Switched from Lightroom - setting up "Catalogs"?
Hi all,
Trying to migrate to Capture One 12 Pro after 10+ years of using Lightroom. In Lightroom I had ONE big catalog with all my photos from ten years back, all in the same catalog.. then I have folders for "each year" and sub-folders for each "Event" (normally with the date I imported the footage). I believe this is a good way to find my footage, even when just browsing folders in the Explorer/Finder (outside of Lightroom/CO12).
Having all the images in 1 separate "Catalog" in Lightroom though (just checked and it is about 114.000 images in it..) may of course not be very wise if something happens.. and I guess it slows down the performance as well?
So if I now should try and do a similar setup for Capture One 12, still sorting my footage using folders for "each year" and sub-folders for the "events/happenings" (in Explorer/Finder).. Would you recommend to create ONE catalog in CO12 that includes all the images/folders/subfolders (like I have been using Lightroom earlier) OR should I instead, for example, create ONE catalog for each year (so I get multiple smaller CO12 catalogs to work with)? What is the best approach here - "Single" or "Multiple Catalogs"?
Not sure if "Sessions" even is to be considered for this workflow? I now mostly use "Sessions" for special-photo-events, not for my "everyday" or family photos. But any tips are appreciated!
Looking forwards to here from you. Thanks!
/ Frederik
Trying to migrate to Capture One 12 Pro after 10+ years of using Lightroom. In Lightroom I had ONE big catalog with all my photos from ten years back, all in the same catalog.. then I have folders for "each year" and sub-folders for each "Event" (normally with the date I imported the footage). I believe this is a good way to find my footage, even when just browsing folders in the Explorer/Finder (outside of Lightroom/CO12).
Having all the images in 1 separate "Catalog" in Lightroom though (just checked and it is about 114.000 images in it..) may of course not be very wise if something happens.. and I guess it slows down the performance as well?
So if I now should try and do a similar setup for Capture One 12, still sorting my footage using folders for "each year" and sub-folders for the "events/happenings" (in Explorer/Finder).. Would you recommend to create ONE catalog in CO12 that includes all the images/folders/subfolders (like I have been using Lightroom earlier) OR should I instead, for example, create ONE catalog for each year (so I get multiple smaller CO12 catalogs to work with)? What is the best approach here - "Single" or "Multiple Catalogs"?
Not sure if "Sessions" even is to be considered for this workflow? I now mostly use "Sessions" for special-photo-events, not for my "everyday" or family photos. But any tips are appreciated!
Looking forwards to here from you. Thanks!
/ Frederik
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[quote="tennet" wrote:
Hi all,
Trying to migrate to Capture One 12 Pro after 10+ years of using Lightroom. In Lightroom I had ONE big catalog with all my photos from ten years back, all in the same catalog.. then I have folders for "each year" and sub-folders for each "Event" (normally with the date I imported the footage). I believe this is a good way to find my footage, even when just browsing folders in the Explorer/Finder (outside of Lightroom/CO12).
Having all the images in 1 separate "Catalog" in Lightroom though (just checked and it is about 114.000 images in it..) may of course not be very wise if something happens.. and I guess it slows down the performance as well?
So if I now should try and do a similar setup for Capture One 12, still sorting my footage using folders for "each year" and sub-folders for the "events/happenings" (in Explorer/Finder).. Would you recommend to create ONE catalog in CO12 that includes all the images/folders/subfolders (like I have been using Lightroom earlier) OR should I instead, for example, create ONE catalog for each year (so I get multiple smaller CO12 catalogs to work with)? What is the best approach here - "Single" or "Multiple Catalogs"?
Not sure if "Sessions" even is to be considered for this workflow? I now mostly use "Sessions" for special-photo-events, not for my "everyday" or family photos. But any tips are appreciated!
Looking forwards to here from you. Thanks!
/ Frederik
I used LR from V1 so I will offer my thoughts which may or may not be helpful😊
I also used one large catalogue in LR because….. that is what you do and are encouraged to do in LR. Some people need constant and immediate access to all of their images for reasons best known to themselves. Everyone has their own reasons for the way they work there is no right or wrong. If you are of this ilk, then C1Pro will be slow for you as it has a different program architecture. Personally, I find that I access old images infrequently and therefore although I initially imported my entire LR catalogue (only 60,000images) into C1Pro I have revised my system.
For me the best option was to split up my images into several LR catalogues. Select 3 years’ worth of images in LR and then Export as a new catalogue worked for me. I then imported these catalogues into individual C1Pro catalogues. Keywords, ratings and colour labels imported without issue. Once you have the new C1Pro catalogue and have verified that it is working OK, it is important to re-export the C1Pro catalogue as a new catalogue. Importing thousands of images is a complex business and I found it beneficial to re-export the catalogue as a new file seemed to clean up any issues from the import and allow C1Pro to tidy everything up. I have no idea why this works but I just report what worked repeatably for me. 😊
The other important aspect to be aware of is that if the event log shows any problem files eg cannot build preview message†then these files are corrupt and need to be removed from the hard disk. I ignored these warnings on 6 files because I was busy and “would get round to sorting it outâ€. When I did, I found the files were corrupted although they showed in C1Pro and File explorer as thumbnails OK. Unfortunately by this time I had backed up the corrupt files over my backup☹ So C1Pro is pretty reliable if it says there is a problem with a file there is.
The other issue with files being flagged in the event viewer as “problems†is that C1Pro appears to check all the files in your catalogue every time you open it until you deal with the problem files. Even after you have removed the corrupt files it seems to check all the files for the next couple of times you open the catalogue just to make sure. After that the catalogue opens normally. Again, just my observations after using C1Pro. C1Pro seems to be obsessed with any file corruption and as you will find will not ever modify a raw file or even let you export over another output file.
Having got these “initial start-up†issues dealt with I would suggest that you look at using sessions and see if this way of working suits you? Sessions allows you to work directly on files without importing them. Takes a while to get your head around this after 10 years working in LR, at least it did for me😊
There are the “official†ways of using sessions or easier, for me, options. If you want to explore sessions just ask any questions here.
I like to work is sessions because you just come back from a shoot, create the new session, dump your images of off the card into the relevant folder and off you go. After around a year I will import the session into the relevant 3 year archive catalogue. No images are moved and all your adjustments, keywords, ratings etc are pulled into the catalogue. Best of both worlds for me 😊
Hope this helps.
Ian0 -
Hi Ian,
Many thanks for your detailed answer. Much appreciated! My Lightroom catalog could probably be 1/5 of the size if I had only taken the time to delete any crap photos directly.. 🙄
So, if I understand you correctly.. then you recommend to "always" use 'Sessions' to start with, when importing your footage from the card.. Then you do all the ratings, pick your "favourites" and delete any "unwanted" photos from the 'Sessions' directly (and from the hard drive as well)?
And when your 'Session' is cleaned, then you import this 'Session' to a 'C1Pro catalog', right? This way your C1Pro catalog will only include your "best photos" (your favourites, rated with keywords..)?
Maybe a stupid question, but do you have to import the whole "Session folder tree" to the catalog or can you import only a selected Session folder (like only your "favourites")? I meen, if the Session has been cleaned, then there's no need to import any unused 'Sessions folders'?0 -
[quote="tennet" wrote:
So, if I understand you correctly.. then you recommend to "always" use 'Sessions' to start with, when importing your footage from the card.. Then you do all the ratings, pick your "favourites" and delete any "unwanted" photos from the 'Sessions' directly (and from the hard drive as well)?
I am finding that work flow beneficial too and is what I do now.
Someone else asked recently about importing form LR here are some threads to read:
viewtopic.php?f=52&t=31529#p1535790 -
[quote="tennet" wrote:
Hi Ian,
Many thanks for your detailed answer. Much appreciated! My Lightroom catalog could probably be 1/5 of the size if I had only taken the time to delete any crap photos directly.. 🙄
So, if I understand you correctly.. then you recommend to "always" use 'Sessions' to start with, when importing your footage from the card.. Then you do all the ratings, pick your "favourites" and delete any "unwanted" photos from the 'Sessions' directly (and from the hard drive as well)?
And when your 'Session' is cleaned, then you import this 'Session' to a 'C1Pro catalog', right? This way your C1Pro catalog will only include your "best photos" (your favourites, rated with keywords..)?
Maybe a stupid question, but do you have to import the whole "Session folder tree" to the catalog or can you import only a selected Session folder (like only your "favourites")? I meen, if the Session has been cleaned, then there's no need to import any unused 'Sessions folders'?
You have to import the whole session remember that you are not moving anything just importing meta data and pointers to the files.
I flatten the folder structure using a tip provided by another Ian:-) If you enter a period in the Select and Output folder options when you create a session then these become the folder above where C1Pro would put them. I dump all of my files into the Capture folder. I then give them all a 1 star rating and then go through looking for images out of focus etc that I am going to delete and mark them 0 stars. These are then deleted, well actually moved to the session trash folder.
I then rate the remaining mages that I want to work on further with 2 Stars and move them to the selects folder (ie into the main image folder from the Capture subfolder. I like a flat folder structure and use star ratings and colour tags to organise my images. If you output any images they end up with the raw files and if you use the "edit with" or "open with" options the files end up next to their raw files. Working is sessions also means that with "open with" you don't need to synchronise the folder to see the image as you do with catalogues. There are keyboard commands to select by star rating etc which makes for a fast workflow.
I store my images by year so have a 2019 folder and create subfolders for individual shoots. Using a preset to create your new session is very quick you just enter the name for your shoot eg Florida March 2019 and it creates the Florida March 2019 folder in 2019 and off you go.
Take a look at this thread on dpr as it takes you step by step through the process:
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/ ... t-62251035
Sounds more complicated then it is to do once you are familiar with C1Pro.😊
Hope this helps
Ian0 -
[quote="IanS" wrote:
I flatten the folder structure using a tip provided by another Ian:-) If you enter a period in the Select and Output folder options when you create a session then these become the folder above where C1Pro would put them. I dump all of my files into the Capture folder. I then give them all a 1 star rating and then go through looking for images out of focus etc that I am going to delete and mark them 0 stars. These are then deleted, well actually moved to the session trash folder.
That was probably me (although there is an @Ian3 around here as well). I describe what I did to setup my session directory structure here: viewtopic.php?f=52&t=27848#p133149
BTW I am doing nearly the same as @IanS in terms of my work flow although I usually rate and delete as I go.0 -
Many thanks Ian, great help! Your workflow is kind of how I worked in Lightroom, but I always waited too long before deleting the bad shots, so hopefully this mixed workflow (Sessions -> Catalog) will suit me better. And thanks for the links to the other topics, will look it through. 😊
/ Frederik0 -
[quote="IanL" wrote:
[quote="IanS" wrote:
I flatten the folder structure using a tip provided by another Ian:-) If you enter a period in the Select and Output folder options when you create a session then these become the folder above where C1Pro would put them. I dump all of my files into the Capture folder. I then give them all a 1 star rating and then go through looking for images out of focus etc that I am going to delete and mark them 0 stars. These are then deleted, well actually moved to the session trash folder.
That was probably me (although there is an @Ian3 around here as well). I describe what I did to setup my session directory structure here: viewtopic.php?f=52&t=27848#p133149
BTW I am doing nearly the same as @IanS in terms of my work flow although I usually rate and delete as I go.
Yes, it was you @IanL and thanks again for the tip. 😊0 -
I have found one downside to this approach. Don't get me wrong I'm still doing it this way but I had a bit of a surprise the other day. I went looking for some of my bee pictures from last year. I knew I had them but I could not find them. After a while I realized I had not finished working in the session and importing them into my catalogue. I checked and found four other shoots in the same state. So the downside is if you don't have compelling reason to finish things up (like a paying client for example) and your poor brain forgets to finish up your personal projects you can end up with some orphaned pictures.
Ooops. Hopefully you guys have better discipline that me 😉0
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