Capture One Version 11 released

[bdbits]

Capture One has a new version out. Upgrade price for the Sony Pro version is $69.

What's new in Capture One 11? | PhaseOne

Looks like some good improvements, and supposed to be faster. I will probably upgrade at some point.

 

[Andy Clement]

Is upgrading worth it? I am so entrenched with Lightroom CC. There is also the learning curve.
I'm tempted though because of the raw processing of sony files.

 

[bdbits]

I think a yes/no answer is difficult as a lot depends on your preferences, workflow, etc. When I switched, it was partly because I found LR's interface overly restrictive and modal. The C1 interface is extremely customizable, and you can save layouts for different editing setups (it comes with several defined). I also think C1 did a better job rendering my RAWs before I even touched them, and editing was more in line with the way I think about it. It has since grown to support, if you want to use it, extensive use of layers (not quite to Photoshop levels yet), great localized editing, and has always had some amazing color controls I have not begun to take advantage of. There are other things but those are the highlights for me. I much prefer it, but not everyone will.

The biggest thing LR has going for it, in my mind, is the community of people using it. C1 has built enough of a base that an online community is there, and there are lots of tutorials and articles out now, but not to the extent of Lightroom. And LR is also more extensible, whereas while C1 supports sharable presets and configurations, on Windows at least it is not scriptable ala LR plugins.

You can download it at Phase One. There are multiple versions. The feature-limited Sony-cameras-only Express version is free for you to use forever. You can unlock all the features for Sony cameras only for $79. You can unlock all the features for all supported cameras for I think $279. The Express version is pretty basic, and I opted for the Sony Pro to have all the features available. You will have 30 days of the full-featured version after you install, and after that it will limit you to the Sony Express feature set.

Edit: Here's one photographer's perspective on making the switch.
Switching From Lightroom to Capture One Pro

 

[Andy Clement]

I've got 2 days left on my pro trial before it defaults to the Sony express version. I should of used it more but LR was just so convenient.

I may opt for the Sony pro at some point. I do like how it renders the Sony files compared to LR.

I am pretty lucky in that the school district the wife works for offers Adobe Creative Cloud for only $15 a year. Lets just say, having several (ie many) friends who work for the same district (who are not photogs and could care less), I'm licensed to use Lightroom through 2022.

Thanks for the info. Something to consider.

 

[Xterra]

Better AND CHEAPER than the LR subscription .... I upgraded to Capture One Pro Sony 11 (US$69 ) from LR6 .... Hate the idea of a subscription model especially moving / traveling between continents Americas / Europe mainly
Goodbye Lightroom! Was a great ride LR3 to LR6

 

[Kiwi Paul]

I've been using Capture 1 Pro for the last month and absolutely love it. I still have a year left on my LR CC sub but I've been using C1 exclusively recently and the more familiar I am with it the more I love it. I still had 2 weeks left of the Pro for Sony trial but I bought the Pro version anyway for £80 (not an upgrade).
It really suits my style and I've easily got my head around the workflow, you can customize the layout to suit and working with layers is brilliant if you need to refine or make changes later.
What a great package, well recommended.
Just hope they support RX100 Mk6 RAW soon.

 

[Clix Pix]

July has been a month of changes for me when it comes to photo gear and image post-processing. For years I've been using Aperture (now no longer supported or updated by Apple), having decided quite some time ago that Photoshop is really overkill for me, not to mention that I didn't care for the idea of a monthly subscription. I bought the Sony RX100 M6 in early July and then decided to try Luminar 2018, which I'm really enjoying. Worked great as I didn't have that many images to process in the beginning and I had set the camera to JPG, which I usually do with a new camera while first becoming familiar with it. The fact that Luminar 2018 does not (yet) have a DAM and catalog system didn't really bother me all that much, and fetching and working on one image at a time wasn't a big deal.....

Then I splurged and bought a Sony RX10 M4, and again used Luminar for PP. This past weekend I was at Ocean City NJ and had both cameras with me, changing the setting to RAW in each because I knew I'd need the flexibility in PP later due to the frequently-changing lighting conditions. Both cameras performed really well shooting a boat parade, fireworks, people, flowers, etc. Ready to begin PP after I got home, reality bit me. Uh-oh, Aperture wasn't going to be able to even show me previews of the images from either camera, since it no longer is up to date. OK, fine, so I hopped into Luminar and aside from the issue with RAW there was also the one-image-at-a-time deal, and there was just NO way I was about to review and cull over 1000 images from both cameras! by handling each image one at a time!!

Happily, I remembered seeing posts here about Capture One for Sony and the Express deal, etc., so promptly downloaded that and so far have just used the free Express program to look at the images from the RX100 M4 and cull out what I wanted to process. So that was fine and dandy -- except that this didn't work for the RX100 M6 since it is still so new. Thankfully I found Sony's own Imagining Edge Viewer software, and that does convert RAW from the RX100 M6 so I can see those images, too. So now I'm juggling several programs in order to get some of these images processed.....

Anyway, I like what I am seeing with Capture One and I probably will go ahead and purchase the Capture One Pro for Sony, as that is a reasonable price and I think the program will suit me well once I get things figured out!

 

[bdbits]

Clix Pix, for culling your photos, you could use something like FastStone Image Viewer. It supports RAWs and you can delete files from within the program. Then edit from Luminar or whatever.

I am a satisfied user of Capture One Pro for Sony, just offering an alternative to the mishmash you are having to use.

 

[Clix Pix]

Thank you! Does FastStone Image Viewer work in the Mac? That certainly would speed up my culling process!

ETA: Just looked and I see that it is a Windows-only product, darn it!

 

[Amin]

I'm another huge fan of C1. My workflow now is C1 + Photoshop. Stopped using LR a long time ago.

 

[bdbits]

Thank you! Does FastStone Image Viewer work in the Mac? That certainly would speed up my culling process!

ETA: Just looked and I see that it is a Windows-only product, darn it!

Oh, sorry... I am not terribly familar with Mac software, but here is a viewer that appears to be popular. I downloaded and installed the version for Windows and it is reading my RAWs just fine. It looks like it shows the embedded preview (which is very fast) but there is a setting to have it read the RAW itself if you want (still seems very fast). I think it will do the job. Note: it is free for personal use, so just hit the download link near the bottom of the page and ignore the pricing info.

XnView Software · XnViewMP

 

[Clix Pix]

Thanks, I'll have a look! Some years ago I had Photo Mechanic, which was great for reviewing/culling images prior to processing, but when I slowed down significantly in taking photos and subsequently needing to review and cull a lot of images at once, I eventually dropped Photo Mechanic, which was expensive when it was time for a complete upgrade, and simply used Preview on my Macs, which works fine for JPGs and for situations where there are not a lot of images.

I need to take a look at some of the CI tutorials so I can learn how to actually use the program, and of course it would behoove me to do that while I am still in the 30-day trial period so that I can decide if I do want to purchase the Pro 11 for Sony version.

 

[Clix Pix]

OK, just downloaded and installed that XnView MP program and did a quick check to see if it does what I need -- and boy, it sure does!!! Hooray!!! Thank you SO much for this; I'd never heard of this program before but it definitely will be very helpful to me right now with sorting through so many images, but also in the future as well.

 

[WNG]

I'm also in the Capture 1 camp, but haven't yet pulled the trigger on the full version. Updated to ver. 11 for Sony and noticed it's a slower to load compared to ver. 10. Of course, this could be from the Microsoft patch for the intel cpu HW bug, but I can't be sure. A few features removed from the Sony Express too.
I did detect some bug while trying to import another folder after some edits. The import window would disappear when I move the mouse over to open a folder drop menu. I discovered the window is still open but no longer overlayed on top of the main edit screen. It would show itself with a few clicks then once again gets covered. Restarting the app restores operation. Another is edit screen stuck on opening a file and the image stayed stuck partially resolved even after clicking on other files. These two seem to be consistent over a period of use to Not dismiss them as a one-time system issue. I know Windows Update can cause odd behavior if not restarted as requested. I didn't have such hiccups with the previous ver. 10 on Win 7 Pro. This has made me a little hesitant to buy the full Pro Sony version. But I still recommend Capture 1 for Sony RAW files. Excellent results.

The scenario Clix Pix stated is one of the reasons I always shoot RAW+JPEG. The full-size JPEGs are great for perusing files to cull as compared to the RAW's embedded 1080 JPEG. Sometimes that resolution is needed to pixel peep the keepers. And the JPEGs can be accessed by a plethora of methods across platforms.

 

[bdbits]

Strange I've not had any of those hangups, Will. It almost sounds like it could be a graphics driver issue where it is not updating the screen properly. Just an idea.

I use C1 with a catalog and do any culling in there with larger thumbnails and the viewer turned off (or on the other monitor). It works well enough for me.

 

[Clix Pix]

OK, so I finally settled down today to see if I could do some actual processing in C1, as earlier I'd just used it to view my images but didn't bother to rate them or to do anything else with them. First thing i did was to go through again and this time rate them, and then look at just the ones with a specific rating (2 stars, 4 stars, etc.) and that was fine. (I'd never done this before so it was a learning experience!) Next I attempted to do a very mild crop of one image, mainly so I could see how the export system works, and ran into snags when I tried to export it either as an original RAW EIP or as a jpg. In both instances I kept getting error messages and the image could not be exported. I tried several times, then rebooted, thinking maybe that was the issue, and made a couple more attempts, but again no joy. Anyone have any ideas about what I might have done wrong somewhere or if there is a step I've omitted? And, yes, I've been consulting the online User manual (which I much prefer to video tutorials) and thought I was following the instructions just as they are written. ??

I don't think my problem is the same as what is described in another post above....but I'm not sure enough in what've been doing in the program to know one way or another! Also, I am on a Mac rather than a PC, using High Sierra.

 

[bdbits]

What error did you get? Are you using defaults?

I don't know why you'd want an EIP, but let's get a basic jpeg/jpg working for you first. It's much better in the long-run to set up process recipes, but let's see if you can get the basic export working first. I am going to assume Mac and Windows are pretty similar (dangerous I know). The simplest method to export is to select your image and choose menu item File > Export Images > Variants. Be sure the destination folder is someplace you can write to, and the export filename has a token or at least some text in it (or the name will default to EmptyName.jpg). If you wish, set options under "Export Recipe" but ensure Format is set to JPEG. Click Export and open that folder and your image should be there.

Help > Online User Guide will take you to the online documentation, which can be pretty sparse but is sometimes helpful. Help > Resource Hub should pop open a dialogue that has a Tutorials tab. These are video clips that are generally much more thorough and walk you through the steps. A bonus for you - they are most if not all done on a Mac. For example, for exporting open Exporting images in Capture One - Learn how in less than 2 minutes. They also have webinars of 30+ minutes, filter on the right-hand side of Capture One Learning Hub - Free tutorials, webinars and blog posts. There are third-party sites for help as well, but I am thinking that should be enough to get you rolling.

 

[Clix Pix]

Thank you, thank you!!!!!! The reason i did the EIP was that when the jpg failed I thought I'd try "Pack as EIP" to see if that would work, and again it failed. OK, I think I see where I might have erred -- I don't recall having a "token" in the export filename, but I did put in the original file name, DSCsomething-or-other..... Maybe I should have gone with the token thingy or used a name other than the original file name? Something like "Jackie at the Beach," for example....?

Language like "Export Recipe" and references to "recipes" confused me so i didn't do anything with regard to that. I did have the format set to JPG, that was my whole purpose....

Maybe I should have set the destination as a specific folder rather than just my desktop? That may be another place where there was error on my part.

Yep, I think I had better watch some of the videos!!!

 

[Clix Pix]

FINALLY, success!! Video did help, thank you for that link! I think I had left off a couple of steps, plus I decided to create a new catalog with a smaller number of images, imported those RAW originals into C1 and then tried again.....just did a quick crop and made sure everything was set up and then hit the export variants button and voila! Whew....

I suspect that one thing that caused me problems was that in the beginning I really didn't know what I was doing and sort of fumbled around so that I could at least see the images, and at that point didn't explore how to do things properly..... Now that I have more time and am not in such a rush, I'm (slowly) getting the picture and over the next little while will spend some time setting things up properly in the first place!

 

[bdbits]

Glad you got it sorted out.

You can put the images wherever you like, including the desktop. I just thought perhaps it was inadvertently set to a protected folder, so I through that in there to cover all bases.

EIPs are useful when you want to pack up some images with edits, send them to someone else to work on, then get them back with their edits to import back to your catalog. Mind you I have never used them, but that is what they are for, or so I believe.

Terminology can be confusing if you are used to something else. I found the whole "recipe" verbage confusing at first, but it is actually a very handy thing. For example, you could have a set of folders for each of several places you intend to share, with a recipe for each with destination folder, name tokens, dimensions, format, etc. When you are finished editing, you tell C1 to process them and all of the export images are created in one fell swoop, each in their respective folder.

Definitely run through the tutorial videos, and when you have the time the webinars which are a bit more in-depth. I have often found I was doing things the hard way when C1 had much easier tools.