Capture One

[learningtofly]

Hi all

I've just won an annual subscription for Capture One Studio. As a lifelong Photoshop user I have to say that the learning curve seems a little daunting.

Anyone else made the change and - if so - do you have any advice to offer? I'd like to become as comfortable with it as possible as I quite fancy ditching Adobe at the end of this annual subscription and then perhaps just buying the Capture One Pro perpetual licence outright (Studio is a lot more than I need, and far too expensive to continue with once I have to pay).

Any thoughts much appreciated.

Edited to add: I'm aware that C1 doesn't have a liquify feature, so would probably need Affinity as well if I made the switch.

 

[Tricky01]

I’ve never used photoshop, but for me capture one was a replacement to apple’s aperture software. That is/was a lightroom alternative, so it’s more about combining library management, editing and optimising workflow.

The editing capabilities are very good, but it’s more selective exposure and colour edits on one image than hashing together multiple images. There are inbuilt tools for cloning and healing which are very effective, but nothing on the scale of what I see photoshop achieving.

Captureone does have tools to help migrate from the likes of lightroom and aperture, and you have many options for how files are handled (accessing an existing file structure, or having image files imported into C1 and their organisation being fully managed by C1.

I think license costs are pretty similar across adobe and C1, and all are hard to stomach. Is the annual license perpetual, or will you have to start paying next year? If the latter, I’d probably look at it as a 12 month trial - can you be bothered to invest the time to learn it, and will the pay off in the future be worth it in cost vs adobe for you?

 

[Nikon f1.8]

There are loads of tutorials on YouTube, they have their own Channel.

 

[ancient_mariner]

Is the annual license perpetual, or will you have to start paying next year? If the latter, I’d probably look at it as a 12 month trial - can you be bothered to invest the time to learn it, and will the pay off in the future be worth it in cost vs adobe for you?

This would be my perspective too. It's quite tricky and also time consuming to run 2 apps for photos side by side, and often better to just choose one for best results.

 

[droj]

I've just won an annual subscription for Capture One Studio. As a lifelong Photoshop user I have to say that the learning curve seems a little daunting.

Anyone else made the change and - if so - do you have any advice to offer? I'd like to become as comfortable with it as possible as I quite fancy ditching Adobe at the end of this annual subscription and then perhaps just buying the Capture One Pro perpetual licence outright (Studio is a lot more than I need, and far too expensive to continue with once I have to pay).

Any thoughts much appreciated.

Edited to add: I'm aware that C1 doesn't have a liquify feature, so would probably need Affinity as well if I made the switch.

Stand-alone ('perpetual') C1 is sometimes discounted, but you'd have to routinely track their website to discover when that occurred (possibly autumn). Neither is there any guarantee that they will continue to market it using that arrangement - they might retract to subscription only. And with perpetual you would get feature updates / bug fixes only until the next version.

However you gauge it across the options, the purchase or rental cost is - speaking loosely - double that of a Photoshop / Lightroom bundle.

All that said, it is a very sweet & capable RAW processor, & happens to be what I choose to use above all else. Having glanced at your work on your website, I'm pretty convinced that it would suit you.

I have sometimes found it buggy, and suggest that the answer to most of that is good housekeeping behind the scenes in terms of different versions that have been loaded and the residuals that they can leave behind.

Affinity - very capable & nicely-priced - also has a learning curve. Whilst its functions are comparable with those of PS, it's interface (tool panels & terminology) are somewhat alien until you get bedded in ...

 

[JohnMcL7]

I started learning the software but I became concerned when they were promoting the subscription plan that they may do the same as Adobe and go subscription only since that approach has worked well for them. I didn't want to end up in the same position where I'd spent time learning software then had to switch to something else because the software went subscription only.

 

[Dryce]

I started learning the software but I became concerned when they were promoting the subscription plan that they may do the same as Adobe and go subscription only since that approach has worked well for them. I didn't want to end up in the same position where I'd spent time learning software then had to switch to something else because the software went subscription only.

I moved to Capture One about 4 years ago.

I am hacked off with Capture One and the perpetual licencing issue. They give the impression that they really don't want the perpetual licence customers.

That said ....

The Adobe photography plan with PS included is (or has been) better value. But my view of PS is that it's a giant behemoth that carries too much legacy. If you live in it all the time as a professional designer or retoucher then fine. You have time for its complexity and peculiarities. As a part timer or amateur then it's harder than it needs to be. The Adobe ecosystem seems fragmented - Bridge / ACR / Photoshop sit off at one side - and Lightroom sits off at the other.

So I think Capture One is a sort of sweet spot between LR and PS.

I think C1 has influenced Adobe's development of LR over the last few years. My feeling is that C1 is worth learning. It's not as if LR is easier - just more dominant in the market - if more people started with C1 then the complaint would be that LR was hard to learn.

 

[learningtofly]

I’ve never used photoshop, but for me capture one was a replacement to apple’s aperture software. That is/was a lightroom alternative, so it’s more about combining library management, editing and optimising workflow.

The editing capabilities are very good, but it’s more selective exposure and colour edits on one image than hashing together multiple images. There are inbuilt tools for cloning and healing which are very effective, but nothing on the scale of what I see photoshop achieving.

Captureone does have tools to help migrate from the likes of lightroom and aperture, and you have many options for how files are handled (accessing an existing file structure, or having image files imported into C1 and their organisation being fully managed by C1.

I think license costs are pretty similar across adobe and C1, and all are hard to stomach. Is the annual license perpetual, or will you have to start paying next year? If the latter, I’d probably look at it as a 12 month trial - can you be bothered to invest the time to learn it, and will the pay off in the future be worth it in cost vs adobe for you?

Yes, I think you're spot on with your first paragraph - seems to me to be a LR alternative for that very reason. I've never used LR, though.

The version I have is the full Studio one, on a year's free subscription (it's worth around £500). Once that ends I'll have to make a decision but all the options will be at my cost, and I'm hoping the effort will be worthwhile (in that I'll know one way or another).

 

[learningtofly]

There are loads of tutorials on YouTube, they have their own Channel.

Yes, I've seen (but not watched) them thanks.

 

[learningtofly]

Stand-alone ('perpetual') C1 is sometimes discounted, but you'd have to routinely track their website to discover when that occurred (possibly autumn). Neither is there any guarantee that they will continue to market it using that arrangement - they might retract to subscription only. And with perpetual you would get feature updates / bug fixes only until the next version.

However you gauge it across the options, the purchase or rental cost is - speaking loosely - double that of a Photoshop / Lightroom bundle.

All that said, it is a very sweet & capable RAW processor, & happens to be what I choose to use above all else. Having glanced at your work on your website, I'm pretty convinced that it would suit you.

I have sometimes found it buggy, and suggest that the answer to most of that is good housekeeping behind the scenes in terms of different versions that have been loaded and the residuals that they can leave behind.

Affinity - very capable & nicely-priced - also has a learning curve. Whilst its functions are comparable with those of PS, it's interface (tool panels & terminology) are somewhat alien until you get bedded in ...

Thanks for that. Yes, I've seen regular offers over the last few years. It would still be a lot more than the Adobe Photography bundle, as you say - that only costs me £8pm!

 

[ancient_mariner]

If you do all your image processing in Photoshop, I wonder if C1 will actually be quite superfluous for you, and of little real use.

 

[learningtofly]

I started learning the software but I became concerned when they were promoting the subscription plan that they may do the same as Adobe and go subscription only since that approach has worked well for them. I didn't want to end up in the same position where I'd spent time learning software then had to switch to something else because the software went subscription only.

Noted. It is a bit of a concern, actually, but then again my Adobe package is subscription based so nothing new.

 

[learningtofly]

I moved to Capture One about 4 years ago.

I am hacked off with Capture One and the perpetual licencing issue. They give the impression that they really don't want the perpetual licence customers.

That said ....

The Adobe photography plan with PS included is (or has been) better value. But my view of PS is that it's a giant behemoth that carries too much legacy. If you live in it all the time as a professional designer or retoucher then fine. You have time for its complexity and peculiarities. As a part timer or amateur then it's harder than it needs to be. The Adobe ecosystem seems fragmented - Bridge / ACR / Photoshop sit off at one side - and Lightroom sits off at the other.

So I think Capture One is a sort of sweet spot between LR and PS.

I think C1 has influenced Adobe's development of LR over the last few years. My feeling is that C1 is worth learning. It's not as if LR is easier - just more dominant in the market - if more people started with C1 then the complaint would be that LR was hard to learn.

Many thanks for your thoughts on this... very helpful.

 

[learningtofly]

If you do all your image processing in Photoshop, I wonder if C1 will actually be quite superfluous for you, and of little real use.

Yes, that could be the case. However, I don't want to waste the year I have for free, and I should know one way or another by the end of that.

 

[JohnMcL7]

I moved to Capture One about 4 years ago.

I am hacked off with Capture One and the perpetual licencing issue. They give the impression that they really don't want the perpetual licence customers.

That was definitely my feeling with the software. They also ditched the free versions for specific camera brands which seemed a shame since it would be a good way to get into the software without needing to invest any money, I don't know if they changed their mind on that,

 

[LongLensPhotography]

The primary reason C1 gets used by some big names in the industry is superior tethering features over LR / Adobe camera RAW. They typically also have no problem with licensing Photoshop in addition to it. So this is really primarily aimed at studios. I've been thinking about this as I am more and more doing such work, so maybe eventually and no, it wouldn't replace adobe.

 

[learningtofly]

The primary reason C1 gets used by some big names in the industry is superior tethering features over LR / Adobe camera RAW. They typically also have no problem with licensing Photoshop in addition to it. So this is really primarily aimed at studios. I've been thinking about this as I am more and more doing such work, so maybe eventually and no, it wouldn't replace adobe.

That’s a very good point, and obviously particularly pertinent to headshot photography (which is my specific interest).

 

[ChrisR]

I moved to Capture One (Fuji version, now abandoned) after I could no longer get Aperture to work. My plan all along has been to upgrade no more often than once every two years, which keeps costs more or less under control. However, this is made much easier as I have no new cameras, just a 12-year-old Fuji and a bunch of film cameras. So your mileage almost certainly varies!

That said, I am pretty happy with it. I use the Catalogue, rather than Sessions (which are based more around the filestore, AIUI). That's one of the big decisions to make fairly early, though of course you can experiment with both. Like LR it's a non-destructive system; your original file is never altered until you export or print it (pretty much). That really helps with my JPEG-based workflow (OK, you can already tell how un-serious I am!). All the edits you make are coded up and held in the Catalogue, applied as necessary (seamlessly) when you open an image preview.

I'm the only person in our local U3A photography group who uses a DAM; everyone else uses the filestore and Photoshop. I would find it very hard to move to that. One of the real benefits of C1Pro (although still nowhere near as good as the old Aperture equivalent) is the ease of finding images based on combinations of criteria such as keywords and ratings.

My use of C1Pro has always been on a "need to know" basis; I learn as little as necessary to get the job done for me. On the basis of the comparatively little I know, it's a very powerful system, and gets the job done. Pair it with Affinity (you can then use Edit With Affinity) for an extremely powerful combination.

 

[learningtofly]

I moved to Capture One (Fuji version, now abandoned) after I could no longer get Aperture to work. My plan all along has been to upgrade no more often than once every two years, which keeps costs more or less under control. However, this is made much easier as I have no new cameras, just a 12-year-old Fuji and a bunch of film cameras. So your mileage almost certainly varies!

That said, I am pretty happy with it. I use the Catalogue, rather than Sessions (which are based more around the filestore, AIUI). That's one of the big decisions to make fairly early, though of course you can experiment with both. Like LR it's a non-destructive system; your original file is never altered until you export or print it (pretty much). That really helps with my JPEG-based workflow (OK, you can already tell how un-serious I am!). All the edits you make are coded up and held in the Catalogue, applied as necessary (seamlessly) when you open an image preview.

I'm the only person in our local U3A photography group who uses a DAM; everyone else uses the filestore and Photoshop. I would find it very hard to move to that. One of the real benefits of C1Pro (although still nowhere near as good as the old Aperture equivalent) is the ease of finding images based on combinations of criteria such as keywords and ratings.

My use of C1Pro has always been on a "need to know" basis; I learn as little as necessary to get the job done for me. On the basis of the comparatively little I know, it's a very powerful system, and gets the job done. Pair it with Affinity (you can then use Edit With Affinity) for an extremely powerful combination.

Thanks for that, Chris. Everyone I know who uses it for similar work to mine has recommended going with sessions rather than catalogues so that's probably what I'll do for starters. That aside, though, I doubt I'll ever become a superuser either!

 

[Pound Coin]

I use it, as an Aperture replacement. I use Sessions because I have defined shoots and this creates a folder structure on the storage disks I use.

I swapped some of the panes around, and made use of the favourite to create a set of tools that I use often.
The AI selecting is awesome
Learning how to copy settings, layers, Metadata from one image to others is v useful.
It seems to 'develop' my Olympus RAW images to very similar to OLY jpg colours.

I'm sure there's more!

 

[Edwardsson]

I have been using Capture One Pro for some years now, and it has become my primary working tool when I editing my photos, together with Affinity Photo and ON1 NoNoise AI. Very satisfied with the software, not so much with the company's new price policy.

Never bothered to jump into the Adobe camp (PS, LR etc), instead I used both (Apple) Aperture, (Nikon) NX2 and Nik's Collection before I decided to move on to the tools I mentioned above.

 

[learningtofly]

I have been using Capture One Pro for some years now, and it has become my primary working tool when I editing my photos, together with Affinity Photo and ON1 NoNoise AI. Very satisfied with the software, not so much with the company's new price policy.

Never bothered to jump into the Adobe camp (PS, LR etc), instead I used both (Apple) Aperture, (Nikon) NX2 and Nik's Collection before I decided to move on to the tools I mentioned above.

Reassuring, thanks.

 

[Citizen of Bath]

I'd second Simon's comment: Capture One is a replacement for Lightroom, which explains why it's so different from Photoshop. It's another kind of software. If you are looking for a Photoshop alternative, that would be Affinity Photo or Luminar (Affinity Photo is my favourite Photoshop-like software).

Some years ago, I left the Adobe ship because of their pricing policy. I needed a few months to get used to Capture One, coming from Lightroom, but I'm quite happy with it now. However, the Capture One company is clearly leaning towards the same policy as Adobe, and I don't like that.

 

[myotis]

Hi all

I've just won an annual subscription for Capture One Studio. As a lifelong Photoshop user I have to say that the learning curve seems a little daunting.

Anyone else made the change and - if so - do you have any advice to offer? I'd like to become as comfortable with it as possible as I quite fancy ditching Adobe at the end of this annual subscription and then perhaps just buying the Capture One Pro perpetual licence outright (Studio is a lot more than I need, and far too expensive to continue with once I have to pay).

Any thoughts much appreciated.

Edited to add: I'm aware that C1 doesn't have a liquify feature, so would probably need Affinity as well if I made the switch.

A little late, but I just noticed this.

Having and a look at your website, I would think that C1 + Photoshop would be an ideal combination. As others have said, C1 isn't a replacement for PS, but Capture One. has some nice tools for managing headshot sessions (many customisation tools available and refined colour grading).

As others have suggested C1 sessions are well suited to this kind of work, and round tripping between C1 and Photoshop is pretty seamless, but you do need to understand the differences between "edit with" and "open with" options

C1 does have a pretty steep learning curve, but there is a fair amount of help available (including here in TP, but for me, I'm most likely to see C1 questions if they are posted in the "post processing and image editing" forum).

I have put together some C1 youtube channels that are worth being aware of. There are a lot more than this, but these are probably the best ones.


Official Capture One

Capture One

Capture One’s powerful photo software gives you the tools to shoot, edit, collaborate, and share from anywhere easily. Letting you work less and create more, bring your photos to life quickly and get more time to do what you love. Whether you’re an emerging or pro photographer, get all sorts...

www.youtube.com

Good resource to get started, Interviews with C1 users discussing specialist workflows are useful.


Paul Reiffer

Paul Reiffer

Paul Reiffer - Landscape, cityscape and commercial photographer. Exploring the world around us, with fine art limited edition prints, photography workshops and commercial photo shoots. Subscribe for live editing sessions and in-depth Pro Tips guides to Capture One. https://www.paulreiffer.com/

www.youtube.com

Professional Landscape photographer ex commercial/fashion photographer (Phase One user)

Channel is based on editing viewers uploaded files (all subject matter, but maybe not too many portraits). These are “master” classes in using C1 compared to the official C1 channel.

Has a Capture One “Pro tips” play list covering specific topics


AlexOnRaw

AlexOnRAW

AlexOnRAW.com All about Capture One: tutorials, articles, video, styles, tips and tricks. Channel author - Alexander Orlov (a.k.a. Alexander Svet). Download 17 styles for Capture One for Free - http://1styles.pro/try/?utm_source=AlexOnRAW&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=videodescription...

www.youtube.com

Professional photographer commercial/portrait, Long term C1 user with a lot of expertise. Some genuinely useful C1 styles Valuable paid for course, plus a new “C1 Insiders” patreon type group, to provide better support for his students/style users than his facebook page can provide.


Camera Lessons online

Camera Lessons Online

Camera Lessons Online is all about one single idea: that the ability to create stunning visual imagery should be accessible to everyone. To make that a reality we teach photography here. Sometimes that means focus control, sometimes manual exposure, sometimes studio lighting, and sometimes we...

www.youtube.com

I think, Amateur Photographer, but gives lots of short videos addressing specific techniques. I don’t always agree with what he says, but a useful quick browse.


Verser Engelhard

Verser Engelhard

Share your videos with friends, family and the world

www.youtube.com

These cover C1 and Photoshop and appear to be recordings of lectures to digitech students. A bit tedious at times as they cover dedicated student interaction (ie college/university admin stuff) but cover stuff not covered anywhere else about using C1 and Photoshop in a professional environment.


Nino Batista

NBP Retouch Tools+

This is where we focus on making photography and retouching a little less complicated – and a lot more effective. We create Photoshop Plugins, Actions, and Capture One Pro Styles to help you get things done, whether you're perfecting skin, managing frequencies/texture, or dialing in perfect...

www.youtube.com

Professional retoucher, portrait/glamour photographer, covering C1 and Photoshop. A bit of a focus on PS (and his excellent Photoshop panels), but the videos on C1 cover material not found elsewhere.

Far too much in all of this to sit down and watch through it all, but they are well worth some browsing to see if any grab your attention.

Specific questions can, hopefully, be answered on here.

 

[learningtofly]

I use it, as an Aperture replacement. I use Sessions because I have defined shoots and this creates a folder structure on the storage disks I use.

I swapped some of the panes around, and made use of the favourite to create a set of tools that I use often.
The AI selecting is awesome
Learning how to copy settings, layers, Metadata from one image to others is v useful.
It seems to 'develop' my Olympus RAW images to very similar to OLY jpg colours.

I'm sure there's more!

Thanks, and all of that seems quite pertinent (and therefore reassuring).

 

[learningtofly]

I'd second Simon's comment: Capture One is a replacement for Lightroom, which explains why it's so different from Photoshop. It's another kind of software. If you are looking for a Photoshop alternative, that would be Affinity Photo or Luminar (Affinity Photo is my favourite Photoshop-like software).

Some years ago, I left the Adobe ship because of their pricing policy. I needed a few months to get used to Capture One, coming from Lightroom, but I'm quite happy with it now. However, the Capture One company is clearly leaning towards the same policy as Adobe, and I don't like that.

Thanks for that. The message that it’s not a PS replacement is sinking in!!

 

[Edwardsson]

Ag

I'd second Simon's comment: Capture One is a replacement for Lightroom, which explains why it's so different from Photoshop. It's another kind of software. If you are looking for a Photoshop alternative, that would be Affinity Photo or Luminar (Affinity Photo is my favourite Photoshop-like software).

Some years ago, I left the Adobe ship because of their pricing policy. I needed a few months to get used to Capture One, coming from Lightroom, but I'm quite happy with it now. However, the Capture One company is clearly leaning towards the same policy as Adobe, and I don't like that.

Agree that Capture One's move towards subscriptions is not something I like at all. Totally the wrong decision, but I did get a good price during Black Week for a year's subscription.

 

[Citizen of Bath]

Ag

Agree that Capture One's move towards subscriptions is not something I like at all. Totally the wrong decision, but I did get a good price during Black Week for a year's subscription.

Just curious, what happens to your edited files if you stop paying Capture One subscription?

 

[myotis]

Just curious, what happens to your edited files if you stop paying Capture One subscription?

Capture One, unlike Lightroom, stops working completely. So if you don't routinely export "master" edited TIFFs and use XMP sidecar files for metadata., you need to start again with with your raw files and new editor/DAM. I do this anyway, as I don't want to risk getting locked into any processing/DAM software.

However, you can convert a C1 subscription into a perpetual license. with a 20% discount off the perpetual license cost ,per year of subscription, This means if you have had a subscription for 5 years, you get a "free" perpetual license.

 

[learningtofly]

A little late, but I just noticed this.

Having and a look at your website, I would think that C1 + Photoshop would be an ideal combination. As others have said, C1 isn't a replacement for PS, but Capture One. has some nice tools for managing headshot sessions (many customisation tools available and refined colour grading).

As others have suggested C1 sessions are well suited to this kind of work, and round tripping between C1 and Photoshop is pretty seamless, but you do need to understand the differences between "edit with" and "open with" options

C1 does have a pretty steep learning curve, but there is a fair amount of help available (including here in TP, but for me, I'm most likely to see C1 questions if they are posted in the "post processing and image editing" forum).

I have put together some C1 youtube channels that are worth being aware of. There are a lot more than this, but these are probably the best ones.


Official Capture One

Capture One

Capture One’s powerful photo software gives you the tools to shoot, edit, collaborate, and share from anywhere easily. Letting you work less and create more, bring your photos to life quickly and get more time to do what you love. Whether you’re an emerging or pro photographer, get all sorts...

www.youtube.com

Good resource to get started, Interviews with C1 users discussing specialist workflows are useful.


Paul Reiffer

Paul Reiffer

Paul Reiffer - Landscape, cityscape and commercial photographer. Exploring the world around us, with fine art limited edition prints, photography workshops and commercial photo shoots. Subscribe for live editing sessions and in-depth Pro Tips guides to Capture One. https://www.paulreiffer.com/

www.youtube.com

Professional Landscape photographer ex commercial/fashion photographer (Phase One user)

Channel is based on editing viewers uploaded files (all subject matter, but maybe not too many portraits). These are “master” classes in using C1 compared to the official C1 channel.

Has a Capture One “Pro tips” play list covering specific topics


AlexOnRaw

AlexOnRAW

AlexOnRAW.com All about Capture One: tutorials, articles, video, styles, tips and tricks. Channel author - Alexander Orlov (a.k.a. Alexander Svet). Download 17 styles for Capture One for Free - http://1styles.pro/try/?utm_source=AlexOnRAW&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=videodescription...

www.youtube.com

Professional photographer commercial/portrait, Long term C1 user with a lot of expertise. Some genuinely useful C1 styles Valuable paid for course, plus a new “C1 Insiders” patreon type group, to provide better support for his students/style users than his facebook page can provide.


Camera Lessons online

Camera Lessons Online

Camera Lessons Online is all about one single idea: that the ability to create stunning visual imagery should be accessible to everyone. To make that a reality we teach photography here. Sometimes that means focus control, sometimes manual exposure, sometimes studio lighting, and sometimes we...

www.youtube.com

I think, Amateur Photographer, but gives lots of short videos addressing specific techniques. I don’t always agree with what he says, but a useful quick browse.


Verser Engelhard

Verser Engelhard

Share your videos with friends, family and the world

www.youtube.com

These cover C1 and Photoshop and appear to be recordings of lectures to digitech students. A bit tedious at times as they cover dedicated student interaction (ie college/university admin stuff) but cover stuff not covered anywhere else about using C1 and Photoshop in a professional environment.


Nino Batista

NBP Retouch Tools+

This is where we focus on making photography and retouching a little less complicated – and a lot more effective. We create Photoshop Plugins, Actions, and Capture One Pro Styles to help you get things done, whether you're perfecting skin, managing frequencies/texture, or dialing in perfect...

www.youtube.com

Professional retoucher, portrait/glamour photographer, covering C1 and Photoshop. A bit of a focus on PS (and his excellent Photoshop panels), but the videos on C1 cover material not found elsewhere.

Far too much in all of this to sit down and watch through it all, but they are well worth some browsing to see if any grab your attention.

Specific questions can, hopefully, be answered on here.

Fantastically helpful response - thank you so much.

 

[myotis]

Fantastically helpful response - thank you so much.

I should have also mentioned the only C1 books (ebooks) that are available:

Photographer's Guide to Capture One (2024)

The Photographer's Guide to Capture One (2025) have now been released so go here if you are looking for the latest version:https://rawcaptureguide.gumroad.com/l/captureone2025guideWith the Photographer's Guide to Capture One (2024) eBook, you'll learn to master Capture One, accelerating your...

rawcaptureguide.gumroad.com

A comprehensive all in one manual, by someone who now works for C1, but didn't when he wrote the original version.. It gets regularly updated with small updates for free, and major updates for a discounted price

AlexOnRaw also has two publications:

Capture One Book - Discover Over 200 Hidden Features

Capture One Book "Capture One Hidden Features" is a collection of over 200 pro hints to improve your Capture One workflow, structured into an easy-to-read book.

alexonraw.com

This has hints and tips on using C1 which, given how complicated C1 can be, will give you a useful head start in "mastering" C1.

And...

Capture One Best Practices – New Book

New Capture One Book Capture One Best Practices Learn How Pros Get the Maximum Out of Their RAWs Capture One Best Practices distills the wisdom of the Capture One community into short, knowledge-dense tutorials. Discover over 300 of the best Capture One tricks and image editing...

alexonraw.com

This is more structured book compared to the hints and tips book above, but has some minor overlaps. but has a detailed section dedicated to portraits.

All three of these are a good investment, especially if you are coming from Adobe and trying to make C1 work like :LR/PS rather than taking advantage of the unique C1 capabilities..

I think all three of the above have downloadable samples pages.

As an aside there are some videos around (I just can't easily remember where, and it's not something I've paid too much attention to) about using C1 tethered to do corporate headshots where you can use the C1 "tokens feature" and "Capture" folder options to do things like automatically saving each persons portrait into their own folder and automatically adding their name to the filename as you shoot..

If I can across something relevant I'll post it here. The other possibly relevant bit of info is that people don''t seem too keen on Tether Tools cables and the popular chocie seems to be Area 51 (and another make I can't remember)

 

[learningtofly]

I should have also mentioned the only C1 books (ebooks) that are available:

Photographer's Guide to Capture One (2024)

The Photographer's Guide to Capture One (2025) have now been released so go here if you are looking for the latest version:https://rawcaptureguide.gumroad.com/l/captureone2025guideWith the Photographer's Guide to Capture One (2024) eBook, you'll learn to master Capture One, accelerating your...

rawcaptureguide.gumroad.com

A comprehensive all in one manual, by someone who now works for C1, but didn't when he wrote the original version.. It gets regularly updated with small updates for free, and major updates for a discounted price

AlexOnRaw also has two publications:

Capture One Book - Discover Over 200 Hidden Features

Capture One Book "Capture One Hidden Features" is a collection of over 200 pro hints to improve your Capture One workflow, structured into an easy-to-read book.

alexonraw.com

This has hints and tips on using C1 which, given how complicated C1 can be, will give you a useful head start in "mastering" C1.

And...

Capture One Best Practices – New Book

New Capture One Book Capture One Best Practices Learn How Pros Get the Maximum Out of Their RAWs Capture One Best Practices distills the wisdom of the Capture One community into short, knowledge-dense tutorials. Discover over 300 of the best Capture One tricks and image editing...

alexonraw.com

This is more structured book compared to the hints and tips book above, but has some minor overlaps. but has a detailed section dedicated to portraits.

All three of these are a good investment, especially if you are coming from Adobe and trying to make C1 work like :LR/PS rather than taking advantage of the unique C1 capabilities..

I think all three of the above have downloadable samples pages.

As an aside there are some videos around (I just can't easily remember where, and it's not something I've paid too much attention to) about using C1 tethered to do corporate headshots where you can use the C1 "tokens feature" and "Capture" folder options to do things like automatically saving each persons portrait into their own folder and automatically adding their name to the filename as you shoot..

If I can across something relevant I'll post it here. The other possibly relevant bit of info is that people don''t seem too keen on Tether Tools cables and the popular chocie seems to be Area 51 (and another make I can't remember)

You're a star, thanks (and tethered shooting for headshot gigs is something I definitely need to get to grips with).