Capture One 20 vs Lightroom Classic or Photoshop

[Janice]

Am curious what your opinions are on these three editing software programs. I have Lightroom now but haven't gotten to learn how to use it well yet. Wondered if Capture One 20 might be more intuitive?

 

[KCH]

I use C1P and Affinity Photo (I also use Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher). I find C1P to be much more intuitive and powerful than LR, but that is just my opinion. You can download a free trial if you want to try it.

The major difference in LR and C1P is layers...

 

[gfcphotography]

This is a topic which is usually found on all forums! Very difficult and very subjective - I always used Lightroom and Photoshop until I decided to buy Capture One and was blown away by the quality of the final image. Subsequently have tried Affinity, Luminar, On1 and DXO Photolab. Oh and ACDSee, Exposure X5, Darktable, Rawtherapee and Gimp! The last three are free but I never had the patience to perservere and learn them.

Lightroom and Photoshop are very close to Capture One (and I feel they have got closer recently) but Capture One just "looks" better but my current favourite is DXO Photolab 3 with the Nik plugins. I find it hard to stick to one!!

 

[Steveatesh]

I moved from LR a while ago, tried ON1 but found it too resource intensive and slow so then to C1 Sony. The RAW rendering is, in my opinion, the best out of the bunch and the layers for very localised alterations are very easy to use and very powerful. Colour manipulation is excellent and then skin tone tool particularly good for portraits (which I do professionally).

The other thing that stands out in C1 is the sessions - so much easier for me than a full catalogue. I do a separate session for each client or shoot and add to them if there is more than one shoot over a period of time. I have also done the same for geographical locations for landscapes. It really is a good way of organising!

I use it alongside Affinity Photo as required, the two play very well together and AP is extremely capable too. A wining combination in my view!