Sessions – A great way to organize your work

Creating a Session in Capture One 6 is an efficient way to organize your image files into folders and virtual albums.

• Create a new Session for every new event, trip or job. This will help you keep all relevant images, image corrections and processed images within one physical folder.

• A Session can easily be moved to another computer or another physical disc drive. As all necessary files are saved inside the Session folder by default, you can work on the Session from any computer. This can be a great advantage, as you may have started working on the Session on your laptop while on a trip. Once you get home, you can simply move the Session folder to your stationary computer and continue your work.

• You can easily switch from one Session to another and when you return to the first Session, you will see all images and all selects the same way as when you left the Session.

• You can search and filter all images in the Session Favorite folders.

If you use Sessions to organize your work, Capture One will place all your image folders inside the Session folder by default. This will ensure that the Session can be moved to a backup device or another computer later.

The image above shows the Library tool in Capture One. The current Session is named “2011-10 Demo”.  The Session folders provide quick references to the default Session folders. To see the physical location of a Session folder, right click on the Session folder and select the “Show in Library”. In the above example, you can see how all the Session folders are placed inside the Session folder “2011-10 Demo”. The small icons indicate the function of the individual Session folder.

Besides the Session folders, you can also find a .col50 folder. This is the Session folder containing the information about image selections and Albums. If you double click on a .Col50 folder in the file system, Capture One will open the associated Session. You can rename a Session by simply renaming the .col50 folder directly in the file system, but if you do, first you must make sure that Capture One is not open.

You can create and add as many folders to your Session as you like. You can also add folders to your Session from any location outside the Session folder, but doing so you lose the possibility of moving the Session to another physical location later. If you know that you will never need to move your Session, there are no problems.

If you are shooting tethered, you should choose a tethered Session, as this option automatically gives you a Capture folder and sets the capture naming to equal the Session name by default.

In the Library tool, you click on the “+” icon to create a new Session. The current Session named “2011-10 Demo” is a tethered Session and includes a Capture folder. Both tethered and untethered Sessions will always include an Output folder for the processed images, a Selects folder for holding specially selected images and a Trash folder for all the trashed images.

If you chose an untethered Session, you won’t get an Image folder until you manually create one or use the Importer tool to import images. The Importer will automatically provide options for creating Import folders inside the Session folder.

After completing an import, you will notice that the Import folder has been added to the Session Favorite List. It is important to note that only images placed in folders that are visible in the Session Favorites List can be searched when using the search and filtering function.

I have imported 3 CF cards into this session and the importer has automatically added the Import folders to the Session Favorites. I named the import folders by date and an index number.

You can always use the browser in the Library tool to select an Image folder, but the Image folder won’t be searchable until you add it to the Favorites list.

To add a folder to the Session Favorites, just right click on the folder and select “Add to Favorites” in the drop down menu.