Question about C1 DAM
Questions:
#1 When I create a catalog and import a set of pictures I end up with a folder for the catalog, a folder marked "originals", a folder named "cache", a folder named "adjustments" and a folder with the date and a second numerical code (example 2018-11-03 and 10.48.14
I understand I can delete the cache folder and not lose anything. Is that correct?
#2 The folder with the date and code holds the RAW files. I've just realized that when working on a catalog and deleting images they are not deleted from the RAW files folder. What is the best way to completely delete images I truly want deleted? Is there a way to automatically delete an image from that RAW file when I delete it from the catalog? Right now it looks like I have a massive task ahead of me to go back through 5 years of images, figure out which I've deleted (at least I thought they were deleted) and then delete them from that RAW images file. If deleting an image is always going to be a multiple step process I think I'll be looking for a new program to process images regardless of how good Capture One makes my images look.
#1 When I create a catalog and import a set of pictures I end up with a folder for the catalog, a folder marked "originals", a folder named "cache", a folder named "adjustments" and a folder with the date and a second numerical code (example 2018-11-03 and 10.48.14
I understand I can delete the cache folder and not lose anything. Is that correct?
#2 The folder with the date and code holds the RAW files. I've just realized that when working on a catalog and deleting images they are not deleted from the RAW files folder. What is the best way to completely delete images I truly want deleted? Is there a way to automatically delete an image from that RAW file when I delete it from the catalog? Right now it looks like I have a massive task ahead of me to go back through 5 years of images, figure out which I've deleted (at least I thought they were deleted) and then delete them from that RAW images file. If deleting an image is always going to be a multiple step process I think I'll be looking for a new program to process images regardless of how good Capture One makes my images look.
0
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The cache folder includes things like thumbnails. If you delete it, C1 will have to re-create it.
Ian0 -
Thanks Ian,
If the previews will be recreated when I open a catalog then no harm in deleting previews other then the time it takes to recreate. How about the "thumbnails" folder? Some are empty and some have a list of numbers similar to 0000001, 0000029.
What is the purpose of this file? Some, but not all, of my cache folders also have a "browser" folder. Again, what is it's purpose? Do all three folders in the cache folder get recreated when a catalog is opened? Also, every catalog file has an "originals" folder in it which is always empty. Any harm in deleting this one?
What's driving my questions is that I have all my photography on a separate hard drive with approximately 20,000 pictures.
A couple days ago I backed it all up on an external drive. It took 18 hours and there ended up being 150,000 files. That's tying up a lot of hard drive space and I want to understand if it's all necessary or if something can be done to reduce the number of files.
Again thanks for the help.
Dan0 -
The originals folder is for original raw files that you store inside the catalog as managed files rather than outside it as referenced files. If you don't store any files inside the catalog, then it will be empty. I don't know whether it would confuse Capture One's catalog if you were to delete the originals folder, but if it is empty then it is not really taking up much space in your backup, so you'd gain little anyway by doing that.
The time taken to recreate previews could be considerable, as your number of images grows. I'd have thought that you would find that a considerable inconvenience. I don't know how quickly thumbnails would be recreated, but again although the number of files may be large, the space they take up is comparatively small and again I would have thought that the convenience of all of those being ready for use when you open the catalog would outweigh the inconvenience of the backup.
I don't know what the browser folder is for, sorry.
If your backup is taking 18 hours, perhaps the thing you need to do is look at your backup method - I agree that 18 hours is unfeasibly long, but I wonder whether there is a way of improving on that. How many photos are there in your catalog, how are you backing up, and are you on Mac or Windows?
Ian0 -
Ian,
I'm using a PC. Maybe I've complicated things for myself when I started with C1 a year ago. I have a catalog for each day of shooting. I keep track of everything by a folder identified with date and subject or location. Maybe not optimal but it works for me I think. In the dated folder is a folder with RAW files, the cache folder, the originals folder, and the catalog. I assume when I click on the catalog symbol it references back to the RAW folder. So the RAW folder is working the same as the "originals" folder would? The previews folder in the cache would only have previews for that catalog so loading time for that catalog would be dependent on how many images in that catalog and unaffected by the total number of images I keep. Or am I confused?
It just dawned on me that I have been deleting unwanted images by clicking the X that moves them to "catalog trash". I didn't realize I also needed to empty catalog trash. I'm going to have to open each catalog and empty the trash. Hours and hours of fun to look forward to.
I've watched almost all of the C1 tutorials and some multiple times. I'm impressed with their effort producing the tutorials. Unfortunately I'm old and learned to learn from books. Even there I'm one of those attention deficit disorder people and need to see things multiple times. Books usually work best so I can refer back to it until I truly know what I'm trying to learn.
Dan0 -
A catalog a day seems excessive! If you want to have a new container for every day, you could consider sessions, but even then unless your shoot a LOT of images one a day seems more trouble than it’s worth. I start a new session each month, with extras for things like holidays or special events. I also have a naming convention incorporating the date. So images shot today might be called 18-11-07-0056.NEF, 18-11-07-0057.NEF, etc. Keeping them organised by date is then not a problem, sorting by name ends up in date order, and I can easily filter to show only images from a particular date if I want to narrow it down. I import from my sessions into a master catalog from time to time, usually when I have done all the editing and processing I think I want to do on them. (I can still do more on them after they are in the catalog if I need to, though.
Ian0
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