While Adobe continues to spend its time and resources on useless updates such as the texture slider and the fragmented Lightroom CC vs CC Classic, there remains to be an abundant amount of changes that users actually want to see.
Being a long-time user of Adobe Lightroom, I find it difficult to even consider the possibility of changing to a competing software. But being as difficult as it may seem, I recently downloaded a trial version of Capture One Pro 12 to see what the fuss was all about. While I haven't made a full-fledged change, the trial has made me realize just how far behind Lightroom really is. Below are five features that I feel Lightroom needs to implement before their customers start fleeing their dreaded software rental for much greener pastures.
Customizable Workspace
Like most editing software, not every user is going to need or want the same things. While Adobe has done what they can to organize things in a meaningful way, there is just no way to please every single person. In recent updates, they have even given you the ability to reorganize the order of the editing panels if you see fit. But this simple customization is a drop in the ocean when compared to the customization options of Capture One Pro. Similar to Adobe Photoshop, users have the ability to hide, show, and move almost every aspect of the software.
If a tool is grouped into a certain panel and you want to move it to another panel, you can. You want a tool to float in a constant location and be ever-present, you can do that too. Want to completely remove everything you don't use, you got it! You can even set up, customize, and save your workspace for different situations. Save a workspace specifically designed for culling and then have a totally different workspace for editing. Seeing as this ability is very similar to that found in Adobe Photoshop, it makes you wonder why after all these years, there is nothing like this available for Lightroom.
The only thing you can do with Lightroom is change the order for the main panels
In Capture One, you can move panels from one tab to another, have panels float, remove tools and panels you don't need, and even change where on the screen the filmstrip is.
Layers
When I first saw the ability to have layers with masks, I didn't think it would offer much more then what was already possible with the local adjustments in Lightroom. After all, in Lightroom, I can already use one of three local adjustments to selectively apply certain adjustments similar to what you can do with layers. I can limit these adjustments based on tone or color. I can even use the brush tool to fine-tune a gradient and I can add and erase parts of the masks that control these adjustments.
The reality though, is the difference between the local adjustments of Lightroom and the layers of Capture One Pro are night and day. Where Lightroom gives you a small subset of adjustments to choose from, Capture one gives you everything. From curves adjustments to color adjustments. You can selectively apply a hue, saturation, and luminance adjustment to a small portion of an image or you can have different curves adjustments for different parts of the frame. Something that is 100% impossible to do in Lightroom.
Not only do you get more adjustments when using Layers in Capture One, but you also get more masking options. From luminance masks to color masks and even an option for refine edge. Applying adjustments to an image in Capture One Pro is like using a chefs knife compared to the sledgehammer that is Lightroom. Accept Capture One gives you the option to use the Sledgehammer option if you still want it.
Color
In Lightroom, you have the ability to control hue/saturation/luminance for a set of specific colors. You can also globally and locally adjust things like white balance and saturation. We already talked about not being able to locally adjust the hue/saturation/luminance for a specific part of an image with Lightroom, but you also cant adjust hue/saturation/luminance of a specific color outside of the predefined colors that Lightroom has given you. With Capture One Pro, you can basically adjust the hue/saturation/luminance of any color independently from every other color. Not only that, but you can even adjust the highlights, mid-tones, and shadows of any color independently from one another. This means that you can change the hue and saturation of a green leaf in sunlight without effecting the green of the grass in the shade.
The options you get with Lightroom
Numerous options for adjusting colors in Capture One Pro
Skin Color
While the ability to adjust and manipulate color in Capture One Pro is obviously superior to anything possible in Lightroom, they take things a step further when it comes to skin tones. Outside the normal color editor, there is a tab specifically designated for skin tone. Here you can sample a persons skin tone and then use a set of sliders to make the hue/saturation/luminance more uniform. This gives you an easy way to get perfect and uniform skin tones without going near any complex and time-consuming retouching options. This is something not even on the Lightroom map.
Shortcut Keys
I recently wrote a review for the Loupedeck+ and talked about how bad the customization options in Lightroom really are. With Capture One Pro, you get a significant upgrade in your ability to customize shortcuts. Again, this comes back around to not every user being the same. If I have a set of shortcuts I constantly want to use, it only makes sense that I should be able to assign those shortcuts to the easiest keyboard keys for me to use. Even these keys can vary from user to user. Some people may want to use keys on the left side of the keyboard while others on the right. If you have the option for keyboard shortcuts, it should be common sense that they should be editable.
Unfortunately, Capture One Pro does share one fault with Lightroom when it comes to shortcuts. Neither gives you the option to assign a shortcut key to a preset (or style if you are in Capture One). Thankfully you have the ability to work around this with the use of the Loupedeck+, but I think this should be a must-have option for both pieces of software.
Capture One Pro also seems to be missing the option to use some keyboard shortcuts that can be found in Lightroom. Things like "reset crop" don't seem to be present and there is no way to "Paste from previous" as you can in Lightroom. Instead, you have to first copy the settings and then paste those settings to the next image. If I do make the switch to Capture One, this "paste from previous" button would be sorely missed.
Conclusion
These are five things I feel Adobe Lightroom needs to change before they start drastically losing customers. More and more Lightroom users are making the switch to Capture One Pro because these changes are not new requests. These holdbacks along with the forced subscription model are causing users to explore new options. As companies like DVLOP also get ready to launch support for Capture One Pro, making the change will only become easier and easier.
What changes would you like to see made to Adobe Lightroom?
Jason Vinson is a wedding and portrait photographer for Vinson Images based out of Bentonville, Arkansas. Ranked one of the Top 100 Wedding photographers in the World, he has a passion for educating and sharing his craft.
Gosh . . . I sure like that texture slider. It’s pretty much a simplified one-slider frequency separation esque smoothing of the skin. Not near as powerful, but a welcome addition. I tried C1 (actually I bought it because I was convinced I was going to switch, probably due to all they hype on fstoppers) for weeks, but could not get used to some of the dumb and slow ways of doing things (like one clone/heal instance per layer). I find LR much faster to work in, and try as I might, I could not get the same image to ever look as good in C1 as I could in LR. I guess I find their raw conversion has this baked in dull/faded look to it. Yes, C1 has more flexibility for sure, and while I do like their skin tone panel, I’ve never had a problem getting great skin tones in LR.
Great skin tones in LR isn't a problem but the ability to even out skin in C1 is where the difference is. And I agree! The texture slider in LR is fantastic! But the problem is that's the biggest update they have given us on a while. Since they have gone to CC they only give small intermittent updates because there is no need to encourage people to upgrade to anew version. All they have to do is give a slow drip and hope that no one realizes how thirsty they really are.
Useless in the grand scheme of updates. It's a nice and useful slider. But it's nothing in comparison to what users want and have been asking for. It's a drip into the bucket that needs to be filled.
Maybe you should edit your article, because you specifically call it a “useless feature” . . . not an update. Probably to incite a little lash back from chumps like me to get some action on your article.
I can't jump ship until someone implements stacking.
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I stopped using Lightroom because the subscription model is too much of a pain in the backside. One-time fees suit my lifestyle (as a freelancer with dramatic upturns and downturns in cash flow) much better.
I've found CaptureOne to be much more intuitive than Lightroom and I think that's always been my problem with Adobe products - they tend to build on the last iteration without ever asking, "What could we have done better from a UX perspective?"
So, for now at least, I am staying away from Adobe, I've found something that works better for me.
I've been hating the lack of modernization, baby-stepping features, not fixing 20 years bugs and lack of user response to the tools we want, Adobe has shown in the past 10 years. I've started moving my clients to other software and I'm hoping to be rid of this cloud BS by next year
I've been mucking about with alternatives to LR because I have the last "non-subscription" edition and it's getting long in the tooth.
I've noticed lots of folks arguing that LR is better than the competition. I agree.
But I haven't noticed anyone taking issue with the headlines claim that bleeding customers is an integral and inevitable part of Adobe's business model. Because we all know it is.
So the question for me isn't whether RAW editor X is better than LR, the question is "do the disadvantages of RAW editor X irritate me more or less than the background feeling I get of being screwed every time I use an Adobe product?"
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How about an article "5 Changes Adobe Need to Make to Bridge Before Lightroom Users Who don't Need Photoshop Start Considering Alternatives"?
I recently tried Capture One 12 and had similar feelings. I fell in love with the color tools and the layer system is very nice, but what really impressed me was the way it processed raw files. It made the CR3 files from my EOS R look like I upgraded my camera!
Unfortunately it really falls down for me from a workflow perspective. No simple flags, C1 only uses stars and color labels. I could work with the rating system, but what really slowed me down was the lack of things like image stacking, snapshots, HDR & pano merging, and 'open as layers in Photoshop'. If anyone knows a good workaround I'm all ears, because Lightroom makes all that exceedingly easy.
Also, the crop tool is horrible in capture one. Very confusing to use for what should be a very simple process. It drives me nuts it doesn't just show the cropped version in the grid view/filmstrip, but rather the full image with a crop frame overlay. Very distracting.
When shooting real estate and architectural stuff, I shoot for the edit with flash layers and ambient layers. I need to be able to either open as layers in a tool like photoshop, or do those composites in C1 directly. If you primarily shoot and edit single exposures (portraits, weddings, etc) and don't do a lot of compositing, C1 is a no brainer. Hell I might still pick up a copy for shoots that don't require a lot of composting or if I start tethering a lot.
Lightroom never was, nor is, designed to be a tool that allows you to do anything and everything. It is a tool intended to make WORKFLOW easy for photographers who process large numbers of photos without major editing.
If you buy a butter knife to carve a steak, more fool you. Nothing wrong with the tool, it just isn't for your needs. Be smart and pick the right tool, rather than professing that the tool is broken.
Exactly, couldn't agree with you more. You explained it perfectly.
If I have a large batch of photos to edit, LR classic is what I use tied in with the PFixer panel. The workflow for me works very well on culling and quickly editing, and when I need to bump the photo to Photoshop CS6, CMD-E and my photo is now open in PS. When I'm done, save and CMD-W and I'm back in lightroom to finish.
And lets not forget tying in with xrite color checker to give you a custom color profile, which is brilliant (its probable that C1 does this as well, just saying this is a great feature to take advantage of).
Adobe Camera Raw does everything that Lightroom does without the overblown screens and ridiculous filing system. Bridge to ACR to Photoshop is easy, fast and gives the photographer control instead of the software. The best thing Adobe could do for photographers is to give up Lightroom.
Outside of the unique tool for skin tones, all the things you mentioned are easily done in Photoshop. Lightroom is not a photoshop replacement. It is a tool for building a database of your images, for making culling a shoot fast and easy and for doing global adjustments. For working on individually selected images, that is what photoshop, with its layers, masks and other tools is for.
I admit that I use local adjustments but only sparingly. My workflow is that I import via lightroom the raw files from a shoot using a "user-generated" import adjustments that I developed for the way I shoot and for my camera. Then I go through the shoot and select out the images I want to present to my clients.
Once I have culled down the shoot to my first or second round selects, I will go through those images by image and make any exposer, color and other adjustments that I deem necessary but these are only rough adjustments. Often this step is not needed since I covered most of the needed adjustments in the first go-round.
Once my clients pick the keepers, I will go through those images again and do any color grading or finer adjustments as needed. I then export those raw images as PSD files and do any further adjustments and pixel-level retouching on those PSD files.
Would Capture One produce better files? Maybe but there is also the convenience of working in a software package that I already pay for via my Creative Cloud subscription. Years ago I took a raw file and converted it with both Lightroom and Capture One and I could not see a difference. Maybe now there is.
Everything you mentioned can be done in C1. They just offer more options and fine tuning. I agree everything and more can be done in PS, but I'd rather spend as little time as possible loading and saving files over and over. For smaller shoots it's not a huge deal. But when working with a thousand images, adding 10 seconds of save and load time to each file drastically increases edit times.
I dumped LR years ago. No need for it. I am not a pro photographer, but for my needs Affinity Photo combined with Exposure4 is all I need. It baffles me why people are spending their hard earned money and frustration on the junk the LR is.
The only thing I want for LR or LR CC that Capture One Seems to have is a vectorscope with the skin tone line. Coming from video editing first, it is INSANE to me that a Photo editing software touted to be used by portrait photographers do handle RAW files would not have an option to view a scope along with the histogram view. Why can't you just cycle through those scopes? they all aid in different areas that the other does not, and even more emphasizing mobile editing, means the more chances of using un calibrated monitors so again, use SCOPES to be accurate and not rely on JUST your eye.....use both, its better. I am even shocked that there is not a simple plugin for this for LR. Am I the only person that sees a good thing in being able to accurately adjust and make sure skin tone is correct? more then just "looking at it".
As a video editor as well, I completely understand your comments on scopes, but that has never been part of the photography world. I think for most, this would "over-complicate" the process.
I also believe that scopes are more of a benefit (necessity) with "moving images" as the shot has constant moving elements and environmental aspects that is best shown on a device that can best represent this, such as scopes. (I love using the "skin-tone line" on the scope, great reference point).
So props for C1 to include it, but in my opinion, this tool is "probably" lost on most.
I own Capture One Pro 11, Alienskin Exposure X4, and subscribe to LR Classic.
Capture One needs a customizable workspace because it’s a clusterduck. LR is so simple a well laid out it doesn’t really need it. The one thing that always bothered me was not being able to remove the standard LR presets that I never use. That was addressed last year.
Making local adjustments on CO is too time-consuming. On LR I can use a couple of gradient tools or brush without going through that layer hassle. In theory layers sound great, however, with CO’s dismal interface, it is clunky at best. Just try to clone out 20 pieces of debris on the ground and then come tell me how awesome those layers are.
CO interface is archaic when it comes to making batch adjustments and it has NO HISTORY.
LR DOES need to improve its performance, especially from high core count processors, and make better use of GPU’s. Local adjustments tools need to have hue/saturation/luminance control. And stop the memory leaks that require a restart every hour or two.
None of the programs offer the perfect solution, but the LR is by far the most intuitive when working with a large number of photos, X4 is 2nd, and CO is by far the worst.
C1 layers are a nice feature. but you are only allowed 16 layers to an image. That can be somewhat limiting,esp. if you are doing cloning as well as adjustments.
Adjustment layers allow you to make a lot of changes but it is not accurate to say that they let you do anything you can do globally, There are a number of global adjustments that cannot be applied to layers..
C1 cataloging is quite lacking compared to LR. I have ~20k images in my catalog and the same in my LR 6 catalog. Searching the entire catalog for anything in my LR catalog returns my results instantly. The same search in C1 can take as long as 15 minutes.
If you switch from LR to C1 and you decide to import all of your images into C1, adjustments you made in LR are not copied into C1. All those LR adjustments have to be re-done in C1. The road to importing your LR catalog into C1 is also fraught with potholes.I did it, but it took a lot of attempts before C1 did it right and even then there was a lot of fallout to fix in C1 after the import. The better option might be to leave the old images in LR and add new images to C1 as you take them.
C1 offers "sessions" which are not catalog-based and bypass its catalog problems. That may be a better way for some.
C1 is no panacea. All software has its limitations and its bugs. Is it worth trading LR bugs for a different set of bugs in C1? Sometimes C1's bugs and limitations make me want to scream, but that was the case with LR too. Pick your poison.
Capture One is a lot better than LR. I love using LR but it is too rudimentary when it's all said and done. There are too many aspects you want control over that LR cannot address. I can use LR (almost) with my eyes closed but I bought Capture One and I am looking at others.
The author wants a bunch of nonsense. Here is some good stuff.
The book functionality is great except where it's horribly broken:
* Behavior with collections is perplexing in the extreme ... you can't get rid of "the" collection
* Save is weird
* Templates don't come with gutters!!!
* Template editor doesn't come with measurement or grid
* Can't save templates!!!
Gallery functionality would be cool but it's an afterthought:
* Can we at least have control over large image sizes?!?
* Pretty much everything in the export dialog that makes sense to add
* Pretty much everything in Portfolio that makes sense to add
Ok, photo editing:
* CMYK mode for dropper!!! This is for skin tone sanity checks in particular; add other color models while you're at it?
* Add CMYK (extended colorspace, yes this is weird) curves adjust, LAB, HSL too
* Other skin tone tools
* Tone subtract/add layer (negative masks etc)
* "Negative" mode that doesn't invert tools
* Match color checker (like profile tool)
* Save profile (like DNG tool)
* Color matrices like profile tool
* Fix the crappy adjustments to 16-bit TIFF (exposure absolutely blows)
Remember that Lightroom is a UI for DNG converter. Don't make DNG into PSD. Sure, compositing and adjustment later might make sense, but keep it sane.
Also remember that Photoshop has DNG processing (basically Lightroom) as a filter! It's amazing!!!
The switch was already done last year. Capture One gives me a much better approach for my images as LR does. Of course, I still have LR, but this 'only' because it is connected with my website.
Gosh . . . I sure like that texture slider. It’s pretty much a simplified one-slider frequency separation esque smoothing of the skin. Not near as powerful, but a welcome addition. I tried C1 (actually I bought it because I was convinced I was going to switch, probably due to all they hype on fstoppers) for weeks, but could not get used to some of the dumb and slow ways of doing things (like one clone/heal instance per layer). I find LR much faster to work in, and try as I might, I could not get the same image to ever look as good in C1 as I could in LR. I guess I find their raw conversion has this baked in dull/faded look to it. Yes, C1 has more flexibility for sure, and while I do like their skin tone panel, I’ve never had a problem getting great skin tones in LR.
Great skin tones in LR isn't a problem but the ability to even out skin in C1 is where the difference is. And I agree! The texture slider in LR is fantastic! But the problem is that's the biggest update they have given us on a while. Since they have gone to CC they only give small intermittent updates because there is no need to encourage people to upgrade to anew version. All they have to do is give a slow drip and hope that no one realizes how thirsty they really are.
Did I miss something? I’m pretty sure your opening line in this article declares that the texture slider is useless . . .
Useless in the grand scheme of updates. It's a nice and useful slider. But it's nothing in comparison to what users want and have been asking for. It's a drip into the bucket that needs to be filled.
Maybe you should edit your article, because you specifically call it a “useless feature” . . . not an update. Probably to incite a little lash back from chumps like me to get some action on your article.
No I agree with you. It's not a useless feature. But is a useless update in comparison to what is really needed. I changed my wording.
I can't jump ship until someone implements stacking.
I stopped using Lightroom because the subscription model is too much of a pain in the backside. One-time fees suit my lifestyle (as a freelancer with dramatic upturns and downturns in cash flow) much better.
I've found CaptureOne to be much more intuitive than Lightroom and I think that's always been my problem with Adobe products - they tend to build on the last iteration without ever asking, "What could we have done better from a UX perspective?"
So, for now at least, I am staying away from Adobe, I've found something that works better for me.
I've been hating the lack of modernization, baby-stepping features, not fixing 20 years bugs and lack of user response to the tools we want, Adobe has shown in the past 10 years. I've started moving my clients to other software and I'm hoping to be rid of this cloud BS by next year
I've been mucking about with alternatives to LR because I have the last "non-subscription" edition and it's getting long in the tooth.
I've noticed lots of folks arguing that LR is better than the competition. I agree.
But I haven't noticed anyone taking issue with the headlines claim that bleeding customers is an integral and inevitable part of Adobe's business model. Because we all know it is.
So the question for me isn't whether RAW editor X is better than LR, the question is "do the disadvantages of RAW editor X irritate me more or less than the background feeling I get of being screwed every time I use an Adobe product?"
How about an article "5 Changes Adobe Need to Make to Bridge Before Lightroom Users Who don't Need Photoshop Start Considering Alternatives"?
I’m with you, I’d rather see Bridge get updated, I hate using LR to organize photos and then editing in PS, it’s not an intuitive process.
It's amazing how many anti Lightroom, and pro Capture One articles can be found on this site. It looks like the site is sponsored by Phase One....
I recently tried Capture One 12 and had similar feelings. I fell in love with the color tools and the layer system is very nice, but what really impressed me was the way it processed raw files. It made the CR3 files from my EOS R look like I upgraded my camera!
Unfortunately it really falls down for me from a workflow perspective. No simple flags, C1 only uses stars and color labels. I could work with the rating system, but what really slowed me down was the lack of things like image stacking, snapshots, HDR & pano merging, and 'open as layers in Photoshop'. If anyone knows a good workaround I'm all ears, because Lightroom makes all that exceedingly easy.
Also, the crop tool is horrible in capture one. Very confusing to use for what should be a very simple process. It drives me nuts it doesn't just show the cropped version in the grid view/filmstrip, but rather the full image with a crop frame overlay. Very distracting.
When shooting real estate and architectural stuff, I shoot for the edit with flash layers and ambient layers. I need to be able to either open as layers in a tool like photoshop, or do those composites in C1 directly. If you primarily shoot and edit single exposures (portraits, weddings, etc) and don't do a lot of compositing, C1 is a no brainer. Hell I might still pick up a copy for shoots that don't require a lot of composting or if I start tethering a lot.
Lightroom never was, nor is, designed to be a tool that allows you to do anything and everything. It is a tool intended to make WORKFLOW easy for photographers who process large numbers of photos without major editing.
If you buy a butter knife to carve a steak, more fool you. Nothing wrong with the tool, it just isn't for your needs. Be smart and pick the right tool, rather than professing that the tool is broken.
Exactly, couldn't agree with you more. You explained it perfectly.
If I have a large batch of photos to edit, LR classic is what I use tied in with the PFixer panel. The workflow for me works very well on culling and quickly editing, and when I need to bump the photo to Photoshop CS6, CMD-E and my photo is now open in PS. When I'm done, save and CMD-W and I'm back in lightroom to finish.
And lets not forget tying in with xrite color checker to give you a custom color profile, which is brilliant (its probable that C1 does this as well, just saying this is a great feature to take advantage of).
Adobe Camera Raw does everything that Lightroom does without the overblown screens and ridiculous filing system. Bridge to ACR to Photoshop is easy, fast and gives the photographer control instead of the software. The best thing Adobe could do for photographers is to give up Lightroom.
Outside of the unique tool for skin tones, all the things you mentioned are easily done in Photoshop. Lightroom is not a photoshop replacement. It is a tool for building a database of your images, for making culling a shoot fast and easy and for doing global adjustments. For working on individually selected images, that is what photoshop, with its layers, masks and other tools is for.
Then why do they have an entire set of local adjustments?
I admit that I use local adjustments but only sparingly. My workflow is that I import via lightroom the raw files from a shoot using a "user-generated" import adjustments that I developed for the way I shoot and for my camera. Then I go through the shoot and select out the images I want to present to my clients.
Once I have culled down the shoot to my first or second round selects, I will go through those images by image and make any exposer, color and other adjustments that I deem necessary but these are only rough adjustments. Often this step is not needed since I covered most of the needed adjustments in the first go-round.
Once my clients pick the keepers, I will go through those images again and do any color grading or finer adjustments as needed. I then export those raw images as PSD files and do any further adjustments and pixel-level retouching on those PSD files.
Would Capture One produce better files? Maybe but there is also the convenience of working in a software package that I already pay for via my Creative Cloud subscription. Years ago I took a raw file and converted it with both Lightroom and Capture One and I could not see a difference. Maybe now there is.
Everything you mentioned can be done in C1. They just offer more options and fine tuning. I agree everything and more can be done in PS, but I'd rather spend as little time as possible loading and saving files over and over. For smaller shoots it's not a huge deal. But when working with a thousand images, adding 10 seconds of save and load time to each file drastically increases edit times.
I dumped LR years ago. No need for it. I am not a pro photographer, but for my needs Affinity Photo combined with Exposure4 is all I need. It baffles me why people are spending their hard earned money and frustration on the junk the LR is.
The only thing I want for LR or LR CC that Capture One Seems to have is a vectorscope with the skin tone line. Coming from video editing first, it is INSANE to me that a Photo editing software touted to be used by portrait photographers do handle RAW files would not have an option to view a scope along with the histogram view. Why can't you just cycle through those scopes? they all aid in different areas that the other does not, and even more emphasizing mobile editing, means the more chances of using un calibrated monitors so again, use SCOPES to be accurate and not rely on JUST your eye.....use both, its better. I am even shocked that there is not a simple plugin for this for LR. Am I the only person that sees a good thing in being able to accurately adjust and make sure skin tone is correct? more then just "looking at it".
As a video editor as well, I completely understand your comments on scopes, but that has never been part of the photography world. I think for most, this would "over-complicate" the process.
I also believe that scopes are more of a benefit (necessity) with "moving images" as the shot has constant moving elements and environmental aspects that is best shown on a device that can best represent this, such as scopes. (I love using the "skin-tone line" on the scope, great reference point).
So props for C1 to include it, but in my opinion, this tool is "probably" lost on most.
I own Capture One Pro 11, Alienskin Exposure X4, and subscribe to LR Classic.
Capture One needs a customizable workspace because it’s a clusterduck. LR is so simple a well laid out it doesn’t really need it. The one thing that always bothered me was not being able to remove the standard LR presets that I never use. That was addressed last year.
Making local adjustments on CO is too time-consuming. On LR I can use a couple of gradient tools or brush without going through that layer hassle. In theory layers sound great, however, with CO’s dismal interface, it is clunky at best. Just try to clone out 20 pieces of debris on the ground and then come tell me how awesome those layers are.
CO interface is archaic when it comes to making batch adjustments and it has NO HISTORY.
LR DOES need to improve its performance, especially from high core count processors, and make better use of GPU’s. Local adjustments tools need to have hue/saturation/luminance control. And stop the memory leaks that require a restart every hour or two.
None of the programs offer the perfect solution, but the LR is by far the most intuitive when working with a large number of photos, X4 is 2nd, and CO is by far the worst.
Why is Lightroom people so Mad?
Lol, I know right.
C1 layers are a nice feature. but you are only allowed 16 layers to an image. That can be somewhat limiting,esp. if you are doing cloning as well as adjustments.
Adjustment layers allow you to make a lot of changes but it is not accurate to say that they let you do anything you can do globally, There are a number of global adjustments that cannot be applied to layers..
C1 cataloging is quite lacking compared to LR. I have ~20k images in my catalog and the same in my LR 6 catalog. Searching the entire catalog for anything in my LR catalog returns my results instantly. The same search in C1 can take as long as 15 minutes.
If you switch from LR to C1 and you decide to import all of your images into C1, adjustments you made in LR are not copied into C1. All those LR adjustments have to be re-done in C1. The road to importing your LR catalog into C1 is also fraught with potholes.I did it, but it took a lot of attempts before C1 did it right and even then there was a lot of fallout to fix in C1 after the import. The better option might be to leave the old images in LR and add new images to C1 as you take them.
C1 offers "sessions" which are not catalog-based and bypass its catalog problems. That may be a better way for some.
C1 is no panacea. All software has its limitations and its bugs. Is it worth trading LR bugs for a different set of bugs in C1? Sometimes C1's bugs and limitations make me want to scream, but that was the case with LR too. Pick your poison.
What about performance issues?
At this point in time, I only use LR as a cataloging tool. I only edit in Photoshop. Works for me.
I have an easy solution for you, use Photoshop. It has all of the features mentioned in this article
File rename!
people are mad off all the Capture One article. BUT! we have hade watch all the LR article over the past 12 years..Hmmm!
Capture One is a lot better than LR. I love using LR but it is too rudimentary when it's all said and done. There are too many aspects you want control over that LR cannot address. I can use LR (almost) with my eyes closed but I bought Capture One and I am looking at others.
(why is Google showing this to me now?)
The author wants a bunch of nonsense. Here is some good stuff.
The book functionality is great except where it's horribly broken:
* Behavior with collections is perplexing in the extreme ... you can't get rid of "the" collection
* Save is weird
* Templates don't come with gutters!!!
* Template editor doesn't come with measurement or grid
* Can't save templates!!!
Gallery functionality would be cool but it's an afterthought:
* Can we at least have control over large image sizes?!?
* Pretty much everything in the export dialog that makes sense to add
* Pretty much everything in Portfolio that makes sense to add
Ok, photo editing:
* CMYK mode for dropper!!! This is for skin tone sanity checks in particular; add other color models while you're at it?
* Add CMYK (extended colorspace, yes this is weird) curves adjust, LAB, HSL too
* Other skin tone tools
* Tone subtract/add layer (negative masks etc)
* "Negative" mode that doesn't invert tools
* Match color checker (like profile tool)
* Save profile (like DNG tool)
* Color matrices like profile tool
* Fix the crappy adjustments to 16-bit TIFF (exposure absolutely blows)
Remember that Lightroom is a UI for DNG converter. Don't make DNG into PSD. Sure, compositing and adjustment later might make sense, but keep it sane.
Also remember that Photoshop has DNG processing (basically Lightroom) as a filter! It's amazing!!!
The switch was already done last year. Capture One gives me a much better approach for my images as LR does. Of course, I still have LR, but this 'only' because it is connected with my website.