Coming back to photography: ditch Adobe?

[Derek Zeanah]

Life and Covid turned me into an unhappy hermit, and it’s time to bring photography back into my life after a few years away. I discovered the existence of the GFX line yesterday, and now I’ve got a 50s ii and kit lens arriving next week and while I don’t feel man enough for a photo a day challenge, I’ll probably start a photo a week commitment.

I’m shooting for satisfaction and challenge only, and while looking at tools I’m not that happy with the way Adobe has gone these last few years. I don’t want cloud, and I don’t want monthly fees for the rest of my life.

so as I think about Fuji GFX workflow, and I search a bit, it looks like this might be the time to just move to C1. My editing needs are minor - occasional focus stacking and panoramas in addition to the normal stuff like library management, and basic image editing.

Am I unnecessarily handicapping myself by thinking about completely moving to C1 (and supplemental tools like Helicon Focus) and just putting Adobe products in the rear view mirror?

is there a good resource for kick-starting myskills with C1 so I can hit the ground running?

thanks.

 

[MGrayson]

C1 has some comparative weaknesses, but nothing more than a minor annoyance. If you were working on a big project with other people, Adobe's Asset Management would be a factor. (C1 people - feel free to jump in and tell me how behind the times I am). I've always preferred the output from C1, especially on Fuji (more a comment on how poor Adobe handles Fuji colors - despite Fuji's own profiles). Printing from C1 used to be very hit or miss. I think it has gotten much better. I stay with Adobe largely because I have a friend who is quite expert with it and it's easier to ask him questions than to figure out C1 by myself. And the Canon printing plugin for Lightroom is really superb.

C1 has a learning curve, but it can produce beautiful images. Go for it!

Matt

 

[stngoldberg]

personally I find Adobe an amazing tool that continues to get better with every release.
The new enhance feature is terrific. The selection tools are so sophisticated
stanley

 

[Geoff]

Adobe is very good, but I really enjoy the straightforwardness of C1. Each shoot is its own session, collect outputs into a yearly catalog. Works well.

 

[MGrayson]

The OP isn't taking issue with Adobe's capabilities, but with the unavailability of a perpetual license - what we used to call "owning".

 

[stngoldberg]

I don’t mind renting Adobe, as it’s features are unique. I have access to C1 with my Phase 1 back, but rely on Adobe for my best finished product

 

[pegelli]

I don't think 10$ a month for a program is very expensive and very comparable to "buying/owning" a perpetual license and making the yearly upgrade to the next version.

But it's the "end play" I don't like since when you stop the subscription the develop module gets disabled so you can't edit your photo's that have been imported during the subscription any more. I think it would be better if they disabled further import of new photo's (the library and import modules still work after the end of the subscription) but in return kept the develop module operational.

But I also agree C1 colour handling is easier than Lightroom, allthough with practice and experience you can get the same result in both.

Enjoy your new camera, and to paraphrase another saying "the best raw converter is the one you have on your computer and use most"

 

[Derek Zeanah]

Thanks, folks.

with regard to the subscription model it’s less about price and more about “pay us for access, forever. It is likely our innovation rate will slow and the rates will climb, but we have locked you in anyway.” Or at least that’s my feeling about that model based on prior experience.

I’d rather avoid that model entirely, and I prefer to deal with companies who want to earn my business rather than take it for granted.

I also understand how others might not feel the same.

thanks for your insights, folks.

 

[darr]

I can understand why some people dislike ‘renting’ software they may have thought they owned in the past. We do not ever own software that works forever. A program I used before it became very popular, NIK Color, I paid a lot for way back before most people heard of it. Then it became freeware after Google bought it and at the time I was teaching full time and had my students download it and use it. Then a few years later it was bought by someone else, and we had to pay for it again. Then after they upgraded it a few times, it did not work as it had before on my computer and became clunky. Then when another $99 upgrade appeared, I decided I was done with it after losing confidence in the new programmers and looking back over all I had invested in time and money for a few of their software tools.

We either pay upfront and hope the software keeps whatever consistency we are paying for, or we rent for a small fee and can possibly bail out with a smaller loss. I actually prefer to rent software, especially from a company as committed as Adobe. One thing I do know from being a classroom instructor of post-processing software is you need to stick to a small select group of programs because it takes years to master a technique and your choice of tools can help guide or hinder the process. Too much jumping around only wastes valuable time.

Best to you,
Darr

 

[MGrayson]

Wall of text deleted.

Matt

 

[Derek Zeanah]

Well, so far it looks like the fastest way to get up to speed with C1 to give it a fair shot is the Capture One Pro 21 Essentials course on Linked in Learning.

many other resources y’all can recommend?

 

[MGrayson]

Well, so far it looks like the fastest way to get up to speed with C1 to give it a fair shot is the Capture One Pro 21 Essentials course on Linked in Learning.

many other resources y’all can recommend?

Don't they have their own Youtube Videos? Granted, I learned in a small class, and having a human to ask questions of and to look at your work in progress was REALLY helpful.

BTW, the C1 advanced color editor and skin tone tools are extraordinary. They hide behind the basic color editor. While an automatic process is never as good as a skilled practitioner, they can get you 80% of the way there VERY quickly. Granted LR and PS have gotten much better - not in capability, as all these systems can do anything - but in ease of getting the result you want. I don't miss C1 as much as I used to.

 

[JeffK]

Been using photoshop since v3 when they introduced layers. Even did retouching for a living when I worked in prepress and advertising. Whether it’s subscription or buy you’ll spend the same. Monthly subscription is much easier for businesses to write off and keep capital investment low.

however, I still have the master collection v6 installed on my old 11” MacBook Air running an older OS. Used it to run some old scanner software.

 

[PeterA]

I subscribe to the creative suite from Adobe because Photoshop and Illustrator are irreplaceable. I used to use LR classic ( never Cloud) and store my own files in my own way(s)
These days I use C1 and use Sessions to keep my photography in order - so I pay not for LR but for PS and other programs and their clear superiority to the myriad of copy cat wannabe SaaS competitors.

In use:

Colour images render differently on import between LR and C1 - but this is a bit of a mirage with some trickery thrown in I wouldn't base my decision on what appears to 'look' better on screen before any PP is done. That said I do prefer the rendering of C1 for Fuji files in particular and Leica files as well- and since I shoot these two systems - that's that done as far as raw processing goes.

For file management :

I prefer C1 - because I think Sessions are better than LR Library(database) - I have tried C1 catalogs - and won't go back there either - the database functionality for large image collections is really the 'Achilles heel' of both programs tbh.

 

[dougpeterson]

-starting myskills with C1 so I can hit the ground running?

DT Capture One Basics and DT Capture One Masters are both now available as pre-recorded online classes. They are, respectively, the most comprehensive introduction and most advanced classes available (in my biased opinion)

 

[Hasslebad]

Well, so far it looks like the fastest way to get up to speed with C1 to give it a fair shot is the Capture One Pro 21 Essentials course on Linked in Learning.

many other resources y’all can recommend?

I learned from playing around and watching PhaseOne/Capture One’s tutorial videos. The Art of Photography had a couple of good C1 tutorials as well. I found C1 quite intuitive.

 

[gurtch]

I am a long time user of Photoshop, and I upgraded up until CS 6, and then it reverted to subscription. I was familiar with that version, and comfortable using it. I have a ton of Photoshop "actions", and "filters", that were installed with Photoshop 6, and I did not want to lose them. I still have Photoshop 5 on my hard drive because there are actions and filters installed with that version. Since I paid and downloaded many of those add ons, for P.S. 5, many (most) of the companies are out of business, and I have no disks. I am now using Sony and GFX, and of course P.S. 6 does not support the latest cameras. But DXO Photolab does. It has outstanding lens correction modules, and does a wonderful job converting those raw files. So I process raw files in DXO, and finish in P.S. 6.
Good luck.
Dave

 

[anwarp]

Paul Reifer’s live edits on YouTube are good to learn new tricks.

 

[MartinN]

I use Lightroom 6, Capture One 12 DB and Serif Affinity Photo and AM really satisfied with the features. Won’t buy a new camera every year, so that helps.

 

[Bill Caulfeild-Browne]

I've been a C1 user since I moved to a Phase One system many years ago. I too had PS3 though PS6 and eventually moved to CC - but only used it for panos and printing. Since mastering printing with C1, I only use PS for stitching. If C22 can do that well, I'll drop CC altogether.