The Capture One Users Thread

myotis

myotis

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After discussion with @lindsay here is a dedicated thread for Capture One (C1) users.

It may seem odd timing, given my last post here was about a new forum dedicated to C1. However, not everyone will want to join yet another forum, and not every C1 user is going to be enthused enough with C1 to get involved in a forum that just discusses C1.

I've been meaning to do this for some time, as there seems to be enough interest and enough posts for it to be helpful to have them in a single thread. And here it is.

Hopefully, people will find it useful.

Finding this thread when you want to post to it. Apologies if everyone already knows this :-(

An issue with dedicated threads is finding them when you want to add something, and there is a bookmarking tool available to help with this.

If you look at the icons at the top right of this post, you will see a "bookmark" icon.

Clicking on this icon will add a link to the post you are looking at, into your personal bookmarks list.

Once saved, accessing this list is through clicking on your username and avatar to the right of the menu bar.

Clicking reveals two options: one to access your account and the other to access a list of your saved bookmarks.

And to state the obvious, clicking on the bookmark name will take you to the post you were on when you saved the bookmark.

As far as I can see there is no way to jumping to the most recent post in the thread, but at once you are in the thread, you can quickly jump to the most recent post by using the posting numbers at the bottom of the screen.
 
16.8. Release new features video. (just over 1 hour)

The official C1 video introducing the enhanced (AI) denoising, the AI culling tool assistant, and improved wireless tethering with Canon cameras.

The AI culling assistant only works on human eyes, and checks for focus and whether or not they are open. Although it's in a public release, it's still in beta and C1 are asking for feedback.

The improved Canon tethering only works with two Canon camera models and appears to result from a collaboration between Canon and C1, with Canon making firmware/hardware tweeks and C1 making tweeks to their tethering tools. They don't know whether it will come to other Canon models (that's up to Canon) but they (C1) are trying to encourage other camera manufacturers to work with them on improving tethering.

The denoising (beta) was discussed here:

myotis

Thread 'New Capture One AI denoising'

Just released in public beta (No NDA) is C1's AI noise reduction. Initial tests look very good and below is one of my initial tests at 12800 iso.

On the left is DXO Prime 3 (latest version PL9.7 or PR6), in the middle is C1 default non-ai (default) noise reduction and on the right is C1s AI noise reduction. All at 100% view
2026-05-07 Initial C1 noise reduction 12800 iso.jpg

As noise reduction results are not only specific to software but also to individual files, it's difficult to draw any conclusions. I've also done a bit of editing on the two noise-reduced files, trying to match their appearance. Which is the other issue...
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Despite the denoising being the thing I am most excited about, C1 are even more excited about the AI culling assistant and the improved tethering, both of which take up most of the video.

The video is here:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2c1KD6CdQI&t=3761s
 
Adding Borders

I must have upvoted a request to add a borders feature to C1 and received this today (but I can't remember doing it)
​

Capture One Product Manager responded to idea Add a function / tool to create borders​


Capture One Product Manager
Hi Jayne, while not a dedicated Borders tool, the Contact Sheets tool introduced last year is a great tool to generate images with borders in a batch.
You can simply create a contact sheet with 1 column and 1 line (this will create one page per image), select the size and the color of your border, and export.
​
 
myotis said:
After discussion with @lindsay here is a dedicated thread for Capture One (C1) users.

It may seem odd timing, given my last post here was about a new forum dedicated to C1. However, not everyone will want to join yet another forum, and not every C1 user is going to be enthused enough with C1 to get involved in a forum that just discusses C1.
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I think this is a good idea, although I'd expect it to be low traffic. I have signed up for the separate C1 forum, but I suspect I'll never remember to look there when I need it!

The bookmark also looks like a good idea, we'll have to see how well it works out. Thanks Graham
 
Capture One: the mother of Lightroom.

This has cropped up in another thread, but might be of interest to C1 users.

Michael Jonsson (the original architect of Phase One Capture One) left C1 after some sort of internal disagreement about the direction of C1 to develop and market a program called Raw Shooter, which was then bought by Adobe and laid some of the foundation of the LR we see today.

There is an interesting article here on the program, and how it influenced the development of LR. Users (like me) of Raw Shooter Premium received free licenses to LR when Raw Shooter was discontinued.

www.keptlight.com

RawShooter: A look back to early days of digital photography - Kept Light Photography

Digital photo editing has come a long way in the past two decades, and two software programs that have impacted the field are RawShooter and Lightroom. Released in 2005 by a Danish company…
www.keptlight.com www.keptlight.com
 
ChrisR said:
I think this is a good idea, although I'd expect it to be low traffic. I have signed up for the separate C1 forum, but I suspect I'll never remember to look there when I need it!

The bookmark also looks like a good idea, we'll have to see how well it works out. Thanks Graham
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I know what you mean. I'm also on a micro four thirds forum and I just forget it's there. It also doesn't have a very memorable name.... I have to go to my bookmarks to remind myself. I couldn't tell you what it was even now :ROFLMAO:
 
Capture One vs DarkTable

Lots of things are wrong with this as a comparison; it's really me testing my newish nikon 28-400 as an everyday carry for opportunistic wildlife photography- mainly to help ID insects.

It's an ISO 1600 file, processed in DT and C1 using DTs standard denoising and C1s AI denoising. DT also has AI denoising, but I haven't tried it yet.

Exported as a TIF from DT and opened alongside the NEF in C1. The image below is a screenshot of the two-up display in C1.



I thought the comparative the sharpness and noise were interesting. I'm not sure how well these will show up, but the DT results are pretty impressive. DT is a complex to use, and I'm sure I haven't got the best out of DT, which has a reputation of handling highlights extremely well, but I've blown the highlights in the DT version :-(

I should also have exported the C1 file as a TIF. But I felt I had spent enough time on it. I also made a comparison with DXO PhotoLab but didn't like the results from it as much as those from either DT or C1.

But I still thought, these might be of interest for anyone contemplating having a look at DT. Especially as C1s CEO has just intimated that price increases for C1 are now going to be an annual event :-(

DT is on the left and C1 on the right

2026-07-13 DT vs C1 v2.jpg
 
I am _still_ thinking about my proposed trial of the latest C1Pro, to see if there's an advantage in the "new" negative conversion capabilities. (Elsewhere, @myotis , you mentioned taking months to make decisions. That's me, too, complicated by only having a week's trial, so I need a week clear enough for me to focus on this task.)

An issue is that I don't want massive Vuescan Raw files cluttering up my hard drive, so I've been envisaging a two stage process. First, scan the negatives and create Raw files. Second, process these in C1Pro and create JPEGs (or maybe TIFFs for a few of the better images... in general, I'm happy with JPEGs for most of my usage). Third, import these JPEGs into my C1Pro catalogue (as if they'd just come out of Vuescan). Fourth, move the Raw files offline.

I guess I could scan the Raws directly to a USB drive, and import them into a special catalogue there for conversion, then export back to my main hard drive.

Either way, I was wondering if this temporary Raw processing stage would be a good case for a Session rather than a catalogue?
 
ChrisR said:
I am _still_ thinking about my proposed trial of the latest C1Pro, to see if there's an advantage in the "new" negative conversion capabilities. (Elsewhere, @myotis , you mentioned taking months to make decisions. That's me, too, complicated by only having a week's trial, so I need a week clear enough for me to focus on this task.)

An issue is that I don't want massive Vuescan Raw files cluttering up my hard drive, so I've been envisaging a two stage process. First, scan the negatives and create Raw files. Second, process these in C1Pro and create JPEGs (or maybe TIFFs for a few of the better images... in general, I'm happy with JPEGs for most of my usage). Third, import these JPEGs into my C1Pro catalogue (as if they'd just come out of Vuescan). Fourth, move the Raw files offline.

I guess I could scan the Raws directly to a USB drive, and import them into a special catalogue there for conversion, then export back to my main hard drive.

Either way, I was wondering if this temporary Raw processing stage would be a good case for a Session rather than a catalogue?
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Ah, in my case, if I was going to scan film, I would scan it with a camera directly into a C1 session.

Failing that, I think I would scan the files with Vuescan into Tiffs or DNGs and save these Tiffs or DNGs to an external drive.

I would catalogue these TIFFS/DNGs with C1 and just leave the files on the external drive: working with them in C1 just as I do with my camera raws.
 
myotis said:
Ah, in my case, if I was going to scan film, I would scan it with a camera directly into a C1 session.

Failing that, I think I would scan the files with Vuescan into Tiffs or DNGs and save these Tiffs or DNGs to an external drive.

I would catalogue these TIFFS/DNGs with C1 and just leave the files on the external drive: working with them in C1 just as I do with my camera raws.
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The camera scan thing won't work for me, I have none of the essential bits (like appropriate camera, lens etc etc)!

So if I use the second suggestion, I'm interested in what I can do when the external drive is not connected. Preview image size is 2048 px; would I be able to export a 1024 image without attaching the external drive (after having done some basic PP)?
 
ChrisR said:
The camera scan thing won't work for me, I have none of the essential bits (like appropriate camera, lens etc etc)!

So if I use the second suggestion, I'm interested in what I can do when the external drive is not connected. Preview image size is 2048 px; would I be able to export a 1024 image without attaching the external drive (after having done some basic PP)?
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Actually I see this doesn't seem to take you to the normal export dialogue, and it just gives a quick proof at the preview size, so it doesn't answer your question.

If you have your raw files on an SSD external drive, you could keep the raws and the catalogue on the same external drive. Unless it's keeping an external drive, connected that is the problem. All my files are on external drives, and always connected.
 
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Thank you for starting this topic, I have played around with quite a few post processing options, but always return to capture one. It is not geared towards me in the slightest, I am not a professional, do not do portrait or studio work, and have a micro four thirds set up, it doesn’t even support the newer OM lenses(!), and it is stupidly expensive, but I love the way it deals with ORF files, and I feel at home with the programme, definitely a case of ‘heart over head’.

I did look at dark table, but it felt a bit too complex for me, thank you for flagging it up though. Andy Hutchinson on YouTube has done some recent reviews of the program.
 
Olly B said:
Thank you for starting this topic, I have played around with quite a few post processing options, but always return to capture one. It is not geared towards me in the slightest, I am not a professional, do not do portrait or studio work, and have a micro four thirds set up, it doesn’t even support the newer OM lenses(!), and it is stupidly expensive, but I love the way it deals with ORF files, and I feel at home with the programme, definitely a case of ‘heart over head’.

I did look at dark table, but it felt a bit too complex for me, thank you for flagging it up though. Andy Hutchinson on YouTube has done some recent reviews of the program.
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I have often tried to move away from Capture One, because of the cost, but have failed at every attempt.

Are you sure C1 doesn't support your OM lenses? With few exceptions, modern lenses with modern cameras embed the lens correction profile information into the exif of the raw, which is then read by the raw processing software.

And although traditionally, raw processors have needed to develop their own custom profiles, but, this is being done less and less with modern cameras and lenses.

C1 say that they now only produce custom profiles if they feel they can improve on the profiles provided by the lens manufacturer. In C1 with the lenses of concern, is it saying that C1 is using a "generic" or "manufacturer'" profile?

The manufacturers' profiles are more sophisticated the software makers' profiles in that they use a matrix of values that correct for aperture and focussing distances, but they don't don't correct for edge sharpness fall off, which the C1 custom profiles correct for; but only for a single focussing distance.

While C1 has its origins in professional studio and commercial photography, and has recently been adding some specialist tools for portrait/fashion/studio/event.e-commerce photographers, what do you feel is missing in C1 that means it isn't geared towards your kind of photography?
 
Does anyone use Capture One for stitching panoramas and if so how well does it work?

The usual recommendations for panorama software is PTGui or similar which only does the stitching but I'm looking for something to replace Lightroom 6 which does the stitching and post processing. I noticed Capture One can do this now but it's rather pricey and frustratingly they only offer a seven day trial which isn't suitable to test a complex piece of software.
 
JohnMcL7 said:
Does anyone use Capture One for stitching panoramas and if so how well does it work?

The usual recommendations for panorama software is PTGui or similar which only does the stitching but I'm looking for something to replace Lightroom 6 which does the stitching and post processing. I noticed Capture One can do this now but it's rather pricey and frustratingly they only offer a seven day trial which isn't suitable to test a complex piece of software.
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I've only ever dabbled with panos, but..

Canva Affinity is probably the (free) answer. Affinity has a good reputation for Panos, with several people saying they find it better than LR/PS.

The C1 pano tool is limited, and seems to work very well within its limitations but missing important features (so so I have read). Lots of other reasons to use C1, but doing panos probably isn't one of them :)

When I did my dabbling, I decided that PTGui was so much better than the rest, that this is what I would "need" to buy, and the cost put me off.

More recent reviews have suggested Hugin as a realistic alternative to PTGui.

There is a comparative review here that included C1, but I can't remember what it said.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PgZ8xNIxo8&t=910s


There are a few other reviews around, some a bit old, but C1 haven't updated the pano tool since it was released, at least I don't think they have.


www.photoartfromscience.com

Panorama Prowess: Lightroom vs ON1 vs Capture One

Compare how Lightroom, ON1 2023, and Capture One 2023 create panoramas. Two winners and one loser.
www.photoartfromscience.com www.photoartfromscience.com

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncSu_ejYnNw
 
I did try Affinity but it's not really a post processing tool, it's more a Photoshop alternative. Similarly PTGui only seems to really do the stitching and the only way I could find to process the images were to export them another application like Lightroom.

Capture one on paper seems the closest to Lightroom since it's a proper post processing tool and supports the stitching, I see the stitching is requested quite a bit for PhotoLab but no sign of it unfortunately.
 
JohnMcL7 said:
Does anyone use Capture One for stitching panoramas and if so how well does it work?

The usual recommendations for panorama software is PTGui or similar which only does the stitching but I'm looking for something to replace Lightroom 6 which does the stitching and post processing. I noticed Capture One can do this now but it's rather pricey and frustratingly they only offer a seven day trial which isn't suitable to test a complex piece of software.
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Yes.

It is pretty good, but I’ve had doubleing artefacts, and I’ve not found a way of flagging them and reprocessing. Good for a quick output need, but I’d be wary to use it for something to sell.
 
JohnMcL7 said:
I did try Affinity but it's not really a post processing tool, it's more a Photoshop alternative. Similarly PTGui only seems to really do the stitching and the only way I could find to process the images were to export them another application like Lightroom.

Capture one on paper seems the closest to Lightroom since it's a proper post processing tool and supports the stitching, I see the stitching is requested quite a bit for PhotoLab but no sign of it unfortunately.
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I agree that Canva Affinity isn't a LR replacement, but as it's like Photoshop with ACR built in, I wonder what you found missing in terms of it being a "proper post-processing" tool ?

Since Canva bought Serif, they are meant to have considerably improved the raw processing module.

You can still get Adobe Bridge for free to fill in the missing file management tools that Canva lacks, and it doesn't have AI denoising.

But yes, it isn't a direct replacement for LR. which C1 arguably is.

Photolab doesn't have a catalogue, but it does have a decent file management tool which indexes metadata (like Adobe Bridge does).

As a raw processor, C1 is by far my favourite (I also use LR and DXO), but it's expensive and the cataloguing is only "OK".

C1 works differently from LR, so there is a bit of a learning curve switching from LR.

I see that C1 are really working hard to put off new customers, with only a 7day trial and requiring you to give them credit card details before the trial !!
 
myotis said:
I agree that Canva Affinity isn't a LR replacement, but as it's like Photoshop with ACR built in, I wonder what you found missing in terms of it being a "proper post-processing" tool ?
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The tool are all focused on image manipulation rather than post processing and I found the latter extremely clumsy, just feels like an after thought tagged on. With Lightroom not just do you have the post processing tools readily available but they're the only ones available so there's nothing else getting in the way.

I'd only use Capture One for processing panoramas which makes it possibly too expensive but I'm going to need to change off LR6 at some point and so far in testing I've not found any other viable options. Just a real pain it's such a ridiculously short trial when it is so expensive.
 
JohnMcL7 said:
The tool are all focused on image manipulation rather than post processing and I found the latter extremely clumsy, just feels like an after thought tagged on. With Lightroom not just do you have the post processing tools readily available but they're the only ones available so there's nothing else getting in the way.

I'd only use Capture One for processing panoramas which makes it possibly too expensive but I'm going to need to change off LR6 at some point and so far in testing I've not found any other viable options. Just a real pain it's such a ridiculously short trial when it is so expensive.
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It is a ridiculously short trial, and you need to give your credit card details to access it. When I trialed C1, it was a 60 day trial when everyone else only gave 30 days, and no need to give credit card details.

I can't say that is how I remember Affinity Photo from when a tried it. There was a Develop "persona" that worked very like Lightroom/ACR, and then you moved onto the Photo persona that worked like Photoshop. But how I remember it doesn't matter, and maybe I'm just more used to using LR/ACR plus Photoshop to have thought about it.

I have never liked LR very much, and as they have added more and more of the tools traditionally found in Photoshop, but without the PS layers structure to help use them, it has become even clunkier for me.

Capture One has been layer based for a long time, and for me, it helps structure processing better. I enjoy being able to separate each processing step into separate layers,

Having said that, inspite of the cost, LR still seems to offer good value for money to me, when compared to the alternatives, but I like Photoshop, so LR comes for free!

I hope you find something, even though you aren't keen on it, a two program solution would open up the possibilities, e.g Raw Therapee and Hugin.

As an aside, I have just searched PTgui, and apparently it will work directly from raw files, so I assume it has to have some processing capability.

EDIT: PTGui website says:

Combined with the post processing options which were added in PTGui 12, PTGui now offers a fairly complete RAW workflow.
 
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It does work with raw files and it can stitch them but that's as far as I could get, the design of the software isn't intuitive and I spent a long time unsuccessfully trying to then do basic processing to the image. I gave up and came to the conclusions it's aimed at stitching the image and then exporting the image to process elsewhere although the documentation for the software is poor which didn't help.

While Lightroom is slow in the stitching the tools are easily laid out and it takes literally seconds to apply a crop, do some exposure adjustments, tweak the colours and bit then export the image with the parameters I want. After spending a long time with Affinity and PTGui and not even getting the basics of that done I gave up in frustration. I'm not a big Lightroom person either but it is well supported with a lot of documentation and videos out there which these smaller pieces of software don't have. I'd be curious to try the current Lightroom out of interest for performance wise even though I wouldn't take a sub out but it's the same as CaptureOne where it's a measly seven days which I guess is also because they're thinking you can sign up for a short subscription instead to test the software.

Edit - I should maybe give Affinity another look based on your comments given it's free so there's no rush to get it working, you're right it's not anything fancy I'm needing
 
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JohnMcL7 said:
It does work with raw files and it can stitch them but that's as far as I could get, the design of the software isn't intuitive and I spent a long time unsuccessfully trying to then do basic processing to the image. I gave up and came to the conclusions it's aimed at stitching the image and then exporting the image to process elsewhere although the documentation for the software is poor which didn't help.

While Lightroom is slow in the stitching the tools are easily laid out and it takes literally seconds to apply a crop, do some exposure adjustments, tweak the colours and bit then export the image with the parameters I want. After spending a long time with Affinity and PTGui and not even getting the basics of that done I gave up in frustration. I'm not a big Lightroom person either but it is well supported with a lot of documentation and videos out there which these smaller pieces of software don't have. I'd be curious to try the current Lightroom out of interest for performance wise even though I wouldn't take a sub out but it's the same as CaptureOne where it's a measly seven days which I guess is also because they're thinking you can sign up for a short subscription instead to test the software.
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I suspect that the majority of C1 customers don't need a trial, though why they should make it so unfriendly to everyone else escapes me.

For C1s core customer base, I suspect Capture One and Photoshop are the programs they "just buy", and a trial isn't needed.

I think it's difficult to grasp how unimportant we probably are as customers. Less than 10% of Adobe's customers are photographers, and C1 is used to working with high-end commercial photographers, digitechs, museums and art galleries, and large e-commerce studios. Even in the UK, C1 have single customers buying over 300 licenses.

That aside, it does look as if you are going to find it difficult to get exactly what you want. You could try contacting C1 sales and see if there is anyway of getting a longer trial. The more people complain about this, the more likely they are to change it. Or bite the bullet and just go with an Adobe sub.
 
myotis said:
I think it's difficult to grasp how unimportant we probably are as customers. Less than 10% of Adobe's customers are photographers, and C1 is used to working with high-end commercial photographers, digitechs, museums and art galleries, and large e-commerce studios. Even in the UK, C1 have single customers buying over 300 licenses.
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You're absolutely hitting the nail on the head here. I think the short trial is another fun side effect of subscriptions because you can cancel at any time so you can have as long as a trial as you want without committing to a large sum of money. I'm certainly not paying for an Adobe sub and at least with Capture One there is an option of a one off package as I expected they were going to go sub only having seen how massively successful it's been for Adobe.

Edit - Won't say any more about Affinity in this thread since it's Captureone but on having another look you are right it's better for post processing than I realised when I tried it the first time. I think for Capture One I'll wait until I have a few days off and give the trial ago making sure I have time to try it out properly
 
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JohnMcL7 said:
You're absolutely hitting the nail on the head here. I think the short trial is another fun side effect of subscriptions because you can cancel at any time so you can have as long as a trial as you want without committing to a large sum of money. I'm certainly not paying for an Adobe sub and at least with Capture One there is an option of a one off package as I expected they were going to go sub only having seen how massively successful it's been for Adobe.
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If you upgraded annually, the new subscription price was cheaper than a perpetual license with annual upgrades.

Before that, the subscription was more expensive than a perpetual license with annual upgrades, because C1 offered a discount on the annual upgrade, You still have the initial cost of the perpetual license, but I had long forgotten that cost.

Before they introduced the new licensing scheme, the split between perpetual licenses and subscriptions was about 50:50, but 80% of new licenses were being bought as subscriptions.

The new subscription price was now less than the annual upgrade price (even after discount) and I switched to a subscription. I imagine a lot of people did, but I have no idea what the current split is. For every year of subscription, you get a 20% discount on a perpetual license, and on the fifth year, you can switch to a perpetual license for free (but with no updates).

C1 had promised to always make a perpetual license available, and they have come up with a rather complicated scheme to allow this to happen, while at the same time made the subscription a much more attractive option for most people.

But they have also reverted to their roots, and are clearly back to focusing only on really serving professional photographers, with prices increasing rather rapidly and eith many new features of only limited interest to the "general" user.

It's still by far my preferred option (and I also use LR and DXO Photolab), but it's a lot of money.


JohnMcL7 said:
Edit - Won't say any more about Affinity in this thread since it's Captureone but on having another look you are right it's better for post processing than I realised when I tried it the first time. I think for Capture One I'll wait until I have a few days off and give the trial ago making sure I have time to try it out properly
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In terms of getting help, moving it out of this thread is a good idea, but as Canva Affinity is a great pixel editor companion to C1 for those who don't want to spend the money on Photoshop, discussing Canva Affinity is still relevant.
 
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