Is it absolutely necessary to use Capture 1 to get optimal results with Sony RAW files?

[dalethephotographer]

One other thing. If you use a 5k imac, C1 is monumentally slow. Almost crippled.

 

[hungrylau]

So I went back to LR to play a bit, as I'd been quite accustomed to using C1 for my photos.

I chose one picture to edit, and I've done a fairly severe crop (removed children, and other family members). I'm left with my cousin, who is in the far right of the frame.

In LR:

Camera profile Neutral (I was unable to use Standard as it cast a harsh yellow glow on everything)

• Exp +1.15
• contrast 15
• vibrance 10
• saturation 15

NR

• sharpening 50
• detail 50
• luminance 75
• detail 50

I wasn't able to go much warmer/higher in contrast/vibrance/saturation without doing odd things to the rest of the image. That's about as far as I am comfortable pushing those sliders in LR. On a side note, by using camera profile neutral, it loaded up it's own camera curve as well.

In Capture One Pro for Sony (I bought the full sony version):

• Exposure 1.15
• Contrast 5
• Saturation 5

Camera profile: Standard

• Sharpening: 160
• radius 1
• threshhold 1

NR

• Luminance 50
• Detail 50
• Colour 50

In relation to both images, they are both pleasing but in different ways. replicate the C1 look in LR because there was no similar preset to Sony Film Standard, and quite frankly, I don't have the LR editing skills to do so.

I've since gone towards warmer colours for my photos, so the C1 profiles and the minimal adjustments work the best for me, as the raws seem to be a touch more flexible in C1 than in LR. Not only that, but I still had some leeway with curves because this still stayed one straight diagonal line in C1 after the adjustments that I had applied.

I don't know which one is better, but I can also say that C1 is faster in building previews, and loading pictures. The edits that I do are quite simplistic, so C1 wins for me. I should also note that C1 has a habit of crashing, maybe because I've loaded far too many presets *cough* styles into the back end?? Or maybe the SSD that I bought is already failing and struggling after 2yrs.. argh.

 

[SigZero]

I was neither happy with LR/CR or C1 as for color rendering. The factory provided profiles were quite not satisfactory.

The only way I got correct color representation was to build custom camera profile using ColorChecker board. This changed drastically the way LR/CR renders RAW images from A6300. I'm not sure if this is the case for other Sony cameras, but my observation is that factory profiles in C1 and LR/CR are pretty poor.

br, Pawel.

 

[rjjr]

So I went back to LR to play a bit, as I'd been quite accustomed to using C1 for my photos.

I chose one picture to edit, and I've done a fairly severe crop (removed children, and other family members). I'm left with my cousin, who is in the far right of the frame.

In LR:

Camera profile Neutral (I was unable to use Standard as it cast a harsh yellow glow on everything)

• Exp +1.15
• contrast 15
• vibrance 10
• saturation 15

NR

• sharpening 50
• detail 50
• luminance 75
• detail 50

I wasn't able to go much warmer/higher in contrast/vibrance/saturation without doing odd things to the rest of the image. That's about as far as I am comfortable pushing those sliders in LR. On a side note, by using camera profile neutral, it loaded up it's own camera curve as well.

In Capture One Pro for Sony (I bought the full sony version):

• Exposure 1.15
• Contrast 5
• Saturation 5

Camera profile: Standard

• Sharpening: 160
• radius 1
• threshhold 1

NR

• Luminance 50
• Detail 50
• Colour 50

In relation to both images, they are both pleasing but in different ways. replicate the C1 look in LR because there was no similar preset to Sony Film Standard, and quite frankly, I don't have the LR editing skills to do so.

I've since gone towards warmer colours for my photos, so the C1 profiles and the minimal adjustments work the best for me, as the raws seem to be a touch more flexible in C1 than in LR. Not only that, but I still had some leeway with curves because this still stayed one straight diagonal line in C1 after the adjustments that I had applied.

I don't know which one is better, but I can also say that C1 is faster in building previews, and loading pictures. The edits that I do are quite simplistic, so C1 wins for me. I should also note that C1 has a habit of crashing, maybe because I've loaded far too many presets *cough* styles into the back end?? Or maybe the SSD that I bought is already failing and struggling after 2yrs.. argh.

In the examples you provided, the one processed in C1 is definitely cleaner.

 

[rfe777]

So I went back to LR to play a bit, as I'd been quite accustomed to using C1 for my photos.

I chose one picture to edit, and I've done a fairly severe crop (removed children, and other family members). I'm left with my cousin, who is in the far right of the frame.

In LR:

Camera profile Neutral (I was unable to use Standard as it cast a harsh yellow glow on everything)

• Exp +1.15
• contrast 15
• vibrance 10
• saturation 15

NR

• sharpening 50
• detail 50
• luminance 75
• detail 50

I wasn't able to go much warmer/higher in contrast/vibrance/saturation without doing odd things to the rest of the image. That's about as far as I am comfortable pushing those sliders in LR. On a side note, by using camera profile neutral, it loaded up it's own camera curve as well.

In Capture One Pro for Sony (I bought the full sony version):

• Exposure 1.15
• Contrast 5
• Saturation 5

Camera profile: Standard

• Sharpening: 160
• radius 1
• threshhold 1

NR

• Luminance 50
• Detail 50
• Colour 50

In relation to both images, they are both pleasing but in different ways. replicate the C1 look in LR because there was no similar preset to Sony Film Standard, and quite frankly, I don't have the LR editing skills to do so.

I've since gone towards warmer colours for my photos, so the C1 profiles and the minimal adjustments work the best for me, as the raws seem to be a touch more flexible in C1 than in LR. Not only that, but I still had some leeway with curves because this still stayed one straight diagonal line in C1 after the adjustments that I had applied.

I don't know which one is better, but I can also say that C1 is faster in building previews, and loading pictures. The edits that I do are quite simplistic, so C1 wins for me. I should also note that C1 has a habit of crashing, maybe because I've loaded far too many presets *cough* styles into the back end?? Or maybe the SSD that I bought is already failing and struggling after 2yrs.. argh.

In the examples you provided, the one processed in C1 is definitely cleaner.

Define "cleaner".

 

[rjjr]

So I went back to LR to play a bit, as I'd been quite accustomed to using C1 for my photos.

I chose one picture to edit, and I've done a fairly severe crop (removed children, and other family members). I'm left with my cousin, who is in the far right of the frame.

In LR:

Camera profile Neutral (I was unable to use Standard as it cast a harsh yellow glow on everything)

• Exp +1.15
• contrast 15
• vibrance 10
• saturation 15

NR

• sharpening 50
• detail 50
• luminance 75
• detail 50

I wasn't able to go much warmer/higher in contrast/vibrance/saturation without doing odd things to the rest of the image. That's about as far as I am comfortable pushing those sliders in LR. On a side note, by using camera profile neutral, it loaded up it's own camera curve as well.

In Capture One Pro for Sony (I bought the full sony version):

• Exposure 1.15
• Contrast 5
• Saturation 5

Camera profile: Standard

• Sharpening: 160
• radius 1
• threshhold 1

NR

• Luminance 50
• Detail 50
• Colour 50

In relation to both images, they are both pleasing but in different ways. replicate the C1 look in LR because there was no similar preset to Sony Film Standard, and quite frankly, I don't have the LR editing skills to do so.

I've since gone towards warmer colours for my photos, so the C1 profiles and the minimal adjustments work the best for me, as the raws seem to be a touch more flexible in C1 than in LR. Not only that, but I still had some leeway with curves because this still stayed one straight diagonal line in C1 after the adjustments that I had applied.

I don't know which one is better, but I can also say that C1 is faster in building previews, and loading pictures. The edits that I do are quite simplistic, so C1 wins for me. I should also note that C1 has a habit of crashing, maybe because I've loaded far too many presets *cough* styles into the back end?? Or maybe the SSD that I bought is already failing and struggling after 2yrs.. argh.

In the examples you provided, the one processed in C1 is definitely cleaner.

Define "cleaner".

Cleaner is a term used to describe a comparatively higher signal to noise ratio, that is, lower noise levels.

 

[cxsparc]

..

In the examples you provided, the one processed in C1 is definitely cleaner.

Define "cleaner".

Cleaner is a term used to describe a comparatively higher signal to noise ratio, that is, lower noise levels.

The processing is quite a bit different: The LR (on top) is bleaker, less saturated, more detailed (maybe due to less NR?). The C1 below is more naturally saturated, slightly less detailed on pixel level.

Top LR, bottom picture C1



--
German/English Nex/A6000-Blog: http://luxorphotoart.blogspot.de/

 

[rfe777]

So I went back to LR to play a bit, as I'd been quite accustomed to using C1 for my photos.

I chose one picture to edit, and I've done a fairly severe crop (removed children, and other family members). I'm left with my cousin, who is in the far right of the frame.

In LR:

Camera profile Neutral (I was unable to use Standard as it cast a harsh yellow glow on everything)

• Exp +1.15
• contrast 15
• vibrance 10
• saturation 15

NR

• sharpening 50
• detail 50
• luminance 75
• detail 50

I wasn't able to go much warmer/higher in contrast/vibrance/saturation without doing odd things to the rest of the image. That's about as far as I am comfortable pushing those sliders in LR. On a side note, by using camera profile neutral, it loaded up it's own camera curve as well.

In Capture One Pro for Sony (I bought the full sony version):

• Exposure 1.15
• Contrast 5
• Saturation 5

Camera profile: Standard

• Sharpening: 160
• radius 1
• threshhold 1

NR

• Luminance 50
• Detail 50
• Colour 50

In relation to both images, they are both pleasing but in different ways. replicate the C1 look in LR because there was no similar preset to Sony Film Standard, and quite frankly, I don't have the LR editing skills to do so.

I've since gone towards warmer colours for my photos, so the C1 profiles and the minimal adjustments work the best for me, as the raws seem to be a touch more flexible in C1 than in LR. Not only that, but I still had some leeway with curves because this still stayed one straight diagonal line in C1 after the adjustments that I had applied.

I don't know which one is better, but I can also say that C1 is faster in building previews, and loading pictures. The edits that I do are quite simplistic, so C1 wins for me. I should also note that C1 has a habit of crashing, maybe because I've loaded far too many presets *cough* styles into the back end?? Or maybe the SSD that I bought is already failing and struggling after 2yrs.. argh.

In the examples you provided, the one processed in C1 is definitely cleaner.

Define "cleaner".

Cleaner is a term used to describe a comparatively higher signal to noise ratio, that is, lower noise levels.

Dunno, this image, compared to the one processed in Lightroom, looks too contrasted and too saturated.

 

[rjjr]

..

In the examples you provided, the one processed in C1 is definitely cleaner.

Define "cleaner".

Cleaner is a term used to describe a comparatively higher signal to noise ratio, that is, lower noise levels.

The processing is quite a bit different: The LR (on top) is bleaker, less saturated, more detailed (maybe due to less NR?). The C1 below is more naturally saturated, slightly less detailed on pixel level.

Top LR, bottom picture C1

--
German/English Nex/A6000-Blog: http://luxorphotoart.blogspot.de/

I see more coat and hair detail along with less noise in the C1 processed image.

As to the processing being different, that's precisely what using different software is all about. The processing in C1 produced a better technical image than with that same image processed in LR and that's what it's all about.

Isn't the point to get the best image possible?

 

[rjjr]

So I went back to LR to play a bit, as I'd been quite accustomed to using C1 for my photos.

I chose one picture to edit, and I've done a fairly severe crop (removed children, and other family members). I'm left with my cousin, who is in the far right of the frame.

In LR:

Camera profile Neutral (I was unable to use Standard as it cast a harsh yellow glow on everything)

• Exp +1.15
• contrast 15
• vibrance 10
• saturation 15

NR

• sharpening 50
• detail 50
• luminance 75
• detail 50

I wasn't able to go much warmer/higher in contrast/vibrance/saturation without doing odd things to the rest of the image. That's about as far as I am comfortable pushing those sliders in LR. On a side note, by using camera profile neutral, it loaded up it's own camera curve as well.

In Capture One Pro for Sony (I bought the full sony version):

• Exposure 1.15
• Contrast 5
• Saturation 5

Camera profile: Standard

• Sharpening: 160
• radius 1
• threshhold 1

NR

• Luminance 50
• Detail 50
• Colour 50

In relation to both images, they are both pleasing but in different ways. replicate the C1 look in LR because there was no similar preset to Sony Film Standard, and quite frankly, I don't have the LR editing skills to do so.

I've since gone towards warmer colours for my photos, so the C1 profiles and the minimal adjustments work the best for me, as the raws seem to be a touch more flexible in C1 than in LR. Not only that, but I still had some leeway with curves because this still stayed one straight diagonal line in C1 after the adjustments that I had applied.

I don't know which one is better, but I can also say that C1 is faster in building previews, and loading pictures. The edits that I do are quite simplistic, so C1 wins for me. I should also note that C1 has a habit of crashing, maybe because I've loaded far too many presets *cough* styles into the back end?? Or maybe the SSD that I bought is already failing and struggling after 2yrs.. argh.

In the examples you provided, the one processed in C1 is definitely cleaner.

Define "cleaner".

Cleaner is a term used to describe a comparatively higher signal to noise ratio, that is, lower noise levels.

Dunno, this image, compared to the one processed in Lightroom, looks too contrasted and too saturated.

The LR version looks somewhat veiled/washed out and lacks pop due to the noise and lower contrast. The C1 image looks more real. The noise in the LR version isn't part of the original scene.

If you like lower contrast, it's just a push of a slider away, but the noise is a different matter.

 

[rfe777]

So I went back to LR to play a bit, as I'd been quite accustomed to using C1 for my photos.

I chose one picture to edit, and I've done a fairly severe crop (removed children, and other family members). I'm left with my cousin, who is in the far right of the frame.

In LR:

Camera profile Neutral (I was unable to use Standard as it cast a harsh yellow glow on everything)

• Exp +1.15
• contrast 15
• vibrance 10
• saturation 15

NR

• sharpening 50
• detail 50
• luminance 75
• detail 50

I wasn't able to go much warmer/higher in contrast/vibrance/saturation without doing odd things to the rest of the image. That's about as far as I am comfortable pushing those sliders in LR. On a side note, by using camera profile neutral, it loaded up it's own camera curve as well.

In Capture One Pro for Sony (I bought the full sony version):

• Exposure 1.15
• Contrast 5
• Saturation 5

Camera profile: Standard

• Sharpening: 160
• radius 1
• threshhold 1

NR

• Luminance 50
• Detail 50
• Colour 50

In relation to both images, they are both pleasing but in different ways. replicate the C1 look in LR because there was no similar preset to Sony Film Standard, and quite frankly, I don't have the LR editing skills to do so.

I've since gone towards warmer colours for my photos, so the C1 profiles and the minimal adjustments work the best for me, as the raws seem to be a touch more flexible in C1 than in LR. Not only that, but I still had some leeway with curves because this still stayed one straight diagonal line in C1 after the adjustments that I had applied.

I don't know which one is better, but I can also say that C1 is faster in building previews, and loading pictures. The edits that I do are quite simplistic, so C1 wins for me. I should also note that C1 has a habit of crashing, maybe because I've loaded far too many presets *cough* styles into the back end?? Or maybe the SSD that I bought is already failing and struggling after 2yrs.. argh.

In the examples you provided, the one processed in C1 is definitely cleaner.

Define "cleaner".

Cleaner is a term used to describe a comparatively higher signal to noise ratio, that is, lower noise levels.

Dunno, this image, compared to the one processed in Lightroom, looks too contrasted and too saturated.

The LR version looks somewhat veiled/washed out and lacks pop due to the noise and lower contrast. The C1 image looks more real. The noise in the LR version isn't part of the original scene.

If you like lower contrast, it's just a push of a slider away, but the noise is a different matter.

Noise is dependant on the ISO number that was set when the image was taken. As this is a night scene, even with the street lights, it could be pretty high...

 

[rjjr]

So I went back to LR to play a bit, as I'd been quite accustomed to using C1 for my photos.

I chose one picture to edit, and I've done a fairly severe crop (removed children, and other family members). I'm left with my cousin, who is in the far right of the frame.

In LR:

Camera profile Neutral (I was unable to use Standard as it cast a harsh yellow glow on everything)

• Exp +1.15
• contrast 15
• vibrance 10
• saturation 15

NR

• sharpening 50
• detail 50
• luminance 75
• detail 50

I wasn't able to go much warmer/higher in contrast/vibrance/saturation without doing odd things to the rest of the image. That's about as far as I am comfortable pushing those sliders in LR. On a side note, by using camera profile neutral, it loaded up it's own camera curve as well.

In Capture One Pro for Sony (I bought the full sony version):

• Exposure 1.15
• Contrast 5
• Saturation 5

Camera profile: Standard

• Sharpening: 160
• radius 1
• threshhold 1

NR

• Luminance 50
• Detail 50
• Colour 50

In relation to both images, they are both pleasing but in different ways. replicate the C1 look in LR because there was no similar preset to Sony Film Standard, and quite frankly, I don't have the LR editing skills to do so.

I've since gone towards warmer colours for my photos, so the C1 profiles and the minimal adjustments work the best for me, as the raws seem to be a touch more flexible in C1 than in LR. Not only that, but I still had some leeway with curves because this still stayed one straight diagonal line in C1 after the adjustments that I had applied.

I don't know which one is better, but I can also say that C1 is faster in building previews, and loading pictures. The edits that I do are quite simplistic, so C1 wins for me. I should also note that C1 has a habit of crashing, maybe because I've loaded far too many presets *cough* styles into the back end?? Or maybe the SSD that I bought is already failing and struggling after 2yrs.. argh.

In the examples you provided, the one processed in C1 is definitely cleaner.

Define "cleaner".

Cleaner is a term used to describe a comparatively higher signal to noise ratio, that is, lower noise levels.

Dunno, this image, compared to the one processed in Lightroom, looks too contrasted and too saturated.

The LR version looks somewhat veiled/washed out and lacks pop due to the noise and lower contrast. The C1 image looks more real. The noise in the LR version isn't part of the original scene.

If you like lower contrast, it's just a push of a slider away, but the noise is a different matter.

Noise is dependant on the ISO number that was set when the image was taken. As this is a night scene, even with the street lights, it could be pretty high...

Yes. The fact that C1 handles that noise so much better is one of my main reasons for choosing C1 over LR or ACR for converting Sony RAWs.

 

[1sol3ss]

The exposure in lightroom is half stop higher hence more noise and washed out look.

 

[rjjr]

The exposure in lightroom is half stop higher hence more noise and washed out look.

That's a awful lot of noise for only a half stop.

 

[1sol3ss]

Considering the high iso of the original photo , 2/3 or half stop it's going to affect the noise a lot.

 

[mcslsk]

LR 6 latest version has a profile.

 

[hungrylau]

The exposure in lightroom is half stop higher hence more noise and washed out look.

It ties into the Capture One camera standard vs the LR 5 2012 Camera Neutral profile.

The original image was underexposed by about a stop, so while both C1&LR have exposure at +1.15, capture one has more detail and less noise in the face, while managing to retain deeper blacks. The image also holds up to further editing without the addition of increased colour noise.

If I dialed down exposure on LR, it would have needed to be a local adjustment layer because the blacks and the face exposure don't match what I get in C1 when I move the slider downwards. The LR skin tone is closer to my cousin's real skin tone, but the C1 hair + jacket/top thing she's wearing is pretty much spot on.

The LR profile also had issues with yellow tinges around the face, but no such issues popped up in C1.

I hope that's a good elaboration.

 

[CE3]

However, RAW conversions from C1 are not per se "better". They just have more aggressive defaults, which some people prefer over Adobe.

Not quite.

When I compared C1 and ACR I zeroed all default settings in both and C1 definitely does a better job than ACR. All one has to do is to process the same image in both to see it. For example, the treatment of open sky is much better in C1 than ACR with C1 producing a much smoother rendition with more accurate color than does ACR.

Since C1 express is free it's easy for anyone with ACR to compare the two and see which is more suitable for their work.

Yeah, if and when C1 can be used as a photoshop plugin, I might check it out. In the meantime, the Bridge > ACR > Photoshop workflow is what I have the most experience with, and I'm not willing to sacrifice the convenience of being able to quickly toggle back and forth between plugins in Photoshop.

There's still so much for me to learn and improve upon with the software I'm currently using, and as a photographer in general. I'm not interested in learning a new program if it makes my workflow more fragmented and clunky. ACR is more than powerful enough for my needs.

 

[rjjr]

Considering the high iso of the original photo , 2/3 or half stop it's going to affect the noise a lot.

The fact that C1 handles the high ISO so much better than LR is the lesson here.

 

[1sol3ss]

capture 1 doesnt NOT handles iso better than anything else, it just applies more aggressive defaul setting, i wonder if you ever used or you are just being a troll.

If you apply the same noise reduction in C1 and lightroom , the latter does a MUCH better job,

Infact i just took a photo in my room ISO6400 , these are the crops with 40 luminance noise reduction applied to both..

Lightroom

Capture1