Hi guys,

here is a very real world comparison I did between Capture One and Lightroom:

https://youtu.be/WXj580hrjBU

I would like to hear your thoughts on what you personally prefer. And let us know if you are exclusively a retoucher or photographer/retoucher.

I trialed Capture One (twice) but found that I could not get along with the sliders in the UI. At the time, I was using either Silver Efex Pro or Alien Skin Exposure for b&w conversions, but have since abandoned those. Lightroom is the only software I use now, from RAW conversion to printable output.

It's a mystery.

i like the capture one most. Lighroom is way better now, but few years ago it was no comparison to image quality it could do especially with nikon.
Imho of course. Nowadays i would say cameras and software are rarely a limiting factor in ones imagination.

I switched over the C1 2 years ago.  The images were just better out of the box.  And, it was sooooo much faster when even just going from one image to the next.  The images were fully rendered almost immediately.  In LR, I had to be in Library mode for it to be acceptably fast, but, the images were soft until I view them in Develop mode...and took a few moments for it to render.  Fucking annoying.

When first switching over, there is quite a learning curve...at least for me.  Whatever you got used to doing in LR, throw it out the window 'cause it'll just confuse you if try it in C1.

Really loving the skin tone adjustments in C1.

@Kathyk- You are absolutely right that cameras and softwares are rarely the limiting factor to get the final image. They just make our experience more pleasurable. If you get great quality faster without any annoying steps, that one wins. Sadly, there is a tie as both could be amazing, but they have different issues, resulting in a love-hate relation with both like many users face.

@Black Z Eddie- Yes, the Skin Tone editor is the best and even rivals Photoshop for ease. The current LR is much faster and I didn't notice much difference from C1 for rendering. But I haven't tested with more than 100 images from a shoot, so the lag could still be there with 1000+ images.

I use both. Capture One usually for raw from PhaseOne/Hasselblad and Lightroom for others (Nikon, Canon, Sony etc.). Also for me Lightroom have more friendly interface.

I recall the biggest sticking point for me with C1 was the lack of a grad filter control, I use that a lot in Lightroom.