Please add RGB Color Readouts in Capture One mobile (iPad & iPhone)
Which device are you using?
iPad Pro 12.9" M2 & iPhone 13
What problem do you see this solving?
The iPad & iPhone version of Capture One is marketed as professional location tools, but yet they lack one of the most essential and basic function; RGB color readouts. When shooting tethered to Capture One, all photographer I know shoot reference cards with black/middle grey/white targets. And not being able to read how high you whites go, or how low your blacks go makes the workflow harder than it needs to be. And even when not measuring the patches on a target, you need to keep an eye on other parts of the image. For instance, when shooting portraits/people, I always keep my red channel below 240 on the brightest parts of the skin. But you can't measure that on the mobile versions, and I find it very strange not to include such a basic and essential feature in a professional piece of software.
When was the last time you were affected by this lack of functionality, or specific tool?
I'm affected by the lack of this every single day I shoot tethered. I used to have Capture One on a laptop for tethered location work before switching to the iPad Pro 12.9", and I used the color readouts on every single shoot.
Current workaround
Are you using any workarounds or other solutions to achieve your goals?
I can't find any way to achieve this. The histogram is too small, and not precise enough, and RGB readouts doesn't exist....
Since it has been more than 6 months since I posted about this and still nothing has happened, I want to elaborate on the issue here and hopefully get some traction. I'm struggling with the lack of this functionality several times a week, and there is no possible workaround.
The reason for shooting tethered, is not only about viewing images larger and being able to tweak things on location. The main reasons for shooting tethered, is control - control - control! Getting accurate results for the client! And when capturing images for commercial clients, there is one thing that is more important than everything else (from a technical point of view), and that is exposure. Making sure the raw file is exposed in the best possible manner is crucial, but sadly this is very hard to do with Capture One mobile.
I always shoot grey cards to set my white balance, but I also need to be able to judge my exposure. And being able to read what values the darkest and brightest parts of an image is when shooting tethered, is just crucial. I have attached three typical examples from commercial jobs to show how wrong things can turn out with Capture One mobile on location without this basic feature.
Example 1: I shot a large job for client in a pretty dim lit area. And when shooting in dark conditions, every screen looks brighter than it is (the back of the camera, the screen of my iPad Pro 12.9" etc). As usual, I shot my grey card after all the lights were set up. The left side of the card is used for setting white balance, and the right side is representing middle grey, and should ideally be placed so the RGB values are around 128/128/128 to get the best possible exposed raw file. Since everything looked fine on my camera and in Capture One on my iPad Pro 12.9", I went along and shot the whole job tethered. But when getting home and opening the files in Capture One desktop on my main computer, everything was way too dark. Actually as much as 1 1/4 stops underexposed. This could have been avoided if I could have just hovered the cursor over the right grey patch in Capture One mobile, and seen what the RGB values was. But sadly there is no way of doing this, and no workaround exist either.
Example 2: This was a very bright day outside, and when shooting in bright conditions, every screen looks darker than it is. Again I shot my grey card for both setting the white balance and judging the exposure, but when getting home, I discovered that the exposure patch of the grey card was much brighter than it should have been, and all the images were more than 1/3 stops overexposed. If only I'd had RGB readouts when shooting it...
Example 3: I set up my studio lights on location several times a week. And in addition to shooting the grey card with the two large grey patches (shown in the two previous examples), when photographing portraits, I also shoot a dummy head to see how the light and shadows fall on the face, and also the multicolored patches of my grey card, so I can check both the black, middle grey and white patches, and also take a readout of the brightest part of the skin. Skin tones are very easy to destroy if you go to high in the Red channel, so I try to keep the highlight values of the skin at maximum 240. But I can't do this on location with CO mobile...
I hope I've made it clear how limiting the lack of such a "basic" feature is, and how important it is to add it. I don't want to switch to Lightroom or any other piece of iPad software that lets me do this, because I prefer the image quality and colors I get out of Capture One, as well as the workflow. But having control is more important than almost anything else...
Hey 375602441857, thanks for the extra insights, they are very useful. As of now, you could upload the photos from iPhone/iPad to Capture One cloud and import them to CO Pro on your computer when you get back. Soon, there will be a much better two way sync available. In case you actually shoot tethered to the phone and you have feedback, I would appreciate it very much if you dropped me a line with your thoughts here: eke@captureone.com.
Hi 382987704118. Thanks for the response. There is no workaround for not having this functionality. You just live without it, but it makes C1 mobile much less useful in my opinion. I need it because I use the brightness value to check if my exposure is spot on or not. So, I was thinking that when I am shooting something that typically does not allow tethering to a laptop because you need to be free to move I could use C1 mobile and be tethered and be on the move. And the main reason behind this was to check on my exposure values in C1. Of course there are other benefits too - I could see my colors in C1 and know them in advance, rather than see them when you import photos on your computer. Also, I haven't tried that, but I am thinking I would shoot tethered to my phone. Then I would sync the phone to the cloud and then, I would sit on my computer and the photos would already be there. I don't know if it is going to work that way, but hopefully it would.
Hello 375602441857 and thanks for the feedback. Have you found any workaround to mitigate this current limitation? Last, why is this important to you for your workflow and type of photography? The reason I am asking is because the better understanding we have on the impact of the problem the higher the chances we prioritise it properly.
As of now, we are half way for this, meaning that we have a good solution in mind on how it could be implemented for Capture One on iPad and iPhone, we just need to find the time to do it :)
Is there any update on that topic? Are color values going to appear anytime soon?
I 100% agree with the post. I subscribed to C1 mobile recently and was very excited I was going to be able to check brightness values on my mobile phone but was very disappointed when I found out that C1 mobile does not support this.
Since it has been more than 6 months since I posted about this and still nothing has happened, I want to elaborate on the issue here and hopefully get some traction. I'm struggling with the lack of this functionality several times a week, and there is no possible workaround.
The reason for shooting tethered, is not only about viewing images larger and being able to tweak things on location. The main reasons for shooting tethered, is control - control - control! Getting accurate results for the client! And when capturing images for commercial clients, there is one thing that is more important than everything else (from a technical point of view), and that is exposure. Making sure the raw file is exposed in the best possible manner is crucial, but sadly this is very hard to do with Capture One mobile.
I always shoot grey cards to set my white balance, but I also need to be able to judge my exposure. And being able to read what values the darkest and brightest parts of an image is when shooting tethered, is just crucial. I have attached three typical examples from commercial jobs to show how wrong things can turn out with Capture One mobile on location without this basic feature.
Example 1:
I shot a large job for client in a pretty dim lit area. And when shooting in dark conditions, every screen looks brighter than it is (the back of the camera, the screen of my iPad Pro 12.9" etc). As usual, I shot my grey card after all the lights were set up. The left side of the card is used for setting white balance, and the right side is representing middle grey, and should ideally be placed so the RGB values are around 128/128/128 to get the best possible exposed raw file. Since everything looked fine on my camera and in Capture One on my iPad Pro 12.9", I went along and shot the whole job tethered. But when getting home and opening the files in Capture One desktop on my main computer, everything was way too dark. Actually as much as 1 1/4 stops underexposed. This could have been avoided if I could have just hovered the cursor over the right grey patch in Capture One mobile, and seen what the RGB values was. But sadly there is no way of doing this, and no workaround exist either.
Example 2:
This was a very bright day outside, and when shooting in bright conditions, every screen looks darker than it is. Again I shot my grey card for both setting the white balance and judging the exposure, but when getting home, I discovered that the exposure patch of the grey card was much brighter than it should have been, and all the images were more than 1/3 stops overexposed. If only I'd had RGB readouts when shooting it...
Example 3:
I set up my studio lights on location several times a week. And in addition to shooting the grey card with the two large grey patches (shown in the two previous examples), when photographing portraits, I also shoot a dummy head to see how the light and shadows fall on the face, and also the multicolored patches of my grey card, so I can check both the black, middle grey and white patches, and also take a readout of the brightest part of the skin. Skin tones are very easy to destroy if you go to high in the Red channel, so I try to keep the highlight values of the skin at maximum 240. But I can't do this on location with CO mobile...
I hope I've made it clear how limiting the lack of such a "basic" feature is, and how important it is to add it. I don't want to switch to Lightroom or any other piece of iPad software that lets me do this, because I prefer the image quality and colors I get out of Capture One, as well as the workflow. But having control is more important than almost anything else...
Hey 375602441857, thanks for the extra insights, they are very useful. As of now, you could upload the photos from iPhone/iPad to Capture One cloud and import them to CO Pro on your computer when you get back. Soon, there will be a much better two way sync available. In case you actually shoot tethered to the phone and you have feedback, I would appreciate it very much if you dropped me a line with your thoughts here: eke@captureone.com.
Hi 382987704118. Thanks for the response. There is no workaround for not having this functionality. You just live without it, but it makes C1 mobile much less useful in my opinion. I need it because I use the brightness value to check if my exposure is spot on or not. So, I was thinking that when I am shooting something that typically does not allow tethering to a laptop because you need to be free to move I could use C1 mobile and be tethered and be on the move. And the main reason behind this was to check on my exposure values in C1. Of course there are other benefits too - I could see my colors in C1 and know them in advance, rather than see them when you import photos on your computer. Also, I haven't tried that, but I am thinking I would shoot tethered to my phone. Then I would sync the phone to the cloud and then, I would sit on my computer and the photos would already be there. I don't know if it is going to work that way, but hopefully it would.
Hello 375602441857 and thanks for the feedback. Have you found any workaround to mitigate this current limitation? Last, why is this important to you for your workflow and type of photography? The reason I am asking is because the better understanding we have on the impact of the problem the higher the chances we prioritise it properly.
As of now, we are half way for this, meaning that we have a good solution in mind on how it could be implemented for Capture One on iPad and iPhone, we just need to find the time to do it :)
Hi,
Is there any update on that topic? Are color values going to appear anytime soon?
I 100% agree with the post. I subscribed to C1 mobile recently and was very excited I was going to be able to check brightness values on my mobile phone but was very disappointed when I found out that C1 mobile does not support this.
Hello Eivind,
Thanks a lot for the detailed feedback! It helps us a lot understanding your challenges. We might get in touch with you if we need more details.