WheelUp::!NumpadAdd
!WheelDown::!NumpadSub
#WheelUp::!NumpadAdd
#WheelDown::!NumpadSub
MButton & WheelUp::Send !NumpadAdd
MButton & WheelDown::Send !NumpadSub
#::return
}


3) Then save the file as something with a .ahk extension like "CaptureOne.ahk".

4) Double click on the .ahk file you just created. You won't see anything launch, but you should see a green "H" in your system tray.

5) Open Capture One if it's not already open.

Bingo! You can control the Color Temp, Tint,Exposure, and Contrast with your mouse wheel.

Control + Mousewheel will adjust the Exposure compensation
Alt + Mousewheel or Windowskey+Mousewheel will adjust the Contrast
Shift + Mousewheel will adjust the Color Temp.
Shift + Control + Mousewheel will adjust the Tint

I also disabled the mousewheel scrolling thorugh the thumbnails since it interfered with the other adjustment keys. Sometimes I would inadvertently scroll to another image when trying to adjust one.

You can change it to map to any combination of key, but I set it up this way to emulate the Capture One keyboard shortcuts.

I should have done this a LONG time ago.

The AutoHotKey software is actually VERY powerful. I am sure you all can come up with some other great ideas. You can use it to re-map any keyboard shortcuts in any application.

Let me know what you think,

-Darin
www.darinfong.com