It’s no secret that we at SLR Lounge enjoy working in Capture One and will happily recommend that all photographers give it a try to see what the fuss is about. Ted Forbes of The Art Of Photography seems to feel similarly and has been creating content to help his viewers know the beauty of Capture One. His most recent video on the topic serves as a quick-start guide, to help new users make the most of that month-long free trial that Capture One offers.
If you’re accustomed to working in Lightroom, as so many photographers are, this lesson is for you. Capture One can look a little confusing at first, much like Photoshop or even Lightroom does when opened for the first time, but once you learn where to look for the features you use, you will spot many functional similarities. Then, you’ll start to see the things that Capture One does better than Lightroom.
[Rewind:] Capture One vs Lightroom: How Each Approaches RAW Images
Catalogs VS Sessions
While both Capture One and Lightroom offer an image storage and navigation solution in the form of a catalog, Capture One also provides sessions. Sessions are a more portable, lightweight answer to storing and navigating your images. For a deep-dive into the reasons to choose sessions over catalogs, check out this post.
Customizable Interface
Capture One is totally customizable, which is useful for streamlining your workflow. If you’ve got a selection of tools you always use and want to be able to access all of them from the same tab, rather than clicking around between tabs to locate them, you can easily consolidate them in one place. Any of the tabs can be adjusted to your liking, and any part of the workspace can be rearranged. There is even a pre-set workspace that is meant to resemble Lightroom to help new users make the migration.
Better Color
As a tool initially developed for Phase One’s medium format cameras, you can expect Capture One to come with accouterments designed for top-of-the-line productions. One area that this is evident is in the program’s color reproduction. Big jobs require excellent color rendering, but as Capture One has been adopted by a broader range of photographers with varying cameras, the superb color science has remained.
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If you’re getting your feet wet in Capture One, check out Ted’s video below for a useful walkthrough. If you haven’t yet downloaded your free trial, you can do so here. It’s good for a full month and is fully functional with no limitations for that duration. If you’re frustrated with Lightroom’s limitations and want to move on to greener pastures, this is how it’s done.
