Apr 25

Apr 25 Capture One vs Lightroom from someone who uses both – Update for 2023

A while ago, I wrote an article on this blog my perspective on Capture One vs Lightroom, as I regularly use both applications. I tried to present a balanced opinion on the advantages and disadvantages of both. I’ve updated that article since the first version of it came out, and since I last updated it, there have been some significant changes in both Capture One and Lightroom. I feel that these changes require a whole new discussion, and therefore a whole new blog post.

One quick disclaimer – I’m mostly talking about Lightroom Classic here, as it still seems to be the most comparable and popular version of Lightroom, but many of the features mentioned are included in both versions.

It’s important to state what should be obvious here – that this is purely my opinion, based on my own experiences. I fully understand that every photographer out there has different needs. Some people will need some features more than others, and for some, a certain feature or lack thereof may be a dealbreaker. I’m also not trying to pick sides here (although I will give you my opinion as to whom I think is the current leader) but rather present the case for each as I see it, as best I can within my subjective view, and give you the reader enough information to help inform your choice.

What has changed?

Since my last version of this post, Capture One has made significant changes to their licensing, and Adobe has added significant features to Lightroom. Because of this, I feel the advice and reasoning of my previous column no longer applies.

Adobe has re-worked the selective editing architecture of Lightroom and added significant new features. These include a whole new masking system, that now works almost like layers in Capture One, however with some significant advantages (as well as a few disadvantages). You can now use AI in addition to the traditional brush and gradient tools for creating masks. The AI tools allow you to select things like the sky and subject automatically, saving hours of manual masking. Not only that, but masks can be combined using basic Boolean functions to create complex dynamic masks. They have added the ability to use curves and in a recent update, Adobe has included an incredibly powerful new AI denoise tool. Once you get used to this functionality, it significantly changes how you use Lightroom, and it’s very hard to go back to a workflow without these tools.

Capture One, on the other hand, has made less favourable changes recently. While the company has continued to add features in recent releases, personally I have found them underwhelming, although I appreciate that they appeal to others. The company has recently put up its prices and discontinued the manufacturer-specific versions, further raising the cost of entry.

More significantly, though, Capture One has announced that it is changing the way it handles and charge for perpetual licences. Perpetual licence holders will no longer gain any new features after purchasing a licence. Such users will get bug releases, but no new features until they purchase another new licence. There will also no longer be update pricing, with this instead being replaced with a loyalty programme that gives you a discount depending on how long one has had the current version. Capture One claims that this is to move to a more regular update process and that they’re doing away with major individual updates. The upshot of this is that they are pushing people to the subscription model. Given that some people switched to Capture One specifically because of Adobe’s subscription only options, this may be a bit frustrating and something of a let-down for those people.

A changing equation?

Given everything I’ve written above, the question then becomes, do I still recommend Capture One? To be honest, I’m more reluctant to do so than I was previously. I have to say that personally, the company’s recent decisions have given me pause about the direction it has chosen to take.

Having said all that, there are still things about Capture One that I still like and that I consider to be superior to Lightroom, that many people will still benefit from. For example, for studio professionals, Capture One’s superior tethering and ability to work with sessions might be a feature they simply can’t live without. For others, Capture One’s rendering of raw files may be preferable to Lightroom’s.

So, with that in mind, here are some of the reasons that you might decide to use one application over the other.

Capture One Advantages

First, let's look at the advantages Capture One still has compared to Lightroom:

Tethering is still objectively superior to Lightroom’s offering. If you’re a studio photographer who wants to work tethered, this is generally considered the best option, especially if working with a medium format system or digital back.
Image Quality can still be superior in Capture One, but this depends heavily on the camera you are using. Raw files from some cameras seem to render better in Capture One, for whatever reason. This is in both terms of detail and colour fidelity.
Capture One’s clarity tool doesn’t introduce halos on an image like Lightroom’s does.
Colour Controls are arguably better in Capture One than they are in Lightroom. You have more options for fine-tuning colour. Some of these advantages can be worked around with Lightroom’s new masking tools, but overall, there are better colour manipulation tools in Capture One.
The standard sharpening and noise reduction algorithms are subjectively superior in Capture One. Unless you use the new AI noise reduction option in Lightroom, in which case Lightroom is far superior.
Layers in Capture One offer more adjustments than masks in Lightroom, although the actual masking tools are more limited, and the number of layers that you can have are limited.
Depending on your workflow, the recently introduced improvements in culling and importing may accelerate your process when dealing with large quantities of images.
For Fuji X-Trans shooters, you can get great quality conversions out of the box without having to do any special techniques to optimise image quality, such as using the “Enhance” function in Lightroom. This may save time and disk space, depending on your preferences and workflow.
Remote viewing and approval workflow for clients could be useful for studio shooters.
The ability to work with either catalogues or sessions allows a degree of flexibility not offered by Lightroom.

Lightroom Advantages

Here are some of the advantages that Lightroom Classic has over Capture One in my opinion.

Lightroom’s new(ish) masking system is very powerful and allows you to create complex masks with relative ease. This also makes it much easier to selectively edit your images, and opens up a wide rage of editing options and workflows that would have previously been too difficult or cumbersome to use. Even if you think that you don’t really make selective edits that often, once you use this a few times and change your perspective, you will realise how much of a difference this makes. The ability to quickly select all sorts of things using AI selection is a real time saver.
AI-based tools, including the afore mentioned mask selection, and AI super resolution and the new AI denoise have no equivalents in Capture One
Seamless non-destructive workflow with Photoshop. You can send a RAW file to photoshop and maintain the ability to make edits when using the option to send as an object to Lightroom. This even allows you to use additional plug-ins on the smart layer in Photoshop, and you still retain the ability to make edits, all the way back to the original raw image. There is no real way to do this directly Capture One, without losing the ability to change the original Capture One raw edits.
Far superior plug-in architecture and ecosystem.
Wider availability of third develop party presets for things like film looks, creative effects and so on, and these are generally cheaper.
Ability to use and create custom colour profiles (using Photoshop)
Superior chromatic aberration correction, including the ability to correct longitudinal chromatic aberration, something which is only partially supported in Capture One, and not very good.
Book and Map Modules, and the ability to create photo books right within Lightroom.
Superior Print module and the ability to print to a file, allowing basic page layout directly within the application.
Better syncing with mobile application, and cloud service.
The mobile version of Lightroom included in the subscription, along with cloud storage. There is currently no iPhone version of Capture One.
Lightroom Desktop also included in the subscription. These are all additional charges in Capture One.
For the price of a Capture One subscription, you can get multiple versions of Lightroom, and Photoshop.

Conclusion and Further thoughts

This is undoubtedly not a complete list, and people will have their own thoughts and opinions on this. However, I think the above lists should give you a good starting point if you’re considering switching one way or the other. I also strongly recommend trying Capture One before buying it if you are considering a switch from Lightroom. The company offers a 30-day trial version, and you can use it to its full in that time period.

For me and my own work, I had previously used Capture One about 50% of the time, but lately, I’ve been only using it occasionally. Lightroom’s new AI-based tools are just too compelling, and once you’ve integrated them into your workflow, it's hard to go back to not having them. But every so often I’ll still try an image or set of images in Capture One to see if the rendering is preferable.

Anyway, that’s just my two cents on this subject. I’ve been writing about this for a while, and it’s only in the past two years that things have started to change frequently. Adobe has really started rapidly iterating with Lightroom, and I suspect that the changes to Capture One’s licensing model is at least partly an attempt to compete with this. But I’ve been truly impressed with the improvements in Lightroom lately and for me, I think that has pushed it out in front – for now.

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