For a long time, my editing didn't have a workflow. It had habits. Some sessions I'd import into one place, some into another. Some I'd cull first, some I'd start editing the first frame that caught my eye. Every gallery got delivered — but every gallery took a different amount of time, and too many of my evenings disappeared into Capture One.

A workflow fixes that. Not because it makes you a better editor, but because it makes the same decisions for you every time — so your attention goes to the creative choices that actually need it.

Here's how I'd build a Capture One workflow if I were starting over today.

Start With Sessions, Not a Giant Catalog

Capture One gives you two ways to organize your work: catalogs and sessions. Catalogs are great for managing a large archive in one place. For client work, I use sessions.

A session is a self-contained folder for one shoot. Inside it, Capture One creates subfolders for your raw files, your selects, your finished output, and your trash. Everything that belongs to that client lives together — the originals, the edits, the exports. When the job is done, the whole thing can be archived as one unit.

Name every session the same way. Mine follow a simple pattern: date, client name, session type. Six months from now, when a client asks for one more print, you'll find it in seconds instead of minutes.

Import With Intention

The import window does more work than most photographers let it. Before I bring a single file in, I set four things.

I rename the files to match the session name, so every image carries its context. I add my copyright and contact information to the metadata. I back up the files to a second drive during import — if your files only live in one place, they don't really exist yet. And I apply my base style on import, so every image arrives already in my starting territory.

Set this up once and save it. Every import after that is a couple of clicks.

Cull Before You Touch a Single Slider

The biggest time-waster in editing is polishing images that never make the final gallery. So I don't edit anything until culling is finished.

My culling happens in three passes. The first is a fast reject: out-of-focus frames, closed eyes, and weaker duplicates go straight to the trash. The second is a star select, where I rate anything that has a genuine moment. The third is a final cut, filtered to only my starred images, where I compare similar frames and narrow down to the 40 to 60 I'll actually deliver.

I also use color tags for anything the client specifically asked for. Before I close the cull, I filter by that tag and make sure every must-have is covered.

Edit Once, Apply Everywhere

Once the cull is done, I don't edit image by image. I edit by lighting setup.

I pick one strong frame from each setup — the open shade set, the backlit set, the indoor window set — and get that one exactly right. Then I copy those adjustments and apply them to every image shot in the same light. Command-Shift-C to copy, Command-Shift-V to apply. Most of the gallery is 80 percent done before I've touched it individually.

From there, individual edits are small and targeted: a crop, a local exposure fix, a stray hair. Layers are for problems, not for re-editing the whole image. If you're building a dozen layers on every frame, your base edit isn't doing its job.

Let Process Recipes Handle Your Exports

Export is where good edits quietly go wrong. Capture One's process recipes let you decide your export settings once, per destination, and never think about them again.

I keep a recipe for each kind of delivery. Client web gallery: JPEG, sRGB, sized to a set long edge. Print lab: whatever that lab specifies. Social: smaller JPEG, sRGB. For screens, what matters is the pixel dimensions — not the PPI number in the dialog. And sRGB matters more than most photographers realize: send a wider color space to a web gallery and your carefully graded colors can look flat on your client's screen.

You can run several recipes at once, so one click gives you the full-resolution gallery and the social versions together.

Write It Down

The last step isn't in Capture One at all. It's a one-page document that describes your workflow: how you name sessions, what your import preset does, how you cull, what's in your base style, which recipes you use.

It sounds like overkill until you need it. It's what lets you stay consistent when you're tired, busy, or coming back from a month off. And if you ever decide to bring in an outside editor, it's the foundation everything else gets built on. You can't hand off a workflow that only lives in your head.

Want to compare Capture One setups? I'm happy to share more about what's worked in my own editing. Reach out at Darrell Clark Photography in Reno, NV, and let's connect.

Also in the Editing Workflow series:

• Post 2: Color Grading for a Consistent Style

🎙️ Frame by Frame | The Photography Podcast

Prefer to learn on the go? Editing month on Frame by Frame covers this workflow in short episodes: Ep 31, My 3-Step Culling Process · Ep 32, The One Export Setting Most Photographers Miss · Ep 33, When to Outsource Editing · Ep 34, Staying Consistent Across a Client Gallery. Listen on Spotify.