Moving changes between machines and archive
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What problem do you see this solving?
I work using catalogs. Normally I will download all photos taken at an event onto my laptop and import them into the catalog on that machine, do photo selection and initial post-processing on there. I will then export all the originals with adjustments to an archive folder on a NAS.
Sometimes I will import from there onto my desktop machine and sometimes for speed I'll copy the directory to the desktop and import. I will do final adjustments on the desktop, which has a calibrated monitor and then want to copy all the adjustments back onto the NAS primarily as a backup.
In order to do that currently I have to export all the originals with adjustments somewhere, copy the CaptureOne directory with the adjustments and throw away the image files. It means I always need additional space for an extra set of originals. If I want to view the new adjustments on the laptop, I have to delete them from the catalog, copy the CaptureOne directory from the NAS and import the photos again.
It would be a big improvement for me just to be able to export the adjustments without the original image files. Even better if I could then import the photos again from a directory with the updated CaptureOne directory and instead of just doing nothing because the file is already in the catalog, it were to allow me to update the catalog with new adjustments.
Having a single catalog on the NAS is not a viable solution as it's too slow over wifi and the option of connecting an external drive and keeping the catalog on that, is also not as convenient as simply being able to transfer adjustments from machine to machine somehow.
When was the last time you were affected by this lack of functionality, or specific tool?
This affects me on pretty well every shoot, as I always work like this.
Are you using any workarounds or other solutions to achieve your goals in Capture One?
The workaround is as described, to export originals with adjustments, throw away the images and just copy the CaptureOne directory.
Are you happy to be contacted further about this suggestion or request?
Yes.
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If you always use a session instead of a catalog, would this work for you? You can move (or better copy) the CaptureOne/Settingsx.x.x folder (basically the .cos and the .comask files) between computers.
If you use version 15.2 (maybe 15.3 but not later) then the .cos files will even have the correct file system "modified date" if you change an image settings. (Later versions of C1 (idefinately 15.4) introduced a naughty bug on WIndows at least which always updates the modified date when you just look at the folder in a C1 session).
I support your request though to synchronize adjustments between catalog and file system (catalog settings from and to .cos and comask files), if that is a solution for your workflow.
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I have used sessions for some tethered photo-shoots, but don't find them convenient for long term archiving, so prefer to use a single catalog as I want to be able to use the filters to find particular shots that would not have been taken within a single session. I use a directory structure on the NAS that is based on dates, so I can easily import all the photos from 2020 into a catalog and then filter for the 5 star, red photos from that year. I did attempt to keep one full catalog on the NAS for that purpose, but found it too difficult to keep it up-to-date with any adjustments. Having two catalogs, one on the laptop and one on the desktop, already provides enough danger of accidentally overwriting edits and having a third main catalog just made the situation worse. I guess what I would really like is something similar to a source code control system, where you can checkin/checkout changes to a central place and the local copy would know if it was up-to-date with that central repository. I could implement that myself based on something like git, if you supply the mechanism for syncing adjustements between catalog and file sytem. That would allow me to keep track of versions of adjustments, so I could tag a set of adjustments at the moment I deliver some photos, then make further changes, knowing I can always revert to the original adjustments if somebody asks for additional tweaks based on the original versions!
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Hi David, I am an ordinary user/customer of C1 so unfortunately it is out of my realm to provide a git-like version control in C1.
I did attempt to keep one full catalog on the NAS for that purpose, but found it too difficult to keep it up-to-date with any adjustments. Having two catalogs, one on the laptop and one on the desktop, already provides enough danger of accidentally overwriting edits and having a third main catalog just made the situation worse.
Maybe it is helpful for you to know that you can use a catalog to search for the images you want to edit and then pass them (precisely: the references to these images) to a session. Just create an empty album in the session and drag&drop the thumbnails from the catalog browser to that session's album.
Then you can use the session to edit them and the edits will be stored in the cos and comask files directly. You only have to copy them over back to your NAS (it is all in the CaptureOne/Settingsxxx folder).
However, the modification date of these files can be important if you are working on multiple machines concurrently. And yes, it is still dangerous...
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Hi David Cullen - I have edited your post so that it aligns with the provided template. Hope that's ok! Just something to keep in mind for the future :) thanks a lot for the feedback.
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