Capture One Unveils AI Retouching Workflow Enhancements

Screenshot of new Capture One interface with portrait editing tools. Photo by Fiona Torre.

Capture One’s newest release aims to put efficiency front and center for professionals who cannot compromise on quality or creative control. A new AI-powered retouching tool kit marks a big leap forward in workflows. Combined with smarter folder handling and better performance, this release introduces features designed to help photographers work more efficiently, stay organized, and streamline mid- and post-shoot workflows.

Full disclosure: This article was brought to you by Capture One.

These updates, alongside a brand-new visual identity — new logo and website included — were shown off earlier this month during a globally streamed keynote event Capture One held in London. As they were building up to the reveal of the new features, in an apparent jab at industry trends, Capture One proclaimed that a future where photography is done without photographers, “would suck.”

Collage of Capture One UI showcasing advanced editing tools, including AI masking, facial retouching, eye focus, and the color editor. Photos by David van Dartel, Fiona Torre, Annie Lai, Roxane Moreau, and Molly Matalon.

Reflecting a broader direction — both in product and brand identity — to stand with photographers, and uphold their place at the center of photography, Rafael Orta, CEO of Capture One, said:

Photographers consistently tell us about the intense pressure to deliver more images, faster, without sacrificing quality, creativity, or their artistic vision.

Our May 2025 release demonstrates Capture One’s ongoing commitment to addressing these challenges, empowering photographers to create compelling images, realize their visions, and enjoy the creative process. These tools aren’t just about productivity—they transform workflows and inspire genuine passion.

AI Powered Retouching Redefined with Retouch Faces

At the heart of the May update is Retouch Faces, a new AI-powered tool designed to make natural and fast portrait enhancement. It automatically detects faces in your images, so you can jump straight into refining faces with just a few sliders.

The update reflects a step toward more comprehensive end-to-end workflows for Capture One users, from shoot to final touch. You can instantly apply retouching across every face in your image or fine-tune them one by one. The real magic is when retouching happens live as you shoot — all thanks to full tethering support with Next Capture Adjustments. Want to scale? Save your look into Styles and Presets or copy them across all selected images with ease.

The sliders give you full control: “Impact” sets the overall strength, “Blemishes” tones down distractions, “Dark Circles” lifts under-eye shadows, “Even Skin” smooths contrast without losing highlights, and “Contouring” adds depth with subtle shadows. All of them are built to retain natural texture and detail.

It’s fast, easy to use, and intuitive — designed to help photographers produce polished results that retain natural texture and avoid an overprocessed look.

AI plays a key role in the new retouching capabilities, and as a broader subject, remains somewhat controversial among photographers around the industry. Ines Carton, Principal Engineering Manager at Capture One, who presented the new features during the reveal, clarified Capture One’s approach to and philosophy around the use of AI:

We believe AI is an incredible tool for lightening workloads, automating tedious tasks, and solving difficult problems. But we’re a photography company, and we believe creative decisions should stay with creators.

Our new features run locally on your computer, no internet needed, so you can work anywhere without security vulnerabilities. We respect your privacy and never train our AI on your images, only on materials we own.

Portrait editing in Capture One using the Retouch Faces tool tab, showing before / after adjustments. Photo by Simon Baungaard

Streamlined Organization New Session Builder and Library Tools

Building complex folder structures is now a breeze. Whether you’re on a team or running high-volume shoots solo, the new Session Builder speeds up setup with a streamlined interface for generating nested folders fast.

Manual mode lets you type out parent and nested folder names using common delimiters like commas or line breaks. You can create up to 1,500 folders this way. Studio users get an even faster, automated mode with Tokens. Just pick or type your Tokens, see your structure update live, and generate nested folders up to two levels deep. Switch back to manual anytime and your layout stays pre-filled and ready to tweak. Once you’ve created a structure you like, save it as a Preset and reuse it later in manual or automated mode, making setup more repeatable and scalable across projects.

The Library Tool got a new hierarchy. “Session Folders” is now called Shortcuts, and it shows your full folder hierarchy. You can assign Capture, Selects, Output, or Trash folders with a right-click. And with the new “Add multiple folders inside” option, jumping from planning to execution is faster than ever.

Capture One Live now fully supports the new folder hierarchy and includes a Studio-focused usability upgrade that enables teams to collaborate for longer periods. Sharing large image sets is smoother and more stable, so you can move faster and stay focused on collaboration. Live sessions can now run for up to 60 days for Studio subscribers — up from the previous 30-day limit — to support longer-running projects.

Regarding much-requested improvements to workflow efficiency and collaboration, Aris Papagrigoriou, Senior Product Manager, said:

Staying close to photographers and digitechs is central to how we build at Capture One.

Their workflows inform our decisions, and the new Session Builder reflects that—making it easy to create complex folder structures in seconds for a cleaner, more efficient solution. The updated Library Tool makes managing these folders within Capture One more intuitive — during or after a shoot.

And with full visibility of the session folder in Capture One Live and Live for Studio, collaboration across the team becomes even smoother.

Library tool tab in Capture One with a new hierarchy. Add multiple folders modal window. Photo by Fiona Torre

Enhanced Performance A Smoother Faster Editing Experience

MacOS users get a smoother, faster Viewer. Especially on Retina and high-DPI screens, the sliders respond instantly, color grading feels fluid, and proxy stutter is gone. This is especially useful for professionals working at high resolution.

Improvements like these for organization, workflow efficiency, and product performance are issues which Capture One has stated are important to every product team and engineer in the company. Senior Product Manager at Capture One, Alexander Flemming, went further into how the process is handled for each update:

We talk to photographers every single week and get their input about what to develop. First, we try to understand what the main challenges photographers have with their workflows, which allows us to identify the main scope of upcoming features following many interviews and surveys.

Once we have that input, design and development is supported by multiple rounds of alpha tests with external photographers who help us ensure that what we build has value and delivers a quality outcome.

The value of the feedback our customers give us cannot be overstated for the success and future of Capture One.

Photographer Simon Baungaard tethering and editing portraits in Capture One.

A Fresh Vision Capture Ones Commitment to Photographers

The latest version of Capture One introduces a range of improvements aimed at boosting quality-of-life and efficiency for all professional photographers, with a speedy new end-to-end workflow for portrait shooters. And yet, the diversity of who, what, where, and how photographers shoot was front-and-center at the unveiling of the new release and visual identity, in the introduction video which highlighted photographers across a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds.

Watch: Photographers Discuss How They Shoot, Edit, and Work in Capture One

Capture One CEO, Rafael Orta, called out this focus for the company:

It’s incredibly rewarding to showcase and celebrate photographers from an amazing variety of disciplines, backgrounds, and creative visions. Their work — and the privilege of supporting it — inspires us every day to actively and positively contribute to our industry.

We’re excited about what we’ve built so far in 2025, but we’re just getting started. We have ambitious plans for the rest of this year and beyond, developing tools that continue to support collaboration, quality, and efficiency for all photographers.

A free 7-day trial of the latest version of Capture One’s desktop products is available for those looking to explore the new features.

Full disclosure: This article was brought to you by Capture One.