It's not accurate to say there is "It does look like there is some highlight recovery happening in Lightroom, even though the recovery slider is set to 0".
Basically most users don't have to think about what a miracle of math is actually going on behind the scenes of any raw processor and so the assumption is that there is "one true photo" and that the different processors are all trying to create it.
In reality the raw data itself is a myriad of very confusing information, full of errors, noise, stuck/hot pixels, color responses which are not linear, lens aberrations, distortions, inversions, and otherwise not just a picture-waiting-to-happen. This is increasingly true as you get to either extreme of the exposure range of the camera (deep shadows and strong highlights) and especially true at higher ISOs and longer exposures.
Now there are some standards (e.g. ICC definitions of color/exposure/ISO etc) and some conventions. But the fine tuning of the math and where to place the default settings are largely arbitrary. There is no "real image" which each software is trying to get as close as possible to. Instead there is a set of data each software is trying to render in the way that will be most pleasing to their target audience (and encourage that target audience to purchase future upgrades and evangelize the product to others).
There are patents, scholastic research, purchasing of proprietary algorithms, collaboration with the camera manufacturers, user feedback, and the tastes/aesthetics of the higher-ups at each company.
In addition to the general math the software uses there is a variable amount of fine tuning for individual cameras. As you'd imagine the amount of tender loving care that goes into fine tuning for a particular camera depends on everything from market share, to how difficult that camera is to tune for, to business arrangements (e.g. Phase One makes both Capture One and manufacturers digital backs - you better believe they spend a lot of time fine tuning Capture One to get the most out of Phase One, Leaf, and Mamiya digital backs), to what cameras the software engineers themselves use (you can bet if the lead software engineer buys an XYZ point and shoot that it will get extra attention).
So what you're seeing is just two different attempts to make sense of that data. There are many cases where a particular camera is better tuned in one software or the other other.
Anyway, it's just one of my schticks.
The more practical answer is to try running the
X-Rite Color Checker Passport calibration to create a DNG profile. This may bring the results more into line with the good out-of-the-box experience you're getting with Capture One.
(warning bias - I work for a Phase One dealer) Of course you may also opt not to fight an uphill battle. If you're getting better color and rendition out of Capture One at defaults maybe you should learn Capture One a bit better. I edit massive numbers of images for the
wedding photography I shoot in C1 and do very extensive raw-level editing (modest HDR/tone-mapping, local adjustments, color editing, sharpening/noise-reduction) in C1 on a small number of landscape/fine-art images. I've never found software that can do either function as quickly or with as good of quality as Capture One.
Of course Aperture and LightRoom have a broader set of plug-ins and functions like web-galleries and book-making for those who need speciality software like that. I use Aperture for it's book making (I process out of C1 and import the relevant files to Aperture).
And of course things are done differently in each program so there is a learning curve involved.
Anyway, try the DNG profiling and develop some presets and see if that gets you where you want to go. If not, explore using C1 for your main workflow.
Doug Peterson
(e-mail Me)
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Head of Technical Services, Capture Integration
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