Brian

Here is an Asus: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1398212-REG Here is a Dell Laptop: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1367633-REG Both models are $999 as I type this. Both models also have 128GB SSD drives for the C Drive. That’s really just meant for the Operating System, meaning your programs and files go on the D: Drive. So when you install things, you will need to do a custom install and have those programs go to the D: Drive. Otherwise, you’ll fill up that 128GB drive real quick and you will post here asking why your brand new laptop is “too slow” or is crashing a lot. A full HD is an unhappy HD. Edit: I just noticed that the Asus Laptop only has 8GB of RAM. Fortunately, you can upgrade this to 32GB of RAM. These days, you will want 16GB at a minimum for photo editing. More if you edit video.

The two things that the ROG have is 1. Horsepower 2. An IPS-based Display Well, at least the ones I recommend. It’s tough to find a laptop that has a IPS screen, most of the time, they have TN screens, which are not ideal for photo editing. Also, laptops usually only last about 3 months or so before they are replaced with a newer model. It doesn’t surprise me that my links go to discontinued models. Long gone are the days where you have a Spring / Fall line of laptops, well at least when it comes to Windows Laptops. Apple still sorta/kinda still does this. Let me poke around.

It's because iCloud is getting involved. The latest Mac OS doesn't want you to use your desktop; trying to copy stuff to it will result in failure until you disable iCloud or tweak things.

Yeah, it still works out to be around $3600-ish for a Mac Book Pro Laptop configured to edit photos. That's way too much money to spend on a laptop, in my honest opinion. $3600 on something that you will only get around 4-5 years out of. I'm also heavily AGAINST using a laptop for photo-editing; I just got tired of arguing. Plus, you'll need to budget for a new calibration tool, you'd be surprised on just how different a MBP screen is compared to a iMac. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison, more like apples-to-oranges; two different worlds when it comes to screens. That said, your experience could be different. I'm just basing my opinion on what I've seen with my own eyes. My friend's MBP has A LOT more Reddish tones than her 2013 27" iMac. It could be the new Retina Screen, but since you have an older iMac, I have a feeling that you will have similar results; meaning re-editing photos all of the photos when you get home for the color accuracy, so what's the point? If you can wait a little bit, rumors are spreading for an update to a newer Mac Book Air or you could get a more affordable Mac Book. Either way, I'm not going to suggest editing on a laptop. You are asking the wrong person. That said, I think this is your best option at the moment. Hmm. I have no experience in this dept, since I do not currently have an iPad. I did play with a 12" iPad Pro just the other day and it's no heavier than an older 10" iPad, though the screen wasn't "Hashtag Amazing" in my humble opinion. It did look "Nice" though. I really want to see what Apple does with the update to the Mac Air though getting a Mac Book and boosting the options is your best-bang-for-the buck, in my humble opinion: Start with the $1599 Mac Book and choose the 1.4Ghz CPU and 16GB RAM...that will raise the price to $1949.00, plus tax, shipping and AppleCare. At this point, if it were my money...that's what I would do if I were in your shoes. That said, I still wouldn't edit photos on a laptop.

Alright. You beat me to it. Everything about this photo is fine, composition-wise, the focus is just on the wrong eye. It happens.

Not all focus points are created equal. What camera body are you shooting with?

I don't think this is a DoF Issue. The camera seems to be focused on the wrong eye. By all accounts, this photo is backwards as far as the focusing-dept. is concerned. Two things come to mind: The wrong AF point was used, or the camera over-ruled your selection. Sometimes things get bumped and DSLR cameras typically have a setting that allows you to select an AF point, but if it finds something easier to lock-on to, it will use that area. So check your settings. Focus and recompose can bite you in this way. I know lots of Canon owners, especially 5D Mark II owners that focus and recompose a lot. If you move an inch or two more than you are supposed to, unpredictable things can happen. I feel that this is the case with this photo. It looks like you are using f/3.5 and are standing fairly close shooting at 85mm. Yes, the DoF is normal in this case; one eye will be in focus, the other won't be in focus. To get both, you'll need to stop down to at least f/5.6...maybe even use f/8 on where you are standing.

Because you are still thinking along the lines of shooting natural light. Aperture Controls what POWER SETTING you use. There is less light coming out of your Einstein 640 so you open up your Aperture to let more light in. If you increase your power in the E640, you would go to f/5.6 to compensate. Also, do not be fooled by the modeling light. I will say it again, you can not use your camera’s built in meter to figure out what power setting to be at. For that, you need a HAND HELD METER, like a Sekonic L-358 or something newer. Of course with practice and experience, you can get away without using a hand-held meter. Once you figure out moving the power setting to ____ and use this thingy with this other doohickey and put that whatchamacallit over there and have your subject do/turn ______. LMAO!! I know some photographers that do this on a regular basis. They have been doing it this way for years; it’s very much like a Musician playing by ear. They can play something, but couldn’t tell you what key they are in or what chord progression that they used. Same thing with photography and light setups, thise can’t tell you WHAT they did to produce that photo My way of doing things is very methodical and theory based. Once you get “Natual Light Methods” out of your heads will you start to understand. It’s really not that hard, it’s just a new skill set. The main reason is your light source is usually 6-8 feet away vs 93 million miles away. One quick way is to look at your eyes in the mirror with a bright light nearby. What happens to your pupil? They get smaller, just like the aperture blades in your lens. (F/11, f/16, etc.)

I also mentioned distance in my original answer. That statement was based on something called the Inverse Square Law. The inverse Square Law dictates that you lose 75% of the intensity of the light as you double the distance between your subject and flash. So if you have your flash two feet away from your subject, and move it four feet away, you have about 75% less “umph” to work with than before. Same thing goes for when you go 4 feet away to 8 feet. But there lies a clue 4 to 8 feet, is pretty good wiggle room. So if your light stays within that 4-8 feet range, you shouldn’t have to mess with your power setting or aperture. Think of placing your light on a big dartboard. In the center is your subject and the “rings” are where you put your light. If you obtain proper exposure AND keep the distance the same from your light to your subject, your aperture and power setting stay the same. Here is an example. You have a favorite PLM and your photos look awesome when the light is 6 feet away and you shoot at f/4. If you put your light on the opposite side of your subject, AND KEEP THE SAME DISTANCE, the only thing that will change is the placement of the shadows and overall look. Your aperture& flash power stay the same, since the distance is the same. That’s the Inverse Square Law in action. That’s also the reason that flash photos look so “icky” when you use a stupid pop-up flash standing 8 feet away from your group photo. i realize this is a lot of info. If you care to discuss this further, hit me up in the DSLR Bistro.

So to answer your question, no you don’t have two aperture settings. I know it appears like you take two photos, one at f/11 and one at f/8, but that’s not the case. When assigning aperture values to lights, it’s a way to get around different manufacturer’s power output for various flashes / strobe. I could tell you to set your Nikon/Canon whatever to 1/4 power. I could also tell you the same on say a Alien Bee or Profoto Flash. Since the light bulb from the Bee or Profoto is physically larger, it’s throwing out a firehose worth of light compared to a garden hose from your Canon / Nikon Flash. Understand? It’s a way to keep things simple and consistent. Since a Profoto Light is way more powerful than a pop-up Flash, telling you to set a Profoto light to 5.0 will produce different results than your pop-up flash at 1/2 power. It’s easier to use an aperture Number than a power setting number. Of course if it’s just you and your private studio and it’s your lights, you can fiddle and figure out your recipes on what looks good. If you want to try and explain your lighting setup and power settings to someone else, use the universal light ratio numbers, written with Aperture Settings. Clear as mud?

Here is the video. Watch it multiple times until it sticks.

There are TWO Exposure Triangles. One for natural light and one for flash / strobe photography. When it comes to flash photography, not only does aperture relate to depth of field, it also controls your flash power. A two light setup, say f/11 and f/8 is a very typical one. That means that the main (key) light’s power is one stop greater than the second light. That’s a 2:1 Lighting Ratio The Golden Rule of Flash Photography: Aperture controls flash power- Shutter Speed (and ISO) controls Ambient Light. If you are setting OCF’s manually, your camera’s built in meter is COMPLETELY WORTHLESS when it comes to manual flash photography. That’s because the camera’s meter is basing its recommendation on existing (ambient) light. Your flash hasn’t fired yet, so there aren’t any readings. The only exception to this rule is if you are using TTL (Automatic) flash that uses algorithms to set flash power based on the manufacturer’s way of thinking. So say you have one light at 1/2 power and another at 1/4 power. That is a one stop difference which means the “umph” of the key light (or intensity of the light) is one stop brighter than the second (fill) light. Why f/11? Because the optimum exposure from the light of that key light hitting your subject requires you to be at f/11. If you had a hand held meter and put it to your subject’s chin and pointed it towards your flash, and took a reading, “proper exposure” would be f/11. If you set the main light to 1/8 power instead of 1/2, that’s a two stop change, in which case you would be at f/5.6. (Less umph from the flash means you need more light hitting your sensor to obtain proper exposure, thereby opening up your aperture. That’s why if you want to be at f/2.8 for shallow DoF for those fuzzy-wuzzy sleeping baby photos that you are at 1/32 power or even 1/64th. Zack Arias has an excellent Creative LIVE video that explains it better than I ever could. Let me find it.

From the thread: As far as viruses, they are sooo 1990's. People don't get viruses anymore, the term "Virus" is like saying, "...I got stung by a Bee." Hmm...did the person get truly stung by a Bee or was it a Wasp? Nowadays, people get Malware, Trojans, Keyloggers, Ransomeware and other nasty things, not true Viruses. To get the best protection, you need the paid versions of software. I like the paid version of Malwarebytes that does real-time monitoring. I also like the paid version of AVG. I've also heard of good things about Kaspersky and it really plays well with Windows 10. If a person is determined to not pay for this type of software, believe it or not, when it comes to Windows 10, Windows Defender from Microsoft is actually very good for what it is. Go figure. Keep in mind, this software is just a layer of protection, and NO software is fool-proof...but it's better than having nothing. My company uses a program called Webroot for our customers who have remote monitoring support. The biggest downside to Webroot is that it tends to be really hyper, as it deems EVERYTHING to be a virus, LOL!! This means that it really gets in the way when installing software, so you will need to turn it off when installing things. I have clicked on install program in the past and Webroot doesn't let the files expand on the hard drive. It's like someone shooting clay-targets, "PULL!!!....Bang!!!" LMAO! OK, now for the downside. If you get Malware, the very first thing I would do, is to backup all your data files, actions, plug-ins, e-mails, login information, etc. Anything important. Why? Because the Malware and Ransomeware these days can get pretty nasty. I have personally gone round after round of scanning and removing for days, only to have the stupid stuff come back and re-infect the machine. How to I get rid of it? I usually end up Nuking the machine (formatting / restoring the hard drive) and starting all over. Believe it or not, doing it this way is A LOT faster than trying to get rid of it manually. The real trick is to have the paid Malware Software installed BEFORE you are infected. Otherwise, it's like locking your doors after the burglar is in your house; which means all bets-are-off. Hopefully your machine doesn't have anything nasty. I would try Webroot or the paid version of Malwarebytes and give your machine a FULL scan. You might get lucky. Good Luck!!

Right. One of the "fixes" that people have done, is to unplug the power cord from the computer for a period of time or flip a switch that turns off the power at the power outlet. Some choose 15-30 seconds, others choose an hour or so. This usually sets the PRAM on the motherboard, and will seem to "fix" the problem in the short term, however the problem will come back eventually. How about this idea...replace the power supply AND video card at the same time. While you might pay a little more in parts, you will save in terms of labor since it's already open. I still say it's the power supply.

A local tech? Is this an Authorized Apple Repair Center and a Authorized Tech? The reason that I’m asking this is that Apple does not sell parts to 3rd (unauthorized) parties and that the newer iMacs are sealed with a special glue which you can’t buy locally. If your iMac does not have a DVD Drive in it, it’s one of these newer iMacs with the special glue. As far as replacing the GPU, I do not agree with that. My first guess is a bad capacitor on the power supply board is the culprit. I suspect that when doing things like editing video or even editing large photos, that the motherboard is requesting more power and the P/S can't handle that load. So it shuts down. I would replace the power supply first. Yes, it’s true that Apple had a semi-recall on the 2011 & 2012 27” iMacs that suffered from distorted video and other weird flickering problems that were the result of a bad GPU, (aka video board,) but that problem never shutdown the computer. This shutdown problem is a common one and it's not just you. So my two cents worth: Get the Power Supply replaced at an Authorized Apple Repair Center. It’s a “normal” problem and is way cheaper to fix rather than spending $2000 or more for a new iMac. EDIT: It seems that ifixit now supplies the glue strips that secure the display panel to the unit and also has a 3rd party replacement power supply. It's a PITA type of repair, as is most All-in-One computers, and there are special tools to help you during the repair process. If you were to do it yourself, or someone was going to do it for you, make sure you have those extra tools, they make things a lot easier, especially when you put things back together. Here is a video demonstrating the special tools and the disassemble procedure for a 2012 iMac. Even though they cover the removal of the main fan, the power supply is pretty simple to remove. The tough part is getting the friggin' display panel off. It's both heavy, fragile AND expensive.

Rule of thumb when shooting digital that I try to use, is that shutter speed should be twice of the focal length. Back in the film days, your focal length and shutter speed where closer together 50mm was 1/60th, etc. So at 70mm, you want 1/160th or better. 200mm, 1/400th or 1/500th of a second, etc. For those reading this and have high resolution cameras, like a Nikon D850, you almost want 4 times the focal length. The more MP you have, the worse camera shake will bite you. But I’m digressing here. I have found that laying on the shutter and taking three shots consecutively...the second shot will be the one that has the sharpest focus. Especially when you are at 1/60th in low-light conditions, hand-held, such as this photo.

It's the shutter speed causing issues. 1/60th is what killed this photo. For this shot, you could have used f/4 and got the shutter up to 1/125th. That said, with a 24-70 @ 70mm, I try not to go below 1/160th.

Yep. Since you have the media, that's all is should take. Install Windows 7, get the initial drivers setup, then depending on how far back you are with Windows 7, you could head to support.dell.com and enter your Service Tag, download the Dell Scanning Tool and install the drivers. However, you might need to install some Windows 7 updates to get it to Windows 7 Service Pack 1 before installing the Dell stuff. Basically, you'll have to figure things out. It's one way or the other. Either it's Dell Drivers via the website then Windows Updates or vice-versa. Either way it will get you where you want to be. Time is the real killer. Windows 7 has LOTS of updates and I would use a hard-wired Ethernet connection, meaning plug your laptop directly into your router / cable modem to obtain the fastest download speeds.

The Sandisk Cards that have RescuePro come with a little tag with a code on it and download URL. It's only good for one year after you use the code.

Did you recover your lost photos?

You aren't the first person to go through something like this. That Q button could easily be bumped, especially if you are using a shoulder strap like a Black Rapid. The camera could bump against your hip/waist without you knowing changing things, then it gets hit again and goes back to "normal."

In order to get a "Clean" install of the OS on your new drive, you are going to have to look for a Dell Utility of some sort that allows you to create the OS DVD and Driver DVD. Sometimes it will allow you to use a Thumbdrive instead of DVDs. Again, this depends on your computer and varies from model to model. You might not even have a choice to create the media. Head to your start menu and poke around in anything labeled "Dell" or "Utilities." See if there is a "Create Recovery Media" or something along those lines. For the sake of argument, let's say you are able to create the recovery media. You simply install the SSD Drive, boot off the OS DVD and follow the instructions. You might want to take a photo with your phone of the Windows 7 license key, which is usually located below the battery compartment, or on the bottom of the laptop. You might have to enter it when prompted, other times the OS CD will read a special chip on the motherboard and put it in for you. After the OS is installed, it might ask you for disk 2 or 3, which loads the drivers. Sometimes it will boot to Windows and then you will have to run the install program off the driver DVD. If it were me? I would just restore the network driver, get connected to the internet and head to support.dell.com. Type in your Serial Number or Service Tag and look for Drivers / Software. Download the latest and greatest drivers. Oh, if you want data files off your old HD, simply use the SATA to USB adapter to hook up your original HD. That cable will turn your internal HD into an external HD. Though, when it's all said and done, cloning your HD is WAY easier than doing a fresh install, thought doing a fresh install is more stable, albeit more time consuming, as after you get the drivers installed, you will need to run Windows Update multiple times. I'm sure there is probably around 200GB or so worth of Windows Updates.

You don't have to worry about RAID. You have a 7 year old laptop and chances are, it doesn't support RAID. What those folks are talking about is that the RAID Drivers will be needed in order for the Cloning software to properly "see" the drive. Fancy servers have that driver software built into the RAID controllers; lower end models...you need a CD to boot off of to get the drivers in memory before using cloning software. Again, I'm 99.99999999999999999999999999999999999999% sure this is not an issue for you. Oh, what does RAID mean? Redundant Array of Independent Disks. Basically, it's two or more hard drives working in unison to provide redundancy; meaning that if one drive fails the other automatically picks up the slack and you can keep operating. (RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10.) RAID 0 does not have true redundancy as if one drive dies the other one goes along with it. Why have a RAID 0? Short Answer: Speed. Having two traditional Hard Drives with spinning disks gives you double capacity and lots of read/write speed. For example, two 4TB hard drives become a fast single 8TB drive. They are great if you are editing video and use a RAID 0 drive as your cache / temporary files drive. The other levels of RAID have data redundancy, so if a drive fails it's usually not catastrophic. How much redundancy depends on which method / level of RAID you choose, AND how many hard drives you choose. I could go on-and-on about RAID and data striping and mirroring, but that would totally de-rail this thread. Those Crucial instructions are pretty much what you do. It seems that they are using Acronis, which is a program that I've used, though I use a version that is a bit older and not as fancy looking. Unfortunately, there isn't ONE set of instructions that will work 100% of the time. Each manufacturer has their own way of doing things and your results will vary. Yes, I know this is a cop-out answer, but it's the truth. The real tricky part boils down to the USB to SATA cable, I like using the ones that have an external power source. Here is what you do: Hook up the Red Sata Cable to the port on the adapter, and then attach the other end to the data port on the SSD drive. Then attach the power connector to the SSD drive, leave the power brick un-plugged for now. Hook the other end of the power cable from the SSD Drive to the power brick. Attach the USB cable to your laptop AFTER everything is attached, THEN plug in the power brick. In a few moments, Windows should start complaining about the new drive and ask what do you want to do with it. Don't do anything, continue with the Crucial Instructions. Cloning a drive really depends on the software, so I can't give you step-by-step instructions, that said, the Crucial Acronis software seems pretty straightforward. If it asks you if you want to resize the drive during cloning, (especially if the SSD Drive is larger,) tell it YES. Your Dell monitor is fine and is one I would purchase. You definetely want to use a DisplayPort Cable to get the most out of your monitor in terms of Clarity, Color Accuracy, Contrast, Sharpness, etc., though HDMI isn't bad either. If I had one port to choose from going forward, it's DisplayPort. How can you tell if it's a Display Port? It is very similar looking to a HDMI port, but only has one angled corner. HDMI has two angled corners. Here is your display and the port just to the right of the screw is a DisplayPort. As for your computer configuration, It's fine. Personally, I would upgrade to Windows 10 Pro while you have the chance, but that's just me.

I know with my Nikon Cameras, I can set banks with different recording settings, for example my “Portrait” mode is set for RAW 14-bit uncompressed. Wedding bank is 12-bit RAW uncompressed + JPEG fine, etc. Even though you think that no settings changed, I’d recheck all your settings with different modes and see if you can duplicate the problem. In addition, on some Canon bodies there is a button on the back of the camera that allows you to change the setting from Raw to JPEG without you knowing it and it seems easy to do. After some Googling, a photographer accidentally hit this button during a wedding and switched over from Raw to JPEG and didn’t realize it until he got home. It seems that this button is to the left of the LCD, if you hit it, is shows the current record settings. Hit it again it starts scrolling through some options and it’s also possible that setting it to a different mode that your options are different. I’m not sure that this will work on your camera, but here is the setting on some bodies: “C.Fn4:Disp/Operation Rec card, image size setting change this from default "Rear LCD panel" to "LCD monitor.”

Cloning can be a bit tricky, especially if you try to clone to a USB device, meaning using a USB to SATA cable/adapter that attaches to your new hard drive. With a laptop, you don't have the luxury of multiple SATA ports. What you will have to do is use cloning software to backup the existing HD, to a regular USB drive. Then you install the new SSD Drive. After that you boot off a CD / Thumbdrive load the cloning software and restore from your clone file. Years ago, I used a program called "Ghost," from Symantec, now I've used a program called Acronis. Oh! It helps if you put your clone file in a directory on your EHD, rather than the root folder. What happens is that the manufacturers have a partition that is just for recovery, not recovery to a new drive, but to reformat / re-install the OS and get the computer back to "Day 1." Since your computer has some years on it, the recovery media might create DVDs or even have the option for a Thumbdrive to be used. I'd have a 16GB Thumbdrive handy if you have that option. Sometimes it might take multiple discs or Thumdrives. (Or Pin Drives, Jump Drives, etc. I've heard them called all different names. Just like Soda/Pop/Coke, whatever.) As to what do I prefer? Either. Honestly, if you could do a fresh install of the OS and then run all the Windows updates, will give you the most stable platform. Time-wise, this way will take the longest. If you go the cloning route, you will have an exact copy of your current HD, along with any issues that it might have. That said, you could have this whole process done in a few hours, IF everything goes smoothly; I've had several instances of wasting all day trying to clone a stupid drive (the software doesn't recognize a drive on a USB to SATA cable,) other times I bang things out in an hour or so. It's all relative and no set way to do things.