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Export Client Picks as a Filename List for Capture One

Capture One has a dedicated command for a pasted list of file names. Here is how to get that list out of a client gallery as a plain text file, what the file contains, and where the workflow still needs your hand.

Updated 5 September 2026

This is one of the rare proofing questions with an exact answer on both sides. Your client picks in a browser. You cull in Capture One. The bridge is a list of file names, and Capture One ships a command built for precisely that input.

The clientgallery.io side of the bridge is a button labelled Export picks (.txt). The Capture One side is Select, Select By, Filename List. This guide covers both ends precisely, including the two places the workflow is rougher than it sounds, and it names Capture One's own client review product rather than pretending it does not exist.

Capture One has a command for exactly this

Most gallery platforms hand you filenames and leave you to fight your editor. Capture One users are the exception, because Capture One documents the feature outright: "Capture One can also search for multiple images using a list of file names."

The documented procedure is four steps.

  1. Choose Select, then Select By, then Filename List.
  2. Paste the names into the field.
  3. Pick the separator your list uses from the Delimiter fly-out menu. A file with one name per line is separated by line breaks, so choose the delimiter that matches that, not a comma.
  4. Optionally tick Ignore file extension. Use this when the gallery carries JPEG names and the images you are selecting are RAW files.

Be precise about what this command is, because it changes how you use it. It is a selection command. It selects the matching images. It does not filter the browser down to them, so the rest of the shoot stays on screen and stays one stray click away from losing your selection. The next section but one deals with that.

It is also the right tool rather than a workaround. Capture One's Advanced Search criteria are Adjusted, Annotated, Color Tag, Date, Format, Height, Keywords, Orientation, Processed, Rating, Width and EXIF fields, with no Filename criterion among them. The text search does cover file names, but multiple words are an OR match: "Adding multiple words will result in images that contain at least one" of the terms, across metadata, keywords and folder names as well as the file name. Pasting forty names into the search bar is not the same operation as pasting them into the Filename List dialog.

What the .txt file actually contains

Getting the list out of a clientgallery.io gallery is one click, but the button is not where people look for it, and the file is more literal than people expect.

Where the button is. Export picks (.txt) appears in the completed-gallery banner, and it appears only after the client has sent their picks. It is not a button sitting on every gallery from the day you create it. Until the client presses send, there is nothing to export.

What is in the file. Filenames only, one per line. No header row, no level column, no counts, no dates. That is deliberate, because it is the shape the Filename List dialog wants: you open the file, select all, copy, paste.

What the file does not tell you. Clients mark at two levels in a clientgallery.io gallery. A single tap stars a photo, a double tap loves it. The export lists the loves first and the stars after, but it does not label which is which. If you only need one list of everything the client wants, this is irrelevant. If you plan to treat loves and stars differently, read the section on splitting them below before you paste.

The download is named after the gallery, as <gallery-title>-picks.txt, so a shoot folder can hold the picks file next to the images without you renaming anything.

The whole run, end to end

  1. The client sends their picks. Picking itself needs no client account and is authorised by the share link alone. Sending is stricter: the send dialog requires a name and a valid email, and the server rejects a submission without both. So a set of picks always arrives attached to a person.
  2. Open the gallery in your studio and click Export picks (.txt). The file lands in your downloads folder under the gallery title.
  3. Open the file and copy everything. Any text editor. There is no cleanup step, nothing to strip, no header to delete.
  4. In Capture One, open the collection that holds the shoot. The command matches inside what is currently browsed, so point it at the right folder or album first.
  5. Select, Select By, Filename List. Paste, set the Delimiter to match one name per line, and tick Ignore file extension if your gallery names are JPEGs and your images are RAW.
  6. Mark the selection before you touch anything else. Explained next, and it is the step people skip.

A selection is not a filter, so make it permanent

The Filename List command leaves you holding a selection. Selections are fragile. Click one thumbnail outside it and the client's forty picks are gone, and you are back at the text editor.

Convert it into something Capture One can filter on, immediately. Apply a star rating or a colour tag to the whole selection while it is still live. Both are first-class filter criteria: the Filters tool in the Library tool tab filters on star rating and colour tag, alongside Keyword, Place and Format, and it shows live counts, where "the number next to the relevant color or star ... represents how many images fall under that criterion". That count is your check: if the client sent forty picks and the tag shows thirty eight, two filenames did not match and you want to know that now rather than after you start editing.

One constraint to plan around if you work in French or any other language: Capture One states that "Color tags are only supported in English". If that matters to your team, use star ratings for the client tier and keep colour tags for your own internal states.

From there, the ordinary Capture One tools work. Select, Select Next When, Star Rated or Color Tagged moves you through the marked set as you work, so you can rate or tag and advance without going back to the browser.

Splitting loves from stars, honestly

This is the rough edge, and it is better stated plainly than hidden in a footnote. The .txt has no level column. Loves are listed first and stars follow, but nothing in the file marks the boundary.

What tells you the boundary is the email. When a client sends picks, clientgallery.io emails you with the subject "name sent their picks, gallery title", and the body states how many photos were loved and how many were starred. So the two-pass version of the workflow is:

  1. Read the loved count from the email. Call it N.
  2. Copy the first N lines of the file. Paste those into the Filename List dialog. That selection is the loves. Give it five stars, or your own top colour tag.
  3. Copy the remaining lines. Paste those. That selection is the stars. Give it three stars, or a second colour tag.

Two passes, one extra minute, and the client's ranking survives into your catalogue instead of collapsing into a single flat list. If you do not need the distinction, paste the whole file once and skip all of this.

Studios that work in Lightroom Classic do not do any of this, because the plugin writes the two levels in directly. That difference is covered in getting client picks back into Lightroom.

Which platforms give you a file, and which give you a clipboard

Worth checking before you build a workflow on it, because two of the four big gallery platforms document a clipboard copy and nothing more. A clipboard copy works for one immediate paste. A file can be re-read tomorrow, archived next to the shoot, and compared against a second round.

PlatformFile or clipboardDocumented mechanism
clientgallery.ioFile, .txtExport picks (.txt) in the completed-gallery banner, filenames only, one per line
PixiesetFile, .CSVFrom a favourite list you can "download all images from the list, and export a .CSV of filenames"
Pic-TimeFile, .csvFrom a favourites list you can "download the .csv file of their favorites"
ShootProofClipboard only"Highlight and copy the filenames from the Filenames box"
CloudSpotClipboard onlyFrom a favourites list you "select 'Copy Filenames'"

No file export of picked filenames is documented for ShootProof or CloudSpot. That is a documentation statement, not a claim about what their engineering could do. If you use either and you want a file, you paste the clipboard into a text editor and save it yourself, which is a perfectly good workaround and takes ten seconds.

Why the same file is a blunt instrument in Lightroom Classic

This is the part worth understanding if you run both editors, or if you are reading advice written for Lightroom users and wondering why it sounds so much more painful.

Adobe documents the Library Filter bar in three modes, Text, Attribute and Metadata. The Text mode "allows you to search any indexed metadata text field, including filename", with rules including Contains, Contains All, Contains Words, Doesn't Contain, Starts With and Ends With. With several terms under Contains, "Lightroom Classic finds photos that contain any of the individual sequences".

That is an OR match on substrings, which is a different instrument entirely. It over selects, because a short sequence appears inside longer filenames. Adobe documents no way to filter Lightroom Classic by a pasted list of filenames. There is no Lightroom Classic equivalent of Select By Filename List.

So the identical .txt file is a precise tool in Capture One and a rough one in Lightroom. That asymmetry is the reason the Lightroom side of clientgallery.io is a plugin rather than a text file: it matches by filename inside the catalogue and writes the result in as ratings, a pick flag, colour labels and a collection, with a love becoming five stars plus a Pick flag and a star becoming three stars. Capture One users do not need a plugin, because Capture One already shipped the command.

The general case of never typing a filename again is covered in stop retyping filenames into Lightroom, and the wider Capture One proofing loop in the Capture One client proofing workflow.

Capture One Live exists, and sometimes it is the better answer

Any page selling a Capture One proofing workflow that fails to mention Capture One Live is hiding something, so here it is.

Capture One Live "allows you to share collections of images online with anybody" in a browser, and "Your collaborators, reviewers, and clients do not need to own Capture One". Reviewers "provide their feedback by star rating, color tagging, and adding their comments", and, the part that matters most here, "Any ratings or tags added by reviewers sync back to Capture One in real time". No filename list, no export, no paste. If that describes your job, use it.

The counterweight is what Capture One publishes about its limits. A shared collection "will stay active for one month (24 hours if you are a free user)". Comments "will disappear when the collection expires". Watermark settings are "(paid subscription only)". And "Smart Albums are currently unsupported with Capture One Live".

That is a review tool, and a good one. It is aimed at a shoot in progress and a collaborator looking over your shoulder from another city. A delivery gallery is a different object: it carries your branding rather than your software vendor's, the client comes back to it in eight months to download the photos again, and the comments are still there when they do. In clientgallery.io, hosted galleries never expire, there is no platform branding anywhere on client-facing pages, and the gallery sits on the studio's own subdomain. Neither product is a substitute for the other, and plenty of studios would sensibly run both.

When you should not use this workflow

You live in Lightroom Classic. Then the plugin route is better than this one and you should use it. It is a two-way publish service: proofs go out from the catalogue, and picks come back in as ratings, a pick flag, colour labels and a collection, matched by filename, in one menu command. Exporting a text file and pasting it into a Contains search is strictly worse. Do not read this page as advice for you.

Your business runs through a print store. clientgallery.io has no print store and takes no commission, and that is what keeps it at one flat price. If your ordering, pricing and fulfilment live inside Pixieset or Pic-Time, a cleaner filename export is not a reason to dismantle that. Stay where you are.

You deliver RAW files or master video. clientgallery.io hosts JPEG proofs. It does not warehouse RAW files or master video, which is a deliberate limit and part of why the price is flat at $10 a month or $100 a year. If RAW delivery is the service you sell, this is not your platform.

Sources

clientgallery.io behaviour was verified in the product source on 5 September 2026. All third-party pages were fetched on 5 September 2026.

Frequently asked

How do I export client picks as a filename list for Capture One?

In clientgallery.io, open the gallery after the client has sent their picks and click Export picks (.txt) in the completed-gallery banner. The file contains the picked filenames, one per line, with no header. Copy the whole file, then in Capture One choose Select, Select By, Filename List, paste, set the Delimiter to match one name per line, and tick Ignore file extension if the gallery names are JPEGs and your images are RAW.

Where is the Export picks (.txt) button, and why can I not find it?

It appears only after the client has sent their picks, in the completed-gallery banner. It is not a button on every gallery. If the client has starred and loved photos but has not pressed send, there is nothing to export yet. Sending also requires the client to enter a name and a valid email, and the server rejects a submission without both.

Does the exported file say which photos were loved and which were starred?

No. The file is filenames only, with no header and no level column. Loves are listed first and stars follow, but the file does not label the boundary. The email you receive when the client sends their picks states how many were loved and how many were starred, so you take the loved count from the email, paste that many lines as the first pass, and paste the remainder as the second pass.

Does Capture One filter by a filename list, or select?

It selects. Select, Select By, Filename List selects the matching images and leaves the rest of the browser visible, so one stray click loses the selection. Apply a star rating or a colour tag to the selection straight away, then filter on that with the Filters tool. The live count next to the star or colour also tells you whether every filename matched.

Can I do the same thing in Lightroom Classic?

Not with a filename list. Adobe documents no way to filter Lightroom Classic by a pasted list of filenames. The closest documented behaviour is the Text filter's Contains rule, and with several terms Lightroom Classic finds photos that contain any of the individual sequences, which is an OR match on substrings and over selects. That is why Lightroom Classic users get a plugin from clientgallery.io instead, which matches by filename inside the catalogue and writes the picks in as ratings, a pick flag, colour labels and a collection.

Should I just use Capture One Live instead?

If your job is a review round with a collaborator, quite possibly yes. Capture One Live shares collections in a browser, reviewers do not need to own Capture One, they rate, colour tag and comment, and Capture One states that any ratings or tags added by reviewers sync back in real time. Its published limits are the counterweight: a shared collection stays active for one month, or 24 hours for a free user, and comments disappear when the collection expires. A delivery gallery your client returns to months later is a different job.

Do ShootProof and CloudSpot give me a file I can feed to Capture One?

Not a file. Both document a clipboard copy: ShootProof tells you to highlight and copy the filenames from the Filenames box, and CloudSpot tells you to select Copy Filenames from a favourites list. Pixieset documents exporting a .CSV of filenames and Pic-Time documents downloading the .csv file of the client's favourites. With ShootProof or CloudSpot you can paste the clipboard into a text editor and save it yourself, which works fine and takes ten seconds.

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Export Client Picks as a Filename List for Capture One