Why I Love Capture One For Photography

One of my favorite pieces of software for photography is Capture One. I have been a long time Phase One and Hasselblad user where it was software to use. As well as later with Canon, Nikon, and Sony on DSLRs and mirrorless. I'm going to throw in Leaf here for digital backs as well RIP. I mainly do portrait sessions, e-commerce products, on model, apparel, with the occasional events so it's a little all over the place.

I enjoy working smarter meaning faster and better so I enjoy the advancements that have been made by the program over the years. I'm only going to speak about what are my favorite things about it. For commercial work, I highly recommend you learn to use it as it's industry standard. For bulk/volume work, it is still ok to use but you wouldn't be using it's more notable features so other software could then be viable alternatives.

Organization. I like the ability for the tethered capture, import, and exports to be of a certain name/folder structure. You can filter between color and star ratings to quickly to look at the best choices as the shoot progresses.

Image Fidelity. This software was always one of the best when it comes to RAW processing and color fidelity. The controls for color editing are intuitive. For niche things like noise reduction, which has entered the realm of AI processing, there are other software that maybe better but the reality is those maybe too slow for volume productions. I think Capture One is more than sufficient for most jobs where extreme ISO isn't used.

Previewing and matching. If you want very consistent results, you need to place everything precisely on a set. A lot of the standardized tools like guide, crops, and multiple images including compares, can be put on different viewers now. When working with multiple team members, it's best they are not cluttered around a few screens plus each may want to see the shot slightly different.

A.I. Continuing with the consistency, they've added A.I. to cropping and color matching which is quite useful. I've used this for some shoots with people (and I) are move around a lot. Some strobes may not be as consistent when firing off a lot of shots or the natural light changes a bit. So having this A.I tech can make things more even.

A.I. based masking / selection has greatly speed up selective editing.

Collaboration. I'm a big fan of the relatively new Live for Studio feature because it separates client review and ratings from the actual computer used to shoot. They can choose if they want to follow the latest shots coming in automatically or look at anything in the current sessions folders at their own leisure. I even use this in remote shoots as I create my own Wi-Fi network with a portable router.

Multiple batched output. This is great if a client needs a variety of images of different formats (cropped/uncropped, resolutions, file format). e.g. for review, social media, for editors.

Customization. You can setup your monitors and workspace to show you the tools you frequently use and add one offs to the particular current project you're working one. You can change keyboard shortcuts to how you like.