mistyprochaska

I took the RAW and Layers and Masks class a long time ago, but I would like to take the skin class. I still feel all over the place and want to get my workflow down. So I realize I need to sign up for RAW and Levels, but then remembered the no Lightroom rule. I don’t think I can stop using Lightroom organizationally- I use it for projects, the book mode, so many things. And I don’t think it makes sense to go back and forth between LR and ACR. Can I sign up for everything and use Lightroom?

Have you looked at Photigy? They are all about product photography education, and I think that would be a great place to get your answer.

I have tried two copies of that one, and I think the chromatic aberration is terrible. One copy had focus issues I could not resolve through calibration. I am considering the 85mm Sigma Art that was just released, but early reports seem to suggest a lot of focus issues. I have and LOVE the Sigma 50mm Art. I think the Nikon 1.4 is too pricey, people seem to always suggest the 85mm 1.8G instead of that one. And then there is the new Tamron 85mm 1.8, which some people seem to love too. Any recommendations?

Here is a photo from before I called tech support. The print was very green compared to my screen.

I wanted to come back and update as I was able to resolve this. I don't understand why there isn't more information out there or more people struggling with this, I think because a lot of people don't print things or calibrate. I tried everything, and read everything, and couldn't get the prints to match, so finally called X-Rite. So first he had me install a display profile that was in my library but not available as an option, and I switched to that. It is called Display Profile Linear. Then I recalibrated with instructions from tech support- the retina display is not a White LED, it is a RG Phosphor, so I switched to that. He had me use D65, which I knew would be too cool, so I went back and redid it at D50. And perfect. You may not be able to see that in the attached photo, but the differences are due to ambient light and screen illumination. I feel good about the color match. This is a test print from H&H compared to the file they publish for use in screen calibration. I hope this helps someone.

It doesn't sound like there is anything I am doing obviously wrong then, apart from purchasing the wrong computer. I guess I can contact X-Rite and see if they have an answer, and I am not sure about renting- I will look into it, or see if I can find a friend with a Spyder I could try.

I have had it for about one month. I am terrified you are going to suggest returning the computer (because that sounds like a gigantic pain in the ...).

As crazy as it is, I am attaching a photo I just had my husband take. I have no idea if this is helpful or not. What is especially difficult about this is that my calibration on my previous iMac was so amazingly perfect. I had it matching exactly.

Honestly, I didn't compare the prints to the screen of the new computer before I started the calibration process- I just assumed I would have to calibrate, so went ahead and did it. After the fact I tried to reset everything hoping maybe it would turn out the no calibration at all would land me in a better place, but no- my monitor is way, way too cool in that scenario. The profile I created where I set the white point at D50 is closest, but still not as warm as the prints. I don't see any utility in ordering more prints, because I have prints from Millers, MpixPro, Mpix, Nations, H&H, Color Inc., Pro Dpi, Canvas on Demand- I feel like I covered my bases on getting prints, and there was no huge difference for me between them except with the black and whites. And I am not even looking at that- I am very much looking only at color at this point. And of course, none of the prints were color corrected, etc. I have to think that this is something with the Retina display? Because what else could it be? If a new calibrator will solve this, I will order it immediately.

I just replaced my 2011 iMac with a new iMac with a Retina display. I have had the Colormunki for several years. A few months ago, I ordered sets of prints from eight different labs, each set containing 6 photos that showed a range of colors and tones. Using my Colormunki and following Damien's instructions exactly, I was able to get my monitor to match my prints exactly- SO exactly that I had three different perfectly matched profiles that would match specific labs (I had a Miller's specific profile, for example, etc., even though I found the differences in my prints to be tiny). Then I replaced my IMac, and finally last night I got around to plugging my calibration device back in, as I will need to be ordering prints again. Pulled out all of the prints, went through the ColorMunki process exactly according to Damien's device, and I can't get my prints to match. The prints are all incredibly warm no matter what I do. I went through every step of the problem solving instructions, every white point possibility, and did it repeatedly. This morning I tried to just see if my prints would match better with NO calibration, as a lot of Mac people seem to think, and Ha! Yeah, no. So, looking at the options- clearly NOT an option to get a new screen. And the differences are so vast between the prints and the screen, I am not sure I can lower my expectations. After many years as a hobbyist I have just started the process of creating my business, and this is not the time when I can stop caring about print quality. I will happily purchase a new calibration device if that is what is advised. Am I missing something because this is a retina display? I have previously done this so successfully, that I am floored that this has gone so badly. Any ideas would be so incredibly appreciated.

Ok, I just checked the box. I wonder if I had it unchecked for a reason, or never checked it when I transitioned to CC. What will happen now? Is it going to go back through all of my files, or will this only be created going forward?

I do have the box UNchecked for "Automatically write changes into XMP. And my presets are on my hard drive in the library folder (aren't they installed there when I install them?), but I also have them wherever (probably in my terribly disorganized downloads folder). I basically use presets never, ever. I don't even create my own presets, and I should, at least as a starting point for some things I often do. I think that is where I have to take a deep breath and know that everything is going to be fine. I have my catalog. I have my photos. The EHD with my photos will still be here. Not only that, but the catalog is backed up through Time Machine, and EVERYTHING is backed up through Crashplan. SO eventually it will all get set up, some how or another. I may not do it in the most efficient way, but it will eventually work out. I think.

I really appreciate your help! I can't lose my catalog, because I edit everything by hand and there would be endless presets I would have to create. It just wouldn't be reasonable. I will just have to follow the recommendations I can find and hope for the best. I know that as long as I have the catalog, and as long as I have my photos, I can get everything to work together eventually. I am sure it will work out, I just dread getting to that point. I appreciate your specific hard drive recommendations, and your verification that I do not want to move the files through LR. I will not do that. Soon, I will bring myself to take the EHD out of the box. I still have two days before the computer gets here...

Oh my. I don't know about the hard drive. It is just this huge box sitting here taunting me. I for some reason thought I would just wait (and wait.. and wait). No, I thought I would wait until the new computer gets here. I am adding more photos every day (I know, I know), so I thought it would be best to do the transition when I had the new computer up and running. Or to be honest, yeah, I just don't want to face it. I do plan to set both computers up together, and I actually don't want to set the new computer up via Time Machine. If this current computer has weirdness or whatever, I don't want to just install it into the new machine. So I thought I would just move everything over that I wanted. So I am totally on board with fresh starts in that sense. As far as the photos, the thing is, until right about yesterday, when I agreed to shoot my first wedding August 1st, I have been a hobbyist. I am a really serious hobbyist, but I have not been in business. So a lot of my photos are of my kids, and of still life, some of which is used for stock photography. And I actually did just have to go back through years and years of photos to find particular photos for a stock photo project because they needed larger files than what I had originally submitted years ago. And the photos of my kids, I just have a hard time getting rid of. In summary, while I know I have a HUGE photo hoarding problem, I don't want to address it now. I will be better about culling day to day, and I will go back through old photos systematically and delete what should go, but at this point it is harder to decide what to keep than to keep everything. And when I do start shooting professionally, I will create a new catalog for each client/job. And now that you say the clicking thing, yes, I am having horrible flashbacks, and I know that I had to go through and click a ton of stuff to reconnect, but even getting to that point was nightmarish. But wont creating a new catalog cause a loss of all of my edits? I am open to whatever will work. I am open to compensating you for your help too- I spend half of my life giving people advice on choosing and using mirrorless cameras for no compensation- so if you are not getting paid for doing this, I totally get that. I am going to keep trying to do some research on my own as well, but I remember last time feeling fairly confident it would be ok, and also everyone said, hey, this is not a big deal, just do it! And then it was such a big deal. Let's say I get brave and start copy my RAW files on to the new EHD. Do you recommend copy and paste, or a program to do it? I know people have mentioned programs that are helpful for tasks like these, to make sure it is copied exactly and no files are missed. I also know there is something I have to remember in this process about Crashplan- don't unplug the EHD, or do, or don't rename it, or something (or maybe there was some trick with the LR transfer about not renaming something). Anyway, it is a way that Crashplan knows that it is not new data, and that it is already backed up, but that it needs to start backing up from the new EHD. I know this was the "right" thing to do, but I really will be so happy when this is totally over and resolved.

Brian, I asked last week if your thought my iMac needed to be replaced, and I needed a new EHD because my 3TB EHD is full of photos. So since then, I took my iMac in, everyone involved agreed it will be a great computer for many years to come for my kids, but due to the type of usage it sees with my daily and constant photography, a new machine would be better. I ordered the 27 in iMac, the fastest processor, included 16 GB of RAM, ordered an additional 16 GB of RAM from Crucial, and ordered the WD RAID drive you suggested, 12TB, which I will set up as RAID 1 (mirroring the drives). I have an additional EHD for Time Machine, and everything is backed up through CrashPlan. This is my new question. And it is going to be about Lightroom, and I am not sure if you are also anti-LR, but bear with me. In the past I have always switched out my EHDs before they were full, because I know they typically fail and I try to avoid that by just semi-regularly replacing them. Last time, I think my main EHD started making strange loud noises. So the problem I had was moving my photos to a new EHD. I wish I would have written down what happened, but it was really, really bad. I was on the phone with Adobe CS in India, and I cried for most of a day trying to figure it out. It has been three years though, and I can no longer remember what I did or what the problem was. Per advice from Victoria Bampton, I understand that it is not advised to move a very large volume of photos from one EHD to another THROUGH LR. I think it is advised that you copy the photos from one EHD to another, then have LR reconnect with them. I an very, very anxious about having to move these photos. My EHD is coming today, and the computer will be here Thursday, and I am not even excited at all because I don't want to move the photos to the new EHD and set LR up again. Do you have a recommended process? Like an extremely detailed recommended process? Where should my catalog be while I am moving the photos? I don't store my LR catalog with my photos, it is on my iMac HD now. Do you think it would be ok to move the photos (140,000 of them) through LR? I have them divided into folders by year, and then within those folders by month. Thanks for any help you can provide...

It was strange today, because I remember talking to you on FB about something years ago, and I had remembered that you were really nice. So I was surprised to feel like you were talking down to me today, and I guess just the kind of response I got from you in general was surprising. I appreciate your clarification and apology. I researched the issue of having a large number of files in a single LR catalog, and almost everyone I talked to said it shouldn't be a problem, and that to divide all of my personal work into smaller catalogs would just be confusing and difficult to search. Many people talked about having more photos than I do in a single catalog without issue. So for now, I am going to leave it. When I start doing client work later this year, I will create a new catalog for each job/client. And if I can't solve the performance issues, I will revisit the idea of creating multiple small catalogs. Camerawise, I have two Fuji bodies, and I had a 5D3 until last October, when I switched to a Nikon D750 as my main camera. And I always shoot RAW, so yes, big files. I am not sure what to do about the EHD, still. I would like at least 6TB if I were to get a single EHD for photo storage, and that is hard to find- you are looking at RAID drives when you look for that size. I don't know if I need the RAID1 mirroring situation happening because I do think I am happy with or confident in Crashplan as a backup. I do understand when and what CrashPlan deletes and under what circumstances. I am not opposed to a RAID drive either though, I am just not sure if it is necessary given the additional cost. I don't need immediate duplication- I looked at CrashPlan tonight and the photos I took this evening were already available to download while I was still editing them. For any situation I can forsee, that is fast enough for me. I am also a little confused on the response you gave regarding the WD RAID drive I mentioned- it was your recommendation in another thread to look at that specific set-up. But above you said it looks interesting like you are not familiar with it. I guess I just wasn't clear on if that is the one you would recommend above all others. I don't think I am interested in Drobo based on all of the reading I have done about it. I think I am maxed out on RAM in my current 2011 iMac. I am going to take it in and have them do some diagnostics and then try to make a decision regarding if it makes sense to just get a new computer, or try to get this one running optimally somehow. My six year old and seven year old will need a computer soon, and giving them this one is a consideration for sure. It would work really well for word processing and other basic needs like that. I do have to figure out the EHD thing as soon as possible, as I am very nearly out of space. Anyway, I think I am on my way to figuring it out. I do appreciate your follow up response, and thanks for all of the information you have provided. Misty

So how would you propose I divide them? Right now they are organized in folders by year and month. I have about 1800 photos per month (on average). And need to cull, as we have covered. I could try one catalog per year, I guess? I have read and talked to a lot of people, and some agree it is a bad idea, but many people say it doesn't make any difference. And if you were in my situation, would you do the RAID drive, or the single G Drive you linked plus Crashplan?

Well, I don't yet shoot professionally- I just decided to move towards that after being a serious hobbyist since 2011. And for me, lawyers are cheap (I am married to one. ) I do have 142,093 photo in a single LR catalog. I have asked people about this, and lots of people assure me that this is ok. Yep, it is one massive single catalog. I will move all of the jpegs though. I just have to make a decision I guess, regarding what level of security I want. I do understand the differences between RAID1 and RAID0. I have been researching for the last 24 hours. I have been told that one big EHD and Crashplan is enough, to buy a Drobo because it is easy, and then I am looking at the option you have presented here, the WD RAID drive. I have no idea about the need to replace my iMac or not. I thought Onyx and CleanMyMac performed many of the same functions.

So is there an advantage in going with the WD RAID you posted and using it as RAID1, vs. having two seperate hard drives and replicating the data on one to the other regularly? Through software or manually? And is it overkill to have a RAID system along with CrashPlan? I will clean off my desktop. There are ROES links there for several companies, and quite a few exported Jpegs in folders. I will also do some research on ways to optimize LR so it runs faster. That is the biggest issue. And I assume you think Drobo is very overpriced?

The internal hard drive on my Mac is 2TB, and there is 896.18 GB free. The external hard drive where I store nothing but photos and back-ups of my LR catalog is 3TB, and there is 194.69 GB free. I am guilty of not culling. I have exactly photos of my lunch from four years ago in there. It is all true. Every year I tell myself I am going to cull for 15 minutes a day! Or my only project for the year is culling and keywording! And no. I have never, ever come close to actually filling a hard drive though. I wouldn't say that I am an idiot or that I have terrible computer skills and don't know what I am doing- I am just not culling, and keeping too many photos. Last night, I used Onyx to clean up, repair scripts, etc., and that made no difference in performance. I think that there was a miscommunication in the language I used when I asked my question. Regarding the RAID and EHD and internal hard drive part. In looking at the RAID you recommended, I was trying to figure out if the hard drive used with the RAIDS, which I called internal, are better quality or will need to be replaced periodically. I was having trouble finding them by themselves, and since I am not familiar with the RAID system, I don't know what they are "called". I don't replace my iMac's internal hard drive ever and don't plan on it. I am just trying to make sure it makes more sense to buy a RAID vs. individual EHDs, given that I have Crash Plan. And I am trying to figure out if it is time to replace my iMac or not. And I have figured out that I need to cull, cull. cull. And I will start doing so as fast as as I can. But I am pretty sure I also need to order a new hard drive and maybe a new computer. Don't yell at me. I hope that makes sense, I have to take my son to gymnastics, then I will be back.

To start at the beginning, my 2011 iMac has been behaving strangely. Slow, frequently unresponsive, constant rainbow wheel, tons of problems with LR being really slow, LR displays the wrong preview for the photo I am working on (I basically just use Chrome and LR on the computer, so that is where I notice more problems). It takes forever to start up. Last night, little program icons just started disappearing from the strip on the bottom- PS, then iTunes, and so on. The computer locked up then, and I shut it down by pushing the button, and then it was ok. SO my husband and I started talking again about if it is time to replace it, and in looking at everything, we realized that the 3TB hard drive where I store all of my photos is almost totally full. At the rate I shoot, I probably have about a week left before it is full, unless I start culling like crazy. Which I need to do too. So I started reading here last night. My husband has wanted me to get a RAID system forever. And I looked at the RAID system that Brain recommended elsewhere here, http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1148572-REG/wd_wdbdtb0120jsl_nesn_my_book_pro_12tb.html There are some things I don't understand. Normally, I replace my EHD every one to two years, or if it starts making odd noises, to try to catch it before it fails. Do I need to replace these internal hard drives like that too, or are they longer lasting/more reliable? I can't really tell for sure, but I think they are $300 each. If the advantage is that they mirror each other, couldn't I get two less expensive EHDs and do that manually?I hate all of this, because last time I changed out my EHD to a new one, it was a terrible mess as far as LR and getting it back up and running, I made some sort of mistake, and ended up on the phone with Adobe Customer Service in India for a day. And I cried a lot, but then didn't take notes on how I did the move to avoid the pain this time. I am just dreading this process, but I know I have to do it. As an aside, we also have CrashPlan. The other thing is, does it sound like I need a new iMac, and if so, does it make sense to get it now, at the same times as the new EHD? Or should I run CleanMyMac or Onyx on my current machine, add more RAM from Crucial, or take it in to get looked at? I am currently a hobbyist but I shoot A LOT and plan to go into business of some sort in the next year or two. I have a six and seven year old that will get my current iMac when I get a new one. Is 2011 old for an iMac? Any advice or clarification you could provide would be SO appreciated. As much as I would like to ignore this situation and do nothing, I am pretty sure it isn't going to work out for me much longer.