Sessions | The Image Quality Professor's Blog

Get better organized when using Sessions in Capture One Pro 7

May 16, 2013 by Niels V. Knudsen 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.

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

Filed under Capture One Tips & Tricks, Capture One Workflow Tagged with Capture One Pro 7, Catalogs, Library tool, Sessions

Discover the Top Ten Popular Questions from our Webinars

March 21, 2013 by Niels V. Knudsen 2 Comments

Art Director: Jennifer Adie – Stylist: Sonia Genders - Hair and Makeup: Cassie Steward - Digital Tech: Paul Haycock
Model – Rebecca Wharton at Industry People - Assistant H&M: Jemma Stokes

Our webinar program was launched last year and so far we have broadcasted sixteen webinars on seven different subjects, reaching 1000’s of you. We aim at making short webinars with a demonstration and a Q&A session to get you started with using the software – or inspired to try it. If you wish to have more in depth training, you can check out our upcoming events or contact your local Phase One Partner through our partner locator, as many of our partners also offer webinars as well and other training options.

We plan to continue with more webinars in 2013 and hope you can join us. Each webinar always ends with a question and answer session and we thought you might like to see the top ten questions and answers. We hope you can benefit from this information – or maybe get inspired for your next job.

Capture One Webinars

Capture One Pro 7 was launched last October, and we started our webinar program to help everybody get acquainted with the new features and learn how to use the software quickly and efficiently.

Each webinar normally lasts an hour, with the last twenty minutes devoted to questions. Below are the top ten questions we received and the answers given.

Future Webinars

Our upcoming webinar program can be viewed here. There are links to sign up for the specific webinars and there are normally two on the same day, for different time zones.

Webinars are also recorded so attendees can view them at a later date for further learning.

You will also get your chance to shape the future webinars by answering a small survey, which we also send out to the attendees.

We hope you have enjoyed the webinars so far and look forward to continuing this exciting program in 2013. Remember, for more in-depth training; don’t forget to visit your Phase One Partner.

All the best,

Niels

Filed under Capture One Tips & Tricks Tagged with Capture One Pro 7, Catalog, Clarity Methods, Folder hierarchy, Noice Reduction, Sessions, Webinars

How to delete images in Capture One Pro 7

February 7, 2013 by Niels V. Knudsen 3 Comments

Often, one of the first tasks to do after importing images into Capture One Pro 7 is to delete those images that you don’t want to keep. Doing so early in the workflow makes it easy to focus on the good images.

Capture One has always offered an easy and convenient trash concept when organizing images in a Session. When you delete an image from a Session, the image will be moved to the Session Trash folder. You can always look in the Trash folder and move files back if you regret your deletion. You only delete the files for good if you use the option “Empty Session Trash”.

When organizing your images in a Catalog, Capture One Pro 7 has a similar concept for deleting images but it works a little different and is dependent on whether the original files are stored inside the Catalog or on an external location.

Deletion of images stored inside the Catalog

When working with images stored inside the Catalog, Capture One Pro 7 also provides an easy method of handling trashed images. When you delete an image, it will be removed from the Catalog and added to the Trash Collection.

As with a Session, you can look in the trash collection and move the files back into any other user collection or into the All Images Collection, if you regret your deletion. If you want to delete the images permanently from the Trash Collection, you can right click on the Catalog Trash and select the “Empty Catalog Trash”.

When you delete an image, for instance from your Recent Imports Collection, you will get a warning telling you that the image will be removed from the Catalog and put into the Catalog Trash (as shown above).

Deletion of images stored outside the Catalog

When your original files are stored outside the Catalog, you will typically have organized the files into a structured folders system – e.g. by using year, month and event name in the folder names. One of the benefits of using images stored outside the Catalog is that you don’t need to have access to your images in order to work and search within the Catalog (check out this previous post to learn more about storing your images outside the Catalog) This allows you to bring a smaller Catalog with you on the road more easily. Another benefit of using images stored externally, is that you can have different Catalogs referring to the same original file, while you have total freedom to adjust the image in different ways in different Catalogs. For instance, you could create a Black and White Catalog, as well as a Catalog for Color versions of the same raw files.

When deleting an image that’s stored outside the Catalog, Capture One Pro 7 does not use the Catalog Trash but gives you 2 options. You can either remove the image from the Catalog but leave it at its location or you can remove it from the Catalog and into the OS System Trash. The first option makes sense if you have another Catalog that uses the same image folder.

Warning dialog when deleting a file where the raw image is stored outside of the Catalog

Deleting multiple images

Right after import, I typically browse through the Recent Import folder and delete all those images, I for sure don’t want to keep. If I delete the files as I browse through them, I need to choose the deletion option for each image. To avoid this, I simply use the shortcut for tagging the images I don’t like with the Red color Tag (short cut “-“). After sorting, I use the filter to show only the Red Tagged images. I quickly double-check that all the Red tagged images should be deleted before I select and delete them at once.

Red color tag has been used to tag images for deletion. The Filter tool is used to show the images with a red tag.

Removing from a Catalog Album

If you have organized your images into albums, and you decide that a specific image should not be part of that album later, you can remove the image. When doing so, you do not remove it from the Catalog but just from the selected album. The file is still part of the Catalog and you won’t get a warning.

If you want to remove the file totally from the Catalog, you need to locate the file in the “All Images” Collection and delete it from there.

All the best,

Niels

Filed under Capture One Tips & Tricks, Capture One Workflow Tagged with Capture One Pro 7, Catalogs, Deleting Images, Image organization, Offline Editing, Sessions

Search and Filtering in a Session or Catalog

January 10, 2013 by Niels V. Knudsen 12 Comments

Capture One Pro 7 introduced a much improved toolset for searching and filtering your images – not only in a Catalog but also in a Session.

By default, the Filters tool is placed in the Library tool tab, containing the basic filters of Rating, Color Tag, Date and Keywords.

Whenever you browse to a collection of images, the search filters show a corresponding number to the right, which represents how many images match those criteria. For example, in this collection we can see that twenty images are rated at five stars and ten images are tagged with Green.

To filter the Browser view to a certain criteria, simply click on the button next to the value. In this case, we have selected to show only the five star rated images. The browser view will be instantly filtered.

Combining Search Criteria

To activate more than one filter simultaneously, simply click on the filters you want to activate whilst holding the Option key (Mac) or the CTRL key (Win). This will filter the results in the browser based on all the selected filters.

So consequently, only images with a Green tag and a Five star rating will be shown in the Browser.

Using the ‘Date’ Filter

The Date Filter acts as a very useful timeline on a collection of images. It is split into Year/Month/Day so it is very easy to locate images shot in a particular period.

Here we have selected to view the seven images that were captures on the 17th March, 2012 – with just one click.

Adding Other Filters

Besides from the default set, a whole host of other filters can be used to search an image collection. Click on the arrow in the Filters tool bar and choose Show / Hide Filters.

This will show the complete list of available Metadata filters.

Simply check any of the boxes to make them available in the Filters tool.

Saving Searches as Albums

It is very simple to save a search using the filters as an Album or Smart Album. Whenever there is an active filter, the Advanced Search option in the Filters tool search input bar is colored orange. Clicking this will show the currently selected search criteria in the Advanced Search window.

To save this as an Album (of the filtered images) or a Smart Album (of the current criteria) use one of the options in the window. The Album or Smart Album will then appear in the User Collections as shown below:

Filed under Capture One Tips & Tricks, Capture One Workflow Tagged with Capture One Pro 7, Catalogs, Keywords, Search and filtering, Search criteria, Sessions, Tagging

Take control of your image organization with Sessions or Catalogs

November 15, 2012 by Niels V. Knudsen 14 Comments

When working in Capture One Pro 7 you now have 2 different methods of organizing your images and image adjustments:

Sessions
Catalogs

In previous generations of Capture One, you have only had the option of using Sessions, but with the introduction of Capture One Pro 7, you now also have the possibility of using Catalogs for organizing your images.

Why the two different methods?

Capture One originally started out as a RAW studio capture and workflow solution where you would always shoot tethered. The Sessions approach to organizing your work is specifically designed to meet the needs of such a workflow.

If you create a new session for each new job, Capture One will automatically create a folder structure to hold all the items for that shoot including RAW files, image adjustments, previews as well as an output folder for the processed images. At the end of a shoot, the Session folder will contain everything and can easily be moved from the computer in the studio to another computer for further editing or more permanent archiving.

Catalogs are the new organizing alternative in Capture One Pro 7. Catalogs have been designed to meet the needs of photography professionals and enthusiasts who shoot a lot of different images and want to easily search among a large number of images. Catalogs also provide effective tools for organizing images into Projects and Albums based on themes, projects, specific customers etc. or for easier showcasing of for instance, a portfolio.

Catalogs in Capture One Pro 7 are very flexible and they even come with a great feature enabling you to display and edit files saved on file servers or external hard drives that may not be accessible at all times. This unique feature allows you to travel with a large Catalog, view the images and perform adjustments even though the images are archived on a hard drive at your home or your studio.

Below, you will find an overview of the advantages and challenges of using the different methods of organizing your images in Capture One Pro 7.

1) You create a new Session for each new job / project

Advantages:

All inclusive folder structure for easy archiving.
All inclusive folder structure that can easily be moved to other computers including all adjustments and previews.
Automatic Capture Folder for collecting tethered captures.
Automatic Output Folder for the processed images.
The Trash Folder and Selects Folder allow you to easily nail down the important images.
No risk of mixing images from different shoots or clients.
Full search capability among images in a Session.
Easily move single images to another computer including adjustments by using the .EIP format.

Limitations:

No search capability between images in different Sessions

2) You use the Default Session and just browse to where ever you have placed your raw files

Advantages:

You can place your images in whatever file structure that works for you.
You can always move your image folders to other locations and they will still contain all adjustments and previews for Capture One.
You don’t need to know all the details of how a Session works.

Limitations:

No full search capability as only the images in the Session Folders or Session Favorite Folders can be searched and filtered.
Capture One generates subfolders in all the folders you are using to hold the adjustments and the previews. This can be confusing when looking through the file system.
Processed images will always be added to the default Session Output Folder.
You don’t really take advantage of the Sessions concept.
Your Session Trash Folder and Output Folder may contain images from different clients.

3) You use Catalogs to organize your images

Advantages:

No restrictions on where to place your raw files.
Raw files can even be placed on slow network drives with minimum impact on performance as previews and settings are kept inside the Catalog.
The Catalog database automatically keeps track of the location of all the images in the Catalog.
Full search capability among all the images in a Catalog.
Powerful organization possibilities let you organize your images into Projects, Groups and Albums.
Use Smart Albums when organizing images according to specific criteria. These albums are always updated as a result of a filtering process.
View and edit files even though they are physically located on an inaccessible or offline device.
If placed on a shared drive, a Catalog can be viewed by several people on different computers and only be changed by one person at the same time.
The folder for processed images can be placed anywhere.

Limitations:

All images have to be imported in order for the Catalog to register the images, the physical location and to generate preview files.
Deleting images is not as straightforward as in a Session. If you delete an image in an album, you just remove the reference to that image in that album. Remember that the same image can be referenced in multiple albums.
Moving a few images to another computer including their settings requires an Export of the originals which will copy the files to an Export Folder including the settings and previews. This folder can then be moved to the other computer.

In future tips on the blog, I will dig deeper into each of the 3 methods of organizing images.

All the best,

Niels

Learn more about Capture One Pro 7

Download the free 60 days trial

Filed under Capture One Tips & Tricks, Capture One Workflow Tagged with Capture One Pro 7, Catalogs, Digital Asset Management, Image organization, Sessions, studio photography

Optimize your workflow with Albums

November 24, 2011 by Niels V. Knudsen 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.

Filed under Capture One Tips & Tricks, Capture One Workflow Tagged with Albums, Capture One 6, Library tool, Sessions, Variants

Sessions – A great way to organize your work

November 17, 2011 by Niels V. Knudsen 10 Comments

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.

Filed under Capture One Tips & Tricks, Capture One Workflow Tagged with Albums, Capture One 6, Folders, Library tool, Sessions

The Image Quality Professor's Blog