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Catalogs and Sessions concurrently

Chris Hesketh
Hi,

Looking at switching to Capture One and trying to workout the best workflow and methods for switching to Capture One, I know with LR users quite a lot of people will generate new catalogs every time a new large shoot is created e.g. a wedding. I understand this isn’t the case with Capture One as a Session would be more appropriate.

However I wondered whether the following would work/can work as a way for storing and managing my photos. I am thinking of running yearly catalogue for storing family related/personal shoots and photos and then use sessions for one off large shoots such as weddings etc. Is this something that Capture One users would do? Is starting a new catalogue each year a good way of utilising this way of storing? I figured this way each yearly catalog would not get too big and thus improve overall performance and reliability?

Last question, do catalogs work in Capture One on a referenced based system where you choose to store images on your Hard drive in your own way and then Capture a one just creates small reference files to house the edits?

Thank you for any input
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8 comments

Date Votes
  • OddS.
    NN636662181419599617UL wrote:
    ...However I wondered whether the following would work/can work as a way for storing and managing my photos...


    The main question though, is what are you going to like for your own use? Only one person can tell.

    The general side of Sessions versions Catalogs has been explained and discussed many times here in the forums and questions have been answered. There are also multiple articles on the internet dealing with the subject, and you should be able to find useful information in Phase One's many tutorials and webinars.

    I am a Session guy. Mostly because I do not want my DAM system to be an integral part of my raw image handler. Then come reasons described by Dough Peterson: https://www.dtcommercialphoto.com/catal ... tle-times/
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  • Ian Wilson
    Moderator
    Top Commenter
    NN636662181419599617UL wrote:

    I am thinking of running yearly catalogue for storing family related/personal shoots and photos and then use sessions for one off large shoots such as weddings etc. Is this something that Capture One users would do? Is starting a new catalogue each year a good way of utilising this way of storing? I figured this way each yearly catalog would not get too big and thus improve overall performance and reliability?

    That would work. I work slightly differently from that, by always starting in a session and then adding my finished images to a master catalog later. But it may make good sense for you to keep each client's wedding etc photos in a separate session, and to use a catalog for personal work. Seems like a good strategy, actually.
    Last question, do catalogs work in Capture One on a referenced based system where you choose to store images on your Hard drive in your own way and then Capture a one just creates small reference files to house the edits?

    There is a choice between a referenced system and a managed system (or indeed a mix of both). The referenced system works pretty much as you described. The raw images live in folders on your system; Capture One stores information about your edits within the catalog* together with preview images that it serves up in the viewer window. The managed system stores the raw files inside the catalog - this has the advantage that the catalog is completely self-contained, but has the disadvantage that the catalog file can become very large indeed. (And you can have a catalog including some images that are referenced and some that are managed, if you really want to.)

    Ian

    * This is different from what happens in a session - in that case the information about edits etc is stored in subfolders of the folders where the images are.
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  • Ian Leslie
    NN636662181419599617UL wrote:
    However I wondered whether the following would work/can work as a way for storing and managing my photos. I am thinking of running yearly catalogue for storing family related/personal shoots and photos and then use sessions for one off large shoots such as weddings etc. Is this something that Capture One users would do?


    Certainly. I personally have a single main catalogue but I work with sessions first to do my key-wording, rating an selecting along with some editing. This allows me to do work on my Main computer or my Notebook just by copying the session over to the notebook and back when I'm done. Then I import the session into my main catalogue.


    NN636662181419599617UL wrote:
    Is starting a new catalogue each year a good way of utilising this way of storing? I figured this way each yearly catalog would not get too big and thus improve overall performance and reliability?


    The problem with this is finding things. Having a single master catalogue has some performance issues at the moment but it is still faster that opening multiple catalogues looking for things. In my opinion.


    OddS wrote:

    I am a Session guy. Mostly because I do not want my DAM system to be an integral part of my raw image handler.

    I am curious to know what you are using for your DAM system. When I made the switch from LR I had thought to use Media Pro with C1 but with Media Pro discontinued I am still not satisfied with C1 catalogue as a DAM.
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  • OddS.
    IanL wrote:
    OddS wrote:
    ...I do not want my DAM system to be an integral part of my raw image handler.

    I am curious to know what you are using for your DAM system. When I made the switch from LR I had thought to use Media Pro with C1 but with Media Pro discontinued I am still not satisfied with C1 catalogue as a DAM.


    I have tried several (including LR, C1, Media Pro) and couple of freewares, but I tend to slide back to simple file system folders (C1 sessions are ok for me) and Photo Mechanic as my front end and back end tool. I do like the "spirit" of PM Plus, but it is still in beta and it is not feature complete. I could probably live with iMatch, Daminion or similar.
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  • Ian Leslie
    OddS wrote:
    I have tried several (including LR, C1, Media Pro) and couple of freewares, but I tend to slide back to simple file system folders (C1 sessions are ok for me) and Photo Mechanic as my front end and back end tool. I do like the "spirit" of PM Plus, but it is still in beta and it is not feature complete. I could probably live with iMatch, Daminion or similar.


    OK thanks for the info.
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  • Chris Hesketh
    Thank you for your detailed responses they are very helpful.

    In response to these, can I ask, if I used sessions exclusively and no catalogs, is there a way to use key words and ratings etc still across multiple sessions? So if I had 100 weddings each in their respective session, would I be able to find specific photos across those sessions based on a keyword search or is that something that I could only use in a catalog?

    Additionally, if I did generate a yearly catalog for my own personal use, I presume I would not be able to search across multiple catalogs for different key worded photos? E.g. search for ‘river’ across catalog 2017 and catalog 2018?

    Thank you
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  • Ian Wilson
    Moderator
    Top Commenter
    There is no way to search by keyword across different sessions, or indeed across different catalogs. That is why I eventually put all my keepers in one large catalog - I want to be able to find, for instance, all my photos of herons across multiple dates.

    But you can have a keyword library that is available in all sessions and catalogs, so at least setting them isn’t as bad as it might be, if you do that.

    Ian
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  • SFA
    NN636662181419599617UL wrote:
    Thank you for your detailed responses they are very helpful.

    In response to these, can I ask, if I used sessions exclusively and no catalogs, is there a way to use key words and ratings etc still across multiple sessions? So if I had 100 weddings each in their respective session, would I be able to find specific photos across those sessions based on a keyword search or is that something that I could only use in a catalog?



    I have no idea about Mac but if using Windows the search facility can be used to find "words" and ratings exported when jpg images are processed. Presumably some other metadata values as well so long as they have been included in the output process.

    Any data in the .cos files for an image - simple example being keywords - can also be found using the search facility.

    Crude but effective for finding references to files that might be of interest. You might require a more sophisticated application to make it something that one would want to use daily.

    My NAS offers a full indexing and search option so that might offer another way to go for some people.

    A slightly more extreme idea would be to create a Session for searching (or anything that a session does but that might get a bit complex) and associated all folders from other sessions to it as favourites. (There is nothing that I am aware of that stops a folder and its contents being associated with multiple sessions.) Not necessarily a great approach but possible I think.

    Of simple add all fully metadata's jpg, etc., files from any session to a catalogue.

    Then you can find the image and its location and that will likely give you the source catalogue and the identity of the original file.

    Just a few ideas for possible approaches to searching through multiple sessions and avoiding full catalogue commitment.


    HTH.


    Grant
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