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This weekend (Fri-Sun Aussie time) I'll be away with limited internet access. If you have images that need my help before next week, please post them soon.  Damien.

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  1. Today
  2. Brian
    Oh, one more thing. Turning off Windows search isn’t a bad thing. It actually helps your computer’s performance. It’s one of those things that Microsoft Engineers thinks it’s a good thing, having your search results pop up immediately instead of waiting like 5 seconds or so. That’s all Windows Search does. One has to ask themselves, how often to they need to search for a file on their computers? Most Home users know where their files are and don’t have to go hunting for them.
  3. Damien Symonds
    Yes, but it all counts for nothing if the screen doesn't match the prints. How does the comparison look?
  4. Alicia
    Does this look correct?
  5. Brian
    There are so many different things that can cause this. It's one of those weird problems. It sounds like you could need more RAM, but of course you are on a laptop and upgrading past 16GB usually isn't an option. It could be Windows Search is turned on and is trying to index things. That's the usual culprit. It could be something as simple as the Pagefile.sys file needs to be reset (The Windows Swap File. It's like the "Scratch Disk" for Windows). It could be your power settings and you should turn off hibernation. It could be Windows Update needs to be run. Yes, even if Windows says "No updates available..." (or whatever,) Windows LIES. Head to the Gear Icon and click on "Check for Updates" and let it go out and do it's thing. You'll be surprised on how much stuff it finds to update after it tells you there are no updates!! Defraging a HD doesn't do squat in the 21st Century. Hell, it didn't work miracles back in the 1990's either. Also, hopefully you did not defrag a SSD Drive. If you did, that's VERY BAD. It's fine to run on a Traditional Spinning HD though, just not a SSD Drive. You could also do a Windows System File Check and see if it finds anything. Click Start Button Type CMD and the Command.exe should appear in the top of the search box. Right-Click on the CMD.exe and choose "Run as Administrator." Then at the command prompt type: sfc /scannow (That's sfc then a single space, then a slash with scannow just after it.) Hit enter and go do something else like watch a Netflix Show. Reboot the computer after it completes. Best Case scenario, it finds stuff and fixes things. Worst case, it doesn't find any corruption and we are back to square one. I did find this article on the web with some suggestions. Give this video a Watch, too. Honestly, I'd start by turning off Windows Search first. The video covers how to do this as "Step 1." Don't bother with running Defrag. I'd also run Windows updates, let it install, reboot, THEN check for Windows Updates again. Keep doing this until it comes back with "No updates Available." Then get back to me.
  6. Brian
    Yes, the more crap you have on the Mac Desktop, the slower it runs. As I've written in my article, the MacOS treats each and every file/folder as an open Window, for lack of a better term. Got 1000 photos of the Smith-Jones Wedding? That's 1000 "Opened Windows," plus a few more for each of the folders!! If anything were to get corrupted, the Desktop...whether it's a Mac Desktop or Windows Desktop, that's where it will happen. Believe me, I've seen what happens with corrupted profiles and Desktops. When things go wrong, you lose stuff. Personally, I work of an External Drive, with one caveat! My EHD is a fancy Thunderbolt 3 12TB G-Drive. That EHD is very fast. It's like working off an internal drive. I would not be working off the EHD if it was a USB drive, 2.0 or 3.0 if I had a choice. Of course, if you have a Laptop that only has a 128 or 250GB drive, it may not be physically possible to edit a whole session off of the internal drive! So now you choices, personally, I would get the one that isn't as portable if you are looking to edit off of them. Why? Traditional Spinning HDs come in two flavors, a 5400RPM version and a 7200RPM version. What's the difference? SPEED. You can work off a 7200RPM drive, even if it is "USB 3.0." Is it ideal? No. However, I wouldn't bother with a 5400RPM model. How can you tell? 7200RPM drives suck up more power and need a external power supply; that's the dead give-away. You need to be really picky in your situation on what you purchase. Honestly? If you are looking for portability and speed, I'd skip a classic EHD altogether, and go for a Sandisk 2TB SSD Drive. (The new generation / latest model, it has a faster through-put.) The 4TB model is a bit pricey, at $900. Give it time, prices will come down eventually in a few years. Should you make the leap to Thunderbolt? Yes, if your Mac Laptop has Thunderbolt 3 port, by all means TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE!!! My fancy G-Drive has Thunderbolt 3 Ports AND a USB 3.0 port. Of course I only use the TB3 port with that drive. One other thing is the G-Drives come Mac Formatted, but if you do get the Sandisk, please drop me a note first, we will need to properly setup that drive for use with the Mac. It takes about 5 minutes, but it needs to be done before you store anything on that drive.
  7. Sunshine
    @Brian i really need help with this
  8. Jbasya
    Thanks for your help, Damien, hope you enjoy your weekend!
  9. Damien Symonds
    Yes, sorry. I'm glad you've re-done the calibration since this message, because that's what I would have told you to do. I've never seen that one before, sorry.
  10. Jbasya
    we are very surprised and f'ing frustrated as hell. I did wind up getting great colors, so it's done, but can I manually up my monitor brightness a tiny bit (literally one notch) or do I need to redo the whole calibration yet again? Also does either of these portend hardware failure of some sort? the first one happened while calibrating with some early numbers that didn't work out, the second one while trying to adjust the gamma or brightness in "spydertune".
  11. Yesterday
  12. Damien Symonds
    Just the luminance, I'd guess. But hey, we might be surprised.
  13. Jbasya
    Hi Damien I put new lights in, they're brighter than before, and they're 4000K instead of 5000K. Would you expect my white point setting to change, or just my luminance? Thanks!
  14. Damien Symonds
    The classes ARE the section for that.
  15. Sunshine
    back to normal now. Nothing special that i did except starting PS nevertheless. is there a solution to this freak problem?
  16. BrittneyA
    Okay, thanks. I'll post in that section when I can. What about questions about asking for editing advice? Like HOW to make them look as good as they can? I know that Damien has classes, and I plan to take them. I just want to ask the right questions in the right section. Thanks.
  17. Sunshine
    Hi Brian, I have been having this issue for a while. I have a PC laptop running Windows 10 and Photoshop latest. It is over 4 years old, and has 16GB of RAM. Its hard drive has 642GB free out of 917GB. The last time I shut down was just before posting this thread. I run a cleanup program about once a month. My disk usage stays at 100%. I did a lot of things including but not limited to disk fragmentation, cleaning HD, following MS instructions available on their website for 100% disk usage issue and what not. It fixes itself for a while, which means I start computer and leave it alone for 30 mins, and disk usage goes down to about 40%. I replaced battery too, this last weekend as it started giving me error and the laptop wouldn't work without being plugged in. However, the disk usage stays the same. Now its not even going down after 30 mins. the startup programs are nearly all gone too and for the life of me i cant figure out what could be wrong. Attached screenshots were taken just a few seconds apart and show different programs being on top of disk usage. Is running a car over it the only option, because the programs aka PS takes ages to open at this level. But I will be left without a laptop to do anything. Cant afford a new one. On forums it looks like a known windows issue and i have used all methods recommended by MS to fix it but nothing has changed. Please help!
  18. Emma Vincent
    Hi Brian! I am working through Damien's Bridge class and trying to overhaul my workflow. I was attempting to implement Damien's recommendation of NOT working off an External Hard Drive (as I currently do) and asked a question regarding saving images to my desktop and was referred to this thread by Damien: https://ask.damiensymonds.net/topic/33422-ive-been-saving-on-my-desktop/ After reading (and comprehending that it is a terrible idea to save things to your Mac desktop) I noticed at the end your recommendation that if your internal Hard Drive is tiny you ~can~ work off an external which I think is my best option. I am currently saving for a computer upgrade so I am looking for help with a Band Aid for my ancient 2014 MacBook Air. After reading this thread: I am trying to compare: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ND4DV9M/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1 and it's counterpart that appears to be more portable: https://www.amazon.com/G-Technology-G-Drive-Portable-External-0G10348/dp/B07G4DWPCP/ref=sr_1_4?crid=NQ0Y98YWZGKO&dchild=1&keywords=g-technology+4tb+g-drive+with+thunderbolt&qid=1624424637&s=electronics&sprefix=G-Technology+4TB+G-DRIVE+thunder%2Celectronics%2C174&sr=1-4 Is there any reason I can't go with the more portable option? As long as I am okay with it sucking my battery since it doesn't have its own external power source? Additionally- I am looking for your advice on if you think I will be okay working off of a USB 3.0? Or do I need really need make the leap to a Thunderbolt? Thank you so much in advance for your help! Emma
  19. Damien Symonds
    https://ask.damiensymonds.net/forum/30-focus-checks/
  20. BrittneyA
    I should add that in that close up of the bride and groom, I used the clone stamp tool to attempt to remove glare from the groom's glasses.. I hope it looks okay... Some photos look pretty hard. I'm glad he removed them for at least a couple photos.. He kept his hat on though!
  21. BrittneyA
    Okay, at least not as blurry as I was before! At least they're "usable".. That is a start.. Thank you! I have many more photos I can send.. I will post here! (And the website). I think I'm just stressed and tired lol. I really want to do a good job. I'm SO HAPPY I found you guys. ~Brittney
  22. Brian
    Focus seems to be fine. Zooms are zooms, they aren't as sharp as Primes, but during this Wedding you experienced the benefits to having a Zoom Lens. Post here on the Website, silly!! I think Damien has his groups setup like I do, where only the OP and one of the Admins can chime in. It keeps the masses with their un-wanted opinions at bay. But like I said, he teaches this stuff and has classes for you to learn. @Damien Symonds - Paging Damien to the front desk. Can you give a quick assessment to the photos above? I'm sure she needs to get calibrated and take the Raw Class 1st.
  23. BrittneyA
    Brian, Thanks. Should I post one of these? These are "edited" slightly.. Or should I post an original? I'm FREAKING OUT... Do these seem to be in focus?? I know they could be better. This was one of the hardest shoots in my life lol. THANK GOODNESS you helped me as much as you did. I'll send more tomorrow.. Just so you can see. I'll send some originals. Gosh I wish you'd give advice and tips! I'd totally pay you for it. I feel like you're my GO-TO person now.. and I'm a loyalist. HAHA. I wish Damien would talk to me privately like you do. Someone said I can batch edit. That doesn't seem likely.. lol. I just want to make them look so much better than this. Honest answer.. 1-10, 1 being these suck and I should give a refund and never do wedding photos again. 10 being they're flipping fantastic, how would you rate them? Maybe 1-100 is better? You won't offend me.. Okay, so I will post on Ask Damien.. With reservations. Lol. And I'll take Kim's class. I have SO much to do, I'm not sure which order to do it all in. I just know that I need to get these edited.. Thank you so much, as always. You're the best. I've been referring people to Ask Damien, and mention you with gear questions. Why don't you charge for your advice? You totally could. But I am so grateful. Talk soon! Brittney
  24. Brian
    You are going to have to straighten most of these photos, but that comes at the end of editing. That's all I'm going to say. The answers you seek are contained within the Raw Class and Levels class. Sorry, I'm not intruding on Damien's Turf. We both give a lot of information away for free; Damien does need to make a living with his classes. I will say the overall exposure gives you enough to work with, and I'm glad you rented that flash. You needed it for these shots. Are they "Iconic?" No. So don't look for the OMG!! I Heart Them, Swoons from people on Facebook, I HashTag LoveLoveLove them!!! SQUEEEE!!! That shit comes later. You need time, practice and experience before it will feed your ego. As long as the photos are sharp and well-exposed, that's all that matters. Accurate Skin Tones too, of course...that's the Skin Class. The biggest thing before diving into Damien's Classes is to get your screen calibrated and matching against a set of physical prints. That's the important part. I also can say your screen is probably a bit too bright and the shadows are a little too dark. Again, covered in the Raw Class and learning how to read the Histogram in ACR.
  25. Last week
  26. VickiLH315
    (Sorry I missed your above reply earlier.) I will take the instructions and the print to someplace tomorrow (Weds) when I'm out, and then contact you again when I have the digital version. Thank you Damien!
  27. BrittneyA
    Brian, Hey! I've been exhausted!! LOL. I hope you're doing well. I did a couple 4th of July mini shoots with that lens and flash yesterday! I have to send it back today, I believe.. BOOO! So I'll send you what I have edited so far. The flash and indoors is just hard. I'm hoping to learn asap.. I know you don't focus on editing.. but maybe you can give me a couple of tips. I know I'll have to post for Damien.. I just prefer the one-on-one conversation without everyone else butting in. I have so many more photos, obviously. But these are a few that I lightly edited. The bride said she liked them. She didn't say she loved them though. She is a texter, and doesn't get very expressive via text. But if it was my wedding, if I loved them I'd say, "Oh I love them!! Thank you so much!!" She said, "Thank you. I like them." 😐 Hopefully she does, but this is why I'm here. I don't know how much time I can take with classes. I have to get them edited as soon as I can. I do plan to take the classes, though. Okay, here they are.. Then I'll send some more that aren't edited later. Thanks. Brittney
  28. Damien Symonds
    Wonderful! Please download this document and take it with you when you go. Insist that they fulfil ALL of the requirements.
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