Workflow suggestions

[Pixcels]

I am using the trial Capture 1 v11 right now after years with Lightroom.
I am looking for a Capture One workflow that will give me the best possible efficiency.
I have about five major clients and the occasional 'visitor'
I mainly shoot in the studio static products and people (so sometimes tethered but often not)
Sometimes I'm simply on location where I will not be carrying the laptop - e.g. covering a news event etc.
In the studio I will use my MacAir and a Samsung SSD hard drive where I will record everything from a shoot.
"Sessions" would seem to be the way forward here (??)
I like the idea that with Sessions all the raw files are within the one package and I can simply drop the whole thing into my desktop computer and have everything there to go.
So for client A that would be a session identified as Client A and date
I will then bring the hard drive back to my desktop computer for working (trusty old Mac Pro with an 1 Tb SSD internal hard drive.
After adjusting and outputting files I want to remove these files from the computer and archive them.
This is when I save it onto a Drobo external storage system (and weekly) backed up onto another system for longterm archive).
I feel as though I should put it into a Catalog on my external Drobo rather than keep it as a Session ?
How well does this work ? Where do the RAW files go ?
Should I create a catalog for each client or just have one master catalog for all my work ?
I don't want the catalog to become too unwieldy. And I don't want to lose track of the RAW files.
Having worked with Lightroom for many years I feel that my organisation did not start off very well and now I have a rather confused folder structure which I don't want to reproduce when I hand over entirely to Capture One.

I'm sure there are lots of other pros out there with roughly the same sort of set-up and I would appreciate any thoughts about workflow organisation.

Observations really welcomed here guys

[tcphoto1]

I've never liked Lightroom but have used CaptureOne for about 4-5 years now. There is a bit of a learning curve but there are plenty of YouTube videos to get you started. I mainly shoot tethered and make minor adjustments as I shoot in sessions, naming them with date and they go into folders with name of client. I backup throughout the shoot to an external drive and wish that files were written to both card and computer. Importing from the card is easy and I've never had an issue, I connect the camera and use Image Capture to import or a USB3 reader. Once I'm back home, I backup to multiple external drives, format cards and then take the images off the MBP drive.

[Alan Klein]

Tony, your photos look scrumptious. 

[Alan Klein]

Yum!

[tcphoto1]

Alan, I appreciate the comment. I will pass it along to the Stylists that actually made the food. Sometimes, I simply mash the button.

[budjames]

Check out the variety of excellent Capture One Pro tutorial videos on YouTube. There are a number of them that describe their transition from Lightroom to Capture One Pro.

Also Martin Bailey Photography has several excellent podcasts that document his transition to C1P from LR.

Personally, I gave up on LR shortly after switching from Canon pro DSLRs to Fuji X cameras about 4 years ago. C1P has weaker DAM capabilities than LR, but the image quality is superior with all RAW files with much less fuss. I also found that since switching to C1P and learning how to use the advance editing features, that I don't miss the numerous plugins that I used with LR (NIK and others).

The DAM capabilities of C1P have quickly improved in the past few releases, especially with version 11. The only issue that I have with DAM in C1P is that the program chokes on large catalogues over 30-40k images. LR had no issues and a single LR catalogue contained my 15+ yeas of images, over 160k RAW files.

With C1P, I split up my catalogues by year. C1P allows you to have multiple catalogues open at the same time, but you are unable to search across various catalogues. A small price to pay for better image quality without expensive plugins.

LR's print module is awesome where C1P's is only adequate. I only print to standard sizes with one image per print, so the functionality of C1P's print capabilities works for me. Martin Bailey goes into the differences and workflows for printing very well in his podcast.

As of December 2017, I purchased my first Leica, the M10. I now shoot regularly with Leica and my Fuji XT2 and XH1 bodies. C1P does a great job with both RAW file formats (DNG and RAF) created by these systems.

Regards,
Bud James

Please check out my fine art and travel photography at www.budjames.photography or on Instagram at www.instagram.com/budjamesphoto.

[TommyWeir]

I think you've got a pretty good handle on things already.

- Sessions are the way to go for shooting as you outline.
- I would have a Catalog for each client.  You can keep the referenced images still in their individual Session 'Capture' folder.
- Remember as you import each clients Session into their catalog to 'Favorite' each of the output folders you've created.   That way your finished files will also be easily accessible in the catalog.
- You will need to have a consistent and planned naming strategy for your sessions and folder naming. e.g. "ClientA date project1",  that way each session in the catalog will be easily found. 

The PhaseOne video tutorials on their site are also excellent and they have really good webinars on a regular basis, I recommend working through them.   The output naming involving tokens etc. really will speed up the organizational issues.

I agree with Bud on the print options within C1.  I found the free Epson Print Layout application answered my needs there, but others have recommended ImagePrint.

https://learn.phaseone.com

[IanSeward]

For printing I always recommend people check out QIMAGE Ultimate.  Layout of prints, automatic optimisation of prints depending on size, printer etc. superb resizing algorithm etc.

UI is a little strange at first but there are inbuilt video tutorials and plenty of info on YouTube.

http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage-u/

Ian