Capture One Plugins and the Nik Collection
Are you aware that Capture One now supports using Plugins? Phase One who develops Capture One introduced support for Plugins in version 12 of their software. Interestingly, it isn’t just the Pro version of Capture One that supports plugins. If you’re using the free Capture One Express edition to edit your Sony or Fuji RAW files, you also get plugin support.
If you browse the Phase One website, you can find details of the plugins that are available. The number of plugins is currently low but interestingly, Helicon Focus recently joined the list. Hopefully, other developers will add support in the future.
But don’t be disappointed by the limited number of plugins currently available. It’s also possible to use external photo editors with Capture One, including the Nik Collection.
Linking the Nik Collection in Capture One
Configuring Capture One to use the Nik Collection plugins is relatively easy.
Start by opening the Capture One Preferences dialog from the menu. On a Mac you can find this in the “Capture One” menu and on a Windows PC it’s in the “Edit” menu. You can see the Preferences dialog from my Mac computer below.
The default plugin is “Open With Menu” which produces a list of compatible image editors installed on the computer. To select an editor to use with Capture One, find it in the list and click. You then see a tick mark to the left of the editor indicating it’s available.
The Capture One Preferences dialog also shows two other buttons to be aware of at the bottom. The “Get more plugins” button to the bottom right opens the plugins page on the Phase One website. The other button is a ‘+’ to the bottom left of the dialog. Click this to open a browser or finder window where you can select plugins in the Capture One plugin format. Currently, I have the Helicon Focus plugin installed which you can see in the top left of the dialog.
Close the dialog once you’ve selected the applications you want to use with Capture One.
Launching the Nik Collection from Capture One
Having linked the Nik Collection and Capture One using the Preferences Plugin tab you can edit an image with any of the linked applications.
Start by right-clicking the image you want to edit in the Capture One portfolio.
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In the menu, select the “Edit with” menu option. Here you will see all the linked applications that you added in the Preferences dialog. If the application, you want to use is missing there’s a handy “Other…” option in the menu. Click this to open a browser or finder window where you can select the executable for the application you want to use.
When you select the application to edit with, Capture One displays a dialog to enter the settings for the new image. You can see an example below.
The dialog allows you to set the characteristics of the new image such as Format and ICC Profile. This is important because these settings generate a new image file. Capture One then passes the new image to the editor you selected to use whilst adding it to its database.
Using Nik Without Creating a New File
If you’re editing a RAW file using Capture One, then you need to generate an image file that’s compatible with the Nik Collection. The Nik Collection can’t edit the RAW file directly. That’s why we used the “Edit With” option from the Capture One popup menu. But if you want to edit a compatible image file without creating a new copy, you can use the “Open With” menu.
The “Open With” menu option is very similar to using “Edit With” except Capture One doesn’t create a new image. Instead, it passes the selected image file directly to the application for editing. Any changes then save directly to the image file.
Using the Nik Collection with Capture One Video
To help you see the process of setting up the Plugins in the Preferences tab I’ve created the following video.
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Summary
Although there’s a limited number of plugins available for Capture One, this doesn’t prevent you from using external image editors with the software. As we’ve covered in this video, you can integrate third-party photo editors like the Nik Collection to Capture One.
If you haven’t tried Capture One I recommend downloading the trial version to see the difference it can make.
More Nik Tutorials
You’ll find more high quality, free tutorials on my Nik Collection Tutorials page.
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[crp]
Hi Robin.
I’ve just downloaded/installed C1 Fuji Express (v12.1.1 build 12.1.1.19) Windows 10.
There does seem to weird behaviour regarding the Plugins tab.
First of all ‘Disable’ (under Open With Menu 1.0.0) is missing. The apps that C1 found in the install are all checked (NIK plugins only Viveza is listed). The only way I could uncheck the apps I didn’t want listed is to click the tick (it doesn’t uncheck), close Preferences, open it again and then the app is disabled (unticked) … quite weird indeed.
Secondly: I can load the the Nik plugins via right click > Browse … but only as a one time use, none (except Viveza) are listed nor can be listed in the plugins list.
This gets even more weird: While writing this I’ve had C1 open with Preferences > Plugins open … all the apps in the plugin list are now checked again. Perhaps C1 has refreshed and ticked all the apps again? Maybe a bug in this build?
From your description, it sounds like there may be some minor differences in operation between the Windows version and the Mac version (which I use). Here’s what I can say:
The “Disable” option for the “Open with Menu” plugin is greyed out in the Mac version and it says this plugin can’t be disabled. This is what I would expect as the plugin controls the menu. Removing and adding applications to the list appears to work fine and all my Nik Collection plugins are listed.
It’s possibly a bug but more likely it’s a local configuration problem with the PC. Have you tried running something like CCleaner (it’s free) to clean up the Windows registry? I would try that first and then I would also visit the C1 forums to see if anyone else is having issues.
#1 I did a clean uninstall (including removing files/folders from Windows AppData as recommended by PhaseOne).
#2 I re downloaded C1 12 just in case my original download was corrupted.
#3 Re-installed and selected Express—No difference (as per the plugin issue mentioned).
#4 Another clean uninstall then re-installed this time selecting the Fuji Pro trial … No issues this time ie I was able to uncheck what I didn’t want in the plugins list etc.
I did a search in C1 forums plus a Google search—zero … it appears no one else is having this issue or perhaps haven’t as yet explored the plugins tab (?)
The main reason I downloaded C1 12 was to compare it with the current development version of darktable (2.7). I have a 30 day trial with C1 Pro so will be able to do a lot more comparing with various subject matter. At this point it looks like darktable (2.7 dev) has the edge. C1 has slightly more saturation (mainly greens) and very slightly more global contrast with the default opening in both. Global sharpness is equal. However darktable with a small amount of haze removal applied noticeably sails ahead with better natural clarity, colour and contrast (local and global).
I think that no one else has spotted the same problem reinforces my view that this is probably a problem which is particular to your computer and set up. The Plug-in feature is relatively new and therefore has probably undergone a lot of testing. I would be surprised if a major bug has crept in – but then again, it could happen.
As for comparing C1 against darktable, if you feel darktable is giving better results stick why change. Personally, I found darktable gave good results (I still prefer C1) but found working with it more difficult. I think the usability of software is often overlooked in the search for the best performance. What suits one person won’t suit another, which is probably a good thing or we would have less choice.
Hi,
I can’t get my NIK Collection showing up either. I have the 1.paid version from DxO (not the last one), but still cant find the suitable plugins. All the files are “empty” … not the right Capture One Plugin format = empty folders.
Any idea what I’m doing wrong … where to find the files with the right format? (I’m working with a Windows 10 computer, 64 bit)
Capture One uses a different plugin format to Photoshop (which is supported by Nik). When I’m launching the Nik tools from the Capture One menu I’m launching the executable files for the Nik Collection rather than the Nik Plugins. Capture One allows you to use external editors that are executable files (rather than Plugins) but you need to find where you installed these in order to open them.
It’s also possible that the Windows version works differently to the Mac version which I’m using. I currently don’t have a usable Windows computer to check this.
Robin I have the old free version of the Nik Collection and I cannot get it listed in Capture one 12 in the way you describe. Are you using the new version of Nik?
I am using the new version but that shouldn’t matter. Are you searching for the executable files rather than the plugin files? It needs to be the executables.
How does one select the executable? if I hit the + button on the bottom, the only option allowed is *.coplugin.
The + icon at the bottom only displays files in the Capture One plugin format. The executables recognised by the software are displayed on the right of the dialog. If you don’t see the executable listed, close the dialog and right-click on the image with your mouse. From the popup menu select “Edit with” and then pick the “Other” option from the submenu. This will display a dialog where you can select and launcht eh executable. It should then become available in the listed executables in the Plugins dialog.