After seven years of editing exclusively in Capture One, I finally made the leap back to Lightroom Classic—and to be honest, I didn’t think this day would ever come.
This isn’t a dramatic pivot for the sake of it. As a wildlife and travel photographer working in remote locations and under constantly changing light, I’ve spent the past year reevaluating my workflow. And after some serious testing, Lightroom Classic has become the best fit for how I shoot and edit in 2025.
Here’s why I switched—and what you should consider if you’re using Capture One and wondering whether it’s still the best tool for your needs.
Why I Originally Chose Capture One
When I first started using Capture One in 2017, it was miles ahead of Lightroom in many key areas:
Superior RAW rendering – My files looked better straight out of camera.
Advanced color control – The Color Editor allowed for incredibly precise hue and tone adjustments.
Sessions workflow – Perfect for travel and expeditions, with clean project-based organization.
Layer-based local adjustments – Essentially Photoshop-level control right inside the RAW editor.
At the time, Lightroom felt slow, clunky, and creatively limited. Capture One gave me more control and better results, especially when editing thousands of wildlife photos across long trips. I built my entire workflow around it. But technology doesn’t stand still—and Lightroom has caught up in a big way.
What Made Me Switch Back to Lightroom Classic
1. Built-In AI Noise Reduction
For wildlife photographers, clean high-ISO performance is everything. I regularly shoot in low light—pumas at dusk, lions at sunrise, birds under canopy—and I need solid noise handling.
Lightroom’s AI-powered noise reduction is the best I’ve used so far. It outperforms third-party plugins and saves me the time and hassle of round-tripping files out of my editing app. Capture One does offer noise reduction, but Lightroom's solution is more seamless, intuitive, and effective for my needs.
2. Smarter Masking for Wildlife
Lightroom’s automatic AI masking is a serious time-saver. It can detect and select subjects, skies, and backgrounds automatically—and even intersects masks for advanced control. What stands out is that when I copy and paste these masks across a batch of images, Lightroom recalculates each one to fit the new photo.
With wildlife subjects—think feathers, fur, or animals partly hidden in brush—this means I can apply localized edits across a set with almost zero manual adjustments. Capture One offers similar tools, but I’ve found they require more manual fine-tuning, which slows me down during large edits.
3. Mask Intersections = More Creative Control
Intersecting masks in Lightroom allows me to apply selective adjustments—like a graduated filter that only affects the subject, or softening just the background behind it. These combinations give me precise control without jumping into Photoshop. It's a huge win for field photographers working on tight deadlines.
4. A Smoother, More Intuitive UI
This one surprised me. After years in Capture One’s clean, minimal interface, I thought I preferred its precision. But coming back to Lightroom made me realize how fluid and intuitive it now feels. Sliders are more responsive. The overall flow of adjustments just works better for my creative process. Lightroom feels like a tool designed for photographers, not engineers—and I didn’t realize how much I’d missed that.
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What I’ll Miss About Capture One
To be clear: Capture One is still a fantastic piece of software. There are three areas where I think it still has the edge:
1. Sessions for Travel Shoots
Sessions are ideal for managing short-term projects on the road. I’d create a session for each location or assignment, then merge everything into a master catalog back at the studio. Lightroom doesn’t have an equivalent (yet), and I haven’t found a workflow that replicates that speed and structure as cleanly.
2. Full Layer-Based Local Adjustments
In Capture One, every layer supports every tool—curves, color balance, sharpening, white balance, etc. Lightroom has come a long way, but not every adjustment is available through masking yet. That limitation is still noticeable if you’re used to Capture One’s flexibility.
3. Advanced Color Editor
Capture One’s Color Editor remains unbeatable for ultra-fine color grading. It’s especially great for portrait and studio work, where subtle color shifts matter. If you shoot fashion, lifestyle, or commercial portraits, it might still be the better choice.
That said, for my workflow—wildlife, fast-paced travel, and large volumes of RAW files—Lightroom is now ahead where it counts.
Final Thoughts: Choose the Tool That Serves You Now
This isn’t about loyalty—it’s about choosing the right tool for the job, right now.
If you’re editing large batches, working in high ISO, or want AI tools that truly speed up your editing process, Lightroom Classic in 2025 is an incredibly strong choice.
Capture One still shines for high-end control, commercial editing, and workflows where ultimate precision matters. But for fast, flexible, and effective editing in the field, I’m happy to be back in Lightroom.
