From Lightroom Classic to Capture ONE
I have been using Lightroom since version 1. I am considering the move to Capture One. 1) How would I migrate all of my files (26k photos) to Capture ONE with all edits? Do I need to convert them all to TIFFs or JPEGs first to "retain" the finished Lightroom edits or does Capture ONE have the ability to read these changes? I surely do not want to go back and redo all of my finished work. 2) the use of Sessions seems to be best for me since I don't like to drag along a large catalog and I primarily shoot for "themed" occasions. However, can I still search, and or, tag photos across multiple Sessions or could this only be done by a catalog system? Thanks...
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Good news, bad news. First the good: Capture One should be able to read your Lightroom catalog (File > Import Catalog > Lightroom Catalog), preserving its organization and "some" (likely not many) adjustments.
Now the bad: Every processing application uses its own adjustment algorithms, most/all of which aren't understood by other applications. That's going to be the case with C1 and LR: you'll loose most (or all) of you Raw adjustments. If you really want to save your "finished" results, you'll need to convert to TIFF or JPEG to "bake in" LR's adjustments.
Side note: I faced the same problem when I moved from Apple Aperture to C1 years ago. I saved TIFFs to be sure I kept the renditions I liked (not JPEGs because I didn't want to suffer JPEG compression results), and the Raws so I could edit in the future. This consumed quite a bit storage (some of my 16-bit TIFFs are 200-300 MB, vs 35-55 MB for the Raws). As time's passed, C1's evolved, my editing skills have improved, and I've tended to discard those TIFFs in favor of newly processed C1 results. However, if I'd sold, published and/or cared about keeping exactly my Aperture edits, I'd have kept the TIFFs forever.
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You won't save your LR adjustments, but if you import your LR catalog, you will save all the metadata changes such as ratings, descriptions, etc... I found that retaining the ratings was very valuable because that would let me know in Capture One which images I previously thought were the best and I could save a lot of time focusing on those if I ever needed to re-edit just the highest rated ones in Capture One. Likewise, if you took the time to put meaningful captions/descriptions on them in LR, this will bring those into Capture One.
As you seem to already know, if you really want all the adjustments, you have to export to TIFF or JPEG in LR and then import those.
Because I still have the ability to run my old LR6, I import images without adjustments and can then just redo the adjustments as needed In Capture One and have the original LR adjusted image to still look at. If you're on LR Classic subscription, you will still retain the ability to view or export your images in LR, even after cancelling the subscription. I find that I generally get a better edit now in Capture One anyways, partly because I'm just a better editor now than I used to be and it doesn't really take me long to re-edit images.
A middle ground if you have enough disk space would be to export all edited images in LR (no need to export the unedited images) and keep them around as reference, but don't import TIFF/JPEGs into Capture One. Then, just import your whole LR catalog into Capture One and if you really need one of the prior TIFF/JPEGs sometime down the road, you still have it to either use directly or to import into Capture One upon demand to use then.. This keeps your Capture One catalog clean (with just RAWs), but if you really need the prior edit, you can go get it.
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You cannot search or edit metadata in multiple sessions/catalogues simultaneously.
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I made this video 4 years ago for a local photo club. LR and CO both have lots of new features since then, but what gets imported from your LR catalog into a CO catalog hasn't changed. You can interpret that to mean any other adjustments not mentioned in the video will not be imported.
Comparing Capture One Pro and Adobe Lightroom
https://youtu.be/9hqoV-g2rpA--------
This outline accompanies a video recorded with the NIST Photo Club on July 17, 2020.
Similarities:
- Both are Non-Destructive editors
- They are not pixel editors like Photoshop or Affinity Photo
- They record transformations from raw source to RGB
- Both preserve the original source file and never change it
- Adobe Lightroom will write metadata to original source files
- Capture One will not write metadata to original source files
- Both have mostly same adjustment tools
- White Balance, Exposure, Clarity, Curves
- High Dynamic Range (whites, highlights, shadows, blacks)
- Sharpening, Noise Reduction, Grain (add noise)
- Lens Distortion Corrections
- Perspective / Rotation Corrections
- User Presets / Styles
- Before/After shows before/after individual tools or whole image
- You can view the entire image or zoom in and pan around
- You can swap the entire picture before/after or split before/after
- Both have a similar workflow : Import -> Edit -> Output
- Both have customizable tool list - CO has more customizability
- Lightroom lets you show/hide specific tools
- Lightroom has “solo” mode in develop module - open only one tool at a time
- Capture One tool tabs can have any tool added/removed
- Capture One tools can be pulled off to “float” over image
- Both support Monochrome / Split Tone Conversions
- Both have color channel sliders that affect monochrome tones
- Both support split tone between highlights and shadows
- Both support a fully color calibrated / managed workflow
- Both provide solid Image Organization features
- Nested Albums / Collections
- Smart Albums / Smart Collections
- Metadata - creator info, location, keywords, EXIF info, copyright
- Filtering - filter the catalog on any combinations of metadata
- Both support printing directly to your own printer
- Both support batch exporting in various formats / sizes
- Both support Pano and HDR merge inside the app without round-tripping to another app
- Both have automatic keystone / transform for perspective correction
- Both have terrific dehaze tools
- Both have AI masking tools
- Both have layers but they work differently
Advantage CO:
- Perpetual Licensing
- Capture One offers perpetual (and subscription) licensing
- Adobe Lightroom only offers subscription model licensing
- Performance (at least on macOS)
- CO has super fast performance
- LR seems sluggish by comparison
- Open multiple “documents” at the same time
- Levels Tool - LR has no Levels tool
- Session based workflows (LR only has catalogs)
- Dehaze - Both tools have dehaze, but CO does it better
- Capture One chooses OR lets you choose the color
- You can dehaze on layers to mask where it is applied
- You can apply BOTH luminosity and radial masks
- Edit With vs Open With
- If you Edit With, you get a new RGB file and open it in another app
- If you Open With, you open an existing file as-is in another app
- Open With lets you re-edit layered RGB files created with Edit With
- Layers (similar to but not exactly like PS layers)
- Luminosity, Gradient, Radial, Brushed masks
- Luminosity can be combined with other masks
- Mask brush has Opacity, Flow, Size, Hardness
- Layers have opacity separate from brush settings
- Rasterize gradient, radial masks and Brush / Erase
- Refine, Feather masks
- Clone / Heal layers
- Can copy layer masks from other layers
- Can fill, clear, Invert layer masks
- Very advanced color correction tool
- Color Editor tool very granular with special tool for skin tones
- Color Balance tool for color casts in shadows, mid tones, highlights
- All usable on layers with all sorts of masking capabilities
- User interface
- CO maintains image view when switching between tool panels (LR changes entire screen between modules)
- CO supports custom workspaces, custom keyboard shortcuts
- CO supports floating, resizable tool panels - great for full screen mode
- CO has structure and clarity (structure includes sharpening)
- Tethering - Capture One is the hands-down industry leader in tethering
- Capture Pilot - mobile app to work with Capture One for tethering, image review
- Tokens in filenames and folder paths
- Tokens can represent catalog collection names
- Tokens can represent EXIF data, metadata
- Tokens can represent Recipe names, extension
- Process Recipes for generating multiple output formats / sizes
- LR just added Batch Export where you can select multiple export presets
- Custom Keyboard Mappings to customize / add keyboard shortcuts
Advantage LR:
- Additional modules
- Maps - shows on a map where your pictures were taken if location or GPS filled in
- Books - can create books and submit them to Blurb for printing
- Web - can generate different looks and export web galleries
- Slideshow - can create and export different looking slideshows
- Lightroom can open multiple images in Photoshop as layers in a single PSD file
- LR can stack separate images (eg. NEF + JPG, multiples used in focus stacking)
- More stable database and metadata management
- More equal support for macOS and Windows (CO seems more buggy in Windows)
- Virtual Copies can have distinct names (CO names all variants the same)
- Copy-Paste GPS location data
- CO recognizes GPS EXIF data, no copy-paste
- You have to use exiftool or other tool with CO
- Visible edit history with edit of the history itself
- Editing Snapshots
- Better noise reduction
- User Interface
- LR offers “Solo Mode”
- Folder Panel optionally includes photos in subfolders
- Library > Show Photos in Subfolders
- Huge marketplace of styles and presets
- Enormous lens correction database
- Supports importing custom user generated profiles
- Red Eye Reduction Tool
- More Publishing Plugins (social media, portfolio sites, etc)
- Creative Cloud - Adobe LR CC and LR Classic can sync to Adobe Cloud
- Lightroom Mobile - can use Adobe Cloud with full sync to desktop Lightroom CC
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I'd add one thing.
While Capture One may have super fast performance when editing individual photos in small catalogues/sessions, it's not super fast when it comes to handling larger catalogues (cf. LR has "More stable database and metadata management"). This means that searching isn't at all as fast as in LR.
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