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Sessions 102: Power User

NOTE: This article discusses an outdated version of Capture One. To learn more about our latest version, click here.

In Sessions 101 we looked at an overview of the Session concept. In this post we’ll take Sessions to the next level.

While it solves a very simplistic workflow in its basic out-the-box form, the modern high volume shoot needs a bit more management. Fortunately, Sessions are super expandable when things get bigger. There’s a couple of good reasons for pushing beyond the standard Session – especially when dealing with serious volume.

Shooting 100’s of GB’s of files to a single directory is a big mistake. The words of wisdom here are “expectation management”. Although not technically wrong, and although it does work, performance and stability will start to fall off after a couple of hundred 60Mpix files. It’s common sense not only to keep your viewing and load times speedy (and client happy) but also to organise a bit for sanity.

So, don’t dump 5 days worth of pictures in one place and expect zero problems; Being a bit more modular will also help you if something were to (and it does occasionally) go wrong with a back-up, or to do a reprocess on image X for the client.

The revolution will be organized

By leveraging the proper organisation tools, you don’t need to move any files. Moving files out of a capture sequence to selects is, in my mind, a big mistake. Personally, I avoid the idea like the plague. I much prefer to keep chronology and timeline in the shot folders for proper review. To extract the keepers, I use other methods. Note there is a heavy slant here on “I”. You can of course do what you like if this doesn’t jive with how you like to work.

Ok, sounds reasonable. How do I do that?

First, we need to rewind back to the Session and the default Capture folder within it. From a new session, select the Capture folder in the “sessions folders” area at the top of the Library (this is a shortcut to the currently assigned Capture folder), then right click > show in library. This will open the library’s system folders to show you the current location of the current Capture folder in the file system.

Now you can do this bit how ever you like (and believe me I’ve seen users do this just about every way possible) but I suggest sub-foldering “Capture” to hold all the shot folders. Some people put folders in the session folder (in the same directory as “Captures”), but I find this counter intuitive to the concepts discussed in Sessions 101. By organising inside Capture, I know any and all RAW captures will be inside Capture (a sort of logical drill down) and not end up in some random Capture 2 or untitled folder in the session.

Right click on the Capture folder in the system view and choose “new inside”. This will allow you to make a new folder inside Capture. Typically, you get a pop up asking if you want to add the previous Capture folder to favourites. You can ignore this for now.

The idea of subfoldering the Capture folder into shot folders is to look for natural breaks in the day. This might be product ID, model changes clothes, every hour, or any divider you can think of that helps with breaking up the volume of images. Not only does it help you organise, it reduces system resource pressure on images per directory.

Naming of these folders is thus a bit dependent on the above, but something descriptive (like “Shot 1”) or logical (like date) – or a combination of the two – is good.

If you are shooting product, maybe the SKU or product code for the item is also pretty sane. The reasoning here is in the pipeline of production we can then leverage the Next Capture naming tool. This uses the Token concept, and with the correct tokens in place, you can extract the name of the current Capture folder up to the “Capture Name”. This sets up the naming based on the folder name as they land in it. If you change Capture folders, the name follows with it. This creates a wonderful sense of automatic order and organisational relationship for assets and parent directory – and also means reduced input and user error when setting up collections.

Once you have set this up, try to create a new folder, select it and again right click “set as Capture”. You should now see the Camera icon move to this new folder, indicating the current Capture folder has moved. This is now the new “Capture folder” – note this is distinctly different from the folder called “Capture”! Repeat this process to make multiple “Capture” folders and you can quickly start to build up an organized shoot as the content changes through the day. If you float the next Capture naming tool out, you can see the name update as you change folders.

Now you are properly on your way to a professional session user’s workflow.

Next up we will look at how to leverage higher level session concepts for thing like organising and culling: Favorites, Albums and Smart albums. This bit can take a chunk of the work out of the traditional workflow of moving to selects.

The Favorite

This is a marker in library (small heart icon) and you can use it on folders. It has three uses:

One: it makes a small heart on the folder in the library. The folder is then represented in Favorites area and clicking on it is effectively now a shortcut to the actual folder. This is for the most part purely UI for organisation and allows you to view the folders in the session as a flat list (which helps keep the UI tidy with deep folder structures or lots of Capture folders). You can also set Favorites as Capture/Selects/Output/Trash like it’s the actual folder, without having to find it in system.

Two: it indexes the content of that folder in the session database file, making it faster to load and opens up the contents for search. This is useful for Smart albums. Adding more folders to Favorites means more folders to search across.

Three: Folders marked as favorites (and their relative position to the session) are remembered when making custom templates.

Back to search, in chapter one we talked about how the Catalog worked; To view and index files in the Catalog, you have to import – then the catalog can search them. In sessions we use the Favorite concept as a tag to tell the session to “include this folder” in the index. You can also remove the folder from the Favorites list to exclude the contents from search. Once indexed, the smart albums can be used.

To make a folder a favorite, select it in the Library and right click -> Add to Favorites.

Smart Albums

Albums and Smart Albums are concepts that both require a bit of a disconnect from the physical ideas of files and folders we have dealt with so far. They are in effect “virtual” folders – meaning they can hold and show you an image but it’s just a reference to the actual file which is somewhere else. For albums, the main use case is something like “my best images” as you can drag in your picks from several folders to show you a collection of your awesome. However, the Smart Album is altogether… smarter. Obviously.

Smart Albums are to pictures what junk email filters are to Outlook. You specify rules for it, and if it finds images in the favorites that match, it will show it in the Smart Album. Remove the qualifying criteria from the image, and the image will from the smart album. This is especially cool for rating and culling.

To make a Smart Album, find the Session Albums section in the Library tool and click “+” then -> Smart Album. Name it “Rejects”, then choose the preset for “red”. Press Done to save. In the old days of Capture One 3, one used the “traffic light” logic of tagging images (much like Lightroom’s flagging method) with a red cross for “reject”, yellow question mark for “maybe” and green tick for “pick”. I still do this today (or at least something close to it) by using colour tags.

For every Session, I repeat this process 4 times to make four Smart albums. One to show me images with a red (rejects) tag, one for yellow (maybe) tags and one for green (picks). Lastly, I make an additional Smart album that I call Green4+ (which shows me green AND 4 or more stars). How all this comes together we will review in the final Sessions post later this week.

Supposing I do this kind of thing a lot. Can I make set up quicker? The last tip for today is templates.

Templating a template

As we discuss in 101, a session is a (very basic) template. Making something a little more useful for bigger shoots is a good time saver. Custom templates is possible in Capture One 8 and later.

A custom template primarily remembers 3 things in the template. Folders which were favorited, albums/smart albums, and the Next Capture naming set up. Once you have set up everything (as above), go File > Save as template.

Next time you make a new Session (File>New Session) from the dialog, you can choose a Template from your custom list. A new session (with new name) will be made with all the shoot folders and albums. This considerably reduces time configuring your workflow for the shoot!

This is in a good point to end on a bit of advice. It’s not an inconsiderable amount of work to get to this “ready to shoot” stage. What I have described so far is a typical amount of prep for any big shoot and when it gets to pre-light most operators or technical producers will build collections in advance so time spent noodling around in software during the high pressure shooting phase on the day is reduced. So – be ready, and make the shot folders ahead of time if you can. Anything you can do to reduce fiddling around with naming and folders when under pressure will help you immeasurably when its hammer time and seven agency bods are looking at you wondering why the shoot stopped. That’s not a good feeling.

Sessions 103: Expert Knowledge

In the third and last post of the Sessions series, we’ll discuss how to bring the Capture One Pro workflow together on set. More specifically, we’ll cover how to cull in the Pro Session workflow. Read it here.

Sessions 101: Discussing the concept

NOTE: This article discusses an outdated version of Capture One. To learn more about our latest version, click here.

The “Session” is a classic and powerful workflow construct of Capture One Pro. It’s still THE go-to workflow used by nearly all production, studio and commissioned photographers. It’s a HUGE feature, interconnected with several other tools in several layers and immensely powerful when leveraged properly. This is especially the case in a tethered workflow. We’ll see later how Sessions were born for this exact concept.

In this 3-part series on Sessions we’ll start with one for new users. In this post we’ll discuss the concept, and build up to how to use it like a professional in the studio. If Catalogs isn’t really the way you like to work, or you’re looking to get started in the professional studio industry, this guide might just be for you.

If you’re already familiar with the basics of this field, you might want to skip this versions and jump directly to Sessions 102: Power Users or 103: Expert Knowledge)

What is a Session?

The main differences between a Catalog and a Session boil down to the “file life cycle” (the movement/storage of files) within the working project. This also includes the data structure for edits done behind the scenes – and (more or less) how this lets you interact with images in relation to the file system. More on that later.

The Session was born out of the first tethered camera implementations. When Phase One made the first “one-shot” CCD backs (i.e. not a scanning back) in the late 90’s they had no storage on board and could only be tethered. The files were delivered to the computer directly. The immediate question then is, where should the files be put?

Forget for a minute anything about Sessions and lets break down some simple ideas within the problem above.

First, there’s this data in/data out issue. If I create a series of files, it makes sense to organize it by making a folder for them. But this is a RAW converter and I’ll be processing JPEGs and tiffs out, so I need a folder for those files too.

Those folders and all the other assets should probably be in a sort of overall “top” project folder to keep things logical.

I’ll probably also want to move stuff around and delete some stuff. However, it’s best if it’s all relative to the project so nothing wanders off to system trash or moves to the wrong place. Therefore, I’ll make a few temporary folders for storing rejects and picks.

Folder workflow

So, now I have my project folder, a folder for RAW files from the camera, and an output folder for the processing a local trash folder and a selects folder for any keepers.

I now connect the camera to the software for tethered shooting (“transfer of files to the machine via cable” immediately). But computers are dumb, so I have to tell the machine where the files that the camera produces should end up. In Capture One I find the folder I made earlier for storing RAW images for the job, then right click on it and “set as Capture folder”. Now, the computer knows where to put the images. I need to do the same for the processed folder (where all the conversions are kept). So, again I go to the folder browser and find my folder – right click, set as output. Now, when I process images, they go there. Same for the local trash and selects.

In a way, I’ve now made a very simple in/out file workflow. I’m working on a kind of “files and folders” parity within the app interface, almost as manipulating the Finder/Explorer file system directly.

Stop: Session time

This is fantastically simple. Except that now I have another job for today. I have to make sure to correctly reset all the naming, and create the folder structure again. Obviously, I don’t want Susan from Agency A to see work from yesterday for Stuart at Agency B.

The session concept solves this by taking all the above and turn it into a reusable and compartmentalised template for the above workflow points.

When you create a new Session (File>New Session), it creates a “top” folder containing four other folders. These folders are automatically assigned the tasks for the photographer:

Captures (destination folder for tethered)
Selects (a folder you can move assets to, if deemed important)
Output (assigned as the destination for all processing)
Session Trash (a place to store deleted files for the session)

Alongside, this folder structure is a .cosessionDB file. This is used for caching and tracking file movements done in Capture One and enabling concepts like search. This we will cover in part three: Advance Use of Sessions.

Now, all I have to do is Capture (file in), and Process (file out). For the most part, simple jobs can be managed with little overhead or input from the photographer.

Geeky stuff

The last piece of the puzzle with understanding sessions is the behind the scenes mechanics of storage of settings, and cache for the images.

In a Catalog, these are stored and indexed inside one big database object for everything. Also, for images to be viewable they typically have to first go through a “gatekeeper” process – the Importer. This model has advantages for search and large collections where an overview or collections with many events is required. The centralised cache design should give better performance on networks.

Sessions though, store cache and settings locally – within in a sub folder of the RAW files folder.

The Library tool in Session mode is a file/folder browser and doesn’t require the importer to view images. A simple click on a folder of RAW files in the library is enough to trigger generation of cache. Settings and images will start to load immediately. Once created, these are used again next time you revisit the folder. Any further changes/edits made in Capture One are written to the settings files, which are the user’s effective stored adjustments. Note, each image has its own settings file, so this redundancy and modular design makes it easy to work with distribute and backup. As long as you have a folder of images with the settings, you can view this on any machine – even without the accompanying session database.

As in the opening chapter, this is the main difference between Catalogs and Sessions – this direct ability to interface into a file system contents via the library tool, and no importing required.

Sessions 102: Power User

The second tip discusses how to expand the Sessions workflow with multiple directories for bigger projects. Read it here.

Please leave a comment if there’s a topic within the Session workflow that you would like to know more about.

The Blue Ring Lens Family: The right lens for the right job

This post has been moved. Please click here to be redirected.

See the Blue Ring lens range here.

: Aerial shot in Kimberley, Australia using the Blue Ring 80mm

: Aerial shot in Iceland using the Blue Ring 80mm

: Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany using the Blue Ring 45mm

: Penguins in South Georgia, captured using the Blue Ring 35mm

Capture One Pro 10: All New Features Review

Recently, Capture One released Capture One Pro 10 with a bunch of surprising features.

Starting from version 6, Capture One boarded a high-speed train rolling out breakthrough editing tools with every new release. This year, developers decided to enhance some features which were missed in previous updates.

Capture One 10 brings completely new image sharpening, amazing output proofing, snappier performance and a mass of other useful improvements. Let’s find out what the new version can do to boost our workflows.

Main features

Output Proofing

Output Proofing, the first novelty of Capture One 10, is dedicated to showing you how exactly the RAW-file would look after the processing.

When you are working with RAW, there are many options to convert it to the final JPG or TIFF. For different purposes, you may need a particular color profile, size or sharpening settings.

Previously, at times it was quite difficult to predict the final image’s look. Now, you can turn on Output Proofing and you would immediately see the prepared image with applied preferences from the selected recipe.

Output Proofing is especially useful when you’re processing images for web.

“Proofing” sign shows that Output Proofing is turned on and you see the image with applied settings from selected recipe.

With Output Proofing, you can set the best Sharpening for your image depending on processing size. Hence, Proofing allows you to check your image to look good with selected color profile. You can even simulate JPEG compression artifacts.

New sharpening

Capture One 10 brings entirely new sharpening workflow called “3-phase sharpening”. Now, you can separately apply sharpening settings to three different editing stages:

Input sharpening

A sharpening process starts with “Diffraction correction” check box in Lens tool. That feature automatically corrects basic problems with sharpness related to your lens.

Creative sharpening

At this stage, you can manually add sharpness to your image, as it was in previous versions of Capture One. At the same time, Sharpening Tool has got two handy improvements in Capture One 10:

1. There is a new Halo Suppression slider to remove specific «halo» effect, which often appears during sharpening.

Above: Image before and after Halo Suppression

2. All the sharpening sliders are now able to work in layers. That means you can locally apply various sharpening settings to different parts of the image.

Output sharpening

Furthermore, you can now adjust sharpening right in recipe’s settings for different purposes. For example, it allows you to set specific sharpness for web and print recipes.

Output Proofing will show you how it looks on the final image. For prints you can also specify the distance you want to view the image from.

New sharpening and Output Proofing allows you to prepare the image for web or print in all the details.

Improved performance for faster viewing experience

With almost every new Capture One release, developers continue to increase app’s speed and stability. This year, they focused on refining viewing and working with images’ performance.
As a result, caching speed, drawing latency and framerates for adjustments were significantly improved. It’s quite difficult to measure, but try to work with layers in Capture One 10, and you’ll immediately notice the performance boost.

By the way, make sure to upgrade your RAW files engine to the 10th version to get all the features of Capture One 10.

Camera Focus tool

The tethered shooting was always one of the main features of Capture One, and in the 10-th version, it has got a new Camera Focus tool.

The new tool allows you to automatically and manually adjust focus during the shooting. And the best news is that Camera Focus tool works with Sony, Nikon, and Canon cameras as well as with Phase One IQ/XF.

Due to some hardware specifics, Camera Focus tool with Nikon and Canon cameras work in Live View mode only. It’s also worth to point out that the Auto Focus indicator isn’t available with Canon cameras and Manual Focus Adjustment Buttons – with Sony cameras.

Even with these restrictions, it’s a great tool for interior, food and product photographers.

Tangent devices support

Another significant update is Tangent hardware support. All the previous versions miss support for editing devices, which professional retouchers often use.

You can now connect Tangent devices with Capture One and gain an amazing analog control over color correction and processing.

Other improvements

Compressed RAW Support

In previous versions, some useful features like Lens Correction, Chromatic Aberration Analysis and LCC weren’t available for compressed RAW files.

However, all these tools now work great with Canon mRAW/sRAW and Nikon RAW M (and RAW S for D5 and D500).

Auto Masking

There is good news for Fuji camera owners as well: Auto Masking has been updated to support any editable file type, including Xtrans.

Filter for orientation of images

One more annoying issue of previous releases was fixed, and now you can filter images by orientation: landscape, portrait, and square. Note that the filter considers applied crop.

Move folders in Catalogs

Talking about small, but useful improvements: In Capture One 10 you’re now able to move folders inside Catalog’s “Folders”, and they will also move on your hard drive.

Consequently, if you wish to relocate the folder with your images, you can just drag it to a new place in Capture One, and it will automatically move on your HDD as well.

New workspaces

In Capture One 10, the default workspace is updated; Now, the browser is on the right side of the screen, and Composition tab tools are merged into the Lens tab. Developers have also added the new “Migration” workspace that provides more familiar UI for former Lightroom users.

At any moment you can switch to the classical Capture One 9 workspace or fully customize the workspace to your personal preferences.

Here is a video to show you how it works:

More Apple Script properties

Apple Script is one of the most underestimated features by Capture One users. It allows you to create an action sequence which is performed automatically as you run the script.

With previous releases, Phase One significantly expanded the amount of Capture One properties to work with Apple Script.

In the new version, they also have added some new features. Now, you can use commands to Pack/Unpack EIP, sync metadata and select variants; You can target Exif properties (R/O) and IPTC (R/W) fields using scripting for metadata change.

Optimization in Capture One 10

JPEG creation algorithms are optimized to provide the best quality at the smallest possible size.
LCC speed generation is increased by 20%.
OpenCL, graphics acceleration technology, is now enabled by default in Capture One settings.

New Cameras Support

• Sony a99 M2 support
• Sony RX100M5 support
• Sony a6500 support
• Sony a3500 support
• Olympus E-M1 mkll Support

New Lenses Support

• Mamiya Sekor Fisheye ULD C 24mm 1:4
• Sony 70-200mm F2.8 G (SAL70200G)
• Sony FE 70-200mm F4 G OSS
• Sony E 18–200mm F3.5-6.3 OSS
• Sony E PZ 18-105mm F4 G OSS (SELP18105G)
• Sony E 55-210mm F4.5-6.3 OSS (SEL55210)
• Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS (SEL1018)
• Sony E 20mm F2.8 (SEL20F28)
• Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* E 16-70 mm F4 ZA OSS (SEL1670Z)
• Zeiss Sonnar T* FE 55 mm F1.8 ZA (SEL55F18Z)
• Sony DT 50mm F1.8 SAM (SAL50F18)
• Sony DT 35mm F1.8 SAM (SAL35F18)
• Sony DT 30mm F2.8 Macro SAM (SAL30M28)
• Sony 16mm F2.8 Fisheye (SAL16F28)
• Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 25mm f/1.2 PRO
• Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 12-100mm f/4 IS PRO
• Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 40-150mm 1:4.0-5.6 R

That was my tips for Capture One Pro 10. Feel free to leave a comment or a question.

Best regards,

Alexander Svet