If you find that you’re constantly changing the same settings for every image in Capture One, then one way of remembering common settings in Capture One is to set new defaults. For most tool settings in Capture One, you can save defaults. These will be the settings that are then applied every time a new image is imported from the same make and model of camera. This can be very useful for things like sharpening and noise reduction, which you may want to change from the factory defaults. Rather than applying these changes every time, you can set new defaults.

This is an adapted excerpt from my Capture One Fuji Guide. This requires Capture One Pro.

The advantage of setting defaults over applying a style on import is that when you use the reset button in Capture One to reset an image, it will reset to the settings that you set as default. If you had chosen to apply a Style on import instead, then when you reset an image it will be restored to the factory settings rather than those you applied as a style on import.

To set the defaults for any of the tool panels in the Capture One interface here’s what to do:

Select an image and make the adjustments that you wish to save as defaults. The image must be taken with the same make and model of camera as the one for which you wish to set defaults.
Go to the tool panel for which you wish to set defaults. Note that not all tools will let you set defaults. One such example is the Lens corrections tool.
From the … pop-up menu on the top right hand corner of the panel choose: “Save as Defaults for [Name of Camera]. “
This will bring up a dialog box asking you if you wish to set defaults for the selected variants. Note that defaults are set on a per-image basis. Setting new defaults it won’t override existing images in your catalogue unless you specifically tell it to.
This has now set the defaults for all new images.
To apply these defaults to existing images, select an image, go to the corresponding panel and from the pop-up menu choose “Apply Defaults”
To reset to the factory settings, from the same menu choose: Reset Defaults For [name of camera].

You will need to do this for each tool that you want to change defaults for. An alternative to this is to save a style and apply it on import. The advantage of this method is that it will revert to the new “defaults” that you have created if you hit the reset button at any time, whereas if you use a style on import and hit reset, it will ignore those settings and just revert to defaults.

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