Setting Up Hot Folders in Capture One Pro

In a previous article, I shared how to setup Watch Folders in Adobe Lightroom. In this article, I wanted to share in detail how to set it up in Capture One. The idea is simple. Any new image added to this folder will automatically be imported into Capture One. To set up a Hot Folder:

1. Open a Capture One Pro SESSION
2. In the Library pane, find the folder you want to setup as a Hot Folder
3. Right click on the folder, and choose “Set as Capture Folder”
4. Select Camera from the Menu bar option and select “Hot Folder Enabled”
5. If you are shooting directly into this folder with another app connected to your camera, the last step is to turn off Capture One’s ability to control your camera. To do that:
   1. Open Capture One Pro Preferences by clicking on Capture One in the Menu bar and then Preferences
   2. Click on the Capture Icon in the top bar
   3. Uncheck the boxes next to all the Providers
   4. Restart Capture One Pro

So why would you use this rather than Capture One’s import images dialog? Here are a few reasons this feature is useful: 1. If you want to tether using Capture One Pro but your camera isn’t supported. There are cameras that Capture One Pro doesn’t support that have their own software for pulling images real-time from the camera. For example, the Panasonic LUMIX GH-4 supports tethering with USB Tether for LUMIX. In these situations, just set your default image location in that software to the Hot Folder you set up in Capture One Pro. As you shoot, the software will pull the image from the camera, drop it in your hot folder, and Capture One will auto import it into your Session.  You now have the ability to automatically apply white balance, presets, cropping and more to the images. 2. If you are using CamRanger wireless tethering system you can tether wireless to Capture One. In CamRanger’s software, you’re going to set the folder to save images to the same location as your Hot Folder. As you shoot, Capture One will auto import these photos. 3. You are ingesting a bunch of photos from multiple sources or cards. Once your computer sees your card, you can click to drag all the files to your Hot Folder, and then eject the card and move on to the next. The actual import process won’t slow you down, just the time it takes to copy the images over.