A Review Of Color Precision Film Presets For Capture One

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My general attitude towards presets in photo editing has changed a lot over the years. What was once genuine wide-eyed excitement for groundbreaking Lightroom presets from the likes of VSCO and Mastin Labs has largely been replaced with a feeling of burnout due to the sheer volume of uninspired film emulations available for sale today. As expensive as it is, nowadays if I want the analog look I'll just make the conscious choice to shoot real film.

Because of this market oversaturation, my bar to be impressed with digital film emulation has risen considerably. So it was with a certain degree of skepticism that I read a message which I'd recently received from Owen Markham, a Los Angeles based cinematographer asking me if I would be interested to try his newly released Kodak presets for Capture One called Color Precision. In Owen's own words:

"I used to work at a film lab myself, and it was really cool to experience the developing side of film photography. I was surprised how much stuff I learned from that job about film that I just couldn't find on the internet.

Seeing the lack of information on the internet about the process of film photography made me want to bring that side of things more into the light, so I started experimenting with lots of different film stocks, scanners, and exposure levels. I'm a nerd about information, so it was really cool to have all this data in front of me that I could now analyze. Using this information, I decided to make film emulations out of it."

You've got to respect this kind of ambition and willingness to take initiative, so I figured I'd at least give them a shot (not sure if the pun is intended or not).

The Color Precision preset pack for Capture One include the full lineup of Kodak's color film stocks including:

• Portra 160
• Portra 400
• Portra 800
• Gold
• Ektachrome
• Ektar
• ColorPlus
• Ultramax
• Pro Image

These film stocks are available in various exposure levels ranging from -1EV to +2EV in one stop increments to more accurately reproduce how a film might behave in relation to how under or overexposed the film would be at time of capture on celluloid. Additionally, certain film stocks are also available as pushed or cross processed, which emulates different professional lab development techniques that impart a unique visual signature.

Perhaps most interesting however, is that Color Precision offers the option of both Noritsu and Frontier scanners, as your choice will drastically influence the final outcome of how the photograph is rendered. The presets are offered in four strengths ranging from 25% up to 100%, with 25% being the must subtle implementation. For the purposes of this review, I've chosen to use them at 100% so that you can really see the full effect of the preset being applied.

Once you've chosen your film stock, you then have the option to choose from different film effects (again at varying strengths) which include Contrast, Expired Film, Film Blur, Film Grain, and Soft Highlights. I've experimented with all of them and have noted what I've used for each photo in the captions below the accompanying images in this article. Fortunately, there are no gimmicks here as each film effect serves a specific purpose and I found them to be a great way to stimulate my creativity and convincingly enhance the overall analog aesthetic of an image.

During testing, I found a couple of standout film effects that I kept going back to again and again. First, the Film Grain feature is just perfect, and I'd go as far to say that it's the most realistic implementation of any preset pack I've used to date. The Soft Highlights feature is equally impressive, in that it organically subdues the brightest areas of an image in a way that's remarkably similar to real color negative film, and it's one that I enjoyed using frequently as well.

One other easily overlooked but much appreciated feature is that a message is displayed in the history panel when you've made an edit that overrides another action that you've previously taken. In the example below, adding Contrast 2 as a final step has overridden Expired Film 4 that was previously applied because they both affect the overall contrast of an image.

I will say that there is a slightly steeper learning curve with Color Precision versus other preset offerings that have been designed with one click edits in mind, and I was struggling with the results I was getting on my first few attempts with it. But after spending some quality time experimenting and giving it my full attention, I was rewarded with better results than I honestly could've hoped for.

I think the key with Color Precision is not to abandon your standard workflow, but rather to incorporate these presets into it as an additional step. For example, after setting the correct white balance and exposure levels, my process for editing images in Capture One is almost always to set Black and Shadow to +5, add +100 to Highlight and -100 to White.

If I don't apply my standard preliminary editing practice then the Color Precision presets look "off" to me. However, if I do follow this methodology then these presets become absolutely exceptional in terms of tonality, color accuracy, and the kind of highlight / shadow rendering I'd expect from real analog film. I'm particularly impressed with the Portra 160 and Portra 400 profiles, as I've used the real thing a ton over the years and to my eyes these presets nail it almost perfectly. Even E100 really does look like the authentic slide film I reviewed years ago.

Now, is Color Precision flawless? Well not exactly. Like all presets I've tried before, I found that it isn't suitable for all images, especially those that already have a muted color palette and / or suffer from severely blown highlights. Fortunately, those instances are few and far between. My only other complaint is that there currently aren't any black and white film stocks, though an Ilford monochrome preset pack is in the works for 2026. Still, I would've like see Kodak Tri-X 400 or T-Max 100 included here, especially because the Film Grain effect is already so well implemented.

Pros

• Exceptional color accuracy and tonality that gets the closest to real film out of any preset pack I've tested
• Film Grain feature is the best analog grain implementation I've ever used
• Film effects are genuinely useful and not a gimmick
• Choice of both Noritsu and Frontier scanners
• Various strengths and lab development processes to choose from (pushed, cross processed)

Cons

• No black and white film stocks available at this time
• There is a bit of a learning curve involved

Verdict

I'd long convinced myself that film presets just weren't comparable to real analog film and that there wasn't anymore innovation in this space, but Color Precision has proven me wrong on both fronts. These Kodak presets for Capture One are easily the most tasteful, nuanced, and color accurate to film emulations I've ever used, even besting my previous favorite, The Classic Presets.

Although you do have to invest the time to truly get the most out of them, and the current offering is only limited to Kodak color film, I honestly can't remember the last time I was this pleased with a piece of photo editing software. Color Precision has truly surpassed my expectations and I can't recommend them enough for anyone looking for truly authentic film presets.

Color Precision Kodak – Capture One

Includes: Portra 160 - Portra 400 - Portra 800 - Gold - Ektachrome - Ektar - ColorPlus - Ultramax - Pro Image

Buy On Color Precision