Weather here did not permit great outdoor fun, so I concentrated on
photo work at the computer. I decided give the new Viewer a try and
to take advantage of the fire sale on PhaseOne's CaptureOne -- which
is touted by the Schnozz as the ne plus ultra of raw converters for
Olympus.
First, Viewer. If you don't have Studio 2, get Viewer 2. I can't
tell the difference in operation or result. I want the $100 back I
spent on Studio. If there is something Studio does that Viewer
doesn't, I haven't found it or needed it, apparently. If you like
Olympus for its color palette, this is the holy city. I'm not a big
fan of batch processing raw files -- it's just not how I work -- so
sorting and selecting with FastStone Image Viewer is just about
perfect. Set up Studio or Viewer as an external editor in FS and it's
easy to take the image right into Studio or Viewer, tweak it gingerly,
and then adjust settings to open the image in Photoshop or whatever
when you are done with Studio/Viewer. This takes a dozen clicks or so
per image, but it's OK for me.
CaptureOne I just don't understand. I really looked hard for the one
or two features that would put it over the top. I do like it better
than Lightroom as it fits my way of working better. It seems like it
excels in situations where one has multiple images from the same
setting at roughly the same exposure. Set up the recipe for one shot
and batch the others. But they all do this, right? I guess I like
the fact that it doesn't have a separate Library, but it does put
folders all over the place, to which I object somewhat, although I
could live with it if the result were truly better than the
alternative.
It has the ability to use different color setups. For example, I can
use the generic E-3 setup for the E-3, and the result looks just about
exactly the same as the result coming out of Studio. Bravo for that.
Or I could select ACR or the setup for the E-1. If anyone likes ACR,
it is available. I guess one could experiment endlessly with using
E-1 or other profiles with the E-3. Haven't tried Canaan color yet,
but I guess one could try that too.
Within the color dialogues there is the ability to adopt different
versions of the color to approximate the characteristics of film. The
default seems to be "film standard" and there is an exaggerated
version of this as well as a thinner version. There is also "linear."
Film standard, the default, seems best to my eyes, or at least the
one that matches Studio best. It is perhaps within these color
dialogue settings that CaptureOne achieves its superiority, but it all
seems like a pig in a poke to me.
Naturally, PhaseOne, Lightroom, even Studio want to be the place where
you do all of your image management. I am a tough customer because I
just want to bring the image into Photoshop the best it can be and
without harm for final tweaks. I might be tempted to finish up with
Capture One because it integrates highlight/shadow adjustment, noise
reduction, and sharpening very nicely into the process. But so does
LR, no? Also Studio? The problem for me is that Capture One (and the
rest too) doesn't do any of these things as well as dedicated
products, particularly noise reduction and highlight/shadowing
rendering. The tools are sufficient if the need is modest, but in
those cases I probably wouldn't bother. The highlight/shadow tool in
my very old version of PS is so much more subtle in use and effect.
If the problem were worth the attention, I simply wouldn't use
CaptureOne as my tool, knowing that there are better tools for the
purpose. It ends up being a set of pointless features for me. Why
include them if they are not top drawer?
But in fairness, I don't fault Studio for including such tools. But
apples for apples, CaptureOne doesn't improve on Studio for me in
terms of any feature I would take home to mama.
I am hoping someone can help me understand better how to get more out
of CaptureOne. I've bought it now, so I guess I'll keep it around,
but it's a blue Monday of buyer's remorse. Maybe that free thingie
that comes along with it will cheer me up.
Joel W.
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