Luminous Landscape Forum

Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Capture One Q&A => Topic started by: Jorge M. on December 18, 2013, 04:12:03 pm

Title: Capture One 7 Pro vs NIK software
Post by: Jorge M. on December 18, 2013, 04:12:03 pm
 This is my first post in here, I recently registered to this forum. I find it very interesting and informative.

  I'm a hobbyist when it comes to my photography and I'm curious about your opinion regarding C17 Pro vs  C17 Express+ NIK software.

  I currently use C17 Express, I find its color rendition and highlight recovery among the best, at least with my files it seems to be the case,
now that C1 is on sale I'm tempted to upgrade to the PRO version and take advantage of its use of Local Adjustments through the use of layers and
also its very capable Color toolset.  

       I wonder if doing localized adjustments in RAW before exporting as TIFF gives better quality than doing basic adjustments in C1 then exporting as TIFF
and doing local adjustments in NIK Viveza, Color Efx and the like.

   Would I be better served with C17 Express + NIK or jump to C17 PRO and later on get the NIK suite?

   Months ago I installed the very generous trial version, but I mainly concentrated on C1 Express because that's what I was interested in and didn't play much
with the PRO version, in hindsight I should have done the opposite.

   Any advice will be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

Jorge M.
Title: Re: Capture One 7 Pro vs NIK software
Post by: Doug Peterson on December 18, 2013, 05:42:30 pm
From a purely technical point of view it is almost always better to work directly with the raw data, than to work from a processed TIFF.

From a workflow, aesthetics, and flexibility point of view it depends very much on your personal taste. Based on your post alone I'd lean towards saying you'll be quite happy purchasing C1 Pro, but the trial is the normal way to make sure of that, so it's too bad you went through your 60 days already! :(
Title: Re: Capture One 7 Pro vs NIK software
Post by: Vladimirovich on December 18, 2013, 11:32:13 pm
  Months ago I installed the very generous trial version, but I mainly concentrated on C1 Express because that's what I was interested in and didn't play much
with the PRO version, in hindsight I should have done the opposite.
you still can download and install C1Pro, then find and download some Phase One MFDB raw files and use C1Pro in "DB" mode to test if you like the relevan functionality of it, even if your trial period is expired... for example user ErikKaffehr = http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=16896 was generous to post some P1 MFDB raw files (just go through his posts on this forum), so I 'd assume you can download them for testing purposes.
Title: Re: Capture One 7 Pro vs NIK software
Post by: Jorge M. on December 19, 2013, 01:48:28 am

 Thanks a lot for the additional info, I will look into downloading those RAW files and see what I can do with that.

  I might have to run a trial on a different PC to be able to test further.
Title: Re: Capture One 7 Pro vs NIK software
Post by: Vladimirovich on December 19, 2013, 10:06:02 am
Thanks a lot for the additional info, I will look into downloading those RAW files and see what I can do with that.

  I might have to run a trial on a different PC to be able to test further.

or check if any of P1 companies have samples of raw files to download... no need to trial on a different PC - C1 shall be free to use in that mode with raw files from their cameras (it is a paid product only for dSLR, P&S, etc cameras - but for cameras/backs from P1 companies it is a free software).
Title: Re: Capture One 7 Pro vs NIK software
Post by: Jorge M. on December 23, 2013, 09:42:19 pm

 Doug Peterson and Vladimir, thanks a lot for your input.

My wallet is 191.25 USD lighter, but I'm really enjoying using the PRO version of C1, it really is much more complete
 than the Express version.  I'm barely scratching the surface of what can be done with it, but so far so good, except for a bug
that will not let me use Auto Masking with some Panasonic RAW files.