How does a Catalog actually work?
I am in the midst of trying to understand C1 using the C120 trial. While I understand all the editing tools, the actual structure and core working of the Catalog approach baffles me. I've watched hours and hours of Webinars and Tutorials, but none explain the underlying concepts and structure of what is actually going on. (I had this same issue with LR and stopped using it; never understood how it all connected.)
What is actually in a Catalog? If you can "import" a file into catalog but leave the file in its original destination, say a folder on your desktop, and also export the final edited "file" to another folder on your desktop, it begs the question: What is in the Catalog? Metadata? Thumbnails? And? How does the "Catalog" interact with RAW files held outside of it? Are the RAW files themselves ever located inside the Catalog?
Sessions make sense since they are oriented around folders and files. That I get.
Also, I haven't found a understandable explanation of all those tiers under the Catalog umbrella -- Collections, Albums, etc. What is the hierarchy? Are the RAW files or their exported edited version ever located in them?
There needs to be a white-board diagram/schematic that shows all the connections between all these different slices of the Catalog pie. If anyone knows of a tutorial or article that breaks C1 down this way, please share.
Still baffled, Gary
What is actually in a Catalog? If you can "import" a file into catalog but leave the file in its original destination, say a folder on your desktop, and also export the final edited "file" to another folder on your desktop, it begs the question: What is in the Catalog? Metadata? Thumbnails? And? How does the "Catalog" interact with RAW files held outside of it? Are the RAW files themselves ever located inside the Catalog?
Sessions make sense since they are oriented around folders and files. That I get.
Also, I haven't found a understandable explanation of all those tiers under the Catalog umbrella -- Collections, Albums, etc. What is the hierarchy? Are the RAW files or their exported edited version ever located in them?
There needs to be a white-board diagram/schematic that shows all the connections between all these different slices of the Catalog pie. If anyone knows of a tutorial or article that breaks C1 down this way, please share.
Still baffled, Gary
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When you import an image into a catalog, you are effectively adding it to the catalog's index or database. You are not necessarily moving it to store it inside the catalog itself, but you can if you want.
(It's a bit like an institution like the British Library. Its catalog lists all the books and documents it owns. Some of them are stored on site in the Library in London, some of them are stored in a storage centre in Yorkshire, but can be sent for when required.)
One of the fundamental differences between a catalog and a session is that in a session all the information about edits and adjustments of images is stored alongside the images themselves (in subfolders of the image folders). But in a catalog, the information about edits and adjustments is stored in the catalog itself. One consequence of that is that you can do quite a lot of work on an image without being connected to the drive where the image files are stored. It only needs access to them for some things - notably for creating output such as JPG or TIFF files.
In a session, your options for organising images are more limited than they are in a catalog. All those user collections - albums, smart albums, projects and groups are ways of organising the images. But not ways of organising them physically. For instance I have a lot of images I have taken in India, and I have a lot of images that I have taken of birds. And I have some images that I have taken of birds in India. In a catalog I can see images organised by where I took them (India) and by what they are of (birds). The same image can be indexed in both the India album and in the birds album. I don't have to worry about whether I store it with the India photos or with the birds photos. Where it is doesn't matter - the catalog can list it and deal with it under both categories.0 -
Gary,
If you get sessions (especially sessions using the default folder structure) then the basics of catalogues are, as far as I can tell, similar.
The cocatalog file replaces the cosessiondb file are the controlling database files that connect everything.
Where the session has a CaptureOne folder with subfolders for Settings (Edit data) and Cache (Thumbnails and Preview files) in a catalogue these are contained within the catalog database and folder structure.
If, using a session, one imports the files into the default session folder structure (with or without further folder and subfolders) that would be the equivalent of a "Managed" catalogue activity. Source files in the Catalogue folder structure, big "catalogue" file. But everything in one place and therefore easy to copy around whole (apart from its size!)
If you leave the image source files outside a Session folder structure that is the equivalent of a Referenced image in a catalogue.
In essence I think that about covers it.
Some of the more esoteric speciality features and functions may be somewhat differently handled but I can't think if anything off the top of my head that is clearly worthy of mention in terms of general interest. That does not mean there are no such subjects.
I don't use catalogues other than for occasional testing purposes so I'm disinclined to try to answer your other questions other than to say that things like Albums and Smart Albums are the same in both catalogues and sessions.
However the on-line help seems fairily extensive and this general overview of the terminology used might be a useful primer before reading the other entries. Basically its like sessions but with more options since there is the likelihood that the catalogue contains more variety of content than a typical session (single shoot?) may contin.
https://support.captureone.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002516677
HTH.
Grant0 -
Maybe this helps:
https://forum.phaseone.com/En/viewtopic.php?p=175465#p1754650 -
Paul, thank you. In fact, I stumbled up that forum thread yesterday. It helped. I'm getting closer to understanding how C1 works.
I shoot maybe 1000 images a year, maybe less. I use a MacBook Pro laptop with a 23-inch wide Dell external monitor. I have one external HD for my Time Machine backup and a second external HD for the expressed purpose of organizing images for C1. (I also back up everything on Carbonite cloud.)
Should I put my C1 Catalog on my laptop under, say, Pictures, and the Catalog folder on the second HD? Or the other way around? Or?
What I move my RAW files from the memory card to a non-C1 folder in Pictures, then import and save them to the Catalog on the 2nd external HD? That way I'd have a back up all RAW files in the non-C1 folder on the laptop and on the external CD (under the Catalog umbrella). They'd also be automatically backed up by Time Machine and by Carbonite.
Or?
My guess is only one Catalog would suffice for my limited number of images.
And, thanks to all who chimed in hoping to alleviate my confusion! Gary0 -
Gary,
Paul is a better advisory source than I am but if it was me, for 1000 images a year, I would just use a session.
I sometimes shoot several thousand images in a weekend and I use sessions.
HTH.
Grant0 -
Grant, that thought crossed my mind, too. Didn't know if there was a "preferred" workflow sequence based on a certain number of images.
I'll await to hear from Paul. Thanks!0 -
NNN637139637911107280 wrote:
Grant, that thought crossed my mind, too. Didn't know if there was a "preferred" workflow sequence based on a certain number of images.
I'll await to hear from Paul. Thanks!
Only a personal preference!
I came to C1 from a program that offered no Digital Asset Management but some great RAW conversion and editing tools.
I had tried V1 Lightroom alongside it but LR demanded a catalogue and so far as I could tell made it much more effort to work with the other application as well.
So what I came to know as a Capture One Session looked good to me. (I discovered some months later that taking the time to really understand it made it even better!)
Of course nearly everyone whose primary tool has been a catalogue based system will tend to strongly prefer catalogues.
You can keep session files entirely contained in a session folder structure so that copying and entire session anywhere simple means grabbing the top level folder and copying everything.
Or you access folders not in the session folder structure somewhere that is accessible to your computer.
Those folders can be used temporarily within the session without a permanent link to it (edits and everything else will be saved in sub folders under the folder in which the images are found.)
Or if you want to make a permanent link to the image folders for future reference then the image storage folder can be made a "Favorite" . Favourite folders outside the Session folder structure are not copied with a "session copy" as described above but with a permanent location link stored they will still be found so long as you don't end up needing to change the link (new disk, etc.).
The choices come down in some ways to how you wish to run your backup strategy and Macs have more obvious options than the Windows system with which I am familiar.
The great thing about a session is that one can relatively easily "archive" it but keep the output results in a Library for readily available viewing. So the back up issue can be largely reduced to the current work in an active session rather then worrying about a catalogue with 10 years of work in it.
That said it is very easy to move or duplicate an edited image from a session to a catalogue it you simply want to have a single place where you can mass search all of your output using a single source.
I'll let others cover the asset management considerations for the world of Macs.
Grant0 -
NNN637139637911107280 wrote:
(...)
I shoot maybe 1000 images a year, maybe less.
(...)
Should I put my C1 Catalog on my laptop under, say, Pictures, and the Catalog folder on the second HD? Or the other way around? Or?
What I move my RAW files from the memory card to a non-C1 folder in Pictures, then import and save them to the Catalog on the 2nd external HD? That way I'd have a back up all RAW files in the non-C1 folder on the laptop and on the external CD (under the Catalog umbrella). They'd also be automatically backed up by Time Machine and by Carbonite.
Hi Gary,
I think you are close to a solution.
It is best to put the catalog on your local HD, under Pictures for example. Perfect place. This way you always have your catalog with the previews for browsing and editing, even when the external drive with images is not connected.
You can store the RAW files on either the internal or external HD. I think that with the low amount of images, they easily fit on your local HD. Technically, it does not matter to the Catalog. You can import new images from card, save them to both the internal and the external disk (backup option of import feature) at the same time.
You can organise your RAW files in folders the way you like. If you go for storing on the internal HD, the Pictures folder is a good location.
Although you have your backup setup right with Time Machine and cloud backup, you could also do a Catalog backup from within Capture One. It only backups the database, is not time or space consuming and makes it easy to recover the database just in case. In Preferences, General tab, you can set the frequency of how often you are remembered.0 -
Paul, any thoughts on if I would be better served using a Catalog or Sessions, considering the limited number of images in play?
Also, I'm a big fan of the plug-in Silver Efex Pro for b/w editing. Can it be integrated into C1?
Thank you soooooooooo much for helping me make sense of this! Gary0 -
Gary, I would go for the catalog with the images external as discussed earlier. A session is great for the shoot of the day (or week) but a catalog has its advantage for organizing your entire collection, no matter large or small.
Unfortunately you can not use the Silver Efex Pro plugin. I am not familiar with the software, but if it is a stand alone application as well, you could process or export to it. In each process recipe and in the Export > Variants feature is an 'Open with' field where you could select the software to open the exported/processed image.0 -
Paul, okay, Catalog it is!
And you can use Silver Efex Pro as a plug in with C1. (The power of Google)
https://lenscraft.co.uk/photo-editing-tutorials/capture-one-plugins-and-the-nik-collection/
Silver Efex Pro is part of the DxO family of editing software, formerly known as the Nik Collection. I imported a RAW Fuji file into C1 and used the Edit With option and SEP popped right up (after linking it to C1 as instructed in the link above). It opens the file up as a TIFF in C1 and you can use all the SEP presents and editing tools. It is crazy powerful.
Give it a try: https://nikcollection.dxo.com/ For landscapes I call it "instant Ansel"! Gary0 -
Thanks, Gary for the feedback. Good to know that the Nik Collection opens via the Edit with plugin! 0 -
I have found the whole issue of catalogs and albums totally confusing. Its not helped by the fact that all tutorials seem to be for Macs and not PCs. The functionality, screen pop outs and required actions are totally different from what the videos show. I'm glad I only have the trail version and did not waste money on this.
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