Since my last version of this post, Capture One has made significant changes to their licensing, and Adobe has added significant features to Lightroom.

I’m also not trying to pick sides here (although I will give you my opinion as to whom I think is the current leader) but rather present the case for each as I see it, as best I can within my subjective view, and give you the reader enough information to help inform your choice. Some people will need some features more than others, and for some, a certain feature or lack thereof may be a dealbreaker.

I fully understand that every photographer out there has different needs. It’s important to state what should be obvious here – that this is purely my opinion, based on my own experiences. One quick disclaimer – I’m mostly talking about Lightroom Classic here, as it still seems to be the most comparable and popular version of Lightroom, but many of the features mentioned are included in both versions. I feel that these changes require a whole new discussion, and therefore a whole new blog post. I’ve updated that article since the first version of it came out, and since I last updated it, there have been some significant changes in both Capture One and Lightroom. I tried to present a balanced opinion on the advantages and disadvantages of both. A while ago, I wrote an article on this blog my perspective on Capture One vs Lightroom, as I regularly use both applications.

Lightroom v 12