Brian

Finally!! OK, the cool part on how I setup this forum is only you and I can talk back-and-forth, so others won't be chiming in to "Help." This keeps the discussion simple and to the point. I also want to warn you before I recommend anything, I am a Nikon OEM Snob. Meaning, I like the good stuff which tends to be more expensive. Very rarely will you have me recommending a Kung-Pow! 3rd party flash for $95 or something along those lines. I do not fuck around when it comes to a Wedding, and I certainly need for my gear to WORK and not question it. Period. Those off-brand / cheap flashes are fine when you want to learn and fiddle...and you do not want to be learning during something important, like a Wedding. As YouTube people say, Let's get into it... With any gear purchase question, I will always ask, "What is your budget?" Followed by "What will you be shooting?" Since we've gone over what you will be using this for, photographing Weddings, that's out of the way. But...how much are you willing to spend? What am I working with here? Ultimately, I will recommend a Nikon SB-5000. That flash seems to be out of stock in a lot of places and it also costs $600 all by itself. But it's meant for Professional Gigs and has enough power to handle a Wedding. If that price is a bit too high, then you can head to KEH.com and purchase a Nikon SB-910 Flash in "EX" Condition for $221.53. Which isn't bad and I think is your best option at this point. If you want to buy something new, and it will work perfectly with your D5100, the Nikon SB-700 is the one to get at $326.95. Speaking of prices, Nikon controls the prices. So if the reseller is authorized to sell Nikon products, the prices should all be the same between Store A - Store B & Store C; within a few dollars. Adorama might have a SB-5000 flash for 599.99 and B&H might have it for $596.95, or whatever. If you see anything "New" for a lot less, like several hundred less, those products are known as "Grey Market" and DO NOT COME WITH ANY TYPE OF WARRANTIES. In fact, Nikon will not touch any Gray Market that is sent into them for repair. So you MUST be careful to avoid "Grey/Gray Market" or sometimes it's labeled as "Imported." Here is an example: See that "Imported?" This means it's "AS-IS" and no warranty from Nikon what-so-ever. Avoid these items at all cost. Got it? The 85mm lens is great on a FX body, and will work fine on your D5100. That said, with the "Angle of View Change" you get with your DX Sensor, it really doesn't perform well. Let me explain. Since the physical size of a DX / Crop Senor is smaller than a full-frame one, it causes a magnifying effect, similar to "Cropping" a Photo in Photoshop. With DX Camera Bodies, you take the focal length of the lens and multiply it by 1.5 to get the "equivalent" focal length on a FX Camera body. In this case we are talking about an 85mm focal length: 85mm x 1.5 = 127.50mm So what does that mean? That 85mm will act closer to a 135mm lens would on a FX body. This is why so many Photographers who shoot with Crop Bodies use a 50mm f/1.8 for Portrait work. The 50mm focal length acts more like a 85mm would on a FX body. (i.e. 50mm x 1.5 = 75mm) That's why you are using a 35mm lens and a 50mm lens. In reality if you switched to a FX body, you would replace the 35/50 with a 50mm lens and 85mm lens. Make sense? Why am I bringing this up? Because 85mm acts more like a short telephoto lens; it's a bit too long for my taste on a Crop Body. Since it's a Prime and you are going to be moving all around during a wedding, it just doesn't make sense to purchase that lens now. You can't zoom in-and-out, it's a Prime. Weddings are not laid-back affairs, even small ones. You will be running-and-gunning and since this is your only 2nd Wedding, your style hasn't developed yet. Should you buy it? Absolutely! But when you are upgrading to FX, and if you are shooting Weddings, FX / Full-Frame Format will be in your near future. So even though $290 is a very good price, I'd rather you take that $290 and rent something like a 70-200 lens for this gig. I wish you would have posted this question months ago. COVID-19 has really fucked with the supply chain and many products are sold-out and have been for months. Where is this venue? Is it outdoors? How much room will you have to work with? The reason I ask, is it has to do with your Crop Camera. It's that stupid Angle of View Change, it just messes with everything. We don't have a lot of time here, you need to rent equipment for at least a week and it needs to be in your possession at least by Wednesday for your to practice and fiddle with. Pro-grade lenses that are required to shoot Weddings are quite large and heavy. While I recommend a 70-200 f/2.8 lens, that sucker is 3lbs all by itself. So find a 5lb bag of Sugar and hold it like you would shooting a camera, that will give you an idea of what you will be dealing with. You have no idea of what the Pro-Grade stuff is like. Your 35mm and 50mm will feel like toys compared to a Pro-Grade lens. Anyway, what I'd rent is a Nikon 24-70 f/2.8G lens and get a SB-910/SB-5000 Flash. I will warn you, due to that stupid Angle-of-View Change, 24mm isn't that "Wide" on a Crop Body. You'd need a 16mm Focal Length for that. So the Bouquet Toss / Garter Belt Toss will be damn near impossible if you can't back up far enough if it's a really small venue. That said, 90% of your other shots you can pull off with the 24-70 and D5100. The lens is heavy, but not as heavy as a 70-200. Honestly, you have no idea of the difference between a Consumer-Grade "Training Wheels" Camera Body and a Professional Grade one. Same thing goes with the lenses. Night and Day difference!! I will warn you, the 24-70 is addictive. I borrowed that lens from a friend once 11 years ago...and that lens has caused me to spend over $16,000+ in gear. LMAO!! The focus speed, clarity, contrast, sharpness, the lack of blown highlights is something you aren't used to. That lens wants to SHOOT. It's like a Dog pulling on a leash wanting to run. When I first used that lens, I thought it wasn't working properly. It seemed to be not focusing, even though my images were clear when I checked them. It's only when I purposely made the lens out of focus by turning the ring then letting my camera Auto-Focus. A split-second after putting my finger on the shutter button the damn thing locked on. I had NEVER experienced a lens that focused that quickly!! So be forewarned. Oh, but since this lens will be a rental, it may not be up to par as a brand new lens would, as people use-and-abuse rental gear. Hopefully you will get a good copy of the lens to use. As I've stated above, a new camera...FULL FRAME FORMAT, aka "FX," is in your future if you want to shoot professionally and/or shoot Weddings. Period. So yes, start saving up. Now here are some drawbacks to switching to FX: As I've mentioned above, in my humble opinion, a DX Camera is a camera with "Training Wheels." Why? It's because the sensor is physically smaller than a full frame one. I know, big-deal? Right? Well, since the sensor is smaller, it uses the center-most portion of your lenses, which often is the best part of the lens. So it's VERY EASY to take a good Photograph and have all sorts of Hearts / Likes / Swoons when you post images on FB or other Social Media. It gives you a false-sense of ability. When you upgrade to FX, you are using the WHOLE LENS, including all of it's flaws along the sides. This will show you all sorts of quirks with your lenses that you weren't aware of and you will find your technique will be weak in some areas. Why? It's due to that Angle-of-View Change! Since the FX sensor is physically larger, it affects so much on what you see. FX bodies have a shallower Depth-of-Field, well...not really in the technical sense, but in the real-world, it forces you to stand in a spot that you normally wouldn't which affects the Depth-of-Field. Clear as Mud? Think of a Analog Clock and stick your arms out. 9 & 3 = Medium Format 10 & 2 = FX / Full Frame 11 & 1 = DX / Crop With that Magnifying affect gone with Full Frame, you will end up being closer to your subject than you would with a DX camera. This in turn, changes your Depth of Field. The main things that make up your DoF are: Focal Length Used Aperture Setting Distance between the Subject & Background Distance between the Subject & Film Cell Sensor / Film-Cell Size Here is some comparison shots of what I'm talking about from an old friend who shot the same subject with a D7000 & D700: D700 & D7000 Comparison Shots #1 - Lily Sawyer D700 & D7000 Comparison Shots #2 - Lily Sawyer OK, I do have a point to all of this, and it's getting to my "Bottom Line" Paragraph on what you should do. Right now, stick with the camera that you have. You do not have time to learn how to produce photos with a FX Camera body. You do not want to be learning during a gig and I don't care how much practice and YouTube Videos you watch, switching formats takes a little practice and a good month to get used to if not more. Especially when you find that your technique needs improving and finding out that your existing lenses suck. I've personally gone through this as well as everyone else. I'm just trying to warn you and give you realistic expectations of what is in your near future. I'm sure you are almost at the point of asking what camera do you buy next? This is a tough one to answer. Why? Because Nikon is slowly abandoning the F-Mount DSLR Cameras and is switching to Z-Mount / Mirrorless Bodies. That's good news and bad news... The bad news is the F-Mount that has been around since 1959 is being replaced. So no new lenses will be produced for the existing DSLRs. The good news is that the F-Mount is a Mature System and has all sorts of options to choose from. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has screwed around with the Supply Chain and so much is Out-of-Stock or is on Back-Order. Which leads me to believe that certain lenses will never be in-stock again. That usually leads people to think that Mirrorless is "Better" and the "Future." While that might be true to a certain extent, it's still a brand-new format and the choices of lenses are limited. Well, at least they have the main zoom lenses that the majority use (14-24, 24-70, 70-200) released. It's the exotic primes that haven't been released yet, but things are slowly getting better. Again, we still have COVID-19 to deal with and even though they have announced certain lenses, they might not be available until 2022 or even 2023! This is why I can't tell you to save up and go and buy ____________. I can say you should save up at least $5000 for whatever path you take. (Or more.) But right now, you have much bigger things to worry about, that Wedding is in a Week! Bottom Line: Stick with your D5100. You know that camera and how to use it. Bring extra memory cards and batteries. Bring at least a pack of 8 AA Batteries. Energizers or Duracell. (Ones that have a little more "Umph" for flashes and other electronic devices.) Hell, bring two packs of 8 AA Batteries. Rent a Nikon 24-70 f/2.8G Lens and a SB-910 Flash. Rent them for 7 days and have them delivered by this Wednesday. Then practice with them ASAP. Set your flash to TTL Mode and use Aperture Priority on your D5100. Remove the stupid UV Filter that is used for "Protection" on the day of your gig. Those UV Filters can produce all sorts of weird colored blobs when using flash. JUST REMEMBER TO PUT IT BACK ON THE LENS BEFORE YOU SEND IT BACK or else you will get charged. I wouldn't worry about a 70-200 f/2.8 for now. Unless you want to go ahead and rent it. But again, that lens is quite large, so if you do rent it...be prepared.

Sony and Nikon are better in the AF department when it comes to Mirrorless. But things might have changed. I really haven’t seriously looked at Mirrorless; I have enough crap and the thought of rebuilding a whole other system…I have other stuff to buy and Credit Cards to pay off. Why not use my F Mount Lenses and the FTZ Adapter? Because in order to take full advantage of the Nikon Z system and all that it offers, especially when it comes to stabilization, you need the “S” lenses. So buying a third 24-70, a third 70-200 and then a second 14-24… “Meh.” I personally can’t stand Canon’s menu system and prefer Nikon’s. It’s just the way my brain works; I need menus and letters instead of tiny symbols and numbers. You might want to download manuals of the bodies you are interested in and give them a read. See how easy they are to operate. Even though the AF system might be “better” for now, it won’t do you any good fumbling through the menus and missing the shot. Take a look at some YouTube reviews with animal eye focus and certain camera bodies as some websites might be getting kick-backs for promoting a certain camera body. Remember, Mirrorless and Animal Eye Focus is brand new technology-wise. Don’t fall for the Marketing, glass is what matters, not some gizmo that you think will take your photography “To the NEXT LEVEL!!”

I was watching this video shortly before answering your question. He shoots with a R5. GIve it a watch:

No. That's just marketing trying to convince you that more is better. It also gives fodder for the "Measurebators" to argue / start flame-wars in online forums. LOL!! While it's true that you will get more detail the higher the Megapixel Count of the sensor, you have to consider where those images will be viewed. FB or Instagram on a Smart Phone? Maybe Flickr or 500px? You really don't need THAT MUCH in terms of MP. What more Megapixels do is allow you to crop in Post. Sometimes this works to your benefit, but most other times it allows people to be lazy and not move themselves to a better spot and re-compose. One of my biggest regrets when it comes to a camera purchase, is my Nikon D850 and it's stupid 45.1MP. You see, the more Megapixels you have, the larger the Raw files, which means the more resources from your computer will be required to support said files. Let me clarify... I bought the D850. I used my existing 24-70 f/2.8G and 70-200 f/2.8G lens. Turns out the D850 is hungry for the absolute best glass and my trusty old lenses really couldn't keep up. So add a new 24-70 f/2.8E and 70-200 f/2.8E. That's about $4000 or so after the D850 purchase. THEN the Raw files increased from around 26MB per file to almost 100MB per Raw file. My existing computer, which worked fine with my D4s and D700 practically cried out in pain. So I had to buy a new computer, upgrade it to 64GB, and then purchase a 12TB External HD. So that's a few thousand right there. See where I'm going with this? Not to mention I had to buy all new memory cards, because 32GB was equivalent to 8GB cards on my old cameras, and 64GB / 128GB have become my new normal. That stupid D850 has costed me so much money. If I had to do it all over again, I would have never bought a 45MP camera! Believe it or not, I have friends who have shot for Toyota and other manufactures doing commercial work...national campaign stuff and they are shooting with 12-16MP cameras!! You know what 45MP (or larger) cameras allow you to do? Be lazy and give you the ability to crop severely. The measure-bators will argue with me and tell me about all the fine detail and blah-blah-blah. Honestly? I'd rather you have a 24MP-ish camera and Professional Grade Glass vs a high MP camera and consumer-grade glass. Make sense? I've been published with a 12MP and 16MP camera. Flagship cameras that photograph the Olympics are around 20MP or so. I think of a 45MP camera body like a WWII "Bomber" and a Pro-Grade body like a Nikon D4s like a "Fighter Jet." When I shoot with my D850, I'm forced to slow down. Fortunately, my D850 is just for traveling and landscape work. When I shoot weddings and racing events, or anything important, my go-to body is my D4s. My next camera will probably be a Nikon Z6 II with 24-70 f/2.8 S. That's 24MP. Oh, Billboards...you don't need much in terms of resolution. In reality, you can print ANY size if you have at least 12MP or larger. Even 10MP is fine. The DPI on Billboards is between 5-7 DPI. That's right...single digits.

It seems to be a bug in Photoshop that's not playing nice with mac OS Big Sur. The “fix” is to use the latest version, 22.4.1. So try updating both to the latest versions. The other thing you can try is using an older version of PS, like PS CC 2019. Photoshop doesn’t over-write older versions, so you just have to find an older version to play with. (It’s in e Applications Folder.)

One more thing. You are going to want to read "Part 2" of this article: It covers how to get your mounted devices, like memory cards in readers, as well as external hard drives to show up on your Mac Desktop. It makes things really easy to deal with when you have external devices.

i hate Seagate Drives with a passion, so you won't see them recommended by me. What do I use with my iMac? G-Drives. The fancy Enterprise-Grade ones. The cool part is they come Mac Formatted and include all necessary cables in the box. The downside is they tend to be a bit pricey, but this is my data we are talking about, I'm not going to purchase a $79 Special from a Box Store, only to spend $2000 on Professional Data recovery when the damn thing dies. Don't cheap out when it comes to your data!! Buy it Right - Buy it Once! Since you are running a 2013 iMac, and probably have Thunderbolt 2 ports, I'm going to recommend a USB 3.0 Based G-Drive. Why not use the Thunderbolt 2 Ports? Because the HD manufactures really don't make TB2-based drives anymore, they have moved onto Thunderbolt 3. The good news is, that whatever drive you choose, you can use it on your new Mac. So you might want to spend a little more now and get a much larger HD than your current needs dictate, so that when you do upgrade your camera / computer, you won't have to fork out the cash a second time. As for which one, I'd recommend getting a USB 3.0 4TB G-Drive. The Good? It's pretty affordable at $140. The bad? It's only 4TB and these days that's not a lot of storage capacity. The good news is that 4TB could easily meet your needs and when the time comes for a new Mac, you can re-purpose this 4TB EHD as a Time Machine Backup Drive and purchase another external to house your Photos and such. Which leads me to my next point... You do not want your Time Machine Drive also being used as a Data HD. Keep the two separate and be sure to configure Time Machine to exclude the other EHD. All sorts of bad things can happen if you "cross-pollinate;" I've know of several Mac Users had their TM drive backup EVERYTHING, including their large Data Drive. The TM Drive started corrupting itself and caused all sorts of hell. So let's avoid that, life is too short. Time Machine EHD is just for Time Machine. 2nd (and larger) EHD is for Photos and Data. Here is my old computer from a few years ago. My 12TB EHD is on the left, and the 4TB EHD is on the right, and that's my Time Machine Drive: I've since upgraded to a 27" iMac, but the configuration is the same. ONE MORE THING!! In case you haven't heard, there is a chip shortage happening now and supplies are limited across the board. Not only for things like Ford Pickup Trucks, but things like Hard Drives, Computers, and other Peripherals are also affected. Prices are a lot more now than they were in 2019. The $500 computes from yesterday, are going for $1200 today. Same thing goes for Hard Drives. If you see in stock and you can afford it, BUY IT! Because in a week or two there will be a good chance that it's out of stock for 6 months, or even longer. If you are looking for a really expensive, beefy and most importantly Future Proof, then look towards a larger EHD like this 18TB Thunderbolt 3 & USB 3.0 Drive or this smaller one the 14TB Thunderbolt 3 & USB 3.0. OR! You can split the difference and get something like a 6TB Drive or a 10TB Model. See a theme here?

Three copies of the file. Those three files are stored on two different storage mediums and one of those mediums is off site. This is one of those industry-standard things. Honestly, this is over-kill for most. If you just back up to a HD, and then copy that HD to another and keep that one off-site, that should cover your bases. OR two different storage mediums could be a EHD, one kept off-site AND Cloud Storage. On servers it's usually a RAID Based HD and a Tape, etc. Basically you want redundancy; again, this depends on how critical your data is and how paranoid you are. It's not so much as a "Large Camera" in the physical sense, it's THE MEGAPIXELS in those cameras. I could buy a Nikon Z7 II Camera at 45MP or whatever OR a Nikon Z6 II camera. Both are similar in physical size, it's just one is 24MP and the other is 45MP. The more MP, the bigger the Raw files because there is more data contained within the Raw file due to the higher MP. Make sense? If you had a 60MP or 100MP camera, those files would be way larger than one that's 45MP. When you upgrade your camera body, and it has a higher MP, you will need to have the infrastructure in-place to support the larger files. These days, consumer-grade / entry-level cameras START at 24MP, which just a few short years ago was only available on a Nikon D3X. As for taking photos off of Pictures, you mean your "Pictures" folder or some sort of program called "Pictures?" I think I misunderstood. That will teach me answering questions at like 1AM in the morning. If it's just your pictures folder, that makes me feel a lot better in your case; I thought you were using one of Apple's stupid built-in programs. If it's just your "Pictures" folder, make sure you COPY AND NOT MOVE / CLICK-AND-DRAG when you back them up on a EHD. Also, the Pictures Folder is backed up when Time Machine does its thing. So you do have a back-up, even though you might not realize it. Why Copy / Paste? When you Cut and Paste or Click and Drag, you are MOVING the file. If anything were to screw up during the data transfer, it is a lot easier to cancel the process and start over again. If you cut/move, you are deleting the source material as it's doing the data transfer. Understand?

Sorry, It's you. You are shooting in Hazy Light, pointed directly at the Sun. Remember, your camera needs something with contrast swing to lock onto and not all focus points are created equal. So while you might have put the AF point on the eye, it seems that you are a good bit back from the subject, and your camera is focusing on this little tiny eye and I'm sorry, your camera can only do so much. Even my fancy 2014 Flagship Model Camera, a Nikon D4s, would have blown focus on this photo. So what do you do? Move closer. Or pick something else to focus on, like an arm in this photo and stop-down to f/5.6 or somewhere around there to get the Depth of Field deep enough for both the arms and face to be in "Acceptable Sharp" territory.

It's fine to use. The only "Bad" thing I can think of, is if the solder joints are flaky or the slot goes bad, you are either looking at an expensive motherboard repair or switching to an external card reader. For me, it's more of a PITA inserting it into the back of the Mac, and I find that using an external USB 3.0 Card Reader is faster to download my images. At some point, I will get another XQD Reader that also does CF Express, and that reader will use the Thunderbolt 3 port.That said, feel free to keep doing what you are doing, or purchase and external reader and use that. It's a flip of a coin in your situation. Right now I'm not happy with your current situation when it comes to your Mac. The 21.5" models are not easily upgraded after the fact, your video card is under-powered for today's modern Photoshop, it's an i5...so in reality, you need to start saving for a new computer rather than forking out the money for a card reader. Why? Because as of right now, I'm sure your computer works perfectly well with your D750, but as soon as you go and upgrade that camera body that has more MP, you will find out just how "slow" your iMac is. I went through a similar situation when I bought my Nikon D850 and it's 45MP. For the longest time, I shot with a D700 and then was able to get a Nikon D4s for a very good price. My 21.5" 2009 iMac worked "fine." That's because the D700 was from the 2009-era and the D4s was from the 2014 era, so things just "worked." Until I got tired of everyone making such a big deal about my D4s. "Wow! That camera is huge! You must take really nice pictures!!" "That's a nice camera! It's huge! How much did that cost? I'm sure it's expensive." "What type of camera..." blah-blah-blah. Yes, the D4s and it's sister bodies are quite large and even though I got a crazy stupid deal on it, having a Bullseye on the body and f/2.8 lenses really made me self-conscious. So I bought a D850. Biggest regret / Buyer's Remorse of my life. That stupid camera has costed me so much money. My 2009 iMac came to a screeching halt performance-wise, because my Raw files were closer to 100MB instead of 26MB or so and I also had to buy a larger external HD, a 12TB model, in order to save all of those large images. Then I had to buy two new lenses, because my images were crap in the corners, on-and-on. So before you go blowing money on what you think you might need, at this point I would take a hard look on what you are going to be shooting with in the next couple of years; just having more MP with a new camera body introduces things you never would have expected to spend money on. Anyway, back to your question. I'm really-REALLY concerned about you using "Pictures" for your photos. That's bad. Really bad. It is much better to copy the files via a card reader to a folder on the HD, internal or external and use a program like Adobe Bridge to cull (even use Photomechanic if you choose to) and then edit the images in ACR. Not only will you get to work with all of the data, there isn't a stupid catalog that Apple's products seem to use. It's worse than a LR catalog. At least with LR, the images are stored in folders on your computer, the edits (and the edit history) in LR is stored in your catalog. Pictures ingests the images and does whatever it does to them. So you will need to go through Pictures and export all of your photos of of it. At least I would. I haven't used Photos and its current form, Pictures, since 2009. So I'm no help since I know that program is evil and can really mess with you if something goes wrong. In fact, I almost never use ANY of the built in software that comes with the Mac! Yeah...you are getting low on space. Are you aware of a program called, CleanMyMac X? it's from Macpaw.com I've been using it for years and it's totally worth the $40 (or whatever the current price is) to keep things cleared out on your internal Macintosh HD. I run it weekly, if not every couple of days. Well, the SD/XQD Combo Card Reader that I recommend is no longer being made, but I did find this one: GNARBOX XQD 2.0 Reader with UHS-II microSD/SD. There is a XQD/CFExpress B Reader, but I'd hold off for now, you have bigger fish to worry about with your current Pictures and HD situation. See What Card Reader do you Recommend for more info. Ideally, you want to embrace the 3-2-1 Backup Strategy. Three separate copies of your important data files. Stored on Two different devices / storage medium. One copy kept off-site in case of fire/flood/theft/extreme situations, etc. You need to be careful with Cloud storage such as Backblaze. It's not as a "Permanent Cloud Storage" as one would think, unless you for out the extra $$$$'s for that feature. You see, if you delete a bunch of files on your HD, within 30 days, Backblaze will delete those same files that are stored on their servers. Surprise!! People have had nasty surprises when they delete stuff and then try to recover files a few months later, so before you go deleting stuff, and you should, make sure you have all of your proverbial "Ducks lined up in a row." No. Not anymore. I've owned LaCie Drives and used to recommend them, until I had several users complain about failed drives. LaCie used to be good a long time ago, now I think they are made by Seagate or primarily use Seagate Hard Drives...and not the high-end kind. I've had more problems with Seagate HDs than any other brand in my 28 years of being a computer tech. Well, Maxtor I've had more problems with, but now Seagate owns Maxtor and those same crappy drives just have Seagate Stickers on the drives now. I wouldn't use Seagate HDs even if you paid me. As for which brand I recommend? Thunderbolt G-Drives, or at the very least a USB 3.0 Version. I have a 4TB USB 3.0 Drive that I use for my Time Machine Backups, and a Thunderbolt 3 12TB G-Drive for my image files. The cool part with the G-Drives is they come Mac-Formatted and include all necessary cables to hook up to your computer in the box. I also tend to purchase the "Enterprise Grade" versions since I want my Hard Drives to be big & beefy and stable as hell. I would never-ever-ever recommend someone purchasing a $79 Special from a Big Box Store. Unfortunately, G-Drives tend to be very expensive. Since they no longer make the 12TB version, here is the 14TB current model of what I'm using. The sad part is, it's the worst time to be in the market for ANY computer device or peripheral, due to the world-wide chip shortage. Everything seems to be out of stock and costs a few hundred more than their 2019 counterparts. Even "Computers that are Good for Photo-editing," both Mac AND Windows are around the $3000 price-point. That's right, a Windows computer that is meant to run Photoshop really well will set you back close to $3200 or so. I'd never thought I would see the day of this happening. Bottom Line: Don't purchase anything right now, at least when it comes to major hardware. Use what you have. Well, except for getting CleanMyMac X, I would go ahead and get that. Maybe a 6TB G-Drive that can act as your main external storage for now, and then ultimately that drive would become your new Time Machine Drive for a new Mac sometime in the future. The problem is, you have a 21.5" iMac and I know they seem more "Affordable," but the truth is, Apple CRIPPLED that model. Think of it as a "iMac Mini" instead of a full-fledged Macintosh Computer. If you want speed, you are going to need to invest in a 27" iMac, and not just any version; a tricked-out and expensive model. Check out my pinned posts in this group, you will know my thoughts and what to look for. I hate 21.5" iMacs as much as Damien hates Lightroom.

That combination is the most stable at this point. If you can update to just Catalina, please do. That said, IF you take the plunge, than PS CC is in your immediate future. If you can download PS CC 2019, which might require calling Adobe since it's no longer in the downloads list with the PS CC Module, go that route. Of course Adobe will say that 2021 is perfectly fine, but I have enough members complaining about it to contradict that opinion. Again, we are living in the Era of a Chip Shortage with COVID-19 still around. it is THE WORST TIME TO BE IN THE MARKET FOR A NEW COMPUTER. Windows Computers that are "Good for Photo-editing" cost around $3000 or more. That's right, Windows Computers are $3000.00+!! If I was buying a iMac, right now, here is the configuration. I wouldn't go to Best Buy or another store, order from Apple.com directly. Start with the 27" iMac for $2299 and change a few things to match this: That configuration will cost you $3229.00 Plus Tax and Apple Care. Then head to B&H and purchase a 16GB Memory Kit. This will increase the RAM from 8GB to 40GB for way less money that Apple would charge you for the same damn thing. Crucial 32GB DDR4 2666 MHz SO-DIMM Memory Kit for Mac (2 x 16GB) - $176.99. Just in case you are about to ask... Is there a better configuration that's cheaper? No. That said, you could go for the smaller / standard keyboard and save yourself $30. Other than that, the computer's configuration itself remains the same. Do you recommend something less expensive? No. Are you sure that I shouldn't buy a 21.5" iMac? Yes. They are a complete waste of money and can't be upgraded after the fact. Wow, that's expensive! Are you sure... That's what I would buy for myself. I hate wasting money. This configuration should last you about 7-8 years. But that much? Sheesh! Yep. It sucks.

Thank You! He forwarded me the donation. Those instructions are fresh off the press. I’m glad they worked out for you.

Head to HP’s website and see if there are any Graphic Card Driver updates for your system. When you purchase a store-bought computer, often you will need to use the Manufacturer’s drivers. I think HP has a scanning tool: https://support.hp.com/us-en/computer

No. Chances are, the on-board video shares the Video Memory with the RAM. This is not ideal. Have you tried updating the Graphics Card Drivers? The separate video card, in this case the GT730 graphics card, should have it's own dedicated video memory. Before I send you down the wrong path, what make/model computer is this graphics card installed in? If it's a Dell, chances are we will need to use the Dell Drivers, which are probably severely out of date.

Deleting a Windows Partition and creating a new one is pretty straightforward, and just takes a few minutes to complete. No special software is needed, especially software from the Hard Drive Manufactures; all that is required is built into the Windows Operating System. So let's begin! Right-Click on the Start Button and select Disk Management: This will bring up the main Disk Management Utility Window. Make note of which hard drives are currently mounted: Now insert the EHD into your USB port and allow it to mount/spin up. It should appear in the list. In this example, note "Disk 1" that appeared in the list. This will be the drive that I will modifying; your Disk Number might be different. There is no difference, it's just another number in the list. It could be listed as "Disk 3" or even "Disk 5," THE IMPORTANT THING IS THAT WE CHOOSE THE CORRECT DRIVE! Select the Partition that you would like to Delete. The box will go from a plain white background to one that has slashes in it and should be highlighted. This is Windows' way of letting you know which Partition you have chosen: Now Right-Click on that Partition and select Delete Volume. It should go without saying, that you really-really-really want to be sure that this is the correct Partition to delete. A Warning Message will appear asking for permission to delete. If the Partition was created on another type of OS, such as a Mac, this error message will appear differently. This is completely normal, just click "Yes" and wait a few seconds. Error Warning with a Windows-Created Partition: Error Warning with a Macintosh-Created Partition: Now your Disk Management should have your EHD as a large, solid/continuous black line: At this point, if your HD is 2TB or smaller, we can continue with the Wizard to create a new Partition. If your EHD is 3TB or Larger, then we will need to covert the Drive from a MBR Disk to a GPT Disk. This step ONLY affects those with EHDs that are 3TB or larger. GPT is meant to create a single partition that is larger than 3TB since MBR has a 2TB maximum limit. Make sense? To convert it to a GPT Disk, right click on the Disk # in the left column you are modifying and select "Convert to GPT Disk" and follow the prompts. (Click OK, OK, etc., etc.) Note: I do not have a 3TB Drive hooked up for this document, and am using this next example as a guide. Your 3TB HD will be larger in capacity than my smaller one that I'm using in this tutorial. The important thing is to right-click on the Drive # box that you want to convert to a GPT Disk: After Right-Clicking on the Drive # square in the left column, select "Convert to GPT Disk" and follow the prompts. Again, this is only for the folks who have 3TB or larger Hard Drives! Now for the fun part, creating a new Partition! Right click on the area that has a black stripe and select, "New Simple Volume." The Wizard should appear, click Next: Specify the Volume Size. For the majority and this example, we will leave it at the default, which is the maximum capacity of the drive. If you are going to create multiple partitions on this Hard Drive at different sizes, I'd use an online calculator tool to create the size you need. For example, if you wanted to create a 6TB partition, you would enter 6,291,456. But to keep things simple, leave it at the default and click next. Assign a Drive Letter. This is the spot that you can assign a drive letter if you choose. For example, if this EHD is one that will contain personal files. we could change the Drive Letter to P:\ for "Personal Drive." Again, this is completely up to you to decide. There is no right or wrong answer. If you'd like all of your EHDs to be the "E Drive" (i.e. E:\ ) then change the default to E by clicking the Down Arrow next to the Drive Letter and selecting E. After making your choice, click Next. We will leave it at "D" for this example. The next screen is very important. It's the "Format Partition" selections. For today's modern Windows Computers' hard drives that are meant for permanent storage, you want to use NTFS. Some devices like Thumb Drives, you would want to use FAT32. Again, for this example we will leave it at the default of NTFS. The Allocation Size should be left at the default and it is highly recommended that you give your HD a name, to keep things organized. "Data," "Photos," "EHD #2," etc. are all examples. Keep is short and simple. Before clicking Next, be sure to click the check-box next to "Perform a quick format!" Otherwise it will take HOURS to format your HD! Leave the "Enable file and folder compression" UN-CHECKED. Click Next. A Summary Window should appear with your selections. Confirm them if you'd like and click Finish. The Hard Drive will begin the process and Windows will assign it a letter and name. This process should take less than 30 seconds, but this depends on the speed of your computer and Hard Drive. Some complete this task in as little as 5-7 seconds, others take longer. When completed, the Disk Manger should have the drive in the list, along with the name that you chose for the drive: Exit out of the Disk Manger and either use "This PC" or the "Windows Explorer" to use the new Drive. With any new Hard Drive, now is the time to think of a Directory Structure on how you want to organize your Hard Drive. This is completely up to you, but I would take the time and think of how you are going to store stuff, rather than it becoome a dumping ground for your files/images. Here is one example: You could also keep things very simple, and have folders that are just the year: The sky's the limit! So make your Directory Structure a good one!

I'm going to move this to the Windows Forum since it's really not a "Gear" question. I will post the instructions on how to delete / create a partition in the next comment box.

It's not the HD per se, they always have been pretty straightforward. it's just the stupid freakin' software that gets included with the drives that trips people up. This has been happening for as long as I remember; in fact, I can share similar stories from Hard Drives in the early 1990's and that's 30 years ago. LOL!!

YES. What I would do first, is to get any files out of that stupid vault program, then delete the whole partition...create a new one and format it. I can help you with this if needed.

Welp, that's a bit old by today's standards. How large is your internal Mac HD? I'm assuming you have a 1TB internal HD? Also, you have Thunderbolt 2 ports, which is what I was afraid of. Things have moved on to Thunderbolt 3, and the port is a USB-C Style. That said, there is hope yet! To start off, I'd HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you increase your RAM up to 32GB. 8GB is just not enough by today's standards. the good news is that doing this upgrade you can do yourself for not a lot of money. Here is a 32GB Kit from Crucial. I'm surprised you have lasted this long on 8GB. Now for the Hard Drives. To answer your first question of the difference between CMR or SMR, It's almost like the difference between a DVD-R+ and a DVD-R- Compact Disk. Well, not exactly, but I think you get my point. It's how the data is written to the hard drive platters. CMR - Stands for Conventional Magnetic Recording. This has been the standard method of how data has been written to hard drives since they were invented in the 1950's. It would be the method that I would use if I was actively backing up data as well as accessing data on the HD. Since we are photographers, and not some large corporation that has Petabytes of data, we don't need to worry about the lower cost of the SMR method. Which brings me to the next answer... SMR - Stands for Shingled Magnetic Recording. This method is the newest today and it's designed to cram more data on a Hard Drive platter, thereby reducing the cost of storage. SMR is better when you are archiving...not the way you are thinking about backing up your data, ARCHIVING, archiving. As in, back up your data and then store in in a vault in a off-site location. Chances are, you aren't doing that. So what is the difference? When data is written to a Hard Drive Platter, with CMR, a small gap exists between the chunks of data, which allows the hard drive to freely write and overwrite data at will. By using this method, you don't have to worry about the data itself as much...a Hard Drive works like it always has. With SMR, there are no gaps in between the data files, and things are stored sequentially. The data blocks look like "Shingles" on a roof, instead of books neatly organized on a shelf, hence the name. What happens is when you store something on that the SMR HD, it will pick a spot where there is no data and then write to it. After the data is written, the HD will enter a "Reorganization Mode" in where it figures out how to move the data around so that it can be stored sequentially. Idle time is essential with a SMR Drive. You put files on it, and let it run for hours while it does it's thing. Of course, it's pretty quick, and it allows you to put more "stuff" on the HD, but you need to allow more time on the back-end to let it organize your data. As I've said before...for us, IT'S BETTER TO STICK WITH A CMR DRIVE and be happy. Back to what the heck do you buy. Personally, I like G-Drives when it comes to my Macs. They come Mac Formatted and include all of the necessary cables. I'd use Time Machine to back up the internal Macintosh HD and tell Time Machine to ignore the other HD that will store your image files. 4TB should be more than enough room for a 1TB-2TB Internal HD. With it being USB 3.0, and it backing up things every 15 min or so, things run quite smoothly. The longest it takes is when you either upgrade the OS or create the Time Machine Backup for the 1st time, but it runs in the background and you really don't notice it. Like I've said above, Apple has perfected backing up your Internal HD with Time Machine. Now for the RAID. Yes, you do want at least a RAID-1 setup, which is "Drive Mirroring." As data is written to one HD, it is automatically "Mirrored" or Synced to the other HD, instantaneously. The nice thing about RAID-1 is if one HD fails, you can replace that failed HD, tell it to rebuild the new HD and then things go back to normal. The bad part about RAID-1, is if you delete a file, OR a file gets corrupted on one HD, THAT FILE IS CORRUPTED OR LOST ON THE SECOND HARD DRIVE IMMEDIATELY! So instead of thinking you have "Two Hard Drives," think of it as a single hard drive with a redundancy or "Plan B" in case if something bad happens to ONE of the Hard Drives. Please bear in mind, that if a water pipe in the ceiling above your computer bursts and that External RAID-1 drive gets soaked while it's still on, those drives are dead and you are looking at a very expensive Data Recovery Service. Same thing with a House Fire and such. That's why having an off-site backup is critical if you are that paranoid about your data files. So what do you buy? In your case I would get a 2 or 4 Bay NAS. The difference? If all you want to do is RAID-1, a 2-bay NAS is fine. If you are looking for more redundancy with RAID-5/RAID6 or RAID-10, then you will need at least a 4 bay NAS, preferably one that has 5 bays or more. It all depends on how far you want to go. Keep in mind, that storage does come at a cost, and if you have two 4TB in a RAID-1 configuration, you don't have 8TB of data available, but only 4TB (or slightly less after formatting) since the drives are Mirrored. With a computer as old as the one you have, a new iMac will be in your near future in a couple of years. I'm sure a new camera that has more Megapixels will also be in your future. Bigger. Better. Faster. More. It never ends. The reason that I'm bringing this up, is you need to "Buy it Right...Buy it Once" in terms of capacity. For the majority of folks out there, I highly recommend looking at at least 8TB or more when it comes to a "Photo Drive." I personally have a 12TB myself. So while you might feel that 4TB is more than you'll ever need, think BIGGER. You don't have to go out and blow money on 18TB Hard Drives, but you really should consider something in the 6TB-8TB range, or just go for broke and pick up two 14TB Hard Drives and Mirror them. Why so large? I want you to invest in a EHD setup that will carry over to your new computer. This NAS system should be around for at least 8-10 years or more. That's why we are spending the money now. What HDs do I recommend for your NAS? Skip the Western Digital Red Drives and go straight for the Western Digital Gold Line. Overkill? Absolutely! But I don't cut corners with my data. I want my Hard Drives to be friggin' power-hungry Enterprise Grade Drives and I want them to LAST. Don't ever buy a "Green" or "Eco Friendly" Hard Drive, chances are it will fail and end up in a landfill somewhere anyway, since China doesn't want our E-Waste. Which NAS do I recommend? This is a bit trickier. I used to always recommend a Synology NAS, but lately they are using really cheap plastics with their stuff. These suckers vibrate with 7200RPM Drives and are LOUD. Like I wouldn't want it next to my desk kinda loud. Fortunately with an Ethernet Based NAS, you can usually find another place to store this drive, provided that you have Ethernet Connectivity via a patch cable or plugged directly into your Router/Switch. Here is a 2-Bay Synology 220+ NAS that I would buy. That unit is fast enough to even work off of. Here is the Synology 920+ 4-Bay Version. Why Synology? Their Wizards are pretty good when it comes to getting your setup, and there are a TON of YouTube Videos providing step-by-step instructions in setting up your RAID Configurations, and which things to turn on and off. The other NAS Brand I'd look at are QNAP. Here a QNAP TS-431KX-2G that looks interesting. Oh, whatever system you choose, be sure to use a Category 6 or Category 6A Ethernet Cable for the best performance. Cat 6 Ethernet is meant for Gigabit Ethernet and the good news is the cables don't cost THAT much more than the Cat 5e stuff. Maybe a few dollars difference.

I use Sandisk Extreme Pro Cards myself. Here is a 2-pack of what I’d use if I had a D610: Sandisk Extreme Pro 32GB (2-Pack) Now before you say “…32GB is too much, that’s too many eggs in one basket, blah-blah-blah,” First, they don’t make smaller cards that much anymore. 32GB is the smallest you can typically purchase currently, and even that size’s days are numbered. Second, just because you have 32GB at your disposal, doesn’t mean you have to fill it.

One more thing, someone commented that a faulty Hard Drive could cause this to happen. It's plausible, but extremely unlikely. I'd start with replacing your cards first.

I'm on it Chief!!

This is because the image you see on the camera's LCD IS NOT THE RAW FILE ITSELF, but rather the JPEG Preview File that is embedded within the Raw file. This is why your image goes from #Amazeballz to #Blah in ACR or LR. The "Blah" file is the Raw image; well technically speaking, it's Adobe's Camera RAW Plugin's interpretation of the Raw Image. But really...tomato, to-mah-to. The Internet Trolls who want to correct me can suck it. SD Cards go bad all the time. Flash-based Media wears out, usually without warning. It just does. Personally, I tend to refresh/replace my cards every 18 months or so. If your two cards are the only ones you own and they have lots of usage on them over the past couple of years, I'd swap them both out, pronto. Especially if they were bought around the same time. What camera body are you shooting with? It could be possible that the slot in the camera is starting to wear out, causing this issue, but I'm leaning more towards the cards themselves. Also, it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED...PRACTICALLY REQUIRED BY ME, to use a CARD READER and not use a damn USB cable attached to your camera. Don't ever use the camera to transfer your images. Way too much can go wrong, and usually at the worst possible time. I don't care if you say "...but it's always worked!" Card Readers tend to be between $20-$30 on the average, so the cost won't kill your wallet. Give this article a read for more clarification. So what can you do? If the images are really important, there are JPEG Extractor Programs that are available. What these programs do is pull that image you see on the back of the camera and create a JPEG. Granted, it's not 100% fool-proof, but if you are in a bind and NEED SOMETHING, it's better than nothing. Oh, keep in mind, this is a JPEG file that is extracted, not a Raw image. There is only so much data contained within that JPEG Preview, so you won't have as much wiggle-room as you would to recover something in ACR. It's always better to nail exposure in-camera just in case you are forced to do something like this. I've recommended this webpage in the past, see if one of the two Extraction programs that they recommend will work for you.

OK, I'm back. Before we begin, what is your current iMac? Year/Make/Model.

Probably the BEST way to backup your internal Mac HD is to use Time Machine. Hands down, Apple has perfected backing up. I will write more later after I study the Red Drives. Personally, I prefer the WD Gold line over the Reds. Keep in mind, that the NAS enclosures such as a Synology NAS (2 or 4 bay) are being made with really cheap plastic which has a tendency to vibrate, a lot. Not that it affects HDs; it’s just loud and is more annoying than anything. I do have a few other recommendations and will link to them tonight. Fortunately the store that I link to does ship to OZ.