Considering Capture One or Lightroom

[MARRIEDGUY9]

Hi, I'm VERY new to photography and Fuji.  I have an XT5 and I'm currently using Capture One Express.......and I'm very happy with my results.  I'm considering upping my game and getting the Capture One license or Lightroom.  I'm interested in the enhanced features offered by both and I'm not interested (at least not yet) in subscribing to multiple products.  I'm interested in sky masking for astro and I like to photograph wildlife in lower light and I'm interested to denoise options.  From what I've read/watched/etc., I'm under the impression that Lightroom is better at masking and denoise and Capture One is better at processing the Fuji RAW files/color/etc.  Am I correct with those assumptions?  Am I losing any appreciable image quality with Lightroom?  Thanks!

[Edp]

If you haven't bought into the Adobe ecosystem, and do not need the image management with lightroom (though it is very very good), then I'd suggest sticking with CaptureOne.  It does process Fuji RAW better than Lightroom.  As a sidenote, there's lightroom cloud (Lightroom CC) and lightroom classic.  There's an important distinction if you're going the Adobe path, as Lightroom CC does not take to plug-ins as well as Classic.  Personally, I use Lightroomclassic, WITH DxO Pure Raw3 and it's plug-in.  Imho, PureRaw3 is exceptional, and does an incredible job processing Fuji RAW files, far far better than Lightroom alone could.  As an alternate you haven't mentioned, Dx)'s PhotoLab 6 with Deep Prime XD is possibly even better than CaptureOne, but then again, this is a very subjective topic.  The benefit of Photolab is that you get really good file management tools, with the power of PureRaw3, all in one app.

I don't think you can go wrong with any of the three I mentioned.

Examples of what I get with it can be seen in my gallery here... http://www.palisoc.photo

Edited May 12, 2023 by Edp

[MARRIEDGUY9]

thank you, I will check these options out for sure!

[biglouis]

My workflow is based around Lightroom, as it has been since the free Lightroom Beta back in 2006(?).

The library management is still the best of any of the RAW processors I have used, imho.

BUT

I think a better combination is to spring for Lightroom and add DxO PureRAW3 to use as an add-in. The DxO product does a better job of interpreting the RAW files than native Adobe, for the most part.

Now, I use Lightroom to preview my files choosing (by setting a flag) the ones I want to process in PureRAW, then I batch convert the selected files to dng in PureRAW and finally once completed I go to work with any Lightroom adjustments. 

Just my two cents.

LouisB

[MARRIEDGUY9]

Thanks for all of this advice.  I'll probably stick with Capture One since I'm not making any money at this (at least not yet, lol). The Lightroom/PureRaw option looks VERY interesting, but it's relatively expensive.  I will probably opt for the 30 day free trial of Capture One and then subscribe for a year and see how it goes.

The only question I have about Capture One is related to sky editing.  I see in Lightroom, there appears to be a select sky option and I don't believe that's an option in Capture One.  I am very interested in blending photos of the same scene for night sky photography.  i.e., take a photo just before dark to get a good foreground and take the same photo later with the Milky Way.......and then combine the two using the Milky Way sky and the properly exposed foreground.  Can I do that in Capture One, is there a plug-in that may help with that?

Thanks again, I appreciate the knowledge.  I really have no idea what I'm doing at this point, except I'm getting used to Capture One Express and I enjoy extracting as much as I can out of the RAW photos I've take so far.  It's been a blast!

[jerryy]

9 hours ago, MARRIEDGUY9 said:

…then combine the two using the Milky Way sky and the properly exposed foreground.  Can I do that in Capture One, is there a plug-in that may help with that?…

That type of editing is probably more easily done using Adobe’s PhotoShop, which is why some folks go for the Lightroom / PhotoShop combination subscriptions (or the Express versions).

Not trying to steer you away from C1 or LR, but @Plaatje posted a link:

https://www.fuji-x-forum.com/topic/33517-xt5-raf-raw-converter/

that touches on doing things like that in Affinity Photo (AP is considerably less expensive).

[BobJ]

In my opinion, the new features in Lightroom and Photoshop have made the combination the best available. For example, the new AI powered noise reduction is arguably as good as Topaz Denoise and it's built-in. I now have an X-T5 and I have found, that with it's new sensor, there is no tendency to produce the 'worms' that could be seen in foliage at high magnifications. So no need for X Transformer  or Capture One to avoid them. Lightrooms image management is superior to Capture  Ones. There are  many things that you can do in Photoshop that cannot be done in Lightroom  or Capture One. So if it was my money I would go with Adobe

[MARRIEDGUY9]

On 5/16/2023 at 3:14 AM, BobJ said:

In my opinion, the new features in Lightroom and Photoshop have made the combination the best available. For example, the new AI powered noise reduction is arguably as good as Topaz Denoise and it's built-in. I now have an X-T5 and I have found, that with it's new sensor, there is no tendency to produce the 'worms' that could be seen in foliage at high magnifications. So no need for X Transformer  or Capture One to avoid them. Lightrooms image management is superior to Capture  Ones. There are  many things that you can do in Photoshop that cannot be done in Lightroom  or Capture One. So if it was my money I would go with Adobe

thanks to all, this is a lot to think about for sure!