Capture One integration with NeoFinder and DAM improvement

I am new to Capture One and just about finishing an intensive testing process during my free trial. So far I am impressed and shall probably go ahead with a purchase.

I have looked through various posts to see what sort of issues I might be up against and one hot spot seems to be poor DAM performance in C1. I agree that this is an issue. For a couple of years my workflow has been to use NeoFinder as my primary digital catalogue tool. It does everything that people think is lacking in C1 on the DAM side. I have worked out a very good workflow model that lets me use the full power of NeoFinder for everything such as searching, finding and metadata management and then jump to C1 for image processing. I attach some notes below that describe this process, including an Apple Script that easily integrates both products. I have another script that integrates NeoFinder with Affinity Photo. I hope that this might be of some use. Please ignore some comments about using C1 that will be common knowledge to existing users.

Workflow with NeoFinder and Capture One

Many years ago I used Lightroom as part of the full Adobe suite that I upgraded every 1-2 years as a major release came out. Once Adobe switched to a subscription licensing model I stopped using their products. I did not wish to wake up one day and find that I could not access my back catalogue.

For photo editing I switched to Affinity Photo, just as good as Photoshop for my purposes. After a bit of looking around I started using NeoFinder as my digital catalogue.

NeofFinder is now an invaluable tool: good value for money, fast, works on all file types and has lots of good features, especially geotagging.

Recently Affinity Photo came out with a better RAW image processing option allowing linked files to contain a record of edits. This seemed a perfect companion to NeoFinder except that 2 thumbnails were required in the catalogue and the edited thumbnail could only be displayed as a tiny image - any enlargement resulted in a pixelated image that was of no use. Affinity Photo has been promising to improve this situation for some time, but I have now given up waiting.

I recently installed a trial version of Capture One. I was immediately impressed with all aspects of the product. It is very easy to use, there is lots of help and processing batches of images from a shoot is very fast. I am almost certainly going to buy the product. They have both a subscription model and a perpetual licence. On this occasion I shall start with the subscription model because I earn a 20% credit towards the perpetual licence for every year of use, so can switch at a realistic cost at any time.

Here is how this workflow has improved my productivity and quality.

Capturing images

Images can be captured directly in Capture One through various methods, including live wireless tethering. I have tried all methods and they work smoothly. But NeoFinder for me provides a superior catalog solution, so this will remain as my digital catalogue. It also manages other files that would not be in Capture One. Examples of where this works better for me:

• I shoot both stills and video. I don’t want video to be handled in Capture One. NeoFinder’s metadata and geotagging can be used across both file types.
• Geotagging is much better in NeoFinder. If a geotag is missing I can drop a pin onto its map and get place names updated.
• NeoFinder links to a variety of external maps. I prefer to use Open Street Map - Capture One only links to Google Maps.
• If I show the map view in NeoFinder I can ask it to show all images from that area and then edit them directly in Capture One.
• NeoFinder has good links to Wikipedia, so that information relevant to the subject can be dropped into an image’s metadata.
• NeoFinder’s metadata can be customised to deal with specific situations.
• NeoFinder’s search capabilities are more extensive and faster, including a link to Apple’s context tagging - easy to find all images contains (say) a window.

Both NeoFinder and Capture One rely on an underlying physical folder structure, although this can be any number of folders across any number of hard drives. In each case a catalogue can be a folder or your entire image collection. I prefer to separate my images into a catalogue per year, with a folder inside for each month. Outside of that physical structure both products can organise all the images into any virtual catalogue structure without you needing to be much aware of the physical structure.

Once I have imported a new batch into NeoFinder I rename according my template, add my standard metadata and ensure that all geotag information is correct. If appropriate I can people names from my list. I have mostly given up adding keywords because I can find anything I want through the various NeoFinder options.

With one click I import the new folder into my main catalogue in Capture One. All the star ratings, colour codes and all other information are there because both products synchronise metadata.

This is where things are much better than before. I can slice and dice the images in Capture One into any subset that I like for editing. That group then shows up as a batch and I can edit singly or apply changes to all images at once, something that was impossible with Affinity Photo. The speed of editing is impressive. I am now making good use of styles where an image style can be applied to a batch with one click. Speed editing allows you to change the main parameters (exposure, brightness etc.) using shortcuts with having to go to the menu. It’s a matter of taste, but I much prefer this interface to the Lightroom interface.

AI masking is particularly impressive. Elements such as sky or object can be masked with a click and edited on a new layer. The layer structure keeps different edits separate.

The Capture One catalogue size remains small if you opt to reference the images rather than import them.

Location shooting

I shoot lots of travel images for stock. When I am on a trip I need the full capabilities of both programs, but need to integrate new images into my master catalogue when I get home. Working this way means that all the work of adding metadata and editing is done on the road and not a massive load when I get home.

Capture One has an impressive option to manage this workflow: sessions. For a trip I create a new session (or several for a log trip). Each day I just select all the day’s images from NeoFinder and drag them into the Capture One session. Instead of building a new catalogue Capture One just references the files (a bit like Adobe Bridge), while still allowing all the editing functions. On return home I just import the session into my main catalogue.

Individual editing

Both NeoFinder and Capture One support Apple Scripts. I have written a script for NeoFinder to allow me to click on an image that I wish to edit and it opens in Capture One. The script is below and can be copied.

tell application "NeoFinder"

set myList to selected items

repeat with theItem in myList

set myName to name of theItem

set the clipboard to myName

-- log {myName}

end repeat

end tell

-- Get the filename from the clipboard

set filename to (the clipboard) as string

-- Select the image in Capture One

tell application "Capture One" to activate

delay 1

tell application "Capture One"

tell application "System Events"

--set frontmost to true

keystroke "f" using {command down}

delay 1

keystroke filename

delay 1

keystroke return

end tell

end tell

Summary

While not the cheapest solution, if you are a professional or serious amateur this combination should offer a lot of possibilities and not lock you into one supplier.