Lightroom vs Capture One: Which One Should You Choose?

When it comes to photography, editing is a crucial part of the process. And while there are many editing softwares out there, the one we hear over and over again is Adobe Lightroom. However, I decided to look into other options and found Capture One Pro.

What is Capture One Pro?

Capture One Pro is developed by Phase One. Phase one is a company that not only develops this software, but they also make medium format cameras and sensors. So, their expertise in sensor and camera architecture might benefit them in making a great editing software. Capture One Pro is originally a software that is designed more for use in studio photography. However, that's not to say that it can't be used for other photography types. It still has very good color grading and hsl features. Additionally, with capture one, you can buy it once and use that current version as long as you want. If you want to get regular updates though, you have to choose one of the monthly or yearly subscriptions. Which is a bit of a bummer.

Capture One Pro vs Lightroom

I have been using both softwares for a while now and they each have their own pros and cons. First off, let's start with the advantages of Lightroom over Capture One.

Lightroom Over Capture One Pro

• Presets: The amount of presets available for Lightroom is a lot. You can find premade presets online, you can use the built in presets and overall it's just a very nice experience using the default Lightroom presets. That's not to say that capture one doesn't have presets, but the amount of presets available is not as much as Lightroom. Additionally, I found the preset application process in Lightroom to be easier than Capture One.
• Object Removal: With the addition of the new AI tools in Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, Lightroom has a very nice object removal tool. It can fill the spaces very smoothly and gives you several options to choose from. Capture one also has an object removal tool but it's not AI based and it's just a healing tool. Therefore, Lightroom has an advantage in this area.
• Cloud Syncing: I absolutely love the cloud syncing of Lightroom. You can automatically sync your photos to the cloud, view them from your other devices (including mobile devices) and edit them from any device you want while not worrying about losing your edits anywhere. And I find that it's also a nice place to store your favorite photos. Now I have seen that Capture One also has something called "Capture One Live" for cloud photos but I have not tried that out myself.
• Stacking Masks: One thing I like about lightroom is that you can stack multiple masks on top of each other. For example when you select the sky, you can add a gradient to that sky selection so that you still select only the sky but with a gradient selection selecting more of the bottom and less of the top for example. I like this feature and it comes in useful sometimes.

Capture One Pro Over Lightroom

• Pricing Options: If you just want to pay once for your editing software, then Capture One is the way to go. You can buy it once and never have to worry about it. Though I have to say that not getting any updates to the software is a bit of a downside. Technology is moving fast and there are new features and tools that are being added to Lightroom and Capture One all the time. So you would want to get the new updates.
• Coloring Suite: The coloring options in Capture One are just great. You can select colors very precisely, control the smoothness and control individual lightness, saturation and hue of the colors and stack them on top of each other. Moreover, there is a specific skin color selection tool that's great at selecting skin tones.
• Mask Edits: While in lightroom you can edit most stuff with masks and it has been plenty enough for me, in capture one you can edit everything with masks. Which means that everything you can edit on your normal edit settings, you can edit with the masks too which is great.

Pricing And Value

Now we have reached an important part of the comparison. The pricing. At the time of this blog, capture one All In One subscription is 25.9 euros per month. This is quite a bit more expensive than the 12 euro per month lightroom and Photoshop subscription. You can also choose to get the less expensive pro version for 17.9 euros but then you don't get the iPad app which is important for me. So, in terms of pricing, I would say Lightroom is a clear winner. You pay less in either case, and you get photoshop included with your subscription which is awesome.