NextGen Styles for Capture One - Adjust the White Balance Automatically and Apply AI Color Gradings

Today, I'm going to reveal something I've been working on for the past year, and it's the result of numerous color grading experiments!
I've created a set of NextGen Styles that automatically adjust the white balance of your images to make them look natural!
Download 5 sample styles free of charge - https://alexonraw.com/capture-one-ai-...

There are styles for portraits, landscapes, travel photography, and outdoor events.
Plus, you can easily mix NextGen styles with your regular styles. Just turn on the Stack Styles feature, apply a NextGen style to adjust the white balance, and then use a standard style with color grading.
Now, you might have a question:
Do they work better than Auto White Balance? In many cases, yes!

Let's take this shot:

The original white balance is obviously too cold, but the auto adjustment makes the color even worse:

Now, let's try the Natural Smart White Balance style:

The resulting color looks way more accurate and natural!

Or let's take this portrait and auto-adjust the white balance:

Again, the result is not entirely accurate.

Let's compare it with the Cool Smart White Balance style:

The NextGen style applies natural and clear colors in a single click!

Now, a sample landscape!
The auto White Balance makes it a little cooler than it should be:

The Neutral Landscape style provides warmer and more realistic colors. However, if you prefer a cooler look, you can apply the Cool Landscape style.

For some images, it makes sense to experiment with different Smart Styles — for example, the Neutral Landscape style can also set an accurate white balance for some portraits.
Best of all, you can try these styles free of charge - just go to AlexOnRAW.com/next and download 5 free styles from the new NextGen style set.

The complete set includes over 100 styles designed to take full advantage of Capture One's AI capabilities.

For instance, I have developed Smart White Balance styles that also apply image tone adjustments. Here, I'm going to adjust the White Balance and set a classical desaturated contrast in a single click, like this:

Image tone adjustments appear as a new layer, so you can easily adjust their effect.

BTW, you can assign shortcuts to your favorite styles to make one-click adjustments:

To unlock the full potential of Capture One's AI tools, I have developed NextGen styles that contain AI masks and color grading. Now, you can easily apply color correction to the image subject or background.

First, adjust the white balance using one of the smart white balance styles.
Next, choose AI Subject or Background style, and Capture One will automatically create an AI mask with the selected color grading.

Okay, let's edit another portrait. Again, the auto white balance isn't helping, so I'm going to use one of my smart white balance styles. Nice!

By the way, there is no way to preview an AI style, so I prepared separate preview styles to easily evaluate color gradings.

Here I want to tone the background in green using the Light Green style. For the skin tone, I would prefer a more vibrant color; let's apply the Sunny Portrait style. I think it makes sense to reduce the effect of the style a bit; perfect. Let's compare before and after.

Finally, the NextGet Style set includes AI Visual Accent styles that allow you to draw the viewer's attention to the right place in your image.

For example, you can easily add Clarity to the subject to add depth and dimension. Or you can focus viewers' attention by desaturating the image background.

Now let's see how all these styles work together!
Let's take this shot, and first of all, we have an incorrect white balance here. I'm going to apply my Natural Smart White Balance style. Okay, looks much better!

Next, I need a nice color grading for the main subject. Let's try the Warm Film Look. Capture One automatically created a subject mask and applied the color grading.
Since an AI layer is a regular layer, we can easily adjust the opacity to slightly reduce the effect of the style, like this.
Now, for the background, I want to add a little color contrast here, so I'm going to use the Warm-Cool Contrast style.
Finally, let's increase the depth of the image.
First, I'm going to recover the highlights on the background, like this, nice.
Now I'm going to add Clarity to the background. Perfect, let's compare before and after.

So, with a few clicks, we have unlocked the full potential of this RAW.
As you can see, our editing is layered, and we have full control over it.