Brian

A walking back to my car shot:

In your sample photo, it looks like he was at f/16 or f/22. How do I know? Look at the street/ parking lot lights. See the rays from the "starburst?" You get that effect starting with f/16 but f/22 will yield the best results. For example I took this shot using f/22:

A Tripod is required. Or put your camera on something steady, like a stone wall. Not a wall that's on a bridge with cars moving. You want zero camera shake. Set your camera to the base ISO, typically this is either 100 or 200. Set your aperture to f/8 - f/11, depending on lighting conditions. An aperture of f/11 - f/16, or possibly f/22 might be needed, though I would start with f/8. Set focus on something midway in the distance and then turn off auto focus. Cameras often will hunt for focus, so you might need a flashlight to help your camera to autofocus. Set your shutter speed to 30 seconds or use bulb mode if you have it and a shutter release cable. The longer the shutter is open, the greater the effect. (More light is let in.) If you do not have a remote shutter cable, set the camera for a 10 second delay before it triggers the shutter. Play around with shutter speed, try 20 seconds or 10 seconds. Study the differences. For the best results, hunt for an area that will provide interest. A scene that has a fore-ground, middle-ground, and then back-ground will give you the strongest composition. Don't be afraid to use leading lines or the light streaks could provide this. Play with angles, walk around. Often the best shots that I take are when I'm walking back to my car and see something interesting. This type of shot is pretty straightforward, once you figure out the recipe. Believe it or not, this type of photography is how you get the silky waterfall shots or even shots of the Milky Way.

VA is the new kid on the block. It's supposed to be a combination of TN (Twisted Nematic) and IPS (In Plane Switching.) You get a better viewing angle than a standard TN display and better blacks. It's geared towards more gamers and first-person shooters. VA really doesn't reproduce colors that well, though it's better than a TN display but not as good as a IPS panel. If you are editing photos (or video) it's better to get a true IPS display. I would not purchase a TN display or VA for editing photos. Edit: VA Display Panels might be labeled as MVA or PVA.

@Renski00: It looks like this thread hasn't gotten the attention that I was looking for. One of the websites that I follow is run by a gentleman named Thom Hogan. When I have questions, that's who I go to. Anyway, he just wrote an article about the Canon 6D Mark II: http://www.dslrbodies.com/newsviews/what-to-make-of-the-canon.html From the article: So according to Thom, the "Mark II" is just a general update to the 6D Mark I. It's still an entry-level FX body and for some, that's all they need. As for which one of the two, it depends on what you are shooting. Long Term, going full frame might be a better bet, as the manufacturers seem to be investing more effort into that line. (I'm looking at you Nikon! Yes, I know you just released the D500 and D7200, but what about DX lens refreshes? I'm not talking about the plastic kit-lenses either, but I'm digressing.") Anyway it seems for the last couple of years the manufacturers have been pushing full frame. It's almost as if they are saying, "Full Frame = Good / Professional" "Crop = Bad / Amateur," because in reality, they haven't had anything major/earth shattering in the crop camera dept for awhile, so they have been pushing full frame. As to which one? It depends on what you shoot. Landscapes? Birds in Flight? Weddings? Portraits? Planning on doing this professionally or as a hobbyist? That's what you should be asking yourself, WHAT do you plan on using the camera for? Because today's camera bodies, whether they are crop or full frame...ALL of them take great photos. It just boils down to the features you are looking for. (Focusing Systems, High ISO, Dynamic Range, Weather-Sealing, etc. etc.)

@Renski00 wants to know, 7D Mark II or 6D Mark II?

I think I'm going to push this thread to the land of misfits for others to chime in.

It's called JBOD. Which stands for Just a Bunch Of Disks. Seriously. It works similar as a camera would with two slots, when HD #1 fills up, it starts using HD #2, then #3 and #4. If one of those HDs fail, say like number 2, you can't get to HDs 3 & 4. I do not recommend using JBOD mode. The only people that I know that do that are technical geeks that just do it...because they can. Unless that HD unit has a mode that treats four hard drives separately, and I really-really think that it doesn't, then you possibly could. Personally, I have never seen and enclosure that was meant for a RAID treat 4 hard drives as individual EHDS. I mean, what's the point? You buy that enclosure for it to be a RAID unit, and the only other mode would be JBOD, which again, I do not recommend for your "typical" end-user. That's the main issue. You are looking for a bullet-proof system and unfortunately, it does not exist. ANYTHING man-made can fail. Failed Hard Drives are the number one thing I replace when it comes to servers. Followed by faulty Tape Drive units, and then Power Supplies. I can't tell you how many hard drives I've replaced in the last 25 years being a tech. It's in the thousands, perhaps 10,000 or more. That's why you have a backup of your RAID. Typically, it's either to a Tape Drive, or to a backup appliance / cloud service, which is what my fancy $30,000+ servers my customers do. We have backups of the RAID and then backups of the backups. One is kept off-site at all times. The only thing that RAID is supposed to do, is give you more fault tolerance when something fails. So if a drive dies, you can keep going. Unfortunately, it seems that your Software RAID isn't as robust as one would like. If it worked as it should, that HD would have failed, you should have still been able to access your data, then replace the HD, and have that HD rebuilt / added to the RAID and gone about your day with little to no down-time. I'm thinking you just purchased something that just doesn't live up to expectations; so rather than blaming RAID for your issues, you should be blaming the manufacturer for selling crappy stuff. Again, what I would do is create a new RAID5. Use All four drives in that unit, you'll need 3 at a minimum and if you can set the 4th as what's called a hot spare...DO IT!!. What a hot spare does is what the name implies. When the RAID controller software detects an issue with one of the drives, it automatically builds that 4th drive into the RAID setup and then disables the faulty drive. Then you replace the faulty drive and that becomes the new Hot Spare. After getting your RAID 5 setup, get two larger HDs, like two 8TB USB 3.0 units or even 16TB units and backup nightly / weekly backups. Be sure to keep one EHD off-site. You could rotate the HDs nightly, which is the safest route, or do a weekly rotation. Your call.

I agree with Damien. I highly recommend using a card reader. Don't use your camera to transfer images. I know it seems easy and it's tempting, but when things go wrong it's a real PITA to get things working again. Permission fixes, there isn't one simple method. I've gone round-and-round for hours trying to fix them. Other times I takes an hour or so. Either way I can't recommend and easy and simple fix. Oh I recommend about 75% or so for the maximum usage on any HD, internal or external. So on a 500GB drive, try not to go below 100GB full.

I'm thinking the OS upgrade isn't playing nice with your 2011 laptop. The problem is, you might have to nuke the HD and reinstall everything in order to get your speed back. This is a tough one, if you have a Genius Bar nearby, schedule an appointment. Oh, if the RAM you installed is from a 3rd party, Apple will blame everything on that RAM stick, so you might want to remove it before heading to Apple. That said, it's a laptop from 2011. Laptops, even fancy ones from Apple, die after 3-4 years on the average. I also suspect, though this is my opinion, is that OS Updates / iOS updates slow down older models to drive you crazy on purpose. I've had iPhones get upgraded, only to become slow as molasses after doing so. Funny how the iPhone worked just fine before the update. Bottom Line: A new laptop might be in your future.

I think Apple stopped signing off on El Capitan. You can downgrade from High Sierra to Sierra, but not Sierra to El Capitan. Those instructions are from Sept. 2016 and Apple is notorious with cutting things off about a month after their current OS is released. Basically, they give the early adopters a chance to downgrade if they need to. For the rest of us who wait a month or two to upgrade, we are S-O-L. Honestly, I wouldn't mess with your OS. Using PS CC 2015.5 should be much less of a hassle. Things could go downhill really quick. Oh, one more thing. How much CRAP (Files & Folders, etc.) is on your Mac Desktop? The reason is the more junk you have cluttering your Mac Desktop, the slower the thing runs. The reason is Macs treat things on the Desktop as open files, for lack of a better term. So if you have 1000 raw files and .psd files for the Smith-Jones Wedding, and 300 files from the Miller's Photo Session at the park, that's over 1300 "Open Windows." The quickest way to speed up your Mac, regardless if it's a Laptop or Desktop, is to clear off the desktop. This is what my Mac looks like when I stop being lazy. Often it's filled with crap, but then again, I don't complain when it's slow because it's due to a cluttered Mac Desktop.

The Spyder Software doesn't take up that much room, so it shouldn't matter in the grand scheme of things. As for software installation, it varies. Sometimes it's labeled as "Custom / Customized," other times it's "Advanced" or a similar term.

OS Sierra is also new. PS 2017 may have issues with it. That's why I'm still on Mavericks! LOL!!

You should still have PS CC 2015 installed. Adobe typically doesn't overwrite new versions and leaves the old version alone. (Which also takes up space.) Open PS CC 2015 and see if the speed comes back. It's possible that the PS CC 2017 download was somewhat corrupted or it's buggy / doesn't like your laptop. The other thing that comes to mind is in PS Memory Settings. Set the Graphics Processor usage to "Basic" and restart PS.

THERE IS YOUR PROBLEM!! Damien is correct. Start moving things over to a EHD. You need an additional 50GB freed up. There is no room for the PS Scratch Disk and your laptop has to work harder during editing/culling. I really don't recommend a HD being more than 80% full, and 75% is a good target to keep as it gives you a little wiggle-room between 75% and 80%. So at 240GB, try not to go below 80GB free, and you'd want to be at 100GB free at all times for better performance.

I won't give out any instructions on how to pirate software. Sorry. Since you are writing professionally, you will either have to subscribe to Office 365 for $9.99 a month or purchase MS Office Home & Business for around $229.99. Believe it or not, that is A LOT cheaper than it was back in the 1990's. (Around $500-$600 back then.) This is the cost of doing business. I agree with Damien, getting Office for "free" is like asking you to write for "Exposure," or "Passion." Or having your work ripped off with no compensation or credit. It's all the same thing and it's the reason why things are headed towards a "leased" software model, because of all the "free" copies MS Office, Photoshop, etc. that exist in the world. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/d/office-home-business-2016/cfq7ttc0k5ff This purchase should be tax deductible if you claim your freelance income on your return. The alternative is to register (purchase) the existing MS Office that you have, often it's at a discounted rate. There should be a screen with instructions when you open your MS Office.

The reason on why you want a larger power supply is that the peak rating (500 Watts, 400 Watts, 200 Watts, etc.) is only meant for short periods, not sustained periods. So 800 Watts gives you a lot more wiggle-room Do you NEED 800 Watts,? Eh...probably not but more is almost always better. I have a rule of thumb that I follow with a P/S, is you don't really want to go above 80% capacity with your devices. Remember, it's just not the internal components, it's everything including external devices that get power from your computer I tend to have the philosophy of "But it Right, Buy it Once" and that usually ends up being more than what people want to spend. I'm good at spending other people's money. LOL!! 800 Watts will more than meet your needs now AND 5-7 years down the line if you decide to change / upgrade components. Whatever you do, don't cheap out on your P/S! I wouldn't recommend the $49 off-brand, even thought it's cheap. The main component that affects EVERYTHING in that computer is your power supply. It's like buying a $5000 computer only to plug it into a $12 Surge Protector that's 15 years old because you were trying to "Save Money." You stated you want longevity, and that means higher quality / more expensive components. Yes, as I stated above, I recommend getting two Caviar Black Drives for your RAID1 setup and re-use/format the WD Blue drive for the OS & Programs.

The short answer that I can give you as to why did this happen: I don't know / Just because... The long answer? I think it has to do with how the data is stored on the memory cells in the SD card, or the way the camera treats the cards. If you have the camera setup as "Overflow" instead of "Duplicate," when you remove the card out of slot one, the camera will automatically start using slot 2. Then you re-inserted the card in slot one. If you took photos with the slot two card, then went back to slot one, the camera could have corrupted stuff. The other thing is that perhaps Adobe Bridge did something to the disturb the files on the card, and corrupted things. I'm a bit of a purist. I NEVER let software do the import for me. I will manually copy the files from the card to a folder on my HD, THEN use Bridge or import into LR. In addition, you have to treat your cards like film. Pulling them willy-nilly and then re-inserting them may not always work in the end. You could have done this 1000's of times with no problems, except that one time that it bites you when you need images. Personally, I pull both cards out at the same time from my D3s when I'm swapping / viewing things and I never switch the card in slot 2 and put it in slot one. Or leave the card in slot two and keep shooting. My method is, two cards go in, and two cards come out. Period. When I re-insert those cards they are both formatted before photographing anything.

If I were to change anything on that list, I would purchase a WD Caviar BLACK 1TB drive instead of the three WD Blue ones. They are a higher-grade class and these days, 1TB is not that expensive. (About $80 each vs $50 each for the Blue HDs.) I know you are trying to keep costs down, but it's worth the extra money. Even if you purchased two black drives for the RAID1, would be a better bet. Oh the difference? Reliability. They also run faster and run cooler. I've been buying WD Caviar Black Drives for years. What ever you do, stay away from the WD Green Drives. Or any other "Eco-Friendly" Hard Drives. The difference between a working WD Green Drive and a dead one is about 2-3 weeks. How much more for a higher wattage Power Supply? Something like this one? Video Cards and RAID setups can get a little power hungry.

Oh, keep this in mind: YOUR CAMERA'S LCD IS A LYING AND CHEATING WHORE THAT WILL SELL YOU DOWN THE RIVER IF GIVEN THE CHANCE! The image that you see on the camera's LCD IS NOT THE RAW FILE itself, but the JPEG Preview associated with the Raw File. That's why your images go from #amazeballz to #blaw when you view them in ACR.

When transferring the images from your card to your computer, do you "Copy" or "Cut" and then "Paste?" Do you normally delete in camera? What Brand / Model SD Card do you use? How old are these cards?

OK, I've done some digging around. It seems Apple has reduced the functionality with the MacOS starting in El Capitan. I'm still on Mavericks, for many reasons. Disk Utility doesn't manage RAIDs any longer with the current OS and a 3rd party software program is needed for the RAID. So that explains things, this is a "Software RAID" and not a "Hardware RAID." The difference is that with a hardware RAID, the device's firmware has built-in software that manages the RAID. The benefits are if a drive fails, all you have to do is pop the failed HD out and install the new one and it takes care of things automatically. This is what I deal with on a daily basis with my customers and their professional-grade servers. The biggest downside to this is, you guessed it...cost. Hardware RAID devices with auto-recovery are not cheap. With a Software RAID, you are dependent on the Operating System and Software working correctly; so it's not bullet-proof. Things can go wrong and you could get locked out of your files and not be able to do a automatic recovery, which is exactly what you are going through. Ugh. It's not cheap. At all. I'd budget between $1000 and $1500, conversationally speaking, for this service. I recommend a company called Gillware. That's your call. If it were me, I would install the new HD, and create a new RAID5. Then download from your cloud backup. You could also give things a whirl and see if you can make an attempt recover with the new drive. Tech Support says no...and I believe them....but who knows? You might get lucky. You are already going to more than likely blow the existing RAID away and setup a new one, so while it's already broke, no-harm-no-foul. Most definitely. When a HD is recovered, crazy filenames are part of the fun. Though it really depends on who or what is doing the recovering. A professional company like Gillware may make things easier, though at a high cost. Even then there aren't any guarantees, which leads us to "How much is it worth it to you? How much do you really want to spend?" There should be some sort of documentation, I think I linked you to the .pdf file from the company above. Honestly, it's fairly logical. For example, in the screen-shot above is the RAID software. If you wanted to blow away the RAID, you select the Radio Button that has DELETE ALL RAID next to it and click Apply. After that's done, I'm sure there is something that will pop up asking what RAID you'd like to create. Replace the failed HD and look for something that says, "Create RAID" and select RAID5 and click Apply. This is a pure guess on my part, though it's pretty much what I deal with when I create / delete RAIDs on my Servers that I maintain. It's not rocket-science, all you have to do is pay attention and have some confidence in yourself. It's already broke, you can't make it more broke unless you do something stupid, like push the enclosure off the desk while it's running. Then it will REALLY be broke. LOL!! Think logically. Input --> Output. Delete RAID --> Replace Failed HD --> Create RAID --> Follow the Wizard Prompts. It should take you more than 15 minutes total, and that's figuring time to mount the new HD in the enclosure thing/tray. Please note!!! Your enclosure may not support hot-swapping. To be on the safe side, after you delete the existing RAID, power down the enclosure, THEN replace the failed HD with it off. Otherwise you could blow things up, like the enclosure's back-plane, the power supply or the existing hds. That would not be good.

That's the whole point of a RAID, especially a RAID5. I think I told you above to install a new drive. The other two should rebuild the replacement. The only part that I'm not sure of is that you manually have to trigger it or if the RAID Software will do it automatically. Macs are funny when it comes to RAID Drives. The OS is Unix-based, which dates from the 1970's AND you are running the standard OS, not the Mac OS Server edition. It just has a fancy GUI that makes things easier. If this was a Windows box, I'm 99% positive you would have gotten a warning message about the failed drive and still would be able to access your files. I'm gonna give it straight: I feel that you are just driving yourself nuts. Replace the damn drive and be happy. (Same model number, same or slightly larger capacity.) You really do not want me to go on and on about blocks and parity and striping and all the other stuff on WHY a RAID will rebuild the replacement drive. Your eyes will glaze over and I'm stopping myself before I start geeking out.

Oh, one thing about Webroot, it can get a little hyper. It sometimes has the mentality of "EVERYTHING IS A VIRUS!!! TROJANS ARE ALL THE THINGS!!!! DENY-DENY-DENY!!!!" LOL. Man, does it do its job very well. Sometimes a little too much and you have to tell it to play nice with your software programs that are legit. For example, I have a client that has a simple Terminal Program to access their Unix server. I double clicked on the installer and "Poof" Webroot shot it down. It was like a sharpshooter yelling "PULL!!" and shooting a Clay Target out of the sky. Only after temporarily disabling Webroot will it install. LOL!!

A RAID system is the way to go, if you are backing up critical data. That being said, what you end up fighting with is the stupid software that these manufactures give you that control the RAID and it's not fool-proof. I'm not just talking about the software interface that you get things setup with; I am also talking about the software built into the external enclosure itself. It's a proprietary type of software and each manufacturer is different, especially when it comes to the "consumer level" stuff. So what you are dealing with is crappy programming and "We don't know what went wrong...too-bad-so-sad." Unfortunately, getting a decent commercial-grade RAID unit is not cheap. Personally, I like the RAID Controllers that come with HP Servers. They are Compaq controllers and are the best in the industry, as far as I'm concerned, but they aren't a consumer-type of device. I like G-Drives. They are expensive though, but it's what I own and they come Mac-Formatted. Here is a 8TB Model with both Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 Ports. By default, a Mac OS will READ a Windows Drive, but not write to it. So if you are recovering images and files on a Windows machine, it's better to have that EHD formatted as a Windows Drive to restore your files to, THEN hook it up to your iMac. You don't have to get fancy, a simple 2-3TB HD should work. Keep in mind that you want to keep individual file sizes less than 4GB each. After you get things restored to your Mac, then you can format the EHD for use with the Mac. Make sense? This HD caught my eye: WD My Book Pro 12TB. I like that it comes with two Western Digital Caviar Black 7200 RPM Hard Drives. (That's the internal HD line that I purchase with my own money.) I would set it up as a RAID1 which is two 6TB Hard Drives that are mirrored. You have that backwards, the WD RAID is hooked up to your iMac. Use an 8TB EHD to copy the data off the WD 6TB weekly and store that 8TB off site. Heck having two 8TB EHDs and a Week A / Week B Rotation is even better. Now I realize this isn't cheap. I get it...but keep in mind, compared to legal fees, hard drives are cheap. If you are doing anything professionally photography-wise, and I don't care how iron-clad your contract disclaimer is, legal fees / court fees add up quickly if something gets lost and you get sued. Attorney fees of $250+ /hr, paperwork charges, phone-call charges adds up. Just think of it as and insurance policy with no deductible.