Is it possible to just open a file ? No catalogue, no session - just open
I use Digikam for my digital asset management so I have no interest in the catalogue system in Capture One.
All I want to do is to go in to digikam (or even just file explorer), right click on the photo and select "open in Capture One".
However, when I do this, Capture One forces me to import the file into a catalogue before I can open it.
If I do this, and then later on try to "open with Capture One" again on the same photo, capture one import fails because the photo is already in the catalogue.
All I want to do is to ignore the catalogue, ignore sessions, just plain and simple open a file. However this appears to be impossible. Has anyone found a workaround to this ?
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C1 is a great photo editor, for sure. The one thing that's holding me back from an all in purchase is being forced to use a catalog or session. I just want to open a file, edit it and have everything that pertains to that photo be stored in the same location. Nothing fancy like a session which contains a bunch of folders that I don't need. All my .nef's have an .xmp file in the same location. Why couldn't C1 provide the choice to do a simple open a file and edit like what's done in Photoshop.
Mike
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I would observe that "like what's done in Photoshop" is not a fair comparison. The equivalent in the Adobe world is Lightroom, and you can't just edit a photo in Lightroom either, you have to import it to your catalog first.
Ian
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In reply to Ian's comment above, I'm fully aware of how lightroom works and this is one of the reasons I moved away from it. The other reason being the mandatory subscription model.
I would observe that not only photoshop allows the user to open a single file, but so does Affinity Photo, Luminar, DxO Photolab,ON1 Photo Raw, Raw Therapee, Topaz Studio and a host of other raw conversion and editing applications.
To have separate Digital Asset Management software from editing software is a perfectly valid use case and the comparison to Photoshop and a host of other editing software is perfectly fair. It's all about catering for different people with different use cases. The fact that Lightroom and Capture One force you to use their cataloging system is a.real negative for people like me that use a dfferent DAM software package and wish to leverage multiple editing applications independently of the DAM. Hence my question and my fair comparison to photoshop.
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I'm frustrated that C1 is forcing the use of a catalog or session when using its software. Instead of being just a direct competitor to Lightroom, why not think outside the box? Allow all users, whether they have a DAM or not, have easy access to the software and work within the program the way that they choose.
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> FirstName LastName: To have separate Digital Asset Management software from editing software is a perfectly valid use case
It is indeed, a view I have advocated for years.
As you point out yourself, you have plenty of options to have an existing image file rendered on screen. I have not yet discovered the benefit of using C1 for that when you take edit/edited in C1 out of the equation.
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I use IMatch for my DAM. I wonder how many others would be using C1 if a catalog or session wasn't the only way to work.
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>Michael Rogers: I wonder how many others would be using C1 if...
Hehe, we have seen quite a number of postings pointing to added business opportunities if only C1 were different than it is. Why not address Capture One directly rather than fellow users who already have C1 included in their set of tools?
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"Why not address Capture One directly rather than fellow users who already have C1 included in their set of tools?"
I just did. .Now it's just wait and see.
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"Why not address Capture One directly rather than fellow users who already have C1 included in their set of tools?"
As I said in my original post, I wanted to check with the community whether there was a workaround for the problem that I wasn't aware of. Given that it looks like this functionality is not available in Capture One, I have now submitted a feature request.
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The one thing that's holding me back from an all in purchase is being forced to use a catalog or session. just want to open a file, edit it and have everything that pertains to that photo be stored in the same location
There is no functional difference whatsoever between what you want and using the default session.
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Quite true, but I'm using Express which doesn't offer session edits.
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I think the issue is that C1 does non-destructive editing. The changes are kept in a separate file that C1 needs to keep track of. So if you opened it from digikam C1 would need to know where to find the change information. The original image and the change file need to be tightly linked. If you opened an image from DK, C1 needs to know where the edit/change info is located. If DK could keep track of the session or catalog and open that, maybe that would be the answer. Even Darktable has problems going between DK and itself, probably for the same reason.
And by the way, I think Capture One has a good number of flaws that has me looking for something better, maybe Darktable. Certainly not Adobe products. But really, this issue isn't something I would necessarily blame them for completely. :)
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C1 needs to know where the edit/change info is located
Of course C1 software knows where is stores the settings file for each image.
If you drag&drop images to any running C1 session window, and these images can even be located in different folders, then C1 loads images with its adjustments and you can edit them. This "drop" passes the image paths to the C1 process, and the images are put in a new album (which can be deleted later, as well as the whole session if need be). The changes are stored again in the .cos files.
The question is whether or not digiKam can drag the images and passes the image location to C1 (or any other app).
To see how that works you can drag&drop from Windows Explorer to an open C1 session.
EDIT: It creates the new album only if more than one image is dropped to C1, otherwise it locates it in the library tool system folders.
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I've been using a workaround with sessions, but it is still an inconvenient and unnecessarily complicated workaround and creates additional superfluous directories in the file system just for Capture One.
Like I said right back in my initial post, all I want to do is to click on "open in Capture One" from within digikam and have it open in Capture One - NO SESSION, NO CATALOGUE. Many other editing packages support this, including non-destructive editors. All they do by default is to save the file containing the image edit metadata in the same directory as the original file. Drop dead simple.
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It's this proprietary workflow that keeps me from using C1. Lightroom is the same. Why do these programs have to take control of ones desired workflow and organization preferences? It's really unnecessary IMHO.
Take sessions for example. .I can understand a folder having sidecar files and metadata next to the photo, for organizational purposes. I just don't see the necessity of the proprietary C1 file structure.
They must think that photographers are dumb when it comes to handling sophisticated software.
I know that this will fall on deaf ears, so I gave up on any hopes that it would be changed.
Mike
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I just don't see the necessity of the proprietary C1 file structure
Where would you store the information a session needs?
C1 has two major workflows, catalogs and sessions, with a lot of functionality around it. It has never been just an image editor for one single image.
Take DXO for example, they store a metadata file along with the raw image, and that's it, but they don't have a workflow, not even color tags. Not comparable with C1 at all.
This having said, I woud support a feature request with my vote for such a stripped down single image C1 mode.
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The are loads of non-destructive image editors that have solved the problem of storing the image metadata without constructs like sessions or catalogues. There is no excuse for CaptureOne to not support the ability to open single images simply other than they just don't want to implement it for some reason.
Your point about DxO not supporting color tags is missing the point of my argument, because the reason I want a single image opening capability in Capture One is that I am using a separate piece of software for digital asset management. i.e. I want to decouple digital asset management and image editing. Therefore, I don't need DxO or Capture One to hold any metadata like color tags - only the image edits.I put in a feature request for a simple "open with Capture One" single image opening capability (the same capability as many many other editors) over 2 years ago and have had no response. As a result, I have not upgraded Capture One and rarely use it now.
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Mr. Lastname,
I mentioned the color tags to back my point that DXO has a poor workflow ,it is mainly a non-destructive editor only, whereas C1 is a different type of software. And as such, they don't need any excuse for not being like the others.
And I am fully aware about you're use case.
Keep trying, one request 2 years ago is maybe not sufficient. You would have my vote.
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There is no excuse for Capture One to not support the ability to open single images
Nor is a there a single compelling reason for them to do so. I've used Capture One since version 3, and not once has it forced me to open more than one image if I've only wanted to work on one.
I really don't understand the problem here: let Capture One run in "default" Session mode, and you can browse to any single image you feel like converting/editing, do whatever is needed, and be done with it.
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The problem is not opening a single image. Of course you can do that. The problem is that sessions has a proprietary way of storing your data. I like to use my own file structure within my DAM software. From there I can launch the photo into one of the programs that are on my computer for photo editing. I don’t want to be told what folders I need to have in order to have a session.
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> Michael Rogers: ...sessions has a proprietary way of storing your data
I may not understand the problem here, but a C1 session does not dictate your image folder structure. What annoys some users is that a C1 session creates sub folders (in image folders) for housekeeping. You can spread your image folders all over your disks in any way you please. But you will get the C1 session housekeeping folders inside the image folders. There is of course also the session database file (the <session-name>.cosessiondb file), but you only need to have one session (often referred to as a default or dummy session).
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That is exactly my point. There is no need for housekeeping folders unless we choose to have them.
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