Get better organized when using Sessions in Capture One Pro 7
May 16, 2013 Leave a comment
When working in Capture One 7 Pro, you basically have two different methods of organizing your images and image adjustments. You can use either:
Catalogs or Sessions
A session is an easy, straightforward and efficient way of organizing your images, as all files, adjustments and metadata are kept inside the Session folder. This method makes it easy to archive or move your data to another computer, by simply moving the entire Session folder.
Read more about the difference between Catalogs and Sessions as well as the benefits of using each
When creating a new Session, a simple folder structure, including some basic predefined folders, will be created for you:
Capture folder
Selects folder
Trash folder
Output folder
A Session folder will, by default, have a Capture folder, which is the default location for saving files when shooting tethered or when importing from a memory card.
The Selects folder is a default folder ready for holding selected images from the Session. The keyboard shortcut Cmd + J (Mac) or Ctrl + J (PC) will automatically move selected files to the Selects folder.
The Trash folder will hold all deleted images. Whenever you delete an image from the session, the image and its adjustments will simply be moved to the Session Trash folder. You can always go into the Trash folder and move any deleted files, including their adjustments, back to the original folder with a simple drag and drop. The Output folder is where all the processed image files are saved by default.
Create a Session for each job
It’s generally a good idea to create a new Session for every new job you have. This way you never mix up images from different jobs or different clients. You can easily switch between Sessions in Capture One 7 Pro. To do so, simply use the dropdown Session selector on the Library Tool tab or locate the Session you want to open in the Finder and double-click on the “.cosessiondb “ file (located within the Session folder).
The default Session gives you a basic Session workflow, but often you will need to add more Session folders in order to better organize your images.
How to add more folders to a Session
There are different ways to add additional Session folders.
The following method works both on Mac and PC.
1) In Capture One 7 Pro select the Library Tool tab and create a new Session from the menu item “New Session”, or by clicking the “+” button next to the Session selector. In this example I have created a new Session named “2013 05 – Italy”, the name of the Session is also shown at the top of the Capture One window. I always use the naming convention: Year, Month and then the name of the event. This naming convention makes it easier for me to go back and find older Sessions.
2) Right-click on any of the predefined Session folders Capture, Select, Output or Trash and select “Show in System folders”. This will locate the selected predefined session folder inside the System Folder tree.
3) Now go one level up in the System Folder tree and select the folder with the Session name. Right-click and select “new inside”. You can then select “Folder” and give the new folder a name.
4) Repeat this procedure for every new folder you would like to add.
5) Finally you can add these new folders to the Session Favorites by right-clicking on the folders in the “System Folders” tree and select “Add to Favorites”
Once you’ve added the new folders to your Session, they will show up in the Session Favorites list and be part of the Session. The Session database will keep information about all images saved in these folders and you can now use the Search and Filtering functionality in Capture One and for instance create Smart Albums based on specific search criteria.
On the Mac there is another special method that you can use:
1) In Capture One Pro 7 select the Library Tool tab and create a new Session.
2) Right-click on the Session name at the very top of the Capture One window (2013 05 – Italy.cosessiondb) and select the option to open the Session folder in the Finder
By right-clicking on the name of the Session on the top of the Capture One window, you can
directly open the Session folder in the Finder.
Folder selector when right-clicking on the Session name at
the very top of the Capture One window
3) In the Finder create the folders you need, quickly and easily.
4) Select the folders created in Finder and then drag them directly into the Session Favorites area in the Library Tool tab of Capture One.
5) The newly created folders will now show up in the list of Session Favorites.
You don’t need to use the default predefined “Capture Folder” as capture folder. Right click on any of your just added folders in the Session Folders list or in the Session Favorite list and select “Set as Capture folder”. This will set the selected folder as the Capture folder. In the Session Folders List you will now see a camera icon indicating that this folder is the Capture folder.
In my workflow I always keep the default Capture Folder even if I only import from memory cards. I will add additional image folders to the session as just explained, but I will still import directly to the Capture Folder. I use the Capture Folder as a “work in progress” folder but once I have finished editing the files, I move them to the different Session folders, I’ve added to the session.
All the best,
Niels
