Switching to Capture One?

[hirohhhh]

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I'm using Lightroom Classic for many years. I tried Capture One 2-3 years ago, didn't like it especially, so I didn't bother switching. However, Lightroom becomes more and more a burden due to the following reasons:

- Tethering never worked well with SL/SL2. It works with C1.
- For me LrC was always quite slow, even thought I always had the best possible Mac machine that has no other problems, other than working intensively in LrC.
- I had enough with their Creative Cloud where I can't even open the app without being logged in to the CC.

Other than that, I like Lightroom. I like the way I can edit my photos, I like the organization, because I'm used to that very well, and I like the fact that is part of Adobe because I use Photoshop a lot.

The reasons that draws me back from switching are:

- My LrC catalogue is very well organized over the years by collections, keywords, colors, flags...
- I don't know how my LrC edits will look like in C1.

Almost all my photos are edited exactly how I want them to look like and if they are going to change, that's a big problem, and it means I'm potentially locked into Adobe ecosystem forever. No way I can give up those edits and switch to default raw look, or edit them all over again.

Any advices or answers to my concerns would be appreciated and will help me decide what should I do.

Thanks!

Edited February 21, 2022 by hirohhhh

[wda]

Exposure is on my reserve list if I need to move away from LR. It recognizes and uses a similar cataloguing system. Try a demo version and see how it suits. https://exposure.software/exposure-trial/

[frame-it]

tried luminar neo at a friends place, really nice and fast

[frame-it]

6 hours ago, hirohhhh said:

No way I can give up those edits and switch to default raw look, or edit them all over again.

 

 

 

 

 

[Luke_Miller]

When I started my digital journey in 2002, conventional wisdom was that one needed two image processing applications.  The point being there would always be images that would process better in one over the other.  I found that continues to be true (to an extent) even up to today.  My choice was Capture One and Lightroom.  Currently my Lightroom catalogue contains over 110K images. I do not find the Capture One catalogue feature to be nearly as useful, so Lightroom remains my image management tool and "moving them to" Capture One from Lightroom is not an option I would consider.  I always found Capture One's color accuracy to be superior to that of Lightroom, but the difference these days is very small, and I would not choose one over the other for that reason. 

Regarding re-processing older images:  With the upgrades to the processing programs and the improvement in my skills I rarely find an image that would not be better by being re-processed.

[marchyman]

If you feel LrC is slow Capture One will be a major disappointment.   I, too, prefer the image editing functions in Capture One.   That said, I can get similar/same results from Lightroom Classic.   The big difference are the DAM features: LrC blows Capture One away.   No more 10-30 second waits as I switch between collections.  I can search on more metadata fields and get results an order of magnitude faster.  If you only use Capture One Sessions of a modest size you may not notice the performance differences.  I rarely use tethering.

Also: I can edit grayscale images in LrC.   I can use NegativeLab Pro with LrC.

I still have both programs.  I don't know if I'll update Capture One next go around.  I find I'm using it less and less with recent LrC changes.

[Dennis]

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I've used LR since v4.

Switched to Capture One 20 in 2018 

Now, strangely, I only use Lightroom on the iPad Pro, don't have the Classic.

 

 

[hansvons]

I wouldn't switch. You already tried, and it didn't work for you. You like the Adobe way of doing things, and the results match your expectations. Why then bother?

On the other hand, there's a reason why Capture One has a strong and supportive user base within the professional photography community. For me, it's the colour correction tools and the accessibility to camera ICC files, making Capture One highly customisable to fit my needs, and that's way beyond its UI, which is already highly customisable. 

I hate switching applications for touch-ups. The big thing about Capture One is the layer system that makes it possible to fix multiple problems on multiple layers, with the complete toolset at your fingertips. However, for a "real" Photoshop gig, Capture One isn't up to the task. But you can fix sensor dirt, bring down a hot sky, make eyes brighter, teeth whiter, you name it.

Capture One is very fast in terms of editing time for a given result (e. g. skipping app hopping to Photoshop, etc...). For photographers who work for clients and have tons of shots to manage and deliver that's a huge plus. Since version 21, informed culling is finally possible within the programme, putting Photo Mechanic  somewhat out of work. On a M1 Mac it's as fast as it possibly gets. Reliable tethered shooting is another plus and Capture One's original virtue.

In terms of organising stuff, Capture One's catalogue system is not as strong as Lightroom's. I can't comment much on that because the catalogue approach never fitted my bill. I like to have many "catalogues", even for a single shooting day, a short project. Capture One offers Sessions, which does all that I want. A Session is basically a project folder with everything in it to back up and move around without much thinking. The project (Session) can be reconnected conveniently when restored from on a back-up disk and is downward compatible.

 

Edited February 22, 2022 by hansvons

[jaapv]

On 2/22/2022 at 9:47 PM, hansvons said:

. For me, it's the colour correction tools

Which has been leapfrogged by the newest colour mixer and colour grading tools in Lightroom...

[Adam Bonn]

I’d be enormously surprised if you could import LR edits into C1, the tools are too different, for example the white slider in LR works like the Brightness slider in C1.
 

Also LR sliders are tailored for the RAW they’re being used with (eg +25 sharpening on camera A will exhibit different sharpening characteristics than +25 sharpening on camera B. Same for highlight, shadows etc)

So in order for C1 to be able to accurately import all your LR edits it would have to map adobe’s tools and their usage with your particular camera(s) to C1’s own tools. To do this C1 would need a highly intimate understanding of how the proprietary adobe image pipeline works to the point of reverse engineering, and it’s doesn’t look like C1 have reverse engineered anything that adobe have done because if they had they’d have figured out a decent DAM solution by now.. 😇

To the OP… I’d REALLY make use of C1’s trial period here to see how it works for you…

(re C1 v LR = win some/lose some. LR has come a long way in the past couple of years, the fact that LR is partnered with PS makes it a more complete solution than C1. All the raw apps can do a good job in the right hands, and the right hands tend to pick up tools they enjoy using the most, even if a less favoured tool has a technically better spec…)

[verwackelt]

Am 21.2.2022 um 06:50 schrieb hirohhhh:

- My LrC catalogue is very well organized over the years by collections, keywords, colors, flags...
- I don't know how my LrC edits will look like in C1.

Almost all my photos are edited exactly how I want them to look like and if they are going to change, that's a big problem, and it means I'm potentially locked into Adobe ecosystem forever. No way I can give up those edits and switch to default raw look, or edit them all over again.

 

If you would switch to C1, It is important that you NOT expect C1 as just another kind of Lightroom. It is s different tool that has it´s own approach to do the task.
If you like what LR does with your images stay with LR.
Or you make a Cut and put only all new images in C1 And use LR as an archive for all previous images.
Do not expect the same kind of catalogue and editing it is a own tool not another LR.
 For me i do not like the idea of one big catalogue for all my pictures. I have many C1 sessions or newer the cataloges for each phototrip. Everybody likes what he is used to.
There is no right or wrong but an individually sympathy for one kind of workflow.
If i were you i would stay with LR.

[PhotoCruiser]

I switched 2020 during the pandemic from LR 1-9 to C1 to see how it works using the lot of free time during the first pandemic wave.
If i probably would have studied better and/or took a course about C1 to unleash his power, but finally I went back to LR I know and use from V1.
C1 is very different from LR and need a lot of learning to use it as you may used to use LR.

As you have all nicely tagged and sorted I would absolutely not move to C1 except I could move also 100% of the tags and order you made in many years.

Chris

[jrp]

C1 seems to work a bit better on the new M1 Macs than Lightroom (which regularly seems to gobble memory and invoke swapping).

I can get good results with either, but Lightroom's new masking tools and its ability to straighten architecture automatically with reasonable success make it hard to move away.

For some reason they are cranking up the price of C1 and seem to adopt an even more customer-hostile posture than Adobe, so I am not inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.

The likes of Affinity Photo or even open source programs like dark table, if not Luminar, seem more attractive complements to LR Classic than C1.