Tips for creating a catalog when I've been using sessions for all shoots thus far.
I've used Sessions for all my shoots for years now.
I'm working on a new project where I want to pull images from my archives though and sessions doesn't really work as I've got images spread across, probably, several hundred separate sessions, so I'm thinking of making a catalog of my archives. I'll use this catalog to sort and arrange individual images for this project. A lot of my sessions are commercial work, so I won't be adding all images in all sessions to this catalog.
I'm probably looking at 10 TB plus of images files and they do go across a number of Hard Drive Arrays.
Looking for any advise, tips or best practices, issues etc that others have encountered when doing something like this.
Thanks!
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EtMRS,
Why to multiply the no. of images with the no. of adjustments?
Nick,
One aspect is indeed the performance of a C1 catalog with (too) many images. The other aspects are functional when you will have reached the final state, another aspect is how to come to this final state.
Some final state considerations:
One thing to note (if you are using C1 only) is that for imported sessions or imported images with adjustments, any futher edits only reside wth the C1 catalog, if you do the edits in the catalog. If you do them in the sessions, they reside only in the sessions unless you re-import them to the catalog. The latter is somehow true for if you are using an external DAM.
- Do you want to adjust images for your project (eventually creating new variants) or just use the adjusted images as they are without further editing (only exporting)?
- If you want to adjust and/or create variants, do you want these new variants and/or the adjustments to the exisiting variants to be reflected in the individual sessions?
- OR do you want the sessions and images in there to stay untouched (as kind of a fixed archive) and have the new edits in the catalog only (then only C1 catalog can be used)
If you are planning to use an external DAM
- you need synchronized xmp files (e.g. for keywords if you use an external DAM). (at least fot the initial migration and if you are not using jpgs as previews grouped with the raw files, in this case probably the jpgs having added metadata could suffice)
- you need preview representatives (e.g. jpg files) of your raw files, if the jpg in the embedded raw files do not suffice in the catalog (e.g. if they are all too underexposed due to ETTR, or you need to see the crop done in C1)
- you need to "open (your raw files) with" C1 (see linked thread below) and new variants and adjustments will be written to the sessions side car files (so, no fixed archive)
This thread contains some useful information too:
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I need to read over both your responses and the linked thread a few more times as there's a lot of information there, but a couple of quick responses that may help.
Number of images: Probably more than 100K but less than 200K.
Leave images files where they are, in sessions: Yes, I would like to keep my folder structure intact, referencing the image files, not moving them.
Make image adjustments?: I have two intents here. First is to pull images that could be part of this project from all the various session folders (and I should add, from pre-C1 folders back when I used Lightroom) so that I can start seeing which images may fit into this project and then arrange and sort them. At some stage I will start making work prints, but a lot of the preliminary selecting will be done digitally. I would definitely want to be able to make some adjustments to the files (RAW processing) that are then reflected in the catalog.
Metadata: Minimal. Basic copyright and rights management and a basic headline or description, but I don't shoot stock or wire work, so my meteadata practice is generally minimal.
External DAM: This is new to me. I'm not actually sure what you mean by that. Any examples would be appreciated. Are you talking about, lets say, Photo Mechanic, which I don't use but which I know a lot of sports shooters etc use as it creates reference files extremely quickly and easily, or something else entirely. I should say I have the full Adobe subscription, so if there's anything in the Adobe ecosystem, that would be ideal. Would Bridge be something I could use?
Many thanks!
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Leave images files where they are, in sessions: Yes, I would like to keep my folder structure intact, referencing the image files, not moving them.
Yes, I assumed that the original files stay where they are, but what I meant is where do you want your adjustments to be.
As you know the adjustments made in sessions reside in the .cos and .comask files in the Settings folder under your session's Capture and Selects folder.
If you import an already adjusted image into a catalog, then you will duplicate the adjustments, all adjustments (from the image .cos file) go into the big .cocatalog file, and the .comask files will be copied nearby the catalog.
From now on the adjustments are decoupled (which might possibly be something you want...). Further adjustments can be made in the catalog, but they will not written back to the session .cos file. If you goto the same image in the session again you will see the adjustments from the session only. If you make adjustements in the session this will not be synced to the catalog.
In other words, other than the initial import, C1 does not have many advantages over an external DAM in a "catalog over session images" setup, if you want to keep catalog and session in sync.
External DAM: Yes, another app like Photo Mechanic, EtMRS uses Photo Supreme. (and he mentioned Photo Supreme Light).
If you have 100k+ images, how do you select the images for the project, by date, by keyword, or else?
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