Section A.1. Capture One Pro

A.1. Capture One Pro

Capture One (see Figure A-1) has traditionally been the raw processing software to beat. These days, it's getting to be a close contest, but there are still plenty of pros that swear by it. It's definitely fast and gives you a bit more control than Camera Raw in some respects. You'll have to be the judge as to whether it's worth the extra cost and of giving up Camera Raw's integration with Photoshop.

Figure A-1. The Capture One Pro interface.

Capture One's advantages are as follows:

• Is the program that has been traditionally up-to-date on digital camera back formats

• Has both Levels and Curves; can adjust individual color channels

• Multimode sharpening tools

• Apply one or multiple image settings by clicking a thumb or many thumbs or by preselecting and clicking the apply to all button

• Can batch process in the background

• Has a focus tool for quickly checking thumbs for blurs, noise

• You can buy camera profiles (two come with the program)

Capture One's disadvantages are:

• Has traditionally lagged behind slightly when it comes to supporting brand-new camerasalthough that gap seems to be narrowing of late

• Isn't integrated with Photoshop

To learn more, visit http://www.phaseone.com/Content/Software/PROSoftware.aspx.