Another Way to Improve Post Processing Performance

This week I want to write another article on ways to improve your post processing workflow from a performance standpoint. You'll remember I wrote a blog post about tweaks for Lightroom, well today's post will not only speed up Lightroom, but also Photoshop and anything else you are using for Post Production. How can I be certain this will enhance EVERYTHING you say, well because for my day job, I am an I.T. Professional of 25 years.

Some of you may or may not have heard of SSD's also know as Solid State Disks or Solid State Hard Drives, but you may not be sure what they are or how they can benefit you as a photographer. Well an SSD, unlike a conventional hard drive has no moving parts, there are no metal platters inside and no head that reads them similar to an old record player.

Crucial 500GB SSD MX 200 series

 A Solid State Drive is basically a giant memory card, so it can read and write data insanely fast compared to a conventional hard drive which can only read and write at the speed that it's platters spin at. When SSD's first came out 5-10 years ago they were extremely expensive as most anything in electronics or computers, but over time, they become more and more cost effective in comparison to their platter counter-parts.

How will an SSD speed up your Post Processing and workflow? Well, the latest SSD's are capable of reading and writing data at 6GB/s, that's 6 Gigabits per second compared to platter drive which can only write at upwards of 15,000 Bits per second and that's only if you buy the expensive SAS drives, which are usually used more in servers than home computers.

I went this weekend and bought a used Mac Mini Server as a second computer and bought a 2012 model as it is the last year Apple made them user upgradeable, allow you to add more RAM and to easily swap out the hard drive from the old style platter model that only ran at 5,200 RPMs. I then went to Microcenter and bought a nice Crucial MX200 series 500GB SSD in 2.5 inch form factor. The Crucial is the best in SSDs and they have been one of the leading makers of system memory for decades, so it only stands to reason that they would also make the best SSD's since, again, an SSD is nothing more than a massive memory card that plugs into the hard drive ports on your computer and doesn't erase when the system is rebooted or powered off like RAM does. The model I bought it 500GB @ only $149 and will allow either a Windows or Mac based system to boot from cold start to the desktop in 7-15 seconds!

Crucial 500GB SSD plugged into a Windows PC

An SSD will also allow your applications to load hundreds of times faster such as Lightroom, Photoshop, or even Apple Final Cut Pro X video editing software which I use for my DJI Phantom 3 Professional videos. Ever seen that dreaded hourglass or spinning beach ball in Window or Mac? Well kiss them goodbye with an SSD as those kinds of things never happen again. Even though your Windows machine will still need to be defragmented now and then, image your Defrag only taking minutes instead of hours.

Now I am sure a lot of you are thinking, "How can I get this in my current system?" Well if you are handy with a screwdriver, most people can replace a hard drive themselves and then just restore your Operating System and applications from backups or do a clean install. A Windows 10 install that can take an hour or more on a conventional hard drive can be installed on an SSD in 15-20 minutes! If you don't have the stomach for this work yourself, find a local computer shop that will swap out the drives for you for a reasonable fee. If you do decide to tackle it yourself, Google how to do it as many videos exist on YouTube that will show you step by step how to do it yourself.

Trust me, once you've gone to SSD, you'll never go back to an old style hard drive again and you'll certainly appreciate the boot in speed when doing your Post Production.

Comments/Questions

Sunday Spotlight On: Editing

Once upon a time there was an art student who became undecided about her editing process. She was unsure if she should try color, black and white or the fancy filters that are sold online by the dozens. In the process of being undecided, she left images to sit and sit for days without any attention at all….

This character in this story sounds really familiar. Matter of fact, it sounds like me! I am so bad about creating images and once I pull them up onto my iMac I become so undecided about the editing process that I just walk away only to come back weeks or months later and still no process. Here is what my workflow consists of:

1.     Plan, plan and plan

I like to get a concept when I shoot for my creative psyche down to hair and makeup, styling, location and I always need to have a theme. It makes me follow through without having to continuously change the entire shoot. I always like to have control and know what I am doing so that I can just go in, set up and shoot.

Quiana P Jackson. Untitled, 2014

2.     Shoot

So today is the big day! After I already used up a lot of time when it came to planning, I just go in and jump right into it. Although there is more that goes along with this step such as checking the lighting and doing some warm up shots, it goes pretty smooth. Occasionally I have to tell the model how to pose if she is not use to it, but I have been lucky that these last past years since moving to Hawaii, these girls know their stuff!

3.     Transfer images to the computer

This is my giddy moment because I really want to see these on the “big screen.” After I back up the images in Lightroom, my external hard drive and then onto another hard drive, I pull the images up in Bridge and select the ones that I want to use.

4.     Halt

Okay why does my workflow always seem to stop here?

5.     Halt again (a week later)

Still stuck

6.     Halt again (a month later)

Still stuck

Quiana P Jackson. Untitled, 2014 

It seems that I can never just get past step four. This never happens when I am doing my documentary work nor my photojournalism work. It's always when I am shooting something for myself to remain creative. After this last shoot that I done in March, I finally got around to editing the photos and yes I know it is now May. My problem is postproduction because I can never decide if my work is good enough, or the direction that I want the image to go in. Due to being so busy working on my thesis, I finally put the finishing touches on the selected images and I must say that I am happy with the way that I went with them. I had to rearrange my workflow to include postproduction in the planning section. If I am shooting bright vibrant colors then I know that I will work in color, and if I am shooting an emotional image, then probably black and white. In the end the image will speak for itself and let you know what it should look like.

Since my time is winding down at the school I want the new students to know that the instructors are not just here for you when you are their students. I guarantee that if you reach out to them and ask for their opinion through a phone call or email, they will give you all the help that you need. All you have to do is reach out and ask for help. I was given advice on the images that I posted with this blog from an instructor that I had months ago! He was willing to help and I was willing to listen. 

I wish that you all could see the rest of the photos from this collection! Due to nudity I had to crop a lot from the above photo.

I am your Sunday Funday Ambassador!

Happy Shooting! 

Wide-Angle Wednesday: Developing a Workflow

Good Day PSPN,

            Today I’m shooting for developing a workflow. Everyone has a daily routine of some sorts but have you thought about developing a routine not just for course work but also for everyday shooting? Monday I started in course PH124 Digital Image Management. One of the very first assignments is the autobiography but of course the instructor has also asked to describe our workflow and to include an image that is representative to whom we are.

Yesterday marked my fourteenth wedding anniversary and what is more romantic than to watch the sunrise with my husband. Of course I wasn’t going to allow the sun rising be just a memory in my head, I snapped a few shots to share here. This is the image I shared as a representative of me. In short I wake up each day around four thirty in the morning to kick start my day. I prepare breakfast and lunch for my family and send them on their way to school and work. Some time is wasted on social networking, but then I jump into my day. I check the classroom, read emails, and take a stroll around the property seeing if I can catch an image or two of nature. This is my routine, but it does not end there.

Corina Scoggins "Anniversary Sunrise Over St Robert" 18 Feb 2014 

Majority of images captured are for no reason, just part of my routine. Many end up on social networking for friends and family to see. Prior to Ai, I stored images in folders on my desktop and would share here and there. In December I transferred all my files to an external hard drive because my laptop was just about maxed out in memory. Little did I know I had over eighteen thousand images on that hard drive. Well the laptop had been beaten down over the years and even after transferring the files, nothing seemed to help with program lag. I upgraded to a 1TB iMac, and could not be happier. Something I never thought of was now I have a backup computer with all the programs I need just in case one goes down. We’re always asked to make sure we have a backup for Internet, but have you thought about a backup to the programs. Majority of computers have Microsoft Word, but do you have a backup of the Adobe Creative Suite and Lightroom?

Corina Scoggins "Winter Bird" 18 Feb 2014

I still utilize my external hard drive to store all the images, just in case something goes wrong on the main computer. I still create file folders on the external and copy all the RAW image files from my SD cards to the respective folder. I also import all images to Lightroom. If the images are for a specific project such as class, I assign it to a collection labeled by the assignment week and number. For everyday images I leave the images in the dated folder Lightroom creates upon import.

Corina Scoggins "Morning Moon" 18 Feb 2014

Of course not all images shot will make the cut, so I use flagging to narrow down the images I want to further develop. At this point I will add key wording, and give the image a title. I also rename the file to match the title. In some of our course we’re asked to do this for assignments, this is probably how I come to develop this habit. Key wording is important because let’s be honest, how many times have you thought about an image you shot and had to go through file after file trying to locate said image? This is where key wording will help you find that image amongst the thousands of images you have shot.

Don’t forget to add your information for copyright purposes but more importantly the information will be embedded to the image no matter where you post in online. Take credit for your work! Developing a workflow is more than a routine; it will help you develop as a professional. Being organized is a key to being successful.

 The question of the day

Have you developed a workflow? If so what additional steps do you take? Do you have a backup for files and programs?

I will be hanging around PSPN throughout the day. Feel free to leave your comments below.

From My Camera to Yours

Wednesday Ambassador Corina 

Corina Scoggins "Golden Hour Sunrise" 18 Feb 2014

Honey, Where did I save those files?

Normally I would include artwork on the blog but this topic is important and I don't want you to be distracted by any shinies.  If you have taken any photo class at the Art Institute, I am sure you have heard this from your instructors, but it is IMPORTANT and it needs to be said again...

BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP! 

Do it.  Don't forget.  Make it part of your work flow and don't blow it off because its a pain in the but, or it takes too long.  If time is an issue, get you work done earlier so you have time to backup your files.  Why is it important?  I'll tell you why...hard drive failure happens.  It happens when you least expect it and when you can least afford for it to happen.

I have personally had 2 incidents when I have had irreversible hard rive failures.  First was a couple of years ago after I returned from a deployment.  I had all of my images saved on an external hard drive.  That hard drive had accompanied me around the world and back again with no issues.  Then one day it just wouldn't spin any more.  If this had been a copy of all of my data it would have been fine, but it was the only copy.  Not fine.  $2300 later and I was able to recover all of my data.  This is not the way to go.

More recently, and by this I mean last Thursday, I lost files again.  I was in the process of moving files and images to my new Mac.  Some how I managed to format my external hard drive (so I could have the proper file system for the Mac) without verifying that I had a second copy of the data on another hard drive.  The last time I made a full backup of my files was in late October of last year.  OUCH.  I lost almost a year's worth of images and to make it worse I did it myself.  It wasn't hard drive failure, it was plain old human error.

Now that I am done kicking myself, I am looking at realistic file back up options.  I have a dropbox account, but it's not big enough to hold all of my data.  The same goes for Copy.  Its bigger but not big enough to hold all my data.  The other option is to use an external drive with Time Machine on the Mac.  Another option is to get a set of external drives configured in RAID 1. 

I haven't decided yet what option I am going to go with, but I am sure it will be a combination of multiple options.  What is your backup solution?  How do you fit it into your workflow?  Let me a comment letting me know, or feel free to ask a question about backup options.