Capture One and DXO PureRAW

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trevjm

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Trev
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I recently took advantage of a 50% off the purchase price offer for the latest version of Capture One Pro 2022 and I am currently playing around with it. One thing I am struggling with is how to utilise DXO PureRAW With it. I currently use Lightroom Classic and DXO PureRAW and/or DXO Photolab 5 with both integrated within LR Plug-ins. All works as it should and as shown in several YT videos etc. DXO say you can use PureRAW with COP but don’t provide any videos or guidance on how to do so, unlike for Lightroom Classic. Has anyone managed to set it up as a Plug-in? I cant find any guidance on line so interested to know how others use it. Currently it looks to me that PureRAW is more geared towards Lightroom. Any advice would be appreciated.
 
Not related, but could I please ask, how much it cost, with 50% off. Many thanks
 
I paid £89.50 for a years subscription. This provides me with the next full update package later on this year as well as all incremental updates. I want to take a long look at the software before deciding whether to keep using it or carry on with Lightroom. I purchased 3 years worth of adobe subscriptions via Amazon on Black Friday at about the same price per year. If I do decide to carry on with COP I can either pay for a new subscription or buy the package out right for a reduced upgrade cost.
 
Last edited:
trevjm said:
I recently took advantage of a 50% off the purchase price offer for the latest version of Capture One Pro 2022 and I am currently playing around with it. One thing I am struggling with is how to utilise DXO PureRAW With it. I currently use Lightroom Classic and DXO PureRAW and/or DXO Photolab 5 with both integrated within LR Plug-ins. All works as it should and as shown in several YT videos etc. DXO say you can use PureRAW with COP but don’t provide any videos or guidance on how to do so, unlike for Lightroom Classic. Has anyone managed to set it up as a Plug-in? I cant find any guidance on line so interested to know how others use it. Currently it looks to me that PureRAW is more geared towards Lightroom. Any advice would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Capture One has very few "Plugins" and there is no plugin for Pure raw or Photolab.

But it does offer a very capable way of round tripping to external programs, as long as they work as stand-alone programs: as PhotoLab and Pure Raw do.

However, this relies on the external program adhering to standard Operating System protocols for managing and re-naming files. Topaz, as an example, regularly break these protocols at interim releases, which "breaks" the Capture One round tripping until Topaz fixes it at the next release. I understand that DXO also "breaks" occasionally.

Note I am on a Mac, and I am basing this on the trial versions of Pure Raw 2 and Photolab 5. I only use Sessions with C1 and not catalogues. It doesn't make much of a difference, with one exception, which I explain later.

C1 offers two ways of round tripping to external programs, both accessed by right clicking on the image you want to round trip.

"Edit with" and "Open with"

Because both Pure raw and PhotoLab need a raw file to work with, you need to use "Open With" after right clicking on thefile you want to send to DXO.

The first time you right click neither Photolab nor Pure Raw will appear in your choice of external programs and you will need to add them with the "other" option. Once added C1 should remember them.

For PhotoLab, after you select it with the right click, PL should open with the selected file from C1. After doing whatever you want to do with it in PL, you need to choose export to disk and from the options make sure you export to "The original image folder".

I export as a DNG, which is then available beside the original raw for further editing in C1.

When using C1 sessions, the DNG is immediately available to C1, but with a catalogue, you may need to sync the folder where the raw is stored before the catalogue will recognise a new file is available.

With PureRaw, (though I think this may have changed in 2.1) the options for where the DNG is saved is more limited. I can't remember the details, but it required more of a hunt from within C1 to find the DNG, or/and manually moving the DNG into a folder C1 would recognise.

As I was having problems with PureRaw creating sharpening haloes, I gave up on it and am now trialling PhotoLab 5, which works fine and being able to control the sharpness levels seems to be solving the halo problems. But I'm still working on it. It wasn't a massive problem, but the lack of control with PureRaw, meant there was no way of fixing it.

For the sake of completeness, "Edit With", is for sending edited files (TIFFS or PSDs) to an external program such as Photoshop or Affinity Photo for further editing. C1 creates a TIFF or PSD,with embedded C1 edits, beside the original raw, before opening the file in the external editor. This means that the PSD you are editing in Photoshop is already inside the C1 catalogue (or session), and any saves you make in Photoshop appear in C1 in real time.

Once you have created this PSD/TIFF, any further edits in C1 "sit on top of" the Photoshop edits, and if you want to go back to Photoshop to tweak an edit in the PSD, you now use the "Open With" menu option to re-open the PSD in Photoshop (avoiding embedding any new C1 edits), where all your original PS edits (layers etc) are preserved for additional edits.

I hope that helps.
 
R
myotis said:
Capture One has very few "Plugins" and there is no plugin for Pure raw or Photolab.

But it does offer a very capable way of round tripping to external programs, as long as they work as stand-alone programs: as PhotoLab and Pure Raw do.

However, this relies on the external program adhering to standard Operating System protocols for managing and re-naming files. Topaz, as an example, regularly break these protocols at interim releases, which "breaks" the Capture One round tripping until Topaz fixes it at the next release. I understand that DXO also "breaks" occasionally.

Note I am on a Mac, and I am basing this on the trial versions of Pure Raw 2 and Photolab 5. I only use Sessions with C1 and not catalogues. It doesn't make much of a difference, with one exception, which I explain later.

C1 offers two ways of round tripping to external programs, both accessed by right clicking on the image you want to round trip.

"Edit with" and "Open with"

Because both Pure raw and PhotoLab need a raw file to work with, you need to use "Open With" after right clicking on thefile you want to send to DXO.

The first time you right click neither Photolab nor Pure Raw will appear in your choice of external programs and you will need to add them with the "other" option. Once added C1 should remember them.

For PhotoLab, after you select it with the right click, PL should open with the selected file from C1. After doing whatever you want to do with it in PL, you need to choose export to disk and from the options make sure you export to "The original image folder".

I export as a DNG, which is then available beside the original raw for further editing in C1.

When using C1 sessions, the DNG is immediately available to C1, but with a catalogue, you may need to sync the folder where the raw is stored before the catalogue will recognise a new file is available.

With PureRaw, (though I think this may have changed in 2.1) the options for where the DNG is saved is more limited. I can't remember the details, but it required more of a hunt from within C1 to find the DNG, or/and manually moving the DNG into a folder C1 would recognise.

As I was having problems with PureRaw creating sharpening haloes, I gave up on it and am now trialling PhotoLab 5, which works fine and being able to control the sharpness levels seems to be solving the halo problems. But I'm still working on it. It wasn't a massive problem, but the lack of control with PureRaw, meant there was no way of fixing it.

For the sake of completeness, "Edit With", is for sending edited files (TIFFS or PSDs) to an external program such as Photoshop or Affinity Photo for further editing. C1 creates a TIFF or PSD,with embedded C1 edits, beside the original raw, before opening the file in the external editor. This means that the PSD you are editing in Photoshop is already inside the C1 catalogue (or session), and any saves you make in Photoshop appear in C1 in real time.

Once you have created this PSD/TIFF, any further edits in C1 "sit on top of" the Photoshop edits, and if you want to go back to Photoshop to tweak an edit in the PSD, you now use the "Open With" menu option to re-open the PSD in Photoshop (avoiding embedding any new C1 edits), where all your original PS edits (layers etc) are preserved for additional edits.

I hope that helps.
Click to expand...
Graham, thank you very much for your very thorough response. I will use your guide and set up Photolab 5 accordingly. Much appreciated.
 
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