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Earlier today, Capture One showed off a trio of major new features coming via a free update to Capture One 20 later this month. The announcement came in a live stream, which you can watch the replay of below, hosted by Product Manager Alexander Flemming and Business Development Manager David Grover.
In the live demo below, the first major new feature coming to Capture One 20 later this month is a revised healing brush for retouching images and removing unwanted spots. In the current version of Capture One 20, the healing workflow comprises creating a new heal layer, select your brush and pick a source point. Further, you can only select a single source point per layer.
In the upcoming update, the software will be able to quickly and intelligently select a source point for each instance of using the heal brush on a single ‘Heal Layer’. Per Flemming, there will be no limit to how many different heal points you can have on a single layer nor has the team found any performance issues when utilizing many heal points.
In the livestream, Flemming and Grover shared a few interesting tidbits about how the new healing brush operates. The first time you use the brush on an image, the software caches the entire image, so that all subsequent uses of the heal brush are much faster. Further, the new healing technology is adept at adjusting the luminosity of your source point to match the area you wish to heal or touch up. For example, if an area in the image with the best match for texture is brighter or darker than the area you are trying to heal, the software can match the source area by brightening or darkening it.
In addition to the new healing brush, there’s also a new clone brush. The clone brush works similarly to the new heal brush, but it creates a ‘Clone Layer’ rather than a ‘Heal Layer’. The clone brush creates a pixel-for-pixel clone, rather than replacing a healing area via a source selection. Basically, the clone brush allows you to copy a selected set of pixels from one area of your image to another area.
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| In this screenshot from Capture One’s presentation, the new clone brush is being used. Image credit: Capture One |
Another addition is the new before and after button, which can be found on the toolbar. In prior versions, seeing a before and after comparison was done via a convoluted process whereby you reset the image and then undid the reset. Now you will be able to simply press the before/after button, which creates a sliding before/after split view, showing before on the left and after on the right. This works at all zoom levels and can be used across multiple images. Users will even be able to edit in this view if they so desire. There’s also a secondary before/after mode where you can view the entire image in its before and after state, rather than using a slider.
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| The upcoming free update to Capture One 20 includes a new before/after view. You can use this view across multiple images at once as well, as can be seen here. Image credit: Capture One |
As mentioned, the update is scheduled to arrive by the end of the month. The update will be free for all existing Capture One 20 users, including those who use Capture One Fujifilm and Capture One (for Sony). For more information on Capture One 20, including pricing information for both subscriptions and perpetual licenses, click here.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
