If you are a Lightroom user who frequently finds themselves wishing that Lightroom could do this or that, you owe it to yourself to check out Capture One. Odds are, it will do just about anything you wanted Lightroom to do, but stubbornly refused.

Of course, learning new photo software can be daunting, but thankfully we have YouTube to help us navigate the universe. Watching the workflow of someone who is gracious enough to record and share for educational purposes can go a long way toward traversing your own path around a new-to-you piece of software. 

Capture One’s YouTube channel is a treasure trove of knowledge, featuring accomplished photographers galore. Award-winning landscape and architecture photographer Baber Afzal has made a recent contribution, offering up his workflow for editing cityscapes.

Afzal showcases the Keystone tool, which is vital for any type of photography where a high value is placed on straight lines, selecting color ranges to create layer masks, and color adjustments – one of Capture One’s greatest assets.

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Even if you have no interest in cityscape photography, this video is still well worth a watch to help any photographer grasp masking and color editing in Capture One. If you’ve only done rudimentary masking or have never attempted masking in Capture One at all, this tutorial will open your eyes to new possibilities. 

With the plethora of adjustments that can be made in Capture One and the ability to work in layers, Lightroom looks like a child’s toy in comparison, and trips to Photoshop become less necessary for fine-tuning, saving time and simplifying your workflow.

If you haven’t tried Capture One yet, it’s strongly recommended to download the full-featured and free 30-day trial and spend some time with that aforementioned Capture One YouTube channel and our own tutorials here at SLR Lounge.

Have you made the switch? Why or why not?