Capture One Pro 9

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Level 2

387 points

Capture One Pro 9

I've been procrastinating my move away from Aperture. Meaning, I'm still using it.

I tried out Lightroom. (bought it, learned it, used it ... ) But I wasn't really happy with it. I kept telling myself that LR was probably my best option for the obvious reasons. Recently I decided to give Capture One Pro a look. I peaked at it a while back, but never really gave it the effort I did for LR.

So I downloaded Capture One Pro 9. I also watched quite a few tutorials, from understanding the UI, how to import, cull and handle images to a detailed workflow for editing images.

Importing, culling, exporting images in C1 is very impressive. Lots of options and not all the difficult to use. Some differences in termonlogy, but seems like a lot of functionality. I didn't think I could be impressed by Exporting feature, but I was.

The RAW processing engine is good. C1 handles RAW images from my Fuji X-T1 significantly better than Aperture did.

The ability to work with Adjustment Layers is great. I guess since they don't have a program like Photoshop, they don't have to worry about overlap. C1 is obviously not a replacement for PS.

The interface is more like Aperture than LR. You use tabs to move around it's functionality, similar to Aperture's three tabs. C1 not only has more than than three tabs, but it's highly customizable. Much of the UI is highly customizable. You can show/hide tabs and add/remove features in tabs to create the best environment and workflow for you. Unlike LR, which is much more rigid.

You can import Aperture catalogs, though I haven't tried it yet.

Most important, don't take my word for it. If you're still looking for an Aperture replacement, then I would suggest you take a look at some of the videos out there on Capture One Pro. Specifically, some of Capture Pro One Webinars. They're published by the developer of C1, Phase One. They are very thorough, the ones I watched were an hour long. While this might sound like too much time to invest in looking at the software, I found it was the only way to really understand what the SW can do. I've read too many brief articles comparing C1 to LR and Aperture. Which are too brief to fully understand whether or not it will work for you.

I'm going to make the move to C1. But I thought I'd post here for any Aperture users who've been helpful to me over the time I've used Aperture. (no offense to any LR users, of which there are many)

Posted on Jan 3, 2016 5:16 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 6, 2016 8:19 PM in response to 1 Open Loop

I too have some anxiety of separating from Aperture:-( I have always had Aperture since the beginning as well as Lightroom from it's conception as well. Always kept lightroom up to date for helping out friends etc.. but mainly did all my work in Aperture with roundtrips to Photoshop if needed and or other plugs..

Like you, I also had tried capture one pro many versions ago.. but didn't really allow myself to cradle it to every day use.

Lightroom, I believe I kept loaded on my machines out of sheer curiosity of how it was growing and what new it might be able to do.. but always found myself living in Aperture. Ever since the announcement of Aperture closing it's doors I have been really trying to live outside of launching it to bring in anything new that I have shot and have downloaded every trial app I read about from Perfect Photo Suite.. which I purchased.. and I believe seeing the thumbnail preview of my folders which mimic's apertures projects view is what made me try it out, but still jumped right back on to Aperture. Then over to After Shot Pro2, DXO Optics Pro, Acdesee Mac 3 to Alien Skins new app Exposure and probably a few others I have forgotten about and finally like you I decided to download Capture One Pro 9. I too have a Fuji XT-1 and immediately noticed the way C1 Pro handles it's files and fell in love with RAW editing, layers, shadow control and also the color! Tab's are a bit like aperture, but truly wish the interface had better spacing like Aperture as well as a nice project image view. This is a feature I strongly will miss. So far I have only imported about 6 projects into CP1 Pro and have my lightroom still pointing at all my images from my ref drive that I use for CP1 and Aperture. I too have spent the last 3 weekends watching the video library on phase one's website for capture one pro.. and still debating on Sessions or Catalog or both:-( a bit of a toss about that.. Aperture truly made this a breeze and here's the biggest heartache if I make Capture One my do all path.. getting those awesome looking images out of the environment and onto places like iCloud Photo Library. or Photo Stream like Aperture... really wish there was some Share integration in C1. PhotoVia by ON1 is a nice remote way to see your images out of Lightroom.. but a bit longer path if using C1.

So to sum it up. Capture One Pro 9 has me invested enough that I signed up for the cloud version monthly. I still would love to have some roundtrips to app's aperture got along with, like my Affinity Photo, Intensify, Aurora HDR, Pshop and definitely out to cloud stuff like photo streams, dropbox, google drive.. photo via.. etc.. So like you I am bringing more images into C1 Pro and will try importing one of my Aperture library's soon, but really hoping for some Aperture features to fall into something we can all use.

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Answer 2

Jan 7, 2016 5:54 AM in response to RicoFotoChico

Just after my post I stumbled across a useful youtube video that showed a way that we could export out of Capture One Pro over to Photos OS X to have our images end up on our iCloud or Streams.. here is the link for anyone that might wish to keep sharing with apple iCloud methods while adapting to Capture One Pro as their possible Aperture replacement.

https://youtu.be/Z1UkHSA2EkU

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Answer 3

1 Open Loop Author

Level 2

387 points

Jan 7, 2016 5:47 AM in response to RicoFotoChico

The more I learn about asset management in C1, the more I like it. Mainly because I work with referenced files. I never really liked the idea of having a program manage my images. I mean, what if by some crazy far off chance that a company may actually stop supporting their software?

In C1 you can have both managed and referenced images, in the same catalog. In C1 you can also see where your images are stored, by subfolder, on your Mac. You can also quickly see if you actually have any managed assets, if for some reason you clicked on the wrong place when you imported. (hey, who'd ever do that?) It also makes it easy to move things around, if needed.

I like the ability to be able to have multiple catalogs open at once. If Aperture did that, for some reason I never knew it.

I like the fact that you can pick and choose what tab (features/functions) you can work in at any time. Even undock them. Lightroom is much more rigid about this.

I believe it keeps a list of recent imports, not just your last one.

I really like the adjustment layers. You can create one mask and use it for several adjustments. That's rather Photoshop-like.

There's a lot I've learned about C1 v8/9 recently. Enough that I'm going to head down this path for now. There's always LR and Adobes wonderful subscription business model. They seem to make it harder and harder to buy their software.

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Answer 4

1 Open Loop Author

Level 2

387 points

Jan 7, 2016 5:54 AM in response to RicoFotoChico

That is fantastic. Wonderful little automation step to do what I was doing manually. I like C1 a little more now.

I've come to the conclusion that I like Photos. Simple because it's a great app for keeping all the photos I want to share and carry around with me (on all my Apple devices). Having the cloud keeping every one of my devices in sync. No more iTunes syncing photos to iPhone, iPad(s), etc.

I don't put all my photos in Photos (silly name). I use Photos to share just what I want. This cloud based method also helps reduce the amount of storage taken up on my iDevices.

Thanks for sharing this is great.

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Answer 5

Jan 8, 2016 4:21 PM in response to 1 Open Loop

Glad the youtube link was helpful. I managed to still use this method from Capture One Pro to Aperture and then onto to my PhotoStream share album of choice.. however I may try diving in again with the Photos X app again to see if I may be able to bring my fav, edits and shares over to it for all my devices. My only gripe going this route was having all my silly iPhone moments and snaps i take of whatever mixing in with my serious stuff. I still believe Aperture did this much more efficiently and organizing was more intuitive. I need to try Photos for my share box like what you've mentioned and just try not to open Aperture:-( Wow saying goodbye to it, is almost like if we where to all of a sudden not have OS X on our machines! Drastic comparison I know.. lol... but it lends to the anxiety to see it go.

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Answer 6

1 Open Loop Author

Level 2

387 points

Jan 9, 2016 6:42 AM in response to RicoFotoChico

One thing Photos seems to do well, is sharing photos across multiple Apple devices. No more iTunes syncing. Drop in photos, create albums (from C1, LR, etc) and they are backed up to their cloud and synced to all the devices I have.

Plus it's also nice to choose not to keep full res versions on my iDevices. The first time I tested it with my iPad, I freed up a lot of memory. I'll pay for extra Cloud storage for this syncing feature, especially if it means I don't have to buy the largest capacity iDevice.

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Answer 7

Jan 17, 2016 10:26 AM in response to 1 Open Loop

Thanks guys for the reassurance that there's Life After Aperture. Personally, I'm still in the denial/procrastination phase but because I'm still running Mavericks on my MacPro I don't have as much a feeling of impending doom as if I was on El Capitan and was staring down Photos all the time. After years of using Aperture - since 1.0! - I hope I'm not too old to retrain all of my muscle-memory that's adapted to Aperture's single-key commands in order to become as productive on another toolchain.

Like you, I've also used Lightroom sporadically over the years but never really took too it, and am put off by Adobe's aggressive licensing scheme, constant "phoning home" to the mothership, and tendency to spew files and extensions with low-level hooks all over my filesystem.

Capture One was on my radar and I think I downloaded a demo when Aperture's demise was (prematurely?) announced - it looked promising but I wasn't ready to switch over yet. Your reports of the extensive cataloging options and flexible editing UI in C1 are reassuring. Though I still have some basic questions about it...

Does it use GPU resources for accelerating edit operations? I've hot-rodded my MacPro with different (hacked) PC graphics cards over the years and Aperture has mostly responded with nice performance boosts.
Is all the editing non-destructive? Having become addicted to this aspect of Aperture it's a functionality I absolutely would never give up now.
How is the plug-in ecosystem for C1? Do they have an open API for editing and exporting that other developers are responding to? While this kind of thing existed for Aperture it certainly wasn't as well-developed of an architecture as, say, Photoshop and I always felt we were getting sloppy-seconds from 3rd-party vendors.

And do you guys know of any online forums/user groups specifically for Aperture refugees moving to C1? I don't find too many users in the community on dpreview.com where I normally hang out to fall into this category.

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Answer 8

Jan 17, 2016 10:36 AM in response to Steve Hoge

Bob Rockefeller is playing with Capture One: http://www.bobrockefeller.com

I have made a few stabs at it, but have been put off (a bit) by the highly sharpened default images, the cost, and my own lack of familiarity with the UI.

The sad thing is that, for many of us, Apple had done all of the heavy lifting with Aperture (the UI, the conversion of the database,etc.). They only place they were behind was with tools and those are, arguably, the easiest part to write. ;-(

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Answer 9

Jan 17, 2016 2:11 PM in response to 1 Open Loop

Hi !

As a pro photographer, i switched from aperture to Lightroom... And from Lightroom to capture one pro ...

Capture One pro is a must have !

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Answer 10

May 4, 2016 8:08 PM in response to Fredboehli

Hello All, I am just happy to see that I am not the only one who seems to be feeling anxiety with Aperture going away. Since the announcement and me posting here I have been bouncing around like a dented ping pong ball with pretend projects and workflow scenarios, trying to get a feel for how life would be in each app that I have either downloaded, bought or already purchased but had stagnant. So far I have all my RAW's and Jpegs living calmley on one of my external hard drives and have only pointed to them as referrences between..(here it comes) Apple Aperture, Adobe Lightroom_Subscription Model, Capture One Pro9 also prescription monthly model :-(... Corel Aftershot Pro2, and even paid version of On1 Photo Suite.. now I am going loop crazy just trying to stay still. Funny thing is.. no matter what I get great results on.. I still find myself stressed at whats missing from all those apps that Aperture gave.. One huge one for me. is I am a visual learner.. so just seeing folders in some of these apps.. as opposed to the elegant view of Apertures all Projects Glance like view will be an extreme joy kill for me alone. Just about every few weeks I end up launching Aperture again, importing an already done project I have accomplished in one of these other apps and tinker from scratch with Aperture and immediately begin smiling with the synergy with plugs, roundtrips, exports.. you name it.. it was just Rock Solid way to run the house! Now my home is full of mixed furniture from room to room.. cluttered up libraries, catalogs and not having fun cleaning my house anymore.. Not sure if anyone else does this.. but at least every other few days.. I will peek into Macrumors.com.. dprewiew.com and other places just to see if a someone out there invents the same feel as Aperture and or something pro has comeback to my Mac from the mothership so that I can feel pro like my Music and Video brothers whom still have their Logic, Final Cuts to live in... so yeah.. I feel a bit a miss still. Hope my words match someone else's recent fog.

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