[MetteHHH]

A while ago I asked for advice in here on where to go from an old LR-version, and I ended up buying CP20. I got myself a new wacom tablet too, and my post processing has improved vastly. I really appreciate the change.

BUT - I'm the sort of person who jumps into something and begins working without proper preparation. More so since I have limited hobby-time and a huge backlog of unedited photos. I saw a few tutotial videos about sessions and catalogues, decided that I should probably go with sessions, and began editing. Then I noticed my drives beginning to fill up...

Here's my starting point:
Since long before I even bought lightroom - probably for at least 15 years - I have used Faststone for file handling, selecting, copying, converting image formats, moving between folders etc. I LOVE faststone. It is simple, effective, fast and takes up very little space. It's free, but I donate regularly with each update.

What I bought CP20 for is raw editing, and it is excellent for that. But I really LIKE my current setup of putting selected raw files into a file system in Faststone and editing from there.
I thought sessions let me do that: When I specify to leave the files in their existing location, I thought CP20 would just create an associated file with the editing info. Obviously not. Instead, every session I have created contains copies of every raw file I have worked with! Now I have a total mess of doubles and triples in various folders!

I thought my mistake was working with sessions, then, and tried if I could create a catalogue instead that simply refers to existing file locations. But... I think I can't. Judging from the catalogue dialogue, it seems like the program would like to make copies of all the photos in my file system to include them in the catalogue.

Maybe I can't do what I thought I could. But then again, maybe you clever people can help?

[acoufap]

A while ago I asked for advice in here on where to go from an old LR-version, and I ended up buying CP20. I got myself a new wacom tablet too, and my post processing has improved vastly. I really appreciate the change.

BUT - I'm the sort of person who jumps into something and begins working without proper preparation. More so since I have limited hobby-time and a huge backlog of unedited photos. I saw a few tutotial videos about sessions and catalogues, decided that I should probably go with sessions, and began editing. Then I noticed my drives beginning to fill up...

Here's my starting point:
Since long before I even bought lightroom - probably for at least 15 years - I have used Faststone for file handling, selecting, copying, converting image formats, moving between folders etc. I LOVE faststone. It is simple, effective, fast and takes up very little space. It's free, but I donate regularly with each update.

What I bought CP20 for is raw editing, and it is excellent for that. But I really LIKE my current setup of putting selected raw files into a file system in Faststone and editing from there.
I thought sessions let me do that: When I specify to leave the files in their existing location, I thought CP20 would just create an associated file with the editing info. Obviously not. Instead, every session I have created contains copies of every raw file I have worked with! Now I have a total mess of doubles and triples in various folders!

I thought my mistake was working with sessions, then, and tried if I could create a catalogue instead that simply refers to existing file locations. But... I think I can't. Judging from the catalogue dialogue, it seems like the program would like to make copies of all the photos in my file system to include them in the catalogue.

Maybe I can't do what I thought I could. But then again, maybe you clever people can help?

I also work with sessions. So a quick answer without trying. If you import images a copy will be saved within a predefined folder for your session.

If you simply want to use your files stored in another place create a link via drag and drop under session favourites. Click the link and you'll see your original captures. In the same folder a capture one folder will be created. It contains metadata, caching info etc. in a folder tree.

[MetteHHH]

If you simply want to use your files stored in another place create a link via drag and drop under session favourites. Click the link and you'll see your original captures. In the same folder a capture one folder will be created. It contains metadata, caching info etc. in a folder tree.

This is EXACTLY the kind of solution I was hoping for! Perfect! Can't wait to try that out, thanks!

I guess I will lose my edits over the last half year, if I delete all the duplicate folders from my old sessions using import. But, well - I still have the exports.

[acoufap]

This is EXACTLY the kind of solution I was hoping for! Perfect! Can't wait to try that out, thanks!

I guess I will lose my edits over the last half year, if I delete all the duplicate folders from my old sessions using import. But, well - I still have the exports.

You don't need to loose all your C1P edits! Simply copy the CaptureOne folder where your edits are stored into the new target folder that contains your images. Of course you mustn't rename your images.

I like sessions because they are extremely flexible. You can work with different other applications and don't need to sync the catalog or import the images.

Simply tether or scan images directly into the session capture folder. Develop your PSR images using RawTherapee and store the images directly into to same folder. Same goes for my Helicon Focus stacked and PTGui generated Panorama images or if I do other specialized things with Affinity Apps or GIMP. You'll always see the results immediately in the C1Pro session folder and you can work on the images straight ahead within the C1Pro session.

And if you want to exchange a few images with someone else using C1Pro just convert the images into the EIP format. That's a ZIP container format that will wrap an image with its variants if you want and it will contain all your changes made using C1Pro tools. This EIP thing (Pack & Unpack) only works fully in sessions.