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Beginner/Newbie questions: Is Capture One for me? Workflow.

NN635464904442421421UL
Hi,

I have recently retired and would like to get back into my old enthusiasm for photography...specifically landscapes. Although I have had a lot of experience with ancient SLR film photography and my own B&W home darkroom, my digital experience for the past couple of decades has mainly been simple digital cameras, iphone etc. I have been using iPhoto for simple image editing and for creating albums and sharing on SmugMug, Flickr, and Facebook.

My son suggested that I learn to use LightRoom to begin my new hobby, but since I recently purchases a Sony RX100M3 camera I decided to take advantage of the special offer on Capture One Pro version 8.

Was this a mistake?
I am finding it difficult to learn COv8 sonce many of the tutorials and the videos are aimed at professionals and do not really explain the basics. Would LR be a better choice for me? (I was attracted to CO because of the claims of superior RAW image handling). There seem to be much better documentation and learning materials aimed at beginners.
Also, LR apparently has plugins to make uploading images to sharing sites such as SmugMug and FB simpler. Do these exist for CO?

Would this Forum be a good place to get advice for a Newbie like me? Questions I have getting started are simple and have a lot to do with organization and workflow. For example, I just took a trip and came back with several hundred RAW images. I have Imported them to Folder on my MAC and have generated a catalog. I would like to:
- review and delete terrible images
- create a selection of photos that I want to upload to SmugMug
- create a subset of these (very few) which I want to spend a lot of time with to learn editing and post processing techniques, with the goal of creating some good quality 8x10 prints

It is not clear how to do this.
Firstly is there a difference in COv8 between "collection" and "album"? The words seem to be used interchangeably in the documentation.

Can I create an Album as a subset within another album? The pull-down menu item is dimmed out...why?

Is there a better way to accomplish this?

My sincere thanks to any of you willing to take the time to help me. If I have posted this in the wrong Topic the. Please forgive me and let me know where.

Larry
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Comments

5 comments

Date Votes
  • Paul Steunebrink
    Hi Larry,

    Welcome to the forum and the Capture One world. Yes, Capture One's first steps can be a bit intimidating, or confusing. You are not alone.

    Whether Capture One or another product is best suited for you, is difficult to answer. After many years, I am still trying to master any other product. 😂
    I think however that you Sony RX100M3 and Capture One Pro make for an awesome combination (I am envying you!).

    The forum serves users of any level of experience. Generic tip: the shorter the question, the faster you get your answer, same for fewer questions per post... 😉

    Now for some answers to your questions. Your workflow makes a lot of sense. Review and delete image can easily be done.
    Next: SmugMug. Not familiar with that but what always works is that you export your images to a folder and upload that into SmugMug. There is no direct connection to 3rd party photo services on the web from within CO8.
    Next, create a subset of images to max out your efforts. An album is an excellent way to do that.

    To create an album, first select a collection in the Library like the All Images collection at the top.
    An album is a type of collection. There are other types of collections.
    You can not nest an album into another album.

    I hope it gets you started.
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  • Cliff Grimes
    Hi Larry

    I think the short answer t your question "Have I made a mistake" is, no. Sony have partnered with Phase / Capture One for a number of reasons - primarily I'd say image quality. The fact that Sony choose Capture One should speak to you.

    With regard to learning COP V8.1, I'd say less is more. I've found the tutorials and Webinars put out by Phase One for COP to be excellent. Work through these tutorials http://www.phaseone.com/Imaging-Softwar ... rials.aspx then subscribe to Phase One on YouTube and work-through those as well. There are some excellent third-party tutorial videos on YouTube.

    It's a learning curve thing. Put in something like 20 hours into COP and the brain starts to get 'wired' and more rapid is the learning process, from there on in.

    There are many reasons why Capture One beats Lightroom, one (and there are others) is the customisation factor of the user interface. It's astonishingly good, no other RAW converter app comes close.
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  • NN635464904442421421UL
    Paul_Steunebrink wrote:
    Hi Larry,

    Welcome to the forum and the Capture One world. Yes, Capture One's first steps can be a bit intimidating, or confusing. You are not alone.

    Whether Capture One or another product is best suited for you, is difficult to answer. After many years, I am still trying to master any other product. 😂
    I think however that you Sony RX100M3 and Capture One Pro make for an awesome combination (I am envying you!).

    The forum serves users of any level of experience. Generic tip: the shorter the question, the faster you get your answer, same for fewer questions per post... 😉

    Now for some answers to your questions. Your workflow makes a lot of sense. Review and delete image can easily be done.
    Next: SmugMug. Not familiar with that but what always works is that you export your images to a folder and upload that into SmugMug. There is no direct connection to 3rd party photo services on the web from within CO8.
    Next, create a subset of images to max out your efforts. An album is an excellent way to do that.

    To create an album, first select a collection in the Library like the All Images collection at the top.
    An album is a type of collection. There are other types of collections.
    You can not nest an album into another album.

    I hope it gets you started.


    Thanks for the tips Paul. I will try to keep the posts and questions short and few.

    - What other kinds of Collections are there besides Albums?

    - What confused me: Under Collections I now have 2 Albums. One is named "Anna Maria 2015" When I click on the + to the right of Collections, the following Menu appears:

    "Album inside Anna Maria 2015"
    "Smart Album inside Anna Maria 2015"

    However both are dimmed out!! So when would these choices be valid? Why is the +/- there ?

    Thanks
    Larry
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  • NN635464904442421421UL
    Is this the right Forum Topic for me to be asking these questions? Should I switch it to a different one?

    Thanks

    Larry
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  • Paul Steunebrink
    Larry,

    Other collections are the catalog collections, like recent imports. Regarding user collections, albums and smart albums are what's available. Groups and Projects could be seen as collections, but these actually do not contain images but contain albums and smart albums.

    That also answers you questions about the dimmed options of album inside <name>. I understand the confusion. Just for fun, select a catalog collection, create a group in the user collections and an album inside that group (or move an existing album to the group). It is just a matter of getting used to the interface. Not everything you come across can be explained. Sometimes it is just as it is.

    This forum is the right place for your questions.

    Hope this helps you a step further.
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