More Diddling With Converters and Editing Programs

Well it's an absolutely delightful morning this morning—it snowed last night, and the snow stuck, and this morning it was coating the branches of the trees and covering everything with white frosting. Brilliant, beautiful clear sunlight crept down the far shore and across the lake lighting everything up. One of my peculiar mental idiosyncrasies is that I think I always have to photograph new snow, but this morning I decided to just enjoy it rather than photograph it. So I walked around outdoors with the doggerels and watched the sun bejewel the treetops and slowly clothe the trees in blazing white and diamonds. Loverly.

Cold out there, though. Oddly, this is climate change—the models predict warmer Autumns (check, in '19) and colder Springs (check, so far); the seasons are shifting. October will be the new September. April is the new March. We should dread this, and yet...it's so pretty out there. I hope the snow doesn't hurt the forsythia blooms.

Working very hard doing very little
I had a supremely unproductive day yesterday continuing to diddle with various raw converters and image editing programs. I worked very hard all day and got nothing at all done, with nothing resolved whatsoever. I was so intensely focused on this non-work that I could barely tear myself away and get to bed two hours late.

An aside: Here is what I would do if I were Fuji. As a marketing experiment, I would make a desirable, mainstream, mid-tier camera model (i.e., not a beginner's camera) available with both an X-Trans sensor and with a Bayer sensor, buyer's choice, and see which one sells better. Just so they'd know. I'm not saying I could guess the outcome of the experiment, but I think it might be valuable marketing knowledge. They might just find they sell more cameras of one than the other, or—who knows—they might find they sell more cameras overall by offering the choice. I mean, what if they did that and the Bayer model sold three times as much as the X-Trans? Or, what if both sold strongly and they made new converts left and right? Even if people continued to buy the X-Trans model and gave the Bayer model the cold shoulder, they'd learn they were on the right track and should stay the course.

But I digress.

What did you do staying at home?
Yesterday I downloaded a trial of the new Capture One Pro 20, which turns out to be the first Capture One I've experimented with in more than five years. I got out PhotoNinja and Affinity Photo, watched a video for Alien Skin Exposure5, explored ACR in comparisons to the others, and discovered that Lightroom comes with my Photoshop CC subscription...who knew? I've always been interested in DxO—I'm a fan of that company, unlike some—but of course DxO doesn't support Fuji, so that's that until I switch to Canon or something. (People who think I switch camera brands all the time should know that the first and last Canon I owned was an EOS RT bought new. If that doesn't date me I don't know what will. I liked it a lot, and have nothing at all against Canon. Just haven't gone in their direction, is all. OG has an R but won't tell us what he thinks of it.) 

My version of PhotoNinja was so old it crashed repeatedly. A short visit to Lightroom was just to remind myself that I'm allergic to its UI (I know how mainstream it is, but I've never cottoned to it). The Exposure5 bundle seems best at arty presets that make photographs look like chalk drawings and so forth, and I'm too much of a standard modernist (that is, photographs should look like photographs) to have any use for all that—I stopped short of downloading the trial version.

No affinity
I own Affinity Photo, but if there was ever an editing application that I have no affinity for, it's Affinity. That program just stops me cold again and again, so absurdly that it makes me laugh—generally, it's either confirming that I'm an idiot, or it's cruelly taunting me by making me look like one. Either way I'm an idiot.

Yesterday I opened up my test image in it, clicked on the magnifying glass, clicked on the image, and the image enlarged. As expected. Clicked again and the image enlarged again. Looked for how to make the image smaller or fit the window again and...couldn't find the control for that! Stopped dead in my tracks! I felt like such an incredible imbecile that I just laughed and decided to keep looking until I found a way to zoom the image back out again. How hard could that be? How could such a simple action be so hard to figure out? I looked and looked, in vain. Any percentage indication, anywhere? No. Any key turn the little "+" on the magnifier icon to a "–"? Not that I could find. Eventually, and I mean eventually, I managed to stumble upon, and open, a kludgey little pane in the lower right with a size slider in it, which was awkward to use and too sensitive. Is that it? How could that possibly be it? There's got to be some shortcut I missed.

It feels like something similar has happened to me half a dozen times with Affinity, seemingly each time gird myself and strap on the armor and wade into battle with it. I get to a certain stage and just get stopped cold by something which, to my small mind at least, ought to be simple. One time I had an image open and was happily making all sorts of changes to it when, all of a sudden, the controls stopped having any effect. The image just sat there looking at me, I sat there looking at it, and every control I clicked on did nothing to anything. What had I done? How could I back out of whatever I had done? I tried everything I could think of, looked up some Help sources that were no help (this is my general experience with image editing programs, by the way—the Help is of no help). Finally frustration boils up, bailure level is achieved, and I bail. I never did figure that one out, but that and other such experiences have left me with a "caution response" to Affinity, similar, say, to the way you feel about a restaurant after something you eat there gives you a bowel-twisting bout of Monty's revenge.

Many paths
It does seem to be the case that trials of the sort I presented yesterday are of little value. I ended up believing that the tools are relatively unimportant and the settings are what matter. (I think at least one commenter said as much.) I had to go back and re-process the test image using X Raw Converter when Guy Couture noted the "worms" in the tree-trunk. Which initially I was going to make fun of, but, on reflection and with a slight application of maturity, I have to admit does look to be a sharpening artifact. Then I had to confront the likelihood that my demonstrations were merely determined by the amount of sharpening applied, and face the vexation of trying to match sharpening levels between different programs that of course apply sharpening in different ways. Stephen Scharf accused me of not knowing the Iridient software well enough to get the best out of it, to which I can only plead nolo contendre—anybody who can figure out that software ought to be working as a programmer.

To paraphrase something Frank McLaughlin of Kodak said long ago about dye transfer, one lifetime is not long enough to master both photography and all the image editors out there. Above this whole subject should hang the Dantean warning All Hope Abandon, Ye Who Enter Here.

Which brings me to Capture One 20 (C1-20). I'm loathe to say goodbye to yet another hefty wallop of cash for a big lump of code that's going to sit in my Applications folder and mock me till I'm old, joining the crowd already there, but C1-20 does look to be the joint for Fuji X-Trans. From what I read hither and yon the two companies seem to have put their heads together, and C1-20 is probably the prime candidate to stand up as a challenger to the mighty but aging and overweight champion, Adobe. The controls appear to be flexible and subtle, yet remain somewhere in the vicinity of simple. Results are formidably good. The program does have Fuji's own camera presets baked in. It's responsive. You can click back and forth between fit-in-view and 100%. (I have yet to figure out how to do a "save as," though. It's always something.) Friend Stephen notes that C1's David Grover, one of the software developers for the program, has a series of 20 video tutorials currently available for $29. The YouTube trailer for the series begins with the rubric "Take the leap into Capture One," which is prescient of them, as it's exactly what I'm hesitant about doing. I am not a leaper. I am a toe-dipper-inner.

At least there appears to be a way to simply buy the dang application instead of letting them stick a needle in your vein to drain blood.

Image first
But here's another point I often reach when diddling about with image editing programs. I usually start—and in fact I learned what I know—by looking at the image first and determining what I think it needs. Then I'll go and figure out how to do that. I don't do anything just because I can. Because I've been using Photoshop for so long, I have a basket o' tricks—things I want to do that I know how to do. So what happens when I'm using other programs is that I'll be motoring along doing well enough, and then I'll reach a point where I want to pull one of my usual PS tricks out of the basket and apply it...only, in the new software, I don't know how. Impatience floods in, and I get antsy to pull the image out of whatever it's in and take it to Photoshop so I can have my way with it.

It's not that I'm dubious about my ability to find my way around C1-20 if I work at it; it's that I'm pretty sure the time will come when I will want something in ACR or PSCC and just get impatient to get the job done. That's what usually puts me off of the pretenders, not that Adobe is so great. On the other hand, this is my 26th year with Adobe. Maybe it's getting old and fat, but we've gotten old and fat together. I do wish I could stop donating blood though....

In conclusion: perhaps we are once again in the land of "many paths, similar destination." My idea after all this is that intimate familiarity with an image editor is probably more important than the choice of which image editor to use (same thing that's true of cameras). Blank slate, clean sheet, I'd probably recommend C1-20 for Fujiphiles (ha! You see what I did there). But, familiarity with your software is probably more important than which software you choose. (Well, as long as you have an affinity for it.)

More to come in 29 days, when the C1-20 trial period runs out. At least I should be able to report then whether I took the plunge and plumped for the package or not, which in turn will reflect on how much work I did getting to know it in between today and then. Based on my track record, that's not likely to be much—I do get pulled in all sorts of directions. Then again, I have more time on my hands than usual, what with trying to dodge the dread COVID. We shall see.

Okay, couldn't resist just one—the view out the kitchen window a little earlier

Mike

Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

Everybody needs a little support

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

hugh crawford: "I’m getting flashbacks of long discussions of metol vs. phenidone."

Mike replies: Made me laugh. And the correct answer is, mostly metol (a.k.a. Elon, remember that?) with a dash of hydroquinone for superadditivity.

hugh: "'Compensating developers,' 'develop to exhaustion,' 'adjacency effect,' 'Mackie lines,' 'high acutance'...still having flashbacks....

"When a raw processor has sliders labeled dilution and agitation give me a call (for twice as much money the agitation slider will be two sliders named burst frequency and duration I suppose)."

Steve Rosenblum: "FYI: The David Grover Capture One tutorials on CreativeLive use Capture one 10 which is several versions ago. There is decent starter course for v. 20 on Lynda.com (Now linked in learning). David has produced a number of free intro tutorials on the Capture One YouTube site, and Ted Forbes has a number of C1 videos on his Art of Photography YouTube site."

Michael J. Perini: "Mike, for what it's worth, I think you are doing what you have to do. If you want to know which application works best for the combination of Fuji X-Trans Files and your preferred method of working, you have to try a bunch.

"Auditioning new software is always a pain. Since there will be no application that replicates the way you work now, all you can do is find the one with the most potential, then take the time to learn it. Every application seems to have its own way of making certain simple things hard. Which of course mostly comes from how it differs from our learned habits. Like cameras, software has to be learned well enough so that most operations can become second nature. There is no shortcut.

"I have the same urge to abandon and go back to a familiar workflow, but it is counterproductive. Instead of starting with new pictures, make a Project of 25 favorite X-Trans files that you have already edited to your satisfaction. But besides the 25 Raw files, include a 16b TIFF of your best edit of the picture, and import those as well. Then in each program you try you will have Raw Files, a reference TIFF so you can first try to duplicate your efforts in each program, then try to make the edit better. Save both; compare again. Nothing wrong with working on new files too, but the 25 create a known point of reference on which to base tests. And FYI C1 now has a subscription model that they are pushing. They also seem to have a new version of the stand-alone every year. If you keep the same camera, you do not have to upgrade, but should you buy a new camera, you may need the new version (I would check that if it is important to you). Good Luck."

Adam Lanigan: "With respect to your proposed Fuji experiment, FujiRumors ran a poll a couple years back to see what that crowd thought. It's at the bottom of this long article looking at the differences between the two approaches. Of the 1,995 responses, for future APS-C cameras:

• 50% of respondents would keep Fuji's current approach (Bayer for entry level, X-trans for mid-/high-end)
• 19% would prefer only X-Trans
• 18% would like to see both options offered side-by-side
• 14% would like to see only Bayer

"If these are in any way representative of what these same rabid Fuji fans might do under actual purchase scenarios, one could infer a ~35% lead to X-Trans over Bayer (19% / 14%) (or closer to 38% if we use the non-rounded actual vote tally) given the choice."

Howard F.: "You can download and use for free the Fuji Express version of C1-20. It’s missing many of the features of the paid version but let’s you get familiar with the UI and some of the basic features."

Joe Holmes: "Before you deeply commit to Capture One as a cataloging application, beware. I used Capture One for about two years (after I discovered that my new Nikon D850 image files were not recognized by Apple Aperture), and the frustrations finally became so intolerable that, at the end of 2019, I switched to Lightroom, which I had rejected years ago because its interface felt claustrophobic. I have about 275,000 images occupying about 4 TB of a hard drive, which both Aperture's and Lightroom's catalogs could open within about 10 or 15 seconds. Capture One took three to five minutes to open a catalog of the same size. And every time I’d try to scroll through images, I'd face a spinning beachball lasting a half minute. I finally resorted to dividing the catalog into smaller catalogs just so I could use the application.

"That was the worst of many issues. I made a detailed list of interface frustrations and had it sent to Capture One engineers, but the next revision fixed none of them. I gave up. Lightroom is no Aperture, but it’s way better than Capture One at cataloging my images. (Note that I have only used Aperture, Capture One and Lightroom as cataloging applications, not for image post-production.)

"I miss Aperture."

Stephen S. Mack: "Re 'What did you do staying at home?' Well, yesterday I had a lovely conversation with a spider. She seemed very nice, told me she was a web designer...."

Mike replies: You may go sit in the corner now.

Mark Kinsman: "Visit Photopxl’s (Kevin Raber of Luminous Landscape) YouTube channel or website and watch the vidoes with Kevin and the crew from Phase One on both Capture One 12 and 20 [I didn't find any on 20, just 12 —Ed.]. Drew gives some great tips. Also, Capture One has a ton of free videos on using the software. I'm in process of cleaning up my Lightroom catalog in V6.14 of LR to completely convert to Phase One for all my work. Also, check out sessions vs. using a catalog."

Will Rabinovitch: "You don't need to spend money to get tutorials on Capture One by (the wonderful) David Grover. Just go to https://www.captureone.com/. If you click on 'Learning Hub' you'll see dozens of short tutorials and longer webinars. He's also doing sort of short live webinars on Facebook. There was one today."

Arg: "Hi Mike, I see you have already received too many pieces of advice about using Affinity Photo, but I simply have to chip in with my comments too.

"I 100% totally agree with you—nothing has ever made me feel so stupid, so often, as Affinity Photo. (Well, maybe the first time I bought and started to try to use my MacBook, my first venture away from Windows: for the first few weeks I was wondering 'What Have I Done??') My dumbest moments with Affinity Photo occur when I open an image, carefully spend a lot of time selecting a complicated area that I want to edit, then go and apply the adjustment that I want, and nothing happens! It seems so counter-intuitive that nothing should happen when you do that! So I do it again next time!

"But, regarding your hilarious experience with zooming, you have to remember that Affinity Photo was written from the ground up for Apple: it is not restricted to the way tools need to be restricted to work with Windows. If you want to zoom into or out of an image, even when you have not entered the zoom tool (magnification glass icon), all you have to do is the 'pinch' gesture on the trackpad! Furthermore, a two finger double tap will toggle the view between fit–to-screen, and 100% view. Try it!

"And, if you do choose to use the zoom tool, once you click on the tool you'll find several suggestions written along the bottom of the photo, and some easy control aids appear at the top of the photo. The suggestions definitely include how to zoom in and out: just click-and-hold on the trackpad and slide your finger left to zoom out, right to zoom in. It's almost laughably simple.

"Like you, I keep forgetting, every time I select one of the tools on the left side of the screen, to look at the top and bottom of the photo for the tips and new controls. They are very helpful, I promise!

"Don't give up though, it is genuinely rewarding and powerful piece of gear, and can be used to do fairly simple stuff quickly and efficiently. I keep telling myself that!"

Comments

[Craig]

Two reasons Fuji would never put out the same camera with both X-Trans and Bayer filters:

1. They'd need two separate firmware packages with different JPEG generation code (or they'd need one package with both and an easy, certain way for the camera to know which to use).

2. Most customers do not know or care about the difference. This is really the crucial point. Only people who are more into the technical side of photography care about this, and even most of them have no idea whether the difference in appearance between one camera and another has anything to do with the filter.

There's also the issue that the X-Trans sensor is part of Fuji's brand, even if that aspect of their brand only matters to people like you and me. I know they've come out with at least one lower-end X-series camera with a Bayer filter, but that in a way reinforces the point that X-Trans is part of what makes the higher-grade X cameras special.

It makes sense that you, a former photography magazine editor, would come up with this idea, but it wouldn't make sense for a camera company to actually do it.

[PDLanum]

A set of tricks for Affinity Photo.
https://affinityspotlight.com/article/top-learning-articles-for-affinity-newcomers/?utm_source=SpotlightEmail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter
It covers more than Photo, but the section on a PDF of keyboard shortcuts should do the trick for you.

As for "Save As" in Capture One, what do you mean by that? Export? Watch a tutorial that covers Variants. Capture One does not "Save" a new file - it saves a set of adjustments. Capture One will never - ever over write a file since it only works on RAW files. Even JPEG's are never over written.

It has taken you how many years to realize that LR is part of the Adobe subscription service? That was one of its primary selling points of the subscription. The only thing I wanted to keep using was LR, Adobe killed off us perpetual license users - including "updates". Then Google changed their monetization of Maps and that died too. LR is only used now when I am running my underpowered laptop while on vacation. Since we are in the era of Lockdown's, vacations are over for the next few years.

[Joseph Reid]

Let me be probably the 37th to respond to this one point -- in Affinity, just like Photoshop, you can zoom in by pressing Command and the equal sign/plus sign key (on a Mac with U.S. keyboard). Command and minus sign key (aka hyphen) zooms out. And Command and zero key fits to screen. I haven't used Affinity much, but I imagine it's like Photoshop in that there seem to be 16 ways to do any one thing.

[John Camp]

Your allergy to Lightroom is like a Nikon user's allergy to Canon -- it's a psychological thing that can be overcome with use. Lightroom is basically an enhanced ACR with an organizing system built around it, and, judging from other posts you've made over the years, you could use an organizing system.

To use yet another analogy, diddling with processing software is like diddling with films and developers. The diddler can believe he sees a difference, but can the neutral, non-photographic observer? Not so much, I think. Brilliant prints can be made many different ways. The logical solution may be to pick one mainstream processor and stay with it, knowing in your heart of hearts that technically, it doesn't make a heck of a lot of difference which one you pick, although one or another of them may feel more congenial.

[Jack]

Mike,
I too downloaded a trial of CaptureOne20.
I have also watched YouTube tutorials on my favorite SilverEfxPro2.
Subsequently I now know more about SEP2, but have failed to return to CaptureOne for more exploration. But I have 20 days left.

[bob Cook]

I have always told myself that the reason I lost interest in photography when it entered the digital phase was that I simply could not learn all that needed to be learned. After reading these last few posts, I realize I was right. It's not that I don't have the brain power; I just can't imagine anything more tedious than acquiring a working knowledge of tools, settings, work-arounds, curves, conversions, programs, add-ons, and any of the myriad other skills needed to succeed, either as a hobbyist (me) or a professional. Of course the professional must learn, or perish.

Before the viral event, a friend and I were going to meet in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, here in the US, to spend four days shooting the Spring water and unique greens of the park. When he suggested the outing, I quickly agreed because the park is a location I have visited frequently in the past for photography. Then, reality set in; I realized I would have to do something with the files I created. I got a reprieve - the park is closed right now. While I will miss the trip, I won't miss the hassle of figuring out what to do if I happened to find a keeper among the files I created.

In the end, this is a "shame on me" moment. If I had been diligent from the day I sold all my MF film equipment to KEH, and applied myself to learning what I needed to learn, I wouldn't be so far in the hole that I can't climb out.

[Bill Tyler]

Mike, here's a pro tip from a guy who's been using computers since they had vacuum tubes (Bendix G-15 - look it up - it was the 'affordable' computer of its time). When you don't know how to do something, for instancen to zoom out, just use Google. I tried "Affinity zoom out" just now, and the top hit gave me this:
https://affinity.help/designer/en-US.lproj/index.html?page=pages/GetStarted/zoom.html?title=Zooming

It's that easy, most of the time. Whatever annoyance you've run into with software or almost anything else, someone else has hit it before you and posted about it. In this case, Affinity themselves gave the info.

That said, there's no real excuse for making the controls anything less than obvious.

[Henry Rinne]

I will voice whole-hearted support for Capture One 20. When Aperture was orphaned by Apple, I tried Lightroom but it did not feel right to me after spending so many years with Aperture. I eventually bought into Capture One version 7 or 8 at the time. It has more than met my expectations and has continued to be upgraded, adding features that make it extremely competitive with the Adobe products. I have found its RAW conversion to be unsurpassed. The latest iteration is outstanding, and the Layers function allows for a tremendous array of possibilities. The other thing I like about C1 is the vast library of tutorial videos that are all free of charge. Their live webinars are excellent and all of them are available for repeat viewing on their website or on YOUTube. Enjoy!

[Harry B Houchins]

So... about Affinity. I too took the Affinity plunge wanting to get away from the Adobe needle. I too find it to be awkward to use but am slowly learning. An aside...
Why do the British like to drink warm beer?
Because Lucas makes their refrigerators.
I learned through long experience with Triumph cars in my youth that if there is a different way to do something the Brits will do it.
But I am slowly learning Affinity and find it to be worthy of replacing PSCC.
I use ACDSee Photo Studio as a replacement for Lightroom (it "sees" Affinity files, BTW).
I just got a copy of C1-20 and have some time to play with it before I have to pay up. Interested it what you might think of it.

[Stephen Scharf]

I've been using Capture One since 2012 with Version 7, when I bought my X-Pro1. At the time, it was the only RAW editor that did an excellent job of X-Trans RAF conversion and sharpening/detail retrieval. Even before Iridient did, IIRC, or at least before Iridient's user interface improved to the point where you didn't need an advanced degree in image processing algorithm programming to understand how to use it.

This is not to disparage Iridient's Brian Griffith in any way. I think he's a brilliant software engineer and the going theme in many discussions on X-Trans RAW conversion discussion threads for some time was that Adobe should hire him and just put him in charge of the ACR/LR Raw conversion teams. How one man could do what an entire team at Adobe could not do remains a mystery.

But, I digress.

Regarding Capture One: as mentioned above, I've a C1 license since version 7. While I've used it for preparing portfolio quality photographs over that time, for day-to-day work, I've deferred to Iridient Developer as a plug-in in LR.

But...two things happened since Q1 2018:

1) Capture One released version 12 with....Luminosity Masking. Now. this is a game-changer. You can now do luminosity masks in Capture One rather than having to round-trip into PS to use Lumenzia (Lumenzia also rocks and its creator, Greg Benz, is also a brilliant software engineer, but hey, not having "round-trip" just makes you that much more efficient). I don't know how many TOP readers are using luminosity masks, but if you aren't...you should be.

2) Fujifilm obtained support for Capture One for its GFX line of medium-format cameras. This was, pardon my French, a BIG f**king deal. Fujifilm know that it would never achieve the market adoption it needed if it could not obtain C1 support for its MF line of cameras, and acc. to a friend who is a Fujfilm X-Photographer and an outstanding commercial photographer, Fuji put up BIG bucks to obtain Capture One support.

What that brought was full integration of Fujifilm's film presets into RAF file conversion as well as Fuji's lens profiles automatically assigned within C1. This means that the sharpening, distortion, and other optical corrections are applied automatically to your files in C1, as well as the specific RAW demosaicing required by each model Fujifilm camera.

So, since the release of Capture One 12, I've simply stopped using Lightroom for Fuji RAF file conversion and editing. And Capture One keeps getting better and better with every release. The only time I go into PS now is when I am shooting pro RE or Architectural work and have to use layer masks for blending ambient and flash lighting exposure bracketed frames for interiors (a technique we call "flambient") and for stripping out color contamination.

Bottom-line: Capture One was always good, but since version 12...it just flat ROCKS. IMHO, no one else can match Capture One for control, luminosity masking, color editing (what it can do with skin tones is a revelation) and just overall image quality. So...I never use LR anymore for RAW editing.

Addendum: For LR users: there are videos on C1's YT channel showing how to set up C1 to transition from LR smoothy and easily.

[James]

Mike, These last three posts are the very reason I have yet to buy a Fuji camera.
Let me tell you that I want some of their lenses so badly it hurts.
I want a Fuji X100f as my walkabout camera just for the way it looks.
I love the idea of a camera that looks like a camera. You know, a camera that looks as good as a film camera.
But, all I wish to do when I download pictures is occasionally pull back blown highlights, sometimes adjust exposure and color balance, and once in a while remove the plastic cup that some $h1t left in the way of my shot in Yosemite. (too far off to see in the viewfinder)
I thought I read last year that to prevent "worms" Fuji files should only be sharpened in Photoshop, not Lightroom. Have you tried that? Do they even need sharpening?

[Robert Roaldi]

When I've switched photo editors, I never tested them first. I skimmed a few reviews, determined that X would do what I needed, and if it didn't the next version probably would. So I never compared UIs. I committed, bought, then just learned the UI by going through the tutorials. They are only confusing if you test more than one at a time. However, so far, all the ones I've picked were discontinued, so maybe I'm not doing it right. Lightzone, Picture Windows Pro, Aperture, now using Affinity and After Shot Pro 3. So, I hope I'm not a jinx to these guys. (Picture Windows Pro is actually still alive now on v. 8)

[Stan B.]

If there's anyone who needs to change their editing software (Elements 9)- I guess that would be me. I'm just loathe to spend a coupla hundred (vs. $20), and several days/weeks of time to learn a new language for (what in my case would be) a modicum of extra perks.

I've also seen more than one instance in which people are extolling the virtues of their particular software, and when I finally look at their finished work (from a technical viewpoint only)- where is all the finesse they spoke of?

I have tried a few others (eg- Affinity) and will probably continue to, but with all the other things I'm playing catch up with at the moment- it's gonna take a bit more than a pandemic to finally make me switch...

[Speed]

I have yet to figure out how to do a "save as," though. It's always something.

Image > New Variant (F7)
or
Image > Clone Variant (F8)

It is a change from what you may be used to -- the quaint idea of naming and saving. Today's software takes care of all that by appending a "1" to the first copy and a "2" to the second and so on ad infinitum. It takes a little getting used to but like many things it becomes a "why didn't they do this years ago?" sort of thing.

I happily settled into Capture One some time ago, sending them a chunk of money every year. And it gets better (sometimes a lot better) every year. For sure it is better than I am which is the real test.

[Geoff Goldberg]

Share your thoughts on C1. It seems to just work simply, well, with all the depth and features one needs, and no extraneous bells or whistles. The only thing I'm finding it needs is a bit of "healing brush" cleanup, which I do in PS after processing the output image. Other than that, its all there in a hierarchy that just works.

[Barry H. Prager]

It was Tom Hanks the actor who said, "Its supposed to be hard, If it were easy, everyone would do it." My quote would be, If Photoshop were a women, Id marry her. But you can bet, at the end of this incredible Corn Maze we navigate, built by human ingenuity, it's all about the IMAGE. Put your nose up to a Henri Cartier Bresson photograph, and technically, a modern print will blows it out of the water, and twice on Sunday. Then check out the asking price.

[Jim Metzger]

Your observations about temperature shift relative to the seasons is correct. I have a good friend who teaches Meteorology and Astronomy at the Collegiate level and he made this observation a couple of years ago. The length of sunlight on a given day has not changed so we have plants trying to respond to a severe difference / change in the two environmental conditions that affect their growth, temperature and sunlight. We can't just assume that regional plant pieces will "move north" as we experience higher global temperatures. The total sunlight and local composition of the soil will not allow that.

[MarkB]

Mike, I'm glad that you're the one to explore these cold, unfamiliar waters for us (even if only toe by toe). I never even made the leap to Lightroom, so I still use ACR via Bridge, and Adobe keeps telling me "you know, we have this other way of doing this!" The internet and forums say "you know, these other apps cost less and do more!" Fine, but that water is cold, and no matter how bored I get, I won't even dip a toe in there.

[Hugh]

It might be worth another look at Exposure 5...

I have it set up for N-1, N, N+1 and N+2 development Tri-X, and Kodachrome 64. Half a day's work to get to that, and it's now effortless. I use it as a plugin for Photoshop.

It also does a pretty good replica of a platinum/palladium print if you print onto Hahnemuhle Photorag.

[David Lee]

I think that what Fujifilm should do next is come up with an X-printer, maybe two, and then, an X-monitor calibrating tool that working with the printer would yield prints that look exactly as the thing we see in the computer/Ipad screen. My point is, what do I need a raw converter program for, if I am not printing?

PS: I forgot. We will need some X-Paper, colour and B&W multigrade, and some X-Inks to go with the printers.

[-et-]

You don't have to buy that educational series you mention that features David Grover - in fact this is the first time I became aware that it exists.

There is a large - and free - collection of recordings of Capture One webinars run by David Grover, who is a company employee. Ironically, the latest of those was scheduled for today. There are also a number of free tutorials and brief written instructional notes.

A link to those webinars and tutorials should be appearing in the center of the screen at start-up, and will not disappear automatically on a timer. (Unless the free sample download version behaves differently than my paid version 20 of C1Pro for Sony.)

One minor caveat about that training material is that it is not limited to the version 20 of C1, so you may find yourself looking at training for an earlier version.

FWIW, I am very comfortable with the UI for Lightroom and find the Photoshop UI very non-intutitive - so we are complete opposites in that area. I struggled with Capture One initially, but after using it for a little while am now happy with its UI.

- Tom -

[Dogman]

I'm a clueless muddler when it comes to software. I only need to know enough to make the picture look the way I want it to look and the most straightforward and simple approach is what I look for. For years I was happy with Picasa. I hated PS Elements and I only used Gimp for a couple of things Picasa wouldn't do. Never delved into it further. Then I finally broke down and got Lightroom 6 and muddled around with it until I was comfortable with it. I had reached the point I could do all I needed to do with LR when Adobe decided to make all future versions rent property. So I thought I would try something else to prepare for a future without Lightroom. I downloaded the trial copy of Capture One but it crashed every other time I tried to open it. Then a freebie Luminar 3 came along but it sits there idle on the computer taking up space because I'm either too lazy or unconcerned to even look at it. I did figure out how to make X Transformer work with my Fuji files, again by muddling. In the mean time, I'm still using LR6, still muddling and still making the pictures look like I want them to. And Picasa is still there in case. Just in case.

[Steve]

They aren't going to do that. This is a company that was still making medium format folders not so long ago. In fact if one looks at the various medium format cameras they made over the years all of them are a bit eccentric. Take a look at the GX680 line. Awesome camera BTW. Then when they went digital originally they went with the S5 which is still an amazing camera for colors. They when they jumped back into digital they went with a fixed lens 35mm equivalent camera that looked like an old film camera. Next up was a hybrid viewfinder camera with rangefinder viewfinder placement. They didn't do DSLR/SLR style viewfinder placement until after that. Then they skipped over full frame and went medium format or whatever one wants to call it. I shoot Fuji. I have owned every version of the X100 and X Pro and I have a GFX 50R They are just that camera company. The one that does things differently. I like it. It's like the girlfriend you know you shouldn't have but you can't imagine being in love with anyone else. If the goal is to somehow make your Fuji camera a Sony or Canon or Nikon you probably should buy a different brand. I don't mean that in a rude sarcastic way. They do what they do and they do it well, but it is not always what the vast majority of camera users want. I am always mystified by the people who comment on various forums with "if only Fuji would do this" when basically they have never done that. :-) Oh yeah and three cheers to Fuji for bring back Acros. They are a film company too which probably explains a lot.

[Thomas Walsh]

Throughout the years I have used a variety of PP software: Photoshop, Capture1 (briefly), Affinity (I share your frustrations), the software that came with Nikon, Canon and Olympus cameras, Aperture (my favorite) and now Photos which replaced iPhotos. I mastered none of them by a long shot. Today, my walk around camera is an x100F. I shoot jpegs and put them on a 27'' imac. They are processed using Photos which is more than enough given that Fuji has already done the lion's share of the work. Nik is standing by in the bullpen. I rarely print but do make calendars, greeting cards and photo books. Almost all of my photos are digitally displayed. I loathe editing because , as others have already stated, the incremental differences are neither time nor cost effective for me.

[Paul Richardson]

A heads up about David Grover’s tutorial. It’s for an older version, not the current one.
That said, he has many excellent YouTube videos on the current version - for free.

[Al C.]

It should be straightforward to set up an A-B comparison between an X-A (Bayer CFA) versus an X-T (xtran CFA) using same lens.

Imo xtran images are just plain nasty. Using Foveon as my ideal benchmark for per pixel quality, Bayer is bad, but xtran is worse. There is no technical reason I can think of why Fuji should persist with xtran over Bayer.

https://petapixel.com/2017/03/03/x-trans-vs-bayer-sensors-fantastic-claims-test/

[chris]

Telling a guy how great Capture One does creating Luminosity masks when he can’t figure out the zoom function is hilarious. [Luma Mask was already there before C1-20--it was new in C1-12. Nice feature and satisfying to use, especially for anybody who used to dodge enlarger prints, but I don't have very many occasions when I need it. --Mike] Seriously stop sharpening your files as they do not need it. That’s one of the sort spots with digital images, people constantly over sharpen them to the point of visual destruction. As far as post processing programs, pick one and master it. The UI is probably the most important in the beginning learning stage, so like it and make sure it has the tools most important to you. Capture One gets a lot of praise, but I can do much faster processing in Photoshop. Capture One's spot clean up layers are not worth the extra time when it can quickly be done on one layer in Photoshop. In Capture One you loose the ability to customize any additional spot cleans as it all revolves around the first spot, so you have to make another layer. Many dislike Adobe, but after you tally up your time invested in learning new tools and the yearly upgrade paths, Adobe wins in my book.

[Sara Piazza]

We got a few flakes of snowish/sleet today, but nothing stuck.
What am I doing while home?
Going through years and years of photos, sorting, organizing, enjoying.
In the past year I've switched to a new computer, two new cameras, and new software (ditched Lightroom and switched to ACR. No regrets).
Between my photography and my music, I am happily very busy all day, especially happy to be able to dive deep with no pressure to finish anything on any time table.
Oh yeah, and all my drawers, closets, and book shelves are sorted, my yard is raked, and my garden is in better shape than ever.
Sara on the Vineyard.

[Peter Williams]

Why the hell Fujifilm can't get together with Adobe to make Camera Raw (and hence Lightroom and Photoshop) work 100% well with the X-Trans files is beyond me. It's like making cars that only work on secondary roads or something.

[PacNW]

"... one lifetime is not long enough to master both photography and all the image editors out there."

That's what the Japanese say about the board game called "Go" but they found a solution: have young people study under an old master who passes on the knowledge. Each generation picks up where the previous one left off. You just need a mentor.

[Michael J. Perini]

Re Joe Holmes C1 Speed
I also miss Aperture, (so much that I've dedicated a MBP running Sierra to keep using it. I know I have to leave but doing so very reluctantly)
There is a short tech paper by Phase one called something like Getting the most speed out of C1.
As you know C1 was designed for Studios needing to tether, and C1 is the best at that. Their only workflow was Sessions -where everything related to the shoot , RAW files, edits , client deliverables, print files and documents resided in the Session. Perfect for most studios, but not so good for generalists. (You can't search among different sessions)
To solve that, they developed Catalogs which works more like a Lightroom Catalog. You have to choose if you want to organize by catalog or Session. Although there are ways to include a session in a catalog. They spend a lot of time trying to explain catalogs vs sessions.
In the performance piece mentioned above, they say Sessions need to be limited to a couple thousand files at most, or they bog down.
Catalogs can be much larger. But in either case to get the best performance all assets need to be on a Fast Local drive. I believe that means not only Sessions & Catalogs but (for a catalog workflow, the underlying RAW files. When I hear that, I am assuming something like Thunderbolt 3 SSD or M2 RAID if you have a really big library. I will probably choose either DxO or C1, I bought both and put them on a maxed out 16" MBP with 8 TB of flash RAM storage (transfer speeds around 2400 MBps) because I just don't want the problem. It may be overkill, but better that than the Opposite.
So I take your warning about speed very seriously.

Aperture was just so elegant, and did everything I needed.

[Also related to speed, you have to make sure you don't have the rendering for Previews set at too small a value for your monitor, because then C1-20 will have to go to the raw file to update every change and that slows everything down. My monitor is 2560 pixels wide, for instance, and that's the default for Preview size, meaning the Preview can never be too small for the monitor and slow everything down. --Mike]

[Mark Kinsman]

Mike, here’s a post on what is new in Capture One 20 from Photopxl

https://photopxl.com/phase-ones-capture-one-20-is-released/

[Barry Braunstein]

I was a LR user, almost fanboy until a year ago xmas, when I decided to take the plunge with C1. The only regret I have is not doing it sooner. It’s faster, far more powerful and intuitive, gives you built in layers and sophisticated controls over color. Granted, I use it primarily in sessions mode so I can’t speak about the file management capability vs. LR
, but for editing it’s no contest. And full disclosure, I do sometimes use PS for content aware fill and some other functions that PS does very well, but it is well integrated with C1, and the round trip is as easy as with LR. I know many other photogs who have also made the switch. The videos for C1 are awesome and free if you do some digging. And as far as bugs, stability is concerned, I’d say it’s a tie. With Adobe you can talk to a person, with C1 tech support is done via tickets and email, but I have really had to use them much at all.

[Adrian Malloch]

I feel the same about C1 as you do about LR, Mike.
But all that says is, we like what we know and we know what we like. So, nothing useful there.
However, here are two significant differences that polarise the lovers and haters:
1 – Capture One makes photos look pretty and likeable right out of the box.
– Lightroom's defaults are dull and need work to coax out the magic so you need to create your own develop and import defaults to overcome that bug (feature).
2 – Capture One is a nightmare to use if you are on a deadline with a 3000+ file shoot which you need to edit down to 100 keepers to show the client.
– Lightroom is a total machine at managing and developing multiple files with control, consistency and confidence.
Bonus LR tip for Fujiphiles; all of the Fuji film styles are available but initially hidden in Lightroom. Just click the Profile Browser icon then choose Camera Matching for Adobe's take on the Fuji film types. And because it's Lightroom, Adobe expects you to tweak the profile to make it right for you.

[Dr Tom Bell]

I know this may be mad but I wonder if its worth trying the little Fuji X-T100 ... which can be bought for a snip. Its not much use for video but it has a lovely 24 MP Bayer sensor. Jonas Rask points out if you attach XF lenses and put the PASM bial to M then you can assign one top dial to ISO and one to Shutter speed and use it much like an XH1.

So then the combined benefits of Fuji controls and a normal sensor. You can see from his review there was little difference in the sensor output ...and no worms.

https://jonasraskphotography.com/2018/05/24/fujifilm-x-t100-review-quality-on-a-budget/

The X-T200 has faster focusing etc ...but it has lost the clever fuji screen for a cinematographers screen.

[Tim McGowan]

Mike, I think you have your next Print Sale Photograph. The View From the Kitchen. This is one that I would buy. It may be trite but that scene would make a nice Spring,Summer,Fall, Winter group. The element that helps to make the picture is the line formed by the hill starting upper right and descending to the left. Everything works together to keep your eye in the frame. Lots of visual interest .

[Kirk Decker]

I tried twice to like Lightroom, but it just didn't work for me. I felt stupid - everyone was talking about how great it was. I finally confided in a friend, "I don't like Lightroom" I whispered. He quickly looked around to make sure no one was listening. "I don't like it either. I'm just so used to Bridge & ACR, I don't get the point of LR." "Yeah, me too."
I have the free only works with tethered P1 backs version of C1-20. I like to use C1 for black & white while using ACR on the same files for color. Since both programs keep their adjustments in "side car" files it's easy to pop back and forth. I dunno, I probably only use 10% of what either program has to offer, but I'm fluent in that 10% of ACR/Photoshop. Still struggling with the grammar and syntax of C1.

[William Wragg]

To zoom out in Affinity photo hold alt and click

https://affinity.help/photo/English.lproj/index.html#

[Bob Johnston]

Oh for an enlarger and three dishes Mike! Photo life gets so complicated with digital. Too many choices.

[Ger Lawlor]

Hi Mike. Two things I did at home this week: I had already decided to achieve some modest personal firsts during the lockdown here in Ireland. Made traditional wholemeal soda bread - I think you would enjoy the taste and health benefits of it. And in the absence of a visit to the barber any time soon, I took the plunge and shaved my head for first time ever, thereby giving me the opportunity to make some long overdue self expression photos. I am using Capture One, my everyday converter to edit various iterations of what I previsualised as I took these, i.e. monochrome window light. Like many photographers I’ve no more work, so personal/professional development seems a sensible way to pass at least some of the time. Recipe and or photos are available if you wish. Next project is to start to figure out how to get some degree of competence at Adobe InDesign. Give me 10,000 hours or so and I’ll let you know on that one. Take care to you and all your readers.

[David Bateman]

Raw therapee is an amazing free photo editor. But very complicated.
There is now a new fork, a much simpler version, which is also free.
https://bitbucket.org/agriggio/art/wiki/Home

Sadly it goes by the name ART. So good luck searching for information. There are help and discussion about it though.

I think you should try it. The cost is free and it is very powerful tool. You can change to different demoisac patterns and there are specific Fuji ones in the list.

[Peter Croft]

Mike, you're a Mac user. I use Affinity Photo in Windows and to find how to zoom out (I'm still learning myself) took me three seconds: it's hold the Alt key down when you click. C'mon guy, don't be old.

There's no way I could ever afford Adobe's prices for Photoshop or Premiere so I never bought them. They cost well over $1,000 in Australia before they started the dastardly subscription model. When Affinity brought out Photo, Designer and Publisher I rejoiced and bought them all. I could afford them. I'll make the effort to learn them. I have no trouble since I never learnt Adobe.

I will always support these small, independent software developers who are so responsive to users.

[ChrisC]

I came to C1 following the final demise of Aperture and a jump from Nikon to Fuji. I dabbled first with the free Fuji Express version before moving to the paid Fuji version for a few extra controls. Given I often shoot jpg, the Fuji version can still catalogue and edit much of my old Nikon library - I just had to go through the process of converting my limited Nikon RAWs Aperture died. There may be another work around by processing them in a plug-in.

[Mark]

Mock you till you’re old? You are old, Mike. Lol.

[Not yet. Starting with the DSM IV I believe it was, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the psychiatric profession, middle age was uprated...used to be 40 to 60, now it's officially 45 to 65. So I'm still middle aged.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it! --Mike]

[Chris Fuller]

Like you I have spent too much time trying to solve this riddle. I have Exposure X5 and it does a good, but not great, job with Fuji files. I really like DXO PhotoLab, and I use it for my older Nikon files. So I wish DXO would get over its ridiculous exclusion of Fuji RAFs. Raw X Studio is fun in a quirky way, but it does not convert X-Pro1 files (I also have an X-Pro 2). So, I settled on Capture One 20 for Fuji for quick conversions, and I still use Photo Ninja when I want the best quality and don't care about the simulations.

[John Krumm]

Well, if you are going down the converter rabit hole you might as well download Silkypix 10 Pro. It's an odd program. With Fuji files, when you click on the icon to change the image style, only then does another option appear at the bottom of the develop pane to use a camera profile. It's also really slow. But the image quality appears good. I tried it yesterday, and went through my usual process. First image, "wow this looks great." Working through twenty images, "oh my God get me back to Lightroom please." It does have some neat tricks, if I remember correctly, like a partial correction tool that allows you to use shapes like rectangles to select buildings or windows very precisely to dodge and burn. I wish Lightroom had that.

[Robert B]

Mike, I've used C1 since Version 8 or 9 as a Nikon shooter and use it now for Fuji, too - X-E2, X-H1. There's a handy way to keep costs down. First, skip every second upgrade (except you urgently need one of the new features). Second, wait for fall coming. Some weeks before the advent of a new version, you usually get huge discounts on the outgoing version - the switch from 12 to 20 (avoiding the dreaded number of 13) was even further sweetend by letting you buy vers. 12, including a free upgrade.

C1 became a very powerful yet user-friendly tool with time - I seldom need Affinity as my cheapskate PS to fix very complicated problems. But, as others noted, I never used its cataloging or its session files (capture/output/trash). Instead, I use a separate cataloging software (Daminion) and my normal file system. Works well.

Greetings, Robert

[Julian Behrisch Elce]

Hmm, well, I challenge myself to make photographs that only need a quick pass through Snapseed. If I can’t get what I want in a couple minutes there then it wasn’t any good anyway. It’s free, too! Try it!

It seems many readers are attracted to the limitations of a single lens for a certain period as an artistic spur, so it’s funny how the the idea of a post-processing limitation is anathema.

[Ian Seward]

@Harry B Houchins
Only bad pubs serve warm beer in the UK. I'm talking about real ale not lager.

Beer should be dispensed at 11-13C. As a reference White wine should be served at 8-12C.
In the UK so Alexa can do the maths for you if you are using Fahrenheit :-)

Lagers are dispensed at lower temperatures as the low temps reduce the efficiency of your taste buds and you are actually able to drink it.:-) :-)

[Ian Seward]

Just to help clarify some of the new C1 controls as people are often caught out by this.

C1 has a levels control to set the black and white point. This can be done automatically, i always set the limits to 0 pixels clipped in the preferences dialogue box.

It is important to set the levels before using the Black and White sliders in the HDR palette. LR users mistake these for the Black and White sliders in LR. As LR does not have a levels tool it needs these sliders to set the Black and White points in the image.

C1's Black and White sliders are used to adjust a narrow range of tones at the top and bottom of the histogram. It adjusts these tones using the levels settings as a kind of "hard stop", so that is why you need to set the levels.

Hope this helps some LR users as it is difficult to look at other software if you don't understand how it works and just rely on moving sliders with similar sounding names.

[Kjell]

One thing about the Luma mask in C1. Everyone is talking about it as it is unique to C1, but as far as I can tell, LR also does this, and has been doing it for some time. LR does not have the layer concept, but every localized edit, be it gradient or brush, can be modified by luminosity. LR also lets you modify by color. Just search for "Range mask". And as far as I can remember from my short encounter with ON1, they do it as well.

It seems like everyone is picking a feature of their favorite software and declare it a unique key feature, when in fact many others do more or less the same. Some features are truly unique, but most are just down to the fact that people tend to know one of the packages much better than the rest.

My main reason for dropping C1 was because the user interface was glitching on my computer. A brand new Win10 computer with a modern fairly high end video card. And the fact at it took too much energy to figure out all the features I already knew from LR. But if I hadn't known LR, I could just as well have ended up with C1. Both of them are equally annoying, only different.

[I didn't "declare it a unique key feature"...in fact I said exactly the opposite! In the "MJ Antes Up" post: "I'm sure you can do something similar in other image editing programs too if you know how." --Mike]

[rfeg]

Hi Mike,

Don't want you to waste mor time, have you tried Darktable (open source)? It is better than expected and is made by cientists. I think you should try.
Caveats: they mandate modules order to be worked.
It is made by color scientists and could be better, but it is mature enough to be anakysed

regardds,
rfeg