Hasselblad PHOCUS User manual

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SOFTWARE
When you first launch Phocus you will be greeted by a welcome screen. This screen offers you two different ways of starting Phocus. Choose
Standard Mode to start Phocus with all functions and features present or choose Light Mode if you are new to Phocus or if you want a simple
workflow.
Phocus by Hasselblad – the nal step towards uncompromising
image quality.
Phocus by Hasselblad could very well be called “The Beauty and
the Beast”. Beast, for the power, performance and advanced
tools of the Hasselblad imaging software that forms the core
of this amazing software, and Beauty for it’s easy and attractive
working environment. Phocus makes even the largest les easy
to handle on both Mac and Windows platforms and provides seri-
ous photographers with a well thought out, intuitive workow,
designed to work the way that photographers work.
When combined with the optics and sensors that meet
Hasselblad’s extreme demands – the result is stunning image
quality. A quality standard that we refer to as Hasselblad Image
Quality.
Photos: Marco Grob

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SOFTWARE
Natural Colors
Hasselblad’s Natural Color Solution (HNCS) enables you to pro-
duce outstanding and true colors out-of-the-box. There’s no need
for choosing color proles to get correct colors. Skin tones, product
colors and difcult gradations reproduce beautifully and accurately
every time.
Digital Lens Correction (DAC)
Hasselblad’s modern lens design has been optimized for digital
perfection, including full correction of chromatic aberration (color
fringing), distortion and vignetting (light falloff). Phocus makes use
of its embedded digital lens models and calculates the optical cor-
rections for every shot at the given distance and aperture setting.
The result is clear: Phocus with DAC increases image resolution
and delivers perfect images as the basis for optimal image render-
ing, and it’s further processing. The DAC technology works auto-
matically with all Hasselblad HC, HCD lenses, even with movements
when using the HTS 1.5 Tilt/Shift adapter. Based upon manual set-
tings, DAC also works with all the Carl Zeiss lenses of the classic
V system cameras.
Ultra-Focus
The H system cameras’ Ultra-Focus system allows information
from the lens and exact capture conditions to be fed to the camera
processor for ultra ne tuning of the auto-focus mechanism, taking
into account the design specications of the lens and the optical
specications of the sensor. In this way the full HC lens program
is even further enhanced, bringing a new level of sharpness and
resolution.
Leading-Edge Moiré Removal Technology
With Phocus, the moiré that can occur on even extremely high reso-
lution images is effectively removed from your images. This is auto-
matically performed directly on the raw data, leaving image quality
intact and eliminating the need to carry out special masking selec-
tions or other manual procedures, saving hours of tedious post-
production work.
Uncompromising Image Quality
Photos: Marco Grob

www.hasselblad.com
SOFTWARE
Achieving a good digital workow is crucial today. With this in mind
we have designed Phocus to be as intuitive and easy to use as
possible. Every aspect of the Phocus interface has been developed
and designed to reect the way that photographers work and to help
ensure that you can spend as much time as possible taking images
– not processing them.
Phocus incorporates some of the most common features found in
the most popular image processing environments, combined with a
collection of advanced tools all designed to easily provide you with
optimum image quality – every time!
The viewer section allows for full view, compare, browse, horizontal
or vertical view of images. Multiple folders can be open at the same
time, while Quick Selection folders make handling your choices
simple and easy. Tools can be hidden when not required or collected
into groups for rapid access.The whole appearance and working
environment can be altered to suit current needs.
Processing power doesn’t help much if you can’t use it easily and effectively
Photos: Marco Grob
File Browser:
Allows easy access to
‘favorites’, ‘collections’
and ‘devices’, etc plus all
system les.
Layout:
Change or
edit layout
whenever you
choose.
Show:
Hide or show
layout elements
whenever you
choose.
Adjustments:
Easy overview
and main-
tenance of
adjustments.
Toolbar:
Customize tool-
bar to include
the tools you
choose.
Tools:
Can be grouped,
hidden, moved
or oated.
Folders: Tabbed folders
offer easy and fast
folder access.
Thumbnail Browsing: Choose
method to sort thumbnails
quickly, change names, etc.
Thumbnails: Can be
quickly enlarged and
reduced.

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SOFTWARE
Tools
The extensive tool palette in Phocus is fully customizable and ex-
ible. The tools, of which there are over twenty, are grouped under
tabs for convenience. They can be rearranged on the list, duplicated
and temporarily deleted if you wish.
Each tool header has a oat button placed right next to the disclo-
sure triangle that will open the tool in a oating panel to exploit the
viewing area for a larger image view.
Take a look at these few examples that demonstrate the extent and
depth of control these professional image editing tools offer.
Histogram
The Histogram tool in Phocus not only offers the standard view but
extra controls too. F-stop points, gure input elds and top sliders
add to the accuracy of its ne-tuning capabilities. The Histogram
tool is resizable to display a clearer indication of the graphs.
Exposure
Besides the standard tools for adjusting EV, Contrast and Bright-
ness, the exposure tool also offers recovery, shadow ll and clarity
options.
The recovery tool helps to diminish the problem of clipped highlights
by restoring detail found in the raw le. The shadow ll tool boosts
dark areas by modifying the data to create lighter shadow areas
while simultaneously controlling contrast to bring out details. The
clarity tool basically enhances local contrast with the emphasis on
the mid-tones. This provides “punch” to any image without disturb-
ing the appearance of the highlights and shadows.
Adjustment Browser
This tool offers a unique overview of your adjustment variations as
a listed history. You can save a set of modications to embed the
changes in the image le. This can then be used as a template for
other images, saving time and effort by allowing global modica-
tions with one click. What’s more, the modications are integrated
within the raw les; there are no sidecar les to take care of.
These tools and many more lay down the foundation for a profes-
sional level image editing environment. Although they are easy to
use, they nevertheless ensure levels of accuracy and security that
professionals demand.
Photos: Marco Grob

www.hasselblad.com
SOFTWARE
My Phocus – Layouts
Working with layouts in Phocus is the foundation stone for an effec-
tive and fast workow. Most assignments have requirements that
are special and each of these can slow you down when it comes to
workow. That’s why Phocus can be customized into what we call
“My Phocus” – your personal version that you know is right and will
work for you. With the ‘layout’ concept we have formalized the way
a complete monitor layout and it’s associated views, tools layout,
toolbar, and adjustments is compiled. This means that with one
click you have a viewing environment you favor, a collection of tools
you need for the job in hand and unwanted tools and functions out
of the way. ‘My Phocus’ also means being able to save your layouts
and have them with you on location or with rented equipment.
Light or Standard
As illustrated on the rst page Phocus initially opens with a Wel-
come screen offering two starting modes: Light Mode and Standard
Mode. These modes are intended as starting points only. All the
tools and processing abilities are always present and always acces-
sible behind the scenes; it’s just that you choose when and how
they become part of the action. Some users will lean towards the
Light Mode with a possible few additions while others will start with
Standard Mode and change it to the nest degree. The key point is
the ever-available customization of Phocus.
Customize
A list of options that could be included in ‘My Phocus’ layouts would
be long but the need for dened tool-setups for various adjust-
ments, importing and exporting, for example, could typically benet
by having a customized ‘My Phocus’ layout assigned –one for each
situation or job if you wish.
Customized layouts can even automatically be triggered when a
camera or card reader is connected, a camera is tethered or when
a specic tool tab is selected. As ‘My Phocus’ layouts are predeter-
mined, they ensure a secure handling of les.
The ghost in the machine

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SOFTWARE
The Hasselblad raw le
In order to incorporate the unique Natural Colors and Digital Lens
Correction features Hasselblad has developed a custom Hasselblad
raw le format called 3F. The 3F le format is build upon the TIFF
standard. It includes lossless image compression, which reduces
the le size and required storage space, by 33%.
The 3F le includes all the raw pixel data, all metadata created
by the camera and yourself, and the full history log of your image
adjustments and your export settings. No sidecar les structure
is generated. Further, you will not be locked into a closed world of
proprietary raw les as the Hasselblad raw les open directly into
Apple’s or Adobe’s imaging environments.
Metadata
The basic metadata architecture in Phocus images follows the
IPTC Core standard with XMP. On top of that the extended meta-
data architecture provides for detailed and accurate image adjust-
ment, cataloguing and indexing. Your benets from working with the
Phocus metadata structure in the raw 3F le, include:
1. Easy overview of le information and it’s adjustment history
2. When working with the HTS 1.5, all settings with regards to cap-
ture, angle, equipment etc. are stored as metadata directly in the
image le for full function with Digital Lens Corrections (DAC).
3. The Hasselblad GPS accessory allows for a range for new func-
tions within Phocus, as it links GPS data directly to i.e. Google
Earth, making geographic reference a snap and image storage
and retrieval much easier.
Your exported tiff’s and large jpeg’s will carry most of this capture
information available for your further post processing and
archiving.
Perfect Viewing Quality
By taking advantage of the extra computational power available
from the graphics card Phocus provides real time full quality viewer
updates when performing adjustments. On top of that the Phocus
Viewer delivers image viewing quality that matches every detail of
the image with all corrections. This quality standard also secures
that what you see in Phocus matches what you will see later in i.e.
Photoshop.
Camera Integration
Phocus provides special extended controls with which to operate
your Hasselblad camera with tethered use. Special extended camera
controls with which to operate your camera. These features, such as
live video for easier shot set-up and workow, or the ability to control
the lens drive for focusing when the camera is in a remote position
or when the digital capture unit is mounted on a view camera, bring
an entirely new level of exibility to the way you shoot.
Want to know more?
Go to www.hasselblad.com/products/phocus.
12.09 - UK v1 Specication subject to change without notice. This data sheet covers Phocus versions from version 2.0 or later.
Technical Information
MAC WINDOWS
Mac OS X 10.5 or later is required and at least 2GB of memory,
where 4GB is recommended. Phocus is optimized for Intel processors.
Phocus supports Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 in 64 or 32 bit
mode, where 64 bit is recommended. Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD equiva-
lent processors, with min. 2GB of memory and min. 256MB of video
memory. For Windows 7 installations min. 512MB of video memory is
recommended.
System requirements