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Importing a folder of raw files as individual sessions

Tom Rankin

Hello,

I'm new to Capture One, and I have exported my old Lightroom Library as original RAW files into dated folders, because I wanted something more portable and platform-agnostic. I want to mainly use Sessions as my organizational method based on the folders for archival purposes, then create niche Catalogs of those Sessions.

Other than individually creating sessions and importing the images, which is going to be tedious, is there any way for me to use each dated folder as the base of a Session? Ideally, the RAW files already there can be moved to the Capture folder too 🤞

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  • SFA

    Tom,

     

    Do really want to copy the RAW files into another location (the capture foldr in a session) or simply leave them where they are and reference them?

     

    If you are going to create a Session for each folder anyway then you may as well use the import feature to do so. There are some potential benefits in that process.

     

    However you could just create the session (basically a name and where you want to locate it and C1 will do the rest) and then open the session, navigate to the folder and make it a "favourite". (Or just copy the files into the session Capture folder if you really want a copy of them.)  Then make the folder a favourite. Either way C1 will them seek out images in the folder and to its stuff to initiate the editing process and create thumbnails and previews.

    Import will do the same thing for you but allow for applying some basic adjustments, modifying the file names and, potentially, further organising sub folders by various criteria should that appeal to you.

    If all you want is a generic session (i.e. ignore the Capture Folder and work with the images where they are or where ever  you have copied another folder copy), just create one session, in the session navigate to the required folder, do what you want to do with the images and that's job done. You can make the folder a "favourite" whilst working with it for easier repeat access.

     

    Edit info is saved locally to the folder and can then be used to populate the catlogue edit records if the folder is added to a catalogue via the catalogue's Import process - either "Managed" or "Referenced".

     

    HTH.

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  • Tom Rankin

    Thanks for the advice. My goal is to not have duplicates all over my hard drive, while still having a complete Session 'package' that encapsulates everything to do with it.

    I'd like the Raw files within the session folder in that case, because I can take the Session once I'm done, Zip it up, and archive it.

    It seems as though I will have to go the long-winded route of creating the Session, and importing the images to the Capture folder, which seems a long-winded task I'm not looking forward to.

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  • Permanently deleted user

    Navigating to a folder and performing edits creates the Capture One folder containing edits, and masks inside the folder with the images.  In that way it is the same as using the sessions Capture folder.  You can zip up and archive the folder the same way you'd archive a Capture folder.

    Another option is to use pack as EIP.   See https://youtu.be/20KYjWua_NA for reasons why you might want to do that.

    There are lots of choices/work flows.  I'm sure you'll find one that works best for you.

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  • Tom Rankin

    EIP is cool – thanks for that link, and thanks for the advice!

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