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Session imported into Catalog - how to sync it?

kamituel
For the last few years now I've been using Capture One based on Sessions only. But I want to, finally, start using Catalogs too, primarily because I want to have access to all my photographs without the need to switch between Sessions (nor to attach an external hard drive), and for all those nice ways of managing / finding images.

In the webinar I watched, it was mentioned that one of the good ways of working with both Sessions and Catalogs is to first use a Session, then, once it's done and one doesn't expect to make any changes to any of the photos in it, import it to the Catalog. And that's cool, because I have plenty of Sessions I could import to a new Catalog!

But what if, from time to time, I will need to make a change to one of the files though? Or create a new variant of an existing photograph with slightly different adjustments? (For instance, before printing, or just because I'd want to revisit an old image and try to develop it in a different manner).

When I go ahead and open a Session, make new adjustments, close it and then open a Catalog into which this Session has been imported, the new adjustments are not applied.

Can I sync back the Session back into the Catalog it has been previously already imported into?

Cheers!
1

Comments

5 comments

Date Votes
  • SFA
    Is there any reason why would not simply edit by opening the file using the catalogue in this situation?
    1
  • Ian Wilson
    Moderator
    Top Commenter
    I don’t think there is an easy way to “sync†it. I suppose you could reimport the images concerned. But if you want to use a combined session and catalog workflow, then as Grant (SFA) suggests, once you have got your work into the catalog, you are best to do any further edits via the catalog. So it would also be best to import a session into the catalog only once you have done most of the work you are likely to want to do on that project.

    Ian
    1
  • kamituel
    SFA wrote:
    Is there any reason why would not simply edit by opening the file using the catalogue in this situation?


    Not really other than I was under the impression that's the way Sessions imported into Catalogs are supposed to work.
    In the webinar called "Catalogs and Sessions" [1], at around 1:03:35, that's what's being said:

    David Grover:
    Once you've imported your session into your catalog, you can of course open an image (...) and make some adjustments, but if I was then to open a session, then these adjustments would not be reflected. So the adjustments made in a catalog do not synchronise back to the old session. That's why I call it "archive".


    Alexander Flemming:
    But it will of course take the adjustments you made in a session, and apply it, or copy those adjustments, into the catalog.


    David Grover:
    Yes, exactly. So if we adjusted this image in the session, we'd of course see that in the catalog. Yes, absolutely.


    If I understood this part of the webinar correctly, it should work, right? But it doesn't as far as I can tell based on my tests.

    Anyway, out of the practical reasons, having adjustments being synced from the session back to the catalog would mean I'd have an extra backup of those adjustments in case of a catalog DB corruption. Which, given that catalog is going to be long-lived, often used, and large, would be catastrophic. If I could always make adjustments in the session, and use catalog only as a tool to manage those photos, organise and label them, and export if needed, then adjustments would be always up to date both in a session, and in a catalog. Quite nice way of having an extra backup.

    I'm on Mac, C11.

    [1] https://learn.phaseone.com/capture-one/ ... s-sessions
    1
  • Ian Wilson
    Moderator
    Top Commenter
    No I think you have misunderstood what David and Alex said. If you (1) edit your images in the session, then (2) import them into the catalog, then the edits will come with them (as long as you have checked the box for include existing adjustments). That is because the files that Capture One stores the adjustment information in (the .cos files in the Settings 110 subfolder) are copied into the catalog when you import.

    But if you then (3) edit them again in the session, the edits will be stored in further changes to the adjustments files (.cos, etc) in the session folders, and there is no reason why that would be copied across into the catalog.

    Ian
    1
  • SFA
    In addition to Ian3's explanation, with which I agree but I can also see the potential for confusion in the original webinar since the specific case (creation of a catalogue from a session) is not referenced along with Alexander's comment. the following.

    The edits in the .cos file for the session will remain in the session so long as you retain it. If you import the images WITH adjustments to a catalogue the adjustments at that point in time will be imported to the catalogue but are then entirely independent.

    (At the risk of causing confusion but for completeness one should also be aware that a file can appear in more than one session and that if the session has a history of development over several version of C1 it is possible (indeed likely) that it will have multiple versions of the edit files, albeit safely contained in Version related subfolders.

    The same is true for a catalogue if the image concerned s REFERENCED but not if it is MANAGED since a Managed image in a catalogue means the original file is imported to the catalogue file structure.

    You question is, however, a good and interesting point to raise.

    I don't use catalogues so it's not something I have investigated to see if there is a way to synchronise with further edits.

    I suspect not at this time since it is probably expected that most users will pick either sessions OR catalogues and rarely use both - though personally I could see the benefit of using both both in several use cases.

    There may be some challenges to having a "sync" option that satisfies all possible usage demands across a range of user workflows. But also because in terms of development cost per user who would use it I suspect that the costs would be high and the number of users low.

    Still, it may be worth raising the suggestion as a Support Case and prompting the development team to take a look at it.


    HTH.


    Grant
    1

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