Capture One

[DenBeke]

I'm considering moving from Aperture to Capture One (or Lightroom), but there are some things that I'd like to know.

I tried some noise reduction in both Lightroom and Capture One and the reduction in Lightroom is outperforming Capture One very badly. Noise reduction in Capture One wasn't really visible on the pictures I tried. Am I handling those sliders/options so badly, or is noise reduction just not good enough in Capture One.

I haven't find any options to quickly display the master/original image. In Aperture I just had to press 'm' key, and in Lightroom there is a button for on the screen.

Is there a feature in Lightroom for perspective transform where you can have those aiding lines in two dimensions like in Capture One?

Any reasons to considers Lightroom above Capture One or vice versa?

 

[aerok]

I'm considering moving from Aperture to Capture One (or Lightroom), but there are some things that I'd like to know.

I tried some noise reduction in both Lightroom and Capture One and the reduction in Lightroom is outperforming Capture One very badly. Noise reduction in Capture One wasn't really visible on the pictures I tried. Am I handling those sliders/options so badly, or is noise reduction just not good enough in Capture One.

I haven't find any options to quickly display the master/original image. In Aperture I just had to press 'm' key, and in Lightroom there is a button for on the screen.

Is there a feature in Lightroom for perspective transform where you can have those aiding lines in two dimensions like in Capture One?

Any reasons to considers Lightroom above Capture One or vice versa?

Here are the shortcuts for Lightroom

View Before and After left/right
Y

View Before and After top/bottom
Option + Y

View Before and After in a split screen
Shift + Y

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/lightroom/using/WS18e2013dd74eab5fe275e2711d1b186fe9-8000.html

I use Lightroom over Capture One because I work faster on Lightroom, the GUI is much simpler IMO.

Not sure what you mean for the perspective transform but maybe this video will help you out:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/how-to/lightroom-correct-perspective-upright.html

 

[VirtualRain]

I'm considering moving from Aperture to Capture One (or Lightroom), but there are some things that I'd like to know.

I tried some noise reduction in both Lightroom and Capture One and the reduction in Lightroom is outperforming Capture One very badly. Noise reduction in Capture One wasn't really visible on the pictures I tried. Am I handling those sliders/options so badly, or is noise reduction just not good enough in Capture One.

I haven't find any options to quickly display the master/original image. In Aperture I just had to press 'm' key, and in Lightroom there is a button for on the screen.

Is there a feature in Lightroom for perspective transform where you can have those aiding lines in two dimensions like in Capture One?

Any reasons to considers Lightroom above Capture One or vice versa?

Hey there... you might find this thread a good read if you're considering Capture One... https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1844562/

You've clearly played with C1 though, as you've hit on two of the things people (including me) complain the most about C1... the NR, and the difficulty in comparing your adjusted image to the original RAW.

The thing about noise in Capture One is that the images seem to have less noise right off the start. Particularly low ISO shadow noise. That's a good thing. However, if you do a lot of low light high-ISO shooting, you may find the C1 NR controls a bit wanting. They usually do the trick for me, but then I'm usually downsampling my images to display on the web (Flickr) and that alone is pretty good noise reduction. However, I agree, one of the few strengths of LR (Disclaimer: I'm not a fan of it overall) is the noise reduction. I also have NIK license from my Aperture days and so I can round-trip to NIK Define which is also an excellent NR tool, but if you don't have access to that, I can see how LR is appealing over C1 in this dept.

As for comparing your adjusted image to your original, a single key shortcut like Aperture is one of the most requested features over on the Phase One forums, so I expect to see that added to C1 at some point. In the interim, the workaround is to create a "new variant from original" and toggle between the two or bring them up side-by-side in the viewer (which can be an advantage). You can setup a custom key combination to create a new variant, but nothing as simple as "m" to toggle. It's also worth noting that you have the equivalent of the Aperture "m" key on each adjustment by holding the Option Key and clicking the undo arrow in the adjustment panel. That will show you what the image looks like without that adjustment applied and then you can let go to see it again.

As for choosing Capture One vs Lightroom, that's more of a religious debate than anything founded in fact. However, I think most people might agree with the following:

Capture One Differentiators:
- Better default RAW renderings on most cameras
- Interface that is very similar to Aperture (and customizable)
- Excellent Shadow/Highlight sliders
- Powerful local adjustment tools including colour controls
- Support for managed and referenced image files

Lightroom Differentiators:
- Cheaper (on a perpetual basis or if you want Photoshop on subscription)
- Better Noise Reduction
- Better community support (more users)
- Possibly better performance now with LR6?
- More export options to social media?

Some people find the UI and module concept of Lightroom to fit their workflow perfectly, others like myself, despise it.

 

[JDDavis]

I'll tell you how I improved the noise reduction in C1Pro...I bought a D750 and faster glass

Just kidding...kinda. I used NIK Dfine a lot with my D90 and Aperture so I was disappointed as well with C1P's NR tools. I still think I'm not using it quite right. I feel the same way about sharpening in C1. I feel like I'm not doing it right. Most folks say that sharpening is better in LR and I felt it was better in Aperture than in C1Pro. But...I sharpen way less with my D750...Bam! Ok, it's late here.

I really hope they add the toggle to master capability. I used it a ton in Aperture. In the end my tastes in regards to UI put me in the C1Pro camp. I'm enjoying using it and the steeper learning curve is helping me relearn some stuff. They made some nice additions and improvements in the latest update so that shows me that they are interested in continuous improvement.

 

[VirtualRain]

I feel the same way about sharpening in C1. I feel like I'm not doing it right. Most folks say that sharpening is better in LR and I felt it was better in Aperture than in C1Pro. But...I sharpen way less with my D750...Bam! Ok, it's late here.

Interesting... I don't touch sharpening in C1 at all. Usually a bit of clarity and structure is all my images need. I think that's one of the strengths of C1 is that the default RAW image is sharpened perfectly (at least for me). In Aperture, I had to sharpen significantly.

I also get what you're saying about the camera making a difference. When I updated from the 7D crop to the 5DIII full frame, I also didn't need to sharpen nearly as much (and the noise was less at high-ISO).

 

[maflynn]

Any reasons to considers Lightroom above Capture One or vice versa?

For me the reasons for choosing LR over C1:

• Plug-in support, much more integrated then what's found in C1.
• Similar to the plug-ins, is the tight interaction with PS (though I find myself not using PS too much),
• DAM features. I find LR's organizational, keywording, cataloging features to be more robust then C1's.
• Social media connections, i.e., upload to facebook, or even smugmug.
• UI, I love the grid view, and easily switch to the loupe view. C1 seems a little more awkward but I was able to customize the UI to mitigate this a bit in C1.

 

[JDDavis]

Interesting... I don't touch sharpening in C1 at all. Usually a bit of clarity and structure is all my images need. I think that's one of the strengths of C1 is that the default RAW image is sharpened perfectly (at least for me). In Aperture, I had to sharpen significantly.

I also get what you're saying about the camera making a difference. When I updated from the 7D crop to the 5DIII full frame, I also didn't need to sharpen nearly as much (and the noise was less at high-ISO).

The desire to sharpen is probably more of a habit then a necessity. In Aperture with my D90 it was just part of the workflow as a preset. I sharpened every image. I have found a setting for clarity and structure that works well for my camera in C1. I use it almost every time and sometimes I don't sharpen at all.

Exporting in general (for print and web) is something I need to learn more about (and when and how to sharpen). Especially for printing. I never fully grasped the sharpening in NIK Sharpener Pro either.

I use NR so little these days that the NR in C1Pro is fine. If you watch at 100% you can tell that it is cleaning up something but I've never been able to get the results out of it that I can with NIK Dfine.

----------

For me the reasons for choosing LR over C1:

• Plug-in support, much more integrated then what's found in C1.
• Similar to the plug-ins, is the tight interaction with PS (though I find myself not using PS too much),
• DAM features. I find LR's organizational, keywording, cataloging features to be more robust then C1's.
• Social media connections, i.e., upload to facebook, or even smugmug.
• UI, I love the grid view, and easily switch to the loupe view. C1 seems a little more awkward but I was able to customize the UI to mitigate this a bit in C1.

I would agree with all of those except DAM and UI. I ended up liking C1 better in those areas. Obviously personal likes/dislikes weigh in heavily in these two areas. LR and C1 are certainly on equal footing with each other in these areas for the most part. I think it comes down to which approach fits your style or workflow better.

 

[MCAsan]

Now with LR 6/CC we a few more advantages:

• merge to HDR with a DNG output
• merge to Pano with DNG output
• Faces detector
• Brush for selectively removing graduated or radial filter effects
• Use of GPU for faster performance (at least compared to LR5)
• improvements in slideshow module

 

[robgendreau]

Capture One also has some stuff that you might like over Lr if you do tethered shooting.

I kinda liked their RAW conversion over Lr, but not enough. I agree that the plugins that extend Lr are much more robust, even if you don't use PS.

What might affect your decision is perhaps what add-ons you plan to use. You might decide to use neither for noise reduction. Check out MacPhun's new Noiseless Pro for example, just the latest in that regard.

 

[maflynn]

I would agree with all of those except DAM and UI. I ended up liking C1 better in those areas. Obviously personal

Of course, but from my working with C1, I found it not meeting my needs in its organizational and categorization abilities. Searching, and keywording were seemingly more difficult to do then they ought to have been imo.

 

[DenBeke]

Hey there... you might find this thread a good read if you're considering Capture One... https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1844562/

You've clearly played with C1 though, as you've hit on two of the things people (including me) complain the most about C1... the NR, and the difficulty in comparing your adjusted image to the original RAW.

The thing about noise in Capture One is that the images seem to have less noise right off the start. Particularly low ISO shadow noise. That's a good thing. However, if you do a lot of low light high-ISO shooting, you may find the C1 NR controls a bit wanting. They usually do the trick for me, but then I'm usually downsampling my images to display on the web (Flickr) and that alone is pretty good noise reduction. However, I agree, one of the few strengths of LR (Disclaimer: I'm not a fan of it overall) is the noise reduction. I also have NIK license from my Aperture days and so I can round-trip to NIK Define which is also an excellent NR tool, but if you don't have access to that, I can see how LR is appealing over C1 in this dept.

As for comparing your adjusted image to your original, a single key shortcut like Aperture is one of the most requested features over on the Phase One forums, so I expect to see that added to C1 at some point. In the interim, the workaround is to create a "new variant from original" and toggle between the two or bring them up side-by-side in the viewer (which can be an advantage). You can setup a custom key combination to create a new variant, but nothing as simple as "m" to toggle. It's also worth noting that you have the equivalent of the Aperture "m" key on each adjustment by holding the Option Key and clicking the undo arrow in the adjustment panel. That will show you what the image looks like without that adjustment applied and then you can let go to see it again.

As for choosing Capture One vs Lightroom, that's more of a religious debate than anything founded in fact. However, I think most people might agree with the following:

Capture One Differentiators:
- Better default RAW renderings on most cameras
- Interface that is very similar to Aperture (and customizable)
- Excellent Shadow/Highlight sliders
- Powerful local adjustment tools including colour controls
- Support for managed and referenced image files

Lightroom Differentiators:
- Cheaper (on a perpetual basis or if you want Photoshop on subscription)
- Better Noise Reduction
- Better community support (more users)
- Possibly better performance now with LR6?
- More export options to social media?

Some people find the UI and module concept of Lightroom to fit their workflow perfectly, others like myself, despise it.

Thank you for this elaborated input.
Also thank you to all others who replied with useful information about both Capture One and Lightroom.


Some other questions about Capture One:

• Is there a way to have a big grid view on which you can double click to enlarge a photo (like the way you browse Aperture)?
• Does it use GPU acceleration for faster rendering?
• Where are all the pictures stored, and does it work well with e.g. Owncloud?
• Can I use it fullscreen without hiding the tool bars?

 

[VirtualRain]

Thank you for this elaborated input.
Also thank you to all others who replied with useful information about both Capture One and Lightroom.


Some other questions about Capture One:

• Is there a way to have a big grid view on which you can double click to enlarge a photo (like the way you browse Aperture)?
• Does it use GPU acceleration for faster rendering?
• Where are all the pictures stored, and does it work well with e.g. Owncloud?
• Can I use it fullscreen without hiding the tool bars?

Hi, some answers...

1. I map a key (G for Grid) to Hide Viewer. This allows you to toggle the viewer on/off which in effect toggles the grid view on/off. When in Grid view, you can double click an image to return to viewer mode, then if you want to go back to Grid mode you hit the G key. Alternatively you can have a Viewer window separate from the main window so you can simply single-click an image in grid view to view it in the viewer window. This is how I cull images on my dual-screen setup.

2. Yes, although I'm not sure how much difference it makes. If tried turning OpenCL on and off and can't really notice a difference. Someone said it makes more difference on exporting images. There was a significant performance boost for me in the recent 8.2 update as I run on 4K displays and there was some lag in making adjustments. That's fixed now. On smaller screens like my Apple Thunderbolt Display connected to my laptop, performance has always been good.

3. C1 is similar to Aperture in that you can choose to use managed files or referenced files. Managed means all your images are stored in the C1 Catalog, similar to how Apple would store images in a Library. In both cases, these Catalogs or Libraries are simply container files (directories that appear like a file) and are completely accessible from Finder. I prefer this as it's easy to move and backup the Catalog. If you prefer to manage your own files and folder structure, you can use referenced files where C1 doesn't touch the location of your files. I'm not an expert on this technique as I don't use it.

For backups I use Time Machine which is running constantly and I backup the catalog monthly to an external that I store at my office (offsite backup). I don't see why either managed or reference storage would interfere with your desired backup strategy.

4. I assume by full screen without hiding the toolbars you mean does it support floating tool pallets? It certainly supports full screen mode, and the default behaviour as with any full screen app is to hide the UI in favour of content display, but the tool bars are accessed by moving the pointer to the edge of the screen. You can also create floating tools by either choosing Window > Create Floating Tool from the menu or dragging any adjustment brick off the tool panel. I'm not too familiar with this mode as I don't use it.