Optimize your workflow with Albums
November 24, 2011 3 Comments
One of the key organizing elements in a Capture One 6 Session is an Album. It looks like a normal image folder, but it is just a virtual folder with internal references to the real location of the images.
- You can create as many Albums in a Session as you wish.
- You add images to an Album simply by drag and drop.
- An Album can contain images from different locations.
- Images in an Album can come from any folder location both inside as well as outside the Session folder.
- When deleting an image in an Album, you only remove it from the Album. You do not delete it from the original folder.
If you move an image containing multiple variants to an Album, the Album will also show the variants. Variants of an image will always stay together.
An image in an Album will always reflect the current corrections made on the image at the original location. There is only one original, and changing an image in an Album will also change the appearance of the image at the original location.
I typically use Albums to create small collections of images sharing a common theme, which could be something as simple as my Black and White images. I love Black and White so in each new Session, I always create an Album for Black and White images even though I may have gone out shooting without having Black and White shots in mind. I keep all my originals in the Import folders inside my Session folder. When I go through my Import folders, I immediately add files to my Black and White Album when I see images which will work great as Black and White. By adding the files to an Album rather than moving them to a new folder, I still have all my originals in one location, which I like. Browsing through the Import folder again, I continue to have all the images there, and I can make another selection, which I can add to a different Album.
By using Albums, I am able to keep one Album with images for Black and White work and another Album for working on images in full colors. I just need to create Variants: one Variant holding the Black and White version and one Variant holding the color version.
To add an Album you can right click on any Session Album, Favorite or folder and select the “New Album” from the dropdown menu. You can also add an Album by selecting the Library Tool action menu icon. The Session above already contains 4 Albums as indicated by the blue circle.
What do you name your “Imports” folder? Do you call it “import” or do you give it the same name as the session?
Dear Andrew,
When I create a session, I typically use the Year and Month and a title for the project/event.
An example of this is “2011-07 Ireland”. When I later archive my Sessions, they are all organized in Year and Month which I like. For naming my Import Folders, I use 2 approaches. One is to use the name of a the location. This makes sense for me when I’m on a trip. My other approach is simply to use the full date like “2011-07-21”. But what you suggest also makes sense by simply having an import folder named Import. If you do so, you could create your Sessions as a “Tethered” session and simply use the Capture folder as the Import folder. When you create your session, you should then rename the Capture folder to “import”. The importer will by default place you images in you Capture folder which you now have named “Import”.
Best Regards,
Niels
Hi Professor,
Thanks for this new tip.
I like your image a lot. It has class and fantastic colors.
Only I dislike the almost white sharpening (?) contour along the mountain. It is so eye catching. So are the 1 to 3 small spots in the subtle sky tones. It might be 3 Irish birds, but I loaded a copy and killed them – and lowered the intensity of the contour. Then I had peace.
It’s an awful thing to do, but being an image pedant I can’t help it. Please forgive me!
(Have deleted the copy.)