Capture One Plugins

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Capture One added plugins to their feature list with the release of version 12. Since the plugin eco-system is relatively new, there are not so many plugins for Capture One as for Lightroom. However, the number of Capture One plugins will surely grow as developers come to know the possibility.

In this article, we will take a look at the existing plugins for Capture One, and how to install plugins in C1.

Current Available Plugins for Capture One

Helicon Focus Capture One Plugin

The Helicon focus plugin helps you with making fully automatic a roundtrip from Capture One to Helicon Focus and back again to create infinite depth-of-field by combining a set of stacked images into a single image. Focus stacking is a well know technique within macro photography, product photography, and sometimes even landscape photography. Helicon Focus is a dedicated app that automates the focus stacking technique instead of using Photoshop or Affinity Photo for this. Usually, you would have to open the images to include in the focus stack in Helicon Focus or Photoshop. 

With the Helicon Focus plugin for Capture One, you can select the source images in your Capture One catalog and send them to Helicon Focus. When you are done with refining the focus-stacked image in Helicon Focus, the plugin loads the finished photo into Capture One.

The plugin and app are available for both Windows and Mac.

Note that to use Helicon Focus, you need a separate license.

Format Plugin for Capture One

The Format Plugin for Capture One can help you remove a couple of steps in your workflow when it comes to publishing files to your Format account. This could be both for presenting your images in your portfolio or sending images to client-proofing using Format.

Once you have downloaded and installed the plugin, you will be able to publish images directly to your website on Format.com. You will find general instructions on how to install plugins further down in the article.

Select the images you want and then select Image > Publish > Publish to Format.

This will make the Format panel appear. Here you will be able to select the site you want to publish your images to. Because the plugin connects your Format account with Capture One, you will be able to select which gallery you want to publish the images to. You can also select directly in the Capture One plugin that you want to create a new gallery or a new proofing project on Format.

In the next tab in the Format plugin, you can change the image quality setting to use when uploading the images.

You will find additional tabs for output sharpening settings, metadata, and watermark options.

When you are done with changing the settings, click on Publish to begin uploading your images to Format.

If you have a Format account and use it as your portfolio, or to send images to client proofing, this Capture One plugin can help you cut away a few time-consuming steps in your workflow.

The Format plugin is currently only available for Mac.

Prodibi Capture One Plugin

The Prodibi plugin for Capture One is a lot similar to the Format plugin. It is about publishing your images to an online gallery, website, or WordPress. 

However, with the Prodibi plugin, you can upload images for auto-tagging, based on concepts, scenes, objects, face detection, and so on. Once an algorithm adds relevant tags to your images, these tags are loaded back into Capture One. 

Note that the auto-tagging feature cost credits on your Probidi account.

JPEGmini Capture One Plugin

The JPEGmini plugin lets you optimize images without reducing the image quality as you export them in Capture One.

You can use the plugin in two different ways.

The first way is to select the images in the Capture One browser, and select Image > Publish > Export with JPEGmini. Next, decide on the export location. Remember to change your preferred export settings in the plugin tabs.

Finally, click Publish or JPEGmini to do its work. 

The other way of using this plugin is to let Capture One open it as part of a Process Recipe. This means that right before finishing a process recipe, Capture One will send the image to JPEGmini for optimization. 

In the Basic Process Recipe tab, just select Open With: Optimize with JPEGmini.

Remember that you can save process recipe settings, so you can both have process recipes that take a roundtrip to JPEGmini and process recipes that doesn’t.

The JPEGmini Pro Suite, which includes the Capture One Plugin, costs $89.

Nik Collection Capture One Plugin

Actually, Nik Collection is not made as a plugin for Capture One. Instead, you can add it to the Open with menu, as described below to get Nik software working in Capture One.

How To Install Plugins in Capture One

First, you should download the file containing the plugin file (and unzip it). Plugin files for Capture One end with .coplugin.

From here, you have three different ways of installing the plugin into Capture One:

1. The easiest way to install a plugin once you have downloaded (and unzipped the .zip file), is by double-clicking on the plugin file. 
2. The next method is to open Preferences and go to the Plugins tab. Now simply drag the .coplugin file into the list of existing plugins.
3. The final method is also done from within Preferences and the Plugins tab. Go to the lower-left corner of the dialog and click on the + button. Now locate the .coplugin file in the file browser and select it.

Each of these three methods makes Capture One install the plugin. The plugin should now appear in the list on the left side of the Plugin Manager tab. 

How to Change Plugin Settings in Capture One

Each plugin comes with a few settings to make the plugin work or modifies its behavior in Capture One. Plugins that publish your images from Capture One to a website or portfolio will likely require an API key you must get from the website. Other plugins will require you to enter a license key for the software or app connected with the Capture One Plugin. Without the API or license key, the Capture One plugin will not work.

To change plugin settings, go to Capture One > Preferences > Plugins (on a Mac). In Windows, go to Edit > Preferences and then select the Plugins tab. Next, select the plugin from the left side list to view and modify the settings.

Each Capture One plugin developer has made different settings available for configuring their specific plugin. 

How to Disable a Plugin in C1

To disable a Capture One plugin, select it in the Plugin Manager and click on the Disable button. This will disable the plugin without deleting it. This is useful if you temporarily don’t want the functionality of the plugin to be enabled. To enable the plugin again, simply click on the Enable button.

How to Delete a Plugin

If you no longer want to have a specific plugin installed in Capture One, you can delete it by selecting it in the left side of the Plugin manager. Once selected, click in the – (minus) button at the lower-left corner of the dialog.

What is the Preinstalled “Open With Menu” Plugin?

The Open With menu plugin that you will see at the top of the Plugin manager is a native plugin created by Phase One. It controls which apps you see when you right-click on “Edit with” on an image. 

“Edit with” allows you to edit images in external photo editing applications. So if you have a photo editing app that isn’t shown in Capture One, you can add it here. It is also here that you can exclude any apps that you don’t want to list in the Edit with menu. 

Some apps that you might think would be a plugin are instead stand-alone apps that you can open from the “Edit with” menu. This is the case with Nik Collection plugins, which in Photoshop is added as a plugin. However, in Capture One, the Nik Collection plugins are considered to be stand-alone apps that you can add or exclude from the “Edit with” list. Normally, Capture One will recognize most photo editing apps and add them to the “Edit with” list automatically. But if not, you will know where to add them.

Learn more about Capture One:
Check out our popular Capture One Tutorials

Final Thoughts about Capture One Plugins

When Phase One introduced plugins in Capture One 12, it almost went unnoticed. The reason is likely that only a few plugins were available. Just like styles, plugins can help you speed up your workflow by cutting away steps in the post-processing phase, assisting photographers with keeping organized (tagging), or publishing their images. 

We can hope that other plugins are added to the C1 plugin eco-system in the future, assisting even more photographers with their daily photo editing tasks. 

Peter Dam

Hey I’m Peter. I’m the owner and editor of Photography-RAW. I make sure that you get the best articles about photography. Personally, I prefer to shoot landscape, nature and macro photography.
I hope you enjoy the site 🙂