Capture One Pro vs GIMP

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Whether you are an amateur or professional photographer, you need to find a reliable choice for editing and deep color correction. To do it, make sure to compare Сapture One Pro vs Gimp and choose the most suitable option for your needs.

Capture One Pro has a complex set of tools for editing RAW files and deep modification. It is somewhat similar to Lightroom and comes with advanced color correction features.

GIMP is a free, cross-platform solution for beginning photographers that allows you to use third-party plugins, perform basic facial correction with the help of layers and customizable brushes, and remove noise.

Final Verdict:

Despite the complex learning curve, Capture One Pro has many useful features, including a customizable workspace, detailed metadata, automatic color correction, and advanced photo organization settings. It’s perfect for professional retouching of portraits and other photos.

Capture One Pro is the winner>

Capture One Pro Features:

  • Quick color correction
  • Deep portrait retouching
  • Customizable workspace
  • A convenient UI makes it similar to Lightroom
  • Supports RAW files

What Is Capture One Pro?

capture one pro sine tone

Capture One Pro allows you to efficiently adjust colors. In Basic mode, you can adjust the color range. In the “Advanced” section, you can adjust HDR settings, fix exposure and white balance both for the entire photo and for a selected area. 

capture one pro editing with presets

Thanks to AI tools, you can automatically adjust sharpness, noise, brightness, exposure, or white balance. Moreover, you can use more than 150 presets and styles for enhancing photos in one click. Besides, you can install third-party presets. 

capture one pro advanced masks

Here, you will also find more advanced tools for experienced retouchers. With them, you can adjust shadows, mid-tones, and light areas. Thanks to the recent updates, you can perform multi-level adjustments by creating advanced masks. You can also perform deep skin retouching and use such techniques as Dodge and Burn.

Capture One Pro offers a variety of photo categorization and labeling options, including tags and keywords, GPS, rating, and color codes. These features make this program one of the best photo editing software for PC.

What Is GIMP?

gimp background removal

When comparing GIMP vs Capture One Pro, you will be pleased to learn that the former is a free editor with a great variety of basic color adjustment features, filters and customizable brushes. The program also supports all RAW formats, which allows novice photographers to edit skin tones without problems.

Due to customizable layers and masks, GIMP can be considered as one of the best free background removal software. By using smart scissors, you can draw borders by hand with high precision thanks to a special algorithm that allows you to select an object more accurately.

This program is suitable for objects of a complex shape that are clearly visible against the background. You can replace an existing background with a white one and save your image in a high resolution.

gimp automated editing with photoshop plugins

This software supports all Photoshop plugins and extensions, meaning that you can easily enrich its toolkit and optimize your workflow.

gimp adding and configuration text

Besides, it comes with text editing tools. You can choose among more than 100 fonts, select the color you like, add shadows, and highlight the text in italics or bold.

If you still do not know which program is better, Capture One Pro or GIMP, take a look at the comparison table below.

Comparison:

capture one pro logo
Capture One Pro
gimp logo
GIMP

Capture One Pro & GIMP:

  • AI tools
  • Supports third-party presets
  • Customizable workspace
  • Deep color correction
  • Easy-to combine masks
  • Open source
  • Supports Photoshop plugins
  • Customizable masks and layers
  • RAW format support
  • User-friendly interface

Price

capture one pro vs gimp price

When comparing Capture One Pro vs GIMP, you will notice that the latter comes at a more affordable price while the former has more advanced features. You can download the trial versions of both programs free of charge.

You can download the trial version of Capture One Pro free of charge. It will be active for one month. If you like it, you can either pay $24 per month for a subscription or purchase a lifetime license for $449.

GIMP is a free, open-source software. However, you might need to pay extra for buying and installing third-party professional plugins.

FixThePhoto Choice:

Capture One Pro is a great editing software with powerful tools that make it similar to Photoshop. Besides, it is similar to Lightroom in terms of organization.

GIMP is the best solution for beginners, which makes this editor one of the best free Photoshop alternatives. GIMP supports third-party plugins, which allows you to automatize your workflow.

Eva Williams

Writer & Gear Reviewer

Eva Williams is a talented family photographer and software expert who is in charge of mobile software and apps testing and overviewing in the FixThePhoto team. Eva earned her Bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts from NYU and work 5+ years assisting some of the city’s popular wedding photographers. She doesn't trust Google search results and always tests everything herself, especially, much-hyped programs and apps.

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Tetiana Kostylieva

Photo & Video Insights Blogger

Tetiana Kostylieva is the content creator, who takes photos and videos for almost all FixThePhoto blog articles. Her career started in 2013 as a caricature artist at events. Now, she leads our editorial team, testing new ideas and ensuring the content is helpful and engaging. She likes vintage cameras and, in all articles, she always compares them with modern ones showing that it isn’t obligatory to invest in brand-new equipment to produce amazing results.

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