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Import strategy in C1

andreasbentzen
How do you guys import your files into C1? I want to have my originals referenced on my HD rather than in the Catalog, and I prefer to have the files organized in subfolders based on date (Year/Year-Month-Day/files or something similar). Any tips for how to achieve this? It seems as if C1 doesn't allow folder creation and moving files similar to what Lightroom does upon import. Do you then import first into the folder structure you want with some other application and then afterwards load the files into C1? Any tips appreciated!

Also, is it possible to move the referenced files after they are imported? Say I want to relocate my masters to a new HD, can I do this without issues or would I have to locate each and every file afterwards?


Cheers,
Andreas

PS: "Sorry" for my frequent new topics lately, I'm evaluating to switch from Aperture and want to be as informed as possible before jumping ship
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Comments

7 comments

Date Votes
  • sizzlingbadger
    C1 doesn't create a file structure based on date during import as far as I can see (I'm a new user). You can move the folders outside of C1 and then "locate" them in C1 like you can in Lightroom, I did this today when I moved a catalog and masters to my laptop for testing. All the sub folders and images re-connected automatically.
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  • andreasbentzen
    Thanks for the suggestion! I just tried this out, as long as the entire folder structure is moved one only has to locate the root folder of the hierarchy and C1 will then find all the images again. Great!

    That leaves me having to find a decent image importer and folder structure generator like what LR and Aperture has upon import. Any good ideas for programs or approaches?

    Cheers,
    Andreas
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  • SFA
    Andreas,

    Are you using C1 Pro or Express?

    If Pro you don't have to use the Catalog at all, you could use sessions and that may give you the option to control your upload as you wish to control it.

    What is it that you find especially useful about LR and Aperture that you cannot see in C1?


    Grant Perkins
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  • andreasbentzen
    Thanks Grant. I'm currently on trial for another couple of days, so I'm testing both Pro and Express. Leaning towards Pro at the moment due to the Focus Mask feature mainly, but haven't fully decided. I don't feel very comfortable with the Sessions actually, I really do see the benefit when shooting tethered since each import is from the same shooting sessions anyways, but when manually importing from card that's not necessarily the case. So, I prefer to work with my files referenced under a separate folder on the HD.

    What LR and Aperture both can do is to import from Card or a folder on the HD and copy or move the files to a folder structure created upon import. I want my files ending up in something like ~/Pictures/Originals/Year/Year-Month-Day/ so the date specific folders needs to be created somehow. It would be great if this was an option in C1 as well!

    The import routine I've found that seems to work decently is to use Image Capture in OSX to import from the Card to a folder on my HD (I called Imports). I then run an Automator/Apple Script to create the folder hierarchy mentioned above and to move the files there. This works like a charm! Finally, I import into C1 by selecting Store Files -> Current Location and selecting Include Subfolders under Location -> Originals (Great option!).

    The only (?) downside of this method is that C1 does not import files that have already been imported, but still shows them in the import window which makes it a bit crowded and takes up time. Also, when importing C1 parses all files even those that do not get imported due to duplicates, so the import session is really slow.

    The only thing I lack to get this method to work is an option in C1 under Import that tells it to not show/import duplicates!

    Cheers,
    Andreas
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  • SFA
    Hi Andreas,

    I think if you are not embedding the original files in the catalogue there is not so much of a difference between Sessions and the catalogue approach.

    I shoot mostly shoot events maybe over two or three days. So I use sessions (since before C1 in my case) by which I mean a folder that groups the event and then subfolders - usually one for each camera and file type (if I bother to store the jpg backups) per day. I keep this structure flat - there are other ways of getting to images by date if I need to so it's not an important thing for me if I don't use it hierarchically.

    On the other hand if I am using my non-dslr cameras I will stick with whatever organisation they have - a folder per day perhaps, or one per month maybe.

    Importing ... well, sometimes I copy to disk as you do (especially after a multi day event when I will be working from the storage disks) mostly straight from the card. For a one day shoot before import and I will likely create the folder during upload into a new session. If I have been travelling light and have a multi-day set of images to import back at base I will probably have the back up structure (or most of it) already on a disk so just copy that to a local machine or set up a session and import using the same folder structure - it depends on what seems convenient at the time to get the structure I feel I need.

    This also means that backing up a session is easy since the top level session folder also includes all of the source files, edit files and output files. Just copy the top level folder to wherever you want it to go and everything goes with it. Keeping the files external to a catalogue in a structured folder system is similar in terms backup but adds flexibility of you want to take the catalogue on the road with you.

    With the session you have access to files directly in whatever system folders you wish to access. They don't have to be an hierarchical folder structure. In fact they don't even have to be imported as such - C1 will store edit info with the files wherever they are.

    You can use Albums to create virtual collections.

    Catalogues, for which I am no sort of expert as I don't use them at the moment, seem to be intended to simply store all the images somewhere and then use filter to select and group them. The hierarchical folder structure has little or no meaning within a catalogue if the files or stored within it. In computer database terms a catalogue will be relational and likely a single file whereas in the old days it was more of a flat file data folder structure. So with a catalogue you conceptually tip everything in and use various types of 'filtering' to group and select.


    Logically, looking at your preferred structure, the use of both year and YMD would seem redundant. However if you set up your base folders Under Pictures as Originals/Year (which presumably you have already once a year has started) then you should be able to create a new folder manually for Y-M-D as part of the import. (I'm on Windows but I don't think Mac is different in that respect - might be wrong.) . You may also need to select the images that fall in that day if your card contains shots from multiple days but that is usually easy to do when the need arises either by visual assessment or filtering.

    I have often considered what the benefit of a fully automated import from a card might be but as my perceived needs vary quite a lot I'm not sure that automation matters much to me. Being involved in the task means having to think about it and I find that to be useful as a review point and a time to ensure that the way I work is still the best option for me. But if you have your automation and copy to disk already resolved it sounds like you are in good shape.


    Grant Perkins
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  • andreasbentzen
    [quote="SFA" wrote:


    Logically, looking at your preferred structure, the use of both year and YMD would seem redundant. However if you set up your base folders Under Pictures as Originals/Year (which presumably you have already once a year has started) then you should be able to create a new folder manually for Y-M-D as part of the import. (I'm on Windows but I don't think Mac is different in that respect - might be wrong.) . You may also need to select the images that fall in that day if your card contains shots from multiple days but that is usually easy to do when the need arises either by visual assessment or filtering.

    I have often considered what the benefit of a fully automated import from a card might be but as my perceived needs vary quite a lot I'm not sure that automation matters much to me. Being involved in the task means having to think about it and I find that to be useful as a review point and a time to ensure that the way I work is still the best option for me. But if you have your automation and copy to disk already resolved it sounds like you are in good shape.


    Grant Perkins


    Thanks for your continued support, Grant. Greatly appreciated.

    I agree that the Year folder is somewhat redundant, I guess I'm a neat freak and don't like thousands of folders under the same parent. Also, in LR it made great sense since one could browse images by parent folder as well as the actual folder, not (yet?) possible with C1. Anyways, at some point I probably will go with a more session based folder naming, but I'm not there yet. Being a scientist I seem to prefer having a standardized approach rather than changing my way according to the specific needs 😊 Might need to look at that someday...

    Also agree that automated approaches can be dangerous and having to think about things as they're done can help avoid mistakes. I'm going to give the automated script a try for a while and see how this plays out, I anyways always make a backup upon importing from card so I hope I'm covered.

    If anyone's curious about the Apple Script automated file re-organization, this is where I found a solution:

    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/21 ... 0&tstart=0

    Cheers,
    Andreas
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  • SFA
    Hi Andreas,

    I understand where you are with this.

    I think the structured folder thing has its place though in my case with often well over 1000 images in each folder browsing multiple sub-folders does not look so important!

    Using smart albums or filtering on EXIF information, perhaps keywords, is likely to be a better way forward for me. It allows me to cut across folder structures (providing I have something to select by) which I find I often need to do. So a structured folder system is quite sensible, for me, when first uploading the images form camera/card or whatever as it provides an easy check back and cross reference between saved locations should that be required. But once into processing and delivery it is less important and maybe even distracting from good practice, or so I am beginning to think for my purposes.

    I find it takes time to accept changes though ... even those I know I should make!

    HTH.


    Grant Perkins
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