Automatic detection of out-of-focus faces

As a professional fashion and event photographer, I often come back from a show with thousands of images to go through. Capture One already provides excellent tools like Face Detection and Focus Mask, but currently there’s no way to automatically identify when a subject’s face is not in focus.

Being able to filter or flag images where detected faces are blurry would save photographers an enormous amount of time, especially in high-volume workflows like fashion shows, weddings, and corporate events. This would let us focus only on the strongest images and dramatically speed up the culling process.

The feature could work as an extension of existing Face Detection, combined with the Focus Mask, to evaluate whether the central subject’s eyes and facial area are sharp. Images that don’t meet the sharpness threshold could be tagged, filtered, or moved into a separate collection for quick review.

Why this matters:

• Saves hours of manual checking after large shoots.

• Speeds up high-pressure workflows for professionals.

• Reduces the risk of delivering out-of-focus images.

• Builds on tools Capture One already has, making implementation potentially smoother.

This would be a game-changing feature for many photographers working with large volumes of images