- Timothy Armes wrote an export plug-in for Lightroom called 'LR Mogrify' based on ImageMagick that is certainly interesting, and may even give better results (certainly more options) than the Adobe one that's built in. Free to use for 10 images at an export, unlimited if you donate (I did). You can read about/download here. Thanks to Erik for sending me a heads-up via email.
- Looked at my hard drives today, and my main 1TB photo array is getting up there.. about 150GB free. Time to start planing a real answer to that storage issue I discussed a while back. I'm seriously thinking about a 4 drive external SATA array. Maybe RAID 0+1.
- Also looking to replace my fantastic Eizo CE240W monitor with a 30" and I'm looking at the NEC 3090. Working with these 21MP images needs a lot of real estate, and the portrait mode might actually be fantastic for this particular use. If anyone has any thoughts on the NEC or is interested in buying my Eizo when I switch. Let me know.
- I currently use a small Wacom tablet (4x6") and need to upgrade because I've tried it with a 30" display and it's too small to control well. I was thinking about the 6x11" if anyone has any thoughts on the 'widescreen' tablets pros and cons.
- Doing commercial work is great except that you've got to wait MONTHS to get paid, which is infuriating and stressing me out. Everyone needs their photos TODAY but god forbid they pay you in a timely manner. It's just a respect thing, or lack thereof.
- Looked at my hard drives today, and my main 1TB photo array is getting up there.. about 150GB free. Time to start planing a real answer to that storage issue I discussed a while back. I'm seriously thinking about a 4 drive external SATA array. Maybe RAID 0+1.
- Also looking to replace my fantastic Eizo CE240W monitor with a 30" and I'm looking at the NEC 3090. Working with these 21MP images needs a lot of real estate, and the portrait mode might actually be fantastic for this particular use. If anyone has any thoughts on the NEC or is interested in buying my Eizo when I switch. Let me know.
- I currently use a small Wacom tablet (4x6") and need to upgrade because I've tried it with a 30" display and it's too small to control well. I was thinking about the 6x11" if anyone has any thoughts on the 'widescreen' tablets pros and cons.
- Doing commercial work is great except that you've got to wait MONTHS to get paid, which is infuriating and stressing me out. Everyone needs their photos TODAY but god forbid they pay you in a timely manner. It's just a respect thing, or lack thereof.
If you upgrade you Wacom and sell the old one, I know someone that would be interested. Namely me.
If you're looking for a new drive array, I'd recommend a Drobo system. I'm not affiliated with them in any way, but I think they are awesome, giving redundant storage without any of the hassle (or risk) that comes with RAID.
Hi Andrew-
I've looked at the drobo, but I've come to the conclusion that it's too slow for me. I want to actually work off of the drive and with most of my PSD files being in the 400-500MB range, external and not SATA speeds just won't cut it.
Plus, as a geek I've got mixed feelings about trusting the redundancy to a black box. Somehow I feel better when I know it's a RAID 1 and the same data is on two identical drives right next to each other. If you catch my drift.
And twoeightnine, I'll probably keep the small one for traveling but I'll keep you in mind. ;-)
I will comment on the frustrating issue you mentioned. I would ask for a pre-payment. X amount to shoot, Y amount if they take them, X amount (remaining of the full).
BTW, the new Fortune magazine has cool four front pages with "most powerful women"... The portraits are good, but the first thought I had was: I wish you took them, because I know you would do an even better job and all those women look fabulous. I will scan them and send to you to see.
How do all those average photographers get those deals?
Do you find that using a tablet is a big help?
I assume you're talking about using it with Photoshop?
What do you use it for specifically?
Inquiring minds want to know :)
Hi Paul-
Yes, I use a tablet when I'm retouching in photoshop. I'll admit that when I first tried it, I didn't like it at all, but once I pushed through that barrier I don't know what I did without it. When you're using the healing brush or clone tool or painting in layer masks, the amount of control you have with the tablet is light-years better than with a mouse (though I use a kensington trackball, you get the point)
I upgraded from the 4x6 to the 6x11 a few years ago. I found the 4x6 Wacom is way too small for dual displays or anything over 20-24in. The 6x11 is great! The mouse doesn't quite act like a normal mouse, but I hardly ever use it.
That's just the kind of insight I've been looking for Joe. Thanks!
You might consider specifically looking for a Raid 1+0 rather than a Raid 0+1. Raid 1+0 gives greater fault tolerance. Further, during a disk failure Raid 1+0 rebuilds the replacement disk more quickly which limits your time spent in a degraded state.
Both have really good (comparable) performance levels...however, the greater fault tolerance of raid 1+0 makes it the more desirable choice.
Bill,
For your storage needs, I would suggest looking at the ReadNAS Pro. As the storage world goes, this is more than the consumer grade stuff (Drobo, other ReadyNAS offerings, etc.) but less than the expensive semi-pro grade storage that can run into the $5K+ range (real pro-grade stuff can run into the $10k-$100k+ range).
I have been using a ReadyNAS NV+ with a high speed network for a while and works well (some lag time that I have adapted my workflow to deal with, but the ReadyNAS Pro should address that without breaking the bank). I did writeup about it when it first got released.
thanks Latoga-
I have a friend who loves the ReadyNAS boxes. And if it had an eSATA connector on the back I'd order one today, I just don't think I could deal with network speeds, even gigabit. I want to work off this drive, not just for storage, if you know what I mean.