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You are looking for a Scanner such as this one: Epson Perfection V600 Photo Scanner

Thanks Brian! I appreciate you taking the time to respond even if you just cost me another $400....

Also, you might want to go directly into the Control Panel in Windows. It's still there, just buried with Windows 10. Hit the Start Button and just start typing Control Panel. It should appear at the top of the column. Then click the down arrow towards the right and select "Small Icons." This way ALL of the control panel items will show up. Look for Display Settings or even a video card controller program. This is a really tough problem to diagnose, and a lot of poking around will be required. You might also want to reach out to the Manufacturer's Tech Support and see if they can point you in the right direction.

Sigh...laptops. What make/model is your laptop? You might have to poke around for any manufacture's Video Controller software to turn off adaptive brightness, it may not be a setting in Windows. Also, check near the clock to see if there are any video controller apps running. If you have software that over-clocks things, to get more performance out of your laptop, that could be causing this issue.

Thank you! Why or how I did not see this is a mystery! I am beginning to get more photo shoot opportunities, so need to get back to editing. I value your knowledge and help!

With a vintage trs-80

Agree

@Michelle Pena, I just found your thread. Buying a new calibrator will not fix your room lighting problems. They are what you need to spend money on, not a new calibrator.

She better put that thing to use, otherwise I want you to adopt me!!

Hello, I've been a member of the Facebook group for a little while and decided to sign up here. I am a designer and photographer, but I've also been working as a professional PS artist for the last 20 years, and I am planning on taking Damien’s classes to get a new, fresh perspective on process.

I've emailed you.

It's "standard". Not wide.

Nah... 10:45 I'll redo it.

I’m VERY GOOD at spending other people’s money. It’s a gift...

The other thing that comes to mind, is if you recently upgraded your Camera Body which has a lot more Megapixels than the older one. I found this out the hard way when I bought my D850 with my 2017 fancy iMac. Basically the 100MB Raw files that my D850 generated made my "Superfast 27" iMac - complete with 'Go Faster' Racing Stripes" come to a complete crawl until I upgraded the RAM to 64GB. So if you are shooting with a 45MP - 60MP camera body, on a 2013 computer with only 12GB of RAM, that's why. It's amazing on just how far camera bodies have come, even basic models are 24MP, which requires more RAM to process.

You need a lot more RAM. These days I recommend a MINIMUM of 16GB and really want people to have 32GB. You only have 4GB to play with and 8GB is being taken up by the OS and other programs. At this point, I'd max out your computer to 64GB and be done with it. Mac Pros are really funny when it comes to RAM, and it doesn't like you mixing different types of RAM modules. So in reality, it's just easier and better in the long run to replace the existing RAM set and install a fresh matching set. You will remove the 3 currently installed sticks and replace them with these: OWC 64GB DDR3 1866 MHz RDIMM Memory Kit (4 x 16GB, 2013 Mac Pro). The current price is $199, which isn't that bad for 64GB total. That's only $50 a stick. Yes, you can upgrade the RAM yourself, here is a YouTube Video demonstrating the process. Now the other thing that I'm curious about is your hard drive capacity. How much is being taken up on the internal and externals? You do not want to go more than 75% - 80% full on ANY hard drive, Internal or External, when it comes to a Mac. In reality, I like keeping my Macintosh HD as clean as possible, currently I have about 737GB Free on my Macintosh HD. Also, as I just mentioned, a Full External HD will also kill performance because the MacOS really doesn't differentiate between an Internal HD or External one. Finally, your video card is getting a bit long in the tooth. In 2013, it was probably decent, but all of Adobe's current products utilitze the Video RAM and Video CPU for a performance boost. These days I usually recommend a 8GB Video Card, with a beefy Video CPU chip for PS CC 2020.

Hi there! New to this kind of interactive, "ask and learn" environment. Looking forward to filling in the gaps, but true confession, I'm a little apprehensive !

I unlinked OneDrive from my computer and everything is normal again!!! 😃

Yep!

Thanks, you're back in class. I suggest you start by reading the new Module 4. Then get the new Flow Chart from the beginning of Module 10.

Do not upgrade! Ugh, You have a trifecta going here. 2011 iMac, way too slow by today's standards. If you think it's slow now, just wait...it will come to a crawl. 77.4GB of free space is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. You are at the level where data corruption is a real possiblity. Start purging, like NOW. You do not need those 75 photos of your lunch from 7 years ago. Be ruthless. You want to shoot to get at least 30% free of your total storage capacity, or higher. On a 1TB HD, we are looking for 300GB - 400GB Free. This is tougher to accomplish on a small HD, like a 500GB or 250GB. As I mentioned in my article, if you upgrade to Catalina, your PS CS6 will cease to work PERMANENTLY! No, there isn't a work-around. No, there won't be any patches from Adobe. It will flat-out stop working FOREVER! If you were to upgrade, you more than likely would have nothing but problems. Combine that with the fact that upgrading to Catalina is a one-way proposition, there's no going back, you would have set yourself up for a lot of aggravation. My advice? Don't upgrade, stay where you are. Start saving for a new iMac, it's time for a new one. Even if it takes you a year or two, you are at the point of replacing your computer. Please read my pinned articles about what to buy when it comes to a Mac. And for all the love that is good-and green, DO NOT PURCHASE A 21.5" IMAC! They are to be avoided like the Plague!! A 27" iMac is in your future, with a price to match. Oh, you will need to budget for a new Calibration Tool as well, such as the SpyderPro X Series. That being said, the Spyder5 Elite does have an upgrade patch to get it to work with Catalina, but the new iMacs have even fancier screens and I'm not sure how accurate your Calibration would be. I think it's OK for now, but if you can't afford a Mac and have to wait a few years, that will probably make a difference and the Spyder5 Elite won't be able to handle say...a 2022 iMac (or whatever.) Make sense? One more thing, if you do get a new iMac, Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 or Adobe Photoshop CC 2020 will be in your future.

Thanks so much for all the help. Have plenty of info to go with now

If you find that your screen still matches your previous prints, then we know that there is no problem at your end. The lab must have messed up. You can write to them and as for a reprint. However if you find that your screen no longer matches your previous prints either, then we know that something has gone wrong with your screen, and you need to calibrate it again. Does that make sense?

Very Cool! You are off to a great start! 80mm to 105mm is where you want to be for product photography, so that's why I recommended a lens like a 24-105. Enjoy your purchase. Don't be afraid to shoot at f/8 or even f/11...but usually these apertures tend to need some sort of strobe or two off camera, with a modifier of some sort.

HI Brian, just letting you know that my first session with products i think went fairly well. i ended up with teh 24-105. Will get more confidence the more i do. was way out of my comfort zone doing the shoot but had fun, and lots to learn still. once i get the hang of it lighting will be the next thing i do. Due to space limations i only could just shoot at 80-90mm and i was squashed up against the wall. the larger items were a bit hard to shoot with the lack of space. thanks once again for your advice

Geez, don't let Brian see you say that!!!!!!!!

Excellent thank you for your advise, I will be investing in a new PC very soon

That makes sense! I think I'll go with this one. Thanks again for your help!!

Yes, I see it. There are other options NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 (4 GB GDDR5 dedicated)

Hello from Tauranga NZ. Been following for years butam finally taking the leap to better my self and my knowledge.

Got the D5600 (body only) and the 24-120 f/4g ED VR lens.

Yeah

I don't know, I'm so sorry. I've moved this thread into Brian's area so we can see if he has any ideas.

I was expecting around $1500 for a new computer, that’s pretty powerful. Maybe something like $1800. I think that’s pricing from 2016 or so, now everything seems to be way more expensive, due to COVID-19. So it looks like yesterday’s $1500 is today’s $2500. Oh well. Sign of the times. At least people can’t bitch about the cost of Macs, since current windows computers are right up there with them in terms of pricing. Eh, who am I kidding...people will still complain.

Gosh, how weird. I'd be curious to know, if you plugged in an external screen, whether it also dimmed.

There should be no need to start from scratch.