Moving on from Aperture - Capture One?

[Buffalo]

Short Story: I need to migrate my libraries of photos (several hundred Gb) from Aperture 3 to something else. I like LR but don't like Adobe pay structure, Photos just doesn't seem worth the bother and I'm not interested in the cloud application. What else is there? Is Capture One a good shot? Any experience of transferring from Aperture?


Long story/ whinge: I have Aperture 3, which is pre-App Store. I had it on DVD as an upgrade from v1 on my old MBP1 that was last on Snow Leopard OS (couldn't go any higher due to being 32-bit), and also associated with my old Apple ID. When I bought my new MBP through my new business, I changed the AppleID to keep things separate.

When I tried to re-install Ap3 on the new machine the AppleID conflict pinged up - fair enough, although I was a little surprised as my old MBP1 doesn't know what the App Store is. So I tried to log-in to the new machine through my old AppleID to try and share the app, but it didn't appear in App Store - I'm assuming because of the old OS. If anyone can help with that it would be a start, but otherwise, I am now stuck with needing to access my old Aperture libraries.

If I absolutely had to I would go down the Photos app route, but it just doesn't seem to be a serious piece of software to me (I chose Aperture over iPhotos, and Photos doesn't even seem as good as iPhotos in some respects). Plus, I am kinda annoyed with Apple right now if I'm honest, and wary of trusting them again with my images. I tried LR years ago and quite liked it then, but I don't like Adobe's insistence of going pay per month, I'd rather own the software outright. I have found Capture One, but don't know much about it. It looks fine but I would like to hear any experiences of it.

I'm not a pro photographer but I do need to use good images in my business and having a good app to adjust images is beneficial.

Many thanks..!

[Disastrous]

If you like Lightroom but hate the Creative Cloud plan, you can buy LR6 outright:

https://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop-lightr...

No idea about Capture One though.

[Simpo Two]

I was recommended C1 Pro by an established professional 10+ years ago and have used it ever since (for RAW procesing; Photoshop for the rest)

[Buffalo]

Disastrous said:

If you like Lightroom but hate the Creative Cloud plan, you can buy LR6 outright:

https://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop-lightr...

No idea about Capture One though.

I interpreted that though as not getting future updates (except where bug fixes are required). Or am I mistaken?

[Disastrous]

Buffalo said:

Disastrous said:

If you like Lightroom but hate the Creative Cloud plan, you can buy LR6 outright:

https://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop-lightr...

No idea about Capture One though.

I interpreted that though as not getting future updates (except where bug fixes are required). Or am I mistaken?

No, I think you're right. I presume you would have to buy LR7 (or whatever) if you want new features.

That said, if you're happy with what it does now, then why worry?

Personally, I'm on the photography CC bundle which for a few quid a month seemed a no-brainer to me. I like LR mobile and being able to sync stuff from home and find the CC system pretty painless once up and running.

[markmullen]

I love Capture One Pro and have been using it for several years, for me it just works how I expect an application should.

[steveatesh]

I tried both LR and Capture One Pro and found C1P to give better results and more control over the image through its layers. Sadly it was nearly twice the price as LR and it seemed slow on my retina iMac so ended up going for LR.

I have to say LR is a tremendous library and processing piece of software, I bought it outright as I too didn't want t be captive to Adobe.

Best of luck with whatever you decide.

[andy-xr]

I found Capture One amazing for pulling out a better feel and detail in photos even on initial import. It just seemed as though it was getting more out of them compared to Lightroom. LR always feels a bit washy on colour and can be harsher with the sliders but it gets there and has great cataloguing options. I also like that you can take an image from camera through to print/display with Lightroom fairly intuitively. I found with CaptureOne that it felt backwards, but that's mostly from how I was used to working with Lightroom

Both/either are going to be a better option for editing than Aperture. I think if you also want to catalogue then Lightroom will edge it, but if you want to edit and save to folders I think the image quality and end result from C1 will win you over. Both have trials btw

[ashleyman]

I tried Capture One and Lightroom but stuck with Lightroom. I just preferred it over C1.

[Andy M]

I use Lightroom and have bought each version as it was released, however if I were starting over again today I would choose C1.

I'm not a fan of spending hours editing. I find Lightroom a lot more intuitive therefore it is the better option for me, but C1 appears to produce more detailed files with better tonality.

[page3]

I chose Lightroom because I kept being told how wonderful it was and it turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes I've made. I wasn't convinced after the 30 day trial but stubbornly went ahead and subscribed, believing that with familiarity I'd come to like or at least tolerate it. 6 months later I cancelled my subscription, at my expense.

I found it slow, buggy and unintuitive. The interface is at total odds with Apple UI design and like something from the 80's - ugly and inflexible. It turned my hobby in to something that just wasn't fun, so much so that I simply stopped taking photos.

I'm now using Capture One and am far happier. I do find it a tad slow and DAM capabilities aren't a patch on Aperture. Neither is iCloud/social integration etc.

The market is very poor right now for non-destructive DAM/Editors. There simply isn't a lot of choice. I have hopes that Affinity will come along with their DAM and it'll be great, but all has gone quiet on that front. On1 have a new browser due Autumn, but not convinced after trying their current product.

On Mac at least, Aperture really did reign supreme and Apple did their users a great disservice discontinuing it.

[Simpo Two]

page3 said:

I'm now using Capture One and am far happier. I do find it a tad slow

If your version has the 'add to batch' feature it will process one in the background while you tweak the next one. It usually goes faster than I do - and if not, I can always do something else for a few minutes while it cooks.

Totally agree on LR not being intuitive - I can't even find a 'process' button!

[Digitalize]

What on earth would a process button even do?

I use LR for work, it's a pretty perfect bit of software to be honest. Simple organisation that you can interpret within Finder, and handles all my files fine, great image control, constant updates and new features being added, and implements great with Photoshop obviously.

It's really very simple to use too.

[Simpo Two]

Digitalize said:

What on earth would a process button even do?

OK what's it called in LR-speak?

[RobDickinson]

Simpo Two said:

OK what's it called in LR-speak?

Might help if you tell us what you think it would do?

[Digitalize]

Simpo Two said:

OK what's it called in LR-speak?

At a guess, do you mean the Develop tab, as in where you actually edit the image?

[Simpo Two]

Digitalize said:

Simpo Two said:

OK what's it called in LR-speak?

At a guess, do you mean the Develop tab, as in where you actually edit the image?

The step when you've made the required adjustments and want to generate a JPG (or TIFF).

[RobDickinson]

Export

[Digitalize]

Right click the image and press export. Choose from a variety of presets or make your own, including watermarks.

[Simpo Two]

Ah right. I do recall Ctrl-Shft-E from somewhere. The term 'export' is/was a Mac thing I believe. Export to me means moving a file, not processing it into something else.