In this video you are going to learn which RAW converter is right for you. I am going to show you the difference on how both applications convert and display RAW files. I first noticed a difference between these two applications about 6 years ago. I am repeating my test to see if there is a difference in the way that they display the images. I am going to show you exactly how each application displays photos and we are going to look at some very distinct differences between the two. Even thought hey are displaying the same file, the photos on the screen are going to look different because of the way that both applications interpret how the photo is meant to look. This is not to say that one application is better than the other or that one is right and one is wrong. How a photo looks is completely subjective so it comes down to which version you prefer. I am specifically going to show you the differences in detail, color, exposure and white balance. And don't forget that if you have any questions, make sure to leave them in the comment section and I will be happy to help you where I can. If you enjoy this video, please don't forget to click the LIKE button, and also SUBSCRIBE to the channel for more content like this. And don't forget that if you would like to receive the Lightroom presets of the month, visit: ministryofphoto.com You will find all details on how you can sign up there. BONUS DOWNLOAD ********************* ADOBE LIGHTROOM KEYBOARD SHORTCUT GUIDE: --- bit.ly/3eK6QVL FREE Preset for you to download: --- www.ministryofphoto.com Come say hi on social Website www.dancantero.com.au Facebook facebook.com/DanCantero/ Twitter twitter.com/DanCantero Instagram instagram.com/dancanterophotography My favourite bit of kit Canon EOS 5D MK IV amzn.to/3ddGcmh Canon 1DX MK II amzn.to/2Ci0P3Y Fav lens of all time!!! Canon 35 f14. amzn.to/2V3TnQu Aputure 120D amzn.to/3fEIcWq Mavic Air amzn.to/30Zv5Lf

I found that C1 renders is more vivid and natural, not only people but e.g. also golden / blue hour shots. I have a picture of the yaught harbor in my town at dusk and there C1 really outperforms lightroom.

Hi Dan: I am currently using C1 as my primary Raw Editor as for me it processes Sony images much better than Lr Classic uses. I had used LR when I was shooting with Nikon but I noticed the difference more with the Sony and OM System files. One of the strengths of C1 is the way that you can actually select the camera profiles (ICC Profiles) and Curve Profiles specific to your camera. Adobe has 'baked-in' profiles that for all cameras vs. a specific camera as the default. If the user of LR was to get more specific profiles for their camera, they have to down-load or make specific Linear Profiles for their camera, and then you get a truer starting point. The structure of C1 makes this much easier. Finally, I think that the Capture One is more responsive to making new camera and lens profiles than Adobe ever has. Like you I still use LR for some situations within my workflow. Cheers, Keith

I'm so glad that you put this out there. Several years ago I did the comparison for myself, I concluded that C1 was for me. Updating this information helps a lot. Cheers.

There was a good article on this subject a while back, I think on FStoppers. Their conclusion was that the differences seen varied across different camera manufacturers. I switched from LR to C1P about 4 years ago and found that with my Olympus RAW files I simply had to make fewer adjustments to my photos in C1P to get the desired results, which was an unexpected benefit - my main reason for switching was the interface which in C1P is fully customisable with everything in one place.

They look different because they use different color profiles by default. This is about the most basic piece of knowledge you need to know when working with RAW files. It would be much more interesting to compare the two using the same camera matching profile.

Greetings Dan from your newest subscriber! Excellent video and perfect timing for my pending decision. I shoot the Leica Q2 Monochrom exclusively as I'm a dedicated BNW Photographer. I've used Lightroom but since starting with the Q2M, I've learned that Capture One does a far better job with Dynamic Range and Tones of a Leica Monochrome DNG file then Lightroom. Now with Adobe's latest BS ToS changes I'm thinking this is the time to leave Adobe for good and focus on getting the Capture One Pro "All In One" package so I can edit on my iPad Pro 12.9 as well as my MacBook Pro. Your insights and experience-based views would be greatly appreciated 🙏 🙏 😎 ‼️

Very informative, thanks!!

Nice, thank you!

Great video, thanks!

Adobe has built-in a series of color profiles; some names start with "Adobe", such as "Adobe Color" or "Adobe Portrait" and other names start with "Camera". If you try various of the built-in profiles in Light-room you might find one that you like. What I like about Capture One for portraits is that it seems less prone to blow out the bright areas, such as the forehead in your example.

When I started shooting portraits, I was using Adobe. After a year, photographers kept telling me that I need to use C1. So I made the move and have been using C1 going on 3 years now. TBH, I feel the Adobe has almost caught up and in many ways beats C1 with their AI tools (I tend to do 80% of my work in PS). I've been thinking on dropping C1 as I feel there business practices and today even higher subscription fees are not worth it.

Thanks for your video. I’m testing C1 right now. And the most important thing I found out is that C1 is better on high ISO with standard settings. The longer I use C1, the more I like it. Till know I use Lightroom Classic. My camera is a Nikon Z6II and what I see is that I get more out of my RAW files with C1. The best raw converter for Nikon cameras is NIKON NX-Studio. But it’s limited on improving the raw files. Again, thanks for your Video Greetings from Germany Stephan

All this difference is due to the default profiles. Capture One tries to apply the camera profile whereas LR applies Adobe Color (washed out crap). In LR if you apply any of the camera matching profiles, it will look exactly like Capture One.

I agree for portrait photography C1P shows a nicer "out of the box" image. But 2 things (you may or may not know): 1) you can set LR to different color profiles (other than "Adobe Color") or even make your own ones with eg with a calibrite/x-rite color card (that has to be photographed of course) - but as you said you have to adjust it first. 2) in C1P there is - only for some camera models - the "ProStandard" color profile which is sometimes only subtly better and sometimes significantly better than the "generic" profile for a particular camera model. I had this especially with colored light where the transitions between colors were suddenly much smoother. They were pretty harsh before with the standard/generic profile. Also it improved the skin tones - sometimes subtly, somtimes dramatically. Depends on the image and light. What I kind of like about LR/ACR these days is the ease to mask certain areas of a face automatically with AI. Eyes, sclera, pupil, skin, etc. That is mostly manual in C1P or you can work with the magic brush which tends to be very inaccurate if you have similar colors nearby in the image.

Dan, Thank for making this comparison of photos in LR & C1. I switched to C1 about 10 years ago. I use Nikon cameras and my latest is the Z6 II. I prefer C1 and I trust its auto edit feature when importing photos. Dan

I have notice the same regarding colour. C1 seems to have the more advanced algorithms to interpret the bayer data. Also, there may be a different ICC profile for a given the sensor.

even the hisogram looks different to me. I am not too sure about the colours in Capture 1, but the highlights were very nicely done

I'd suspect that the reason you see more detail and sharpness in the C1 version vs LR is due to the level of default sharpening in each case. Personally, I've always found the default sharpening in C1 to be too high for my tastes.

Thanks for your testing What are your preview settings? It's also very different from what kind of raw file you are using: Canon, Sony, Nikon, Olympus, Fujifilm and.... Try to preview files after exporting to jpeg in a good image viewer.

This all depends how you set your Capture One camera profile. I shoot a Nikon Z6 II, and I use a Phase One portrait profile upon import. I spend far less time making adjustments. You can set Adobe profiles as well. If you set either one to a neutral profile, you're going to end up with a far less saturated and detailed image to begin with. Choose wisely.... ;)

LR recovers highlight way much better than C1. LR manages my catalog faster. Masks in C1 have been improved massively but LR has more options. Color is one of the most important improvements in LR, similar to C1. These are the 3 things that come to my mind in favor of LR. If you do a lot of portraits, C1 is your option

Default colours for specific cameras. Many pro cameras C1 comes out ahead. Soemtimes even with tweaks Adobe doesn't acheive the colour depth. Yet workflow is by far more advanced in Lightroom. I know that I can do a better job in C1, it is just so much faster in Lr thus that is where I'll stay. Only when I need to tether, I will go C1.

I don’t think calibration tells the full story in the case of LR. It’s a combination of calibration process and profile at the top of the develop panel. For example Adobe Color vs the other options available. Regardless C1 is superior in raw interpretation.

Raw converter for Leica

In these examples, do you remember which profiles LR and C1 were using? I believe LR uses an Adobe default profile and C1 uses a generic default, but can be configured to use a camera-specific profile or even their better ProStandard camera-specific profile by default. I wonder if these differences are "real" or if LR would do better if you selected a camera-specific profile instead of using Adobe Color by default. I mostly use C1 anyway because I love their ProStandard profiles, but I wonder if these differences are just a difference in default profile more than any real practical difference. In your headshot comparison, especially, it looks to me like you're using Adobe Color in LR and maybe a Pro Standard profile in C1, which are very different.

What is your workflow of how to get your capture one raw conversion into Lightroom for editing?

Basically the import set up in Cap One does more to the image. Same can be achieved with a preset recipe in Lightroom. Also as others have said varies from different cameras.

I may be wrong, but doesn't C1 automatically apply some adjustments on import ? You could make these adjustments in Lightroom, and save them as a preset which is applied on import. That's what I do.

I've used Capture One for a few years and am trialling the new AI version with a view to buy. But just can't pull the trigger on it! Had thought that I can let go of Adobe and that the new version would do the job but it's expensive and the masking is just not quite as good. I agree that the overall rendition is good on C1 and get better results than Lr on some files. I do feel that C1 is more focused on portrait type photography. I think I may stick to Adobe and my, paid for, 2021 C1 version for now. One thing that baffles me is why Lr and Ps make some changes instantly and yet C1 can take a few seconds? Same file, same computer(M1 Mac) and yet it takes longer to do even small stuff. Not in a hurry but is C1 doing more than we can see in the background? The latest version does seem slightly faster.

C1 is the best RAW converter, however the company itself leaves a lot to be desired. I have their so-called "Perpetual Licence", which, somehow, has expired. Also, they yanked their Fuji Express, sticking it to their customers again. I'll keep using Lightroom & Photoshop, thanks. (Cheaper, too!!)

Thanks for the great video. In my experience, C1 has less noise and is sharper out of the camera, although Adobe has gotten shaper in their conversions compared to earlier versions. As far as tools go, the shadows and blacks sliders in C1 do exactly as you would expect. The shadows and blacks sliders in Adobe are too similar to each other and confusing as to which to use (they almost seem reversed) - much less targeted than C1. Adobe did away with the brightness slider a few years ago which I really miss in certain circumstances, C1 still has that and I use it often. I still use both programs but will always use C1 to start with (and most likely finish with), and will use Adobe for pixel-based work if necessary.

Capture one is lacking AI features. The new Ai doesn’t do properly

The interpretation of your raw file comes down to the used profile. I bet you did not pay attention in lightroom and just used Adobe standard or some similar garbage what most people do. I select my profile in camera and already fine tune my look there and then set lightroom to just take that over which is not possible in c1. So your whole comparison is nonsense. Please get familiar with setting the right profile settings in lightroom.

Very informative, thanks!!