Capture One, or the future of post-processing

Printing with C1:

https://help.phaseone.​com …12/Output/Print​ing-photos

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #18882329
Printing with C1:

https://help.phaseone.​com …12/Output/Print​ing-photos

I stand corrected - never used the print (and actually just expected a Windows print screen ). Very nice.

I switched this week from Adobe to C1P (the big sale on C1P helped). As plugins I have Topaz Studio and Affinity Photo. I never really used Affinity Photo before because I hated its raw converter. But with C1P I only need to go to AP for a few things like frequency separation which is much easier in AP than Photoshop.

Thank you all for your contributions!

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #18882165
Skimmed through your post. C1 is great, you should have no concerns about ongoing support. I suspect it isn't talked about much because most folks here are not full time pros. I assure you there are lots of folks all-in on C1.

You will still want a dedicated pixel editor. Affinity Photo is a nice option.

drmaxx wrote in post #18882194
Thanks. Looks interesting.
Edit: I only found a LR / C1 competitor and not a Photoshop replacement. Am I missing something?

I don't know if "a dedicated pixel editor" is meant to mean Photoshop replacement, but for myself I was currently thinking of just going with Photoshop Elements, which I thought would give me what I'd need. I'd looked at GIMP (very briefly) and I felt it fell a bit short in terms of file extensions (seems you can only save in XCF, a dedicated file extension), but then again I didn't look very long.

Per the suggestion above I'll be looking up Affinity Photo.

I have read multiple places that C1 has a somewhat steep learning curve.

True or not?

Picture North Carolina wrote in post #18882419
I have read multiple places that C1 has a somewhat steep learning curve.

True or not?

The tools are the same, the interface is different. Regular users who can adapt to change are fine. If you use it for a couple hours a month you might have some frustrations.

Apricane wrote in post #18882388
Thank you all for your contributions!

I don't know if "a dedicated pixel editor" is meant to mean Photoshop replacement, but for myself I was currently thinking of just going with Photoshop Elements, which I thought would give me what I'd need. I'd looked at GIMP (very briefly) and I felt it fell a bit short in terms of file extensions (seems you can only save in XCF, a dedicated file extension), but then again I didn't look very long.

Per the suggestion above I'll be looking up Affinity Photo.

Last time I looked Affinity Photo was like fifty bucks. Hard to go wrong.

Not sure that's true... it's just that most are SO used to LR. It's difficult to make such a leap. I have purchased Cap1 and have only dabbled in it because it's so different and my routine has been mostly the same for years. Change is difficult.

Apricane wrote in post #18881941
Some (real and potential) negatives:
-I use more than one computer for post-processing (my desktop and occasionally my laptop, which don't share a file nor disk structure), and I'm concerned it might be awkward to do so, especially since you have to import photos into a catalog to edit them. Haven't tried exporting/importing catalogs yet, though this should be possible. Not sure how intuitive it would be for my purposes.

I use session editing with C1, so there's no import process as such. Just point C1 at the folder containing the images and go.

Apricane wrote in post #18881941
Some (real and potential) negatives:
-Spot Healing Tool: In my current usage I felt like the spot healing tool was possibly weaker than in ACR/Lightroom, leading to more reliance on Photoshop to edit out potential image flaws. Not sure that I would currently consider it a deal-breaker.

You've got the spot healing tool, which is literally a circular patch for things like dust spots and acne etc, and then you've got Heal/Clone layers. The latter is a bit closer to the healing brush in LR but you can really only do one fix (or one closely related group of fixes) per layer, and you're limited to 16 layers in total. If I've got more than a handful of fixes to do then I dump out to TIFF and use Affinity Photo (my preferred PS replacement) to do that kind of work.

Nogo wrote in post #18882169
My question concerning Capture One is how easy is it to use for applying settings to multiple images all at the same time? The ability to apply settings to tens or even hundreds of images at one time is why I use Lightroom for events. Can you quickly adjust multiple images at once as easily as you can with sync settings in Lightroom?

This is my only real issue with C1. It's easy to apply settings - or even a complete edit involving multiple layers - to multiple images PROVIDED they all share the exact same (uncropped) dimensions as the source image. If the dimensions differ, C1 only copies adjustments made to the background layer and silently ignores the rest. This is a royal pain in the rectum if you're using two bodies with different sensor sizes (in my case 5DIV + 6DII) or if you dumped the original image to TIFF with even the slightest crop (as can happen all too easily with C1's "Hide distorted areas" option and lens corrections).

Other than, I'm very happy with C1.

Picture North Carolina wrote in post #18882419
I have read multiple places that C1 has a somewhat steep learning curve.

True or not?

Clearly from my OP my answer would be no. In comparison, I never made it past the opening screen in Skylum/Luminar, couldn't even figure out where to go for edits. I've had better experience with ON1, but only to the extent that it tries so hard in being a LR clone that it reproduces some of the same flaws that annoy me with LR.

I tried C1 twice. They only thing that surprised me is for the price of that software it doesn't include any of my telephoto lenses for corrections. Their claim to fame is their colour but added ColorChecker Passport support last year. If I were a portrait photographer I'd give it another look but until they add my lenses I probably won't try it again.

Just a heads up. I know you don't have to upgrade but C1 like others is on an annual version upgrade system. If you get version 12 a few months before 13 comes out you won't qualify for the upgrade. That happened to me with DXO PL. Version 13 will come out on Oct 31 or Nov 1. Move on it soon or wait for version 13. I have always upgraded so I know I would have with C1. If you like the latest offerings the first year can get a little expensive.

Picture North Carolina wrote in post #18882419
I have read multiple places that C1 has a somewhat steep learning curve.
True or not?

It depends on where you coming from: If you are an experienced LR user then switching to C1 is deeply frustrating - because much is different. Not substantially, but enough to make you search for stuff intensively (e.g. Virtual Copy is called Variant, and many more of such things) and it took me quite a while to become productive. The fundamental logic of the basics is very similar - and the other stuff (e.g. color management) is interesting enough to put time in.
If you are starting new, then I don't think it is more difficult then LR (which I would call an intense learning curve).

(P.S. Never quite understood the notion of 'steep learning curve'. In my simple mind this translates into learning fast because your learning level goes up fast. Nevermind.)

Picture North Carolina wrote in post #18882419
I have read multiple places that C1 has a somewhat steep learning curve.

True or not?

I believe it will be a little different for each user, I found it difficult at first, as coming from LR it is quite different. However once I leaned how to create new tags and re-organize tools so they made sense to me, it all came together. I saved the work-space and now C1 makes LR seem difficult to use. Out-of-the-box I find C1 disorganized and confusing, but once I got it organized my way it is MUCH better than LR.

There are very good tutorials from phase one, I've used them while switching.

https://learn.captureo​ne.com/

Does C1 do more than the latest (Process 5) Adobe ACR, or does it just basically (just) develop RAWs like ACR?

(I do not use Lightroom. I only use ACR to develop RAWs. I could get rid of the Adobe rental garbage if C1 could be used to develop and Aurora used to edit.)

Picture North Carolina wrote in post #18883580
Does C1 do more than the latest (Process 5) Adobe ACR, or does it just basically (just) develop RAWs like ACR?

(I do not use Lightroom. I only use ACR to develop RAWs. I could get rid of the Adobe rental garbage if C1 could be used to develop and Aurora used to edit.)

To be honest I don't understand your question. Functionally C1 is equivalent to LR, ON1 and Skylum/Luminar: it develops RAWs. It does the same thing as ACR (i.e. opening it from Bridge and editing) does, only much better, and imo much better than LR as well.

I'm not sure what your reference to Process 5 is (it opens CR3 files if that's what you're asking), and the same with Aurora.