If I were face to face with an adobe developer what would I personally ask him/her?
Obviously: How do I make lightroom faster?
Would i have a better experience if I upgraded to 64bit operating system?
The answer is probably yes… but then I would ask… How much better and how?
What I’m getting down to… Is it even worth bothering?
Would things be better with more than 4GB of Ram?
Again the answer I expect is yes…. but then I would ask…
How much better and how will I notice the effects?
What I’m getting down to… Is it even worth bothering?
How big can I make my catalogs?
He’ll say… it depends.
I’ll say of course it depends… that’s how computers and technology works…
Now expand on that thought.
Is there a perfect way to install Lightroom and set the preferences?
He’ll probably say there’s no “perfect” way or it depends.
Then I’ll ask ok… what’s the “best” way you know of?
Would a sub $2000 mac be better than a quad-core PC with 4GB of ram 5-6 HDs?
Follow up if the answer is yes… would it be worth giving up my 3 screen setup? (And having to classify myself with annoying Apple Fan Boys… I mean I did get an iPhone so I don’t suppose it’s way out there)
Because if it’s only a tiny bit faster then what’s the point?
Why does it seem that Lightroom is specially sluggish when I leave for a while. Or when I wake in the mornings?
I don’t turn off my computer or even shut down lightroom.
Is that a terrible thing and the root of all my problems?
Does lightroom need to be shut down from time to time just like a computer?
Will add more to the post as I think about them or you suggest them.
Continue reading about My Questions for an Adobe Lightroom Developer
I’m in search of the best lightroom article that has never been written.
(As far as I can tell)
Here’s a series of twitter messages I sent out this morning.
I figured it might be important enough to put on the blog since more people view it on a daily basis.
Somewhere out in the tubes there’s an article/blog called: “10 things to do to speed up lightroom” I just can’t find it! Please write one!
In that blog tell me what the fastest computer would be and what tips you suggest about how to run the computer etc…
If I do too many pictures in one catalog am I overburdening things and slowing lightroom down? What’s the magic number?
In fact almost everyone writes about the 10 new features they love in LR2
I would but hundreds of people already did it.
And the article is always called “10 features I love in the new Lightroom 2″
Thomas hawk wrote about the new LR2 features
It’s probably my preferred so far. But seeing how they were all the same I stopped looking at them.
In that Thomas Hawk article Sephen Shankland makes a comment that makes it seem like he knows a bit about speed issues in lightroom. Turns out he has a blog over at CNET
- This article needs to be by someone who really really knows what they’re talking about.
- Not written by someone who is simply a user. (Heck I’ve edited tens of thousands of pictures and i’ve noticed trends but I’m certainly not the person to write this because I would only have theories and not solid facts)
- Base their 10 points on facts and not speculation
- Give us the perfect setup
(I have a quad core and that sped up things immensely! But I want more) - Going from picture to picture is where the most annoying lag is.
- In my case I don’t care about the exporting/crunching of images i’m talking about the navigation more so… moving from grid to develope and from picture to picture or applying the edits.
Some lightroom developer needs to do this (maybe they have)
Or someone that likes doing detailed research
I wouldn’t mind Scott Kelby writing this up because he certainly chats with the adobe people a lot and isn’t afraid to ask the questions. Plus everyone seems to read his blog so he can at least pose the question.
Update:
Thanks to Calanan for finding an article that gives 5 apparent ways to speed things up.
Heere’s the twitter message he sent
calanan @jarvie How about 5? http://tinyurl.com/3a3vda
5 tips are great but I want more.
An article not just for the common lightroom user. I want something geared toward huge catalogs and not just focused on speeding up lightroom on an old crappy computer but on an already upgraded computer.
Something that goes more into depth.
I could probably spit out 5 tips to make lightroom faster based on experience.
But i want some really solid stuff going above mere observations and guesses.
Saying get a faster computer and get more ram is cheap because that speeds up every computer. Say that and then explain how it benefits and perhaps give an example.
Am I being too demanding? Lots of people out there blogging and looking for things to write about… just trying to help make the best lightroom article ever.
dwterry @jarvie I have Lightroom store my data in XMP files with the images. That way my edits and my images get backed up simultaneously.
dwterry @jarvie The other advantage is that frees me to blow away my LR catalog any time I want. Which is about every few thousand files or so.
jarvie @dwterry XMP files? that sounds so messy. but i’m willing to listen. Will that make them import into any lightroom with settings in-tact?
Plus i thought one of the points of lightroom was to be more than a place to edit… DAM
DAM - a way to Manage our Digital Assets
If I really had a choice and it worked I would love to have ALL my pictures in the same library… so that might be going the wrong way.
zelph @jarvie I have 17,000+ on my home computer’s lightroom catalog and only about 1,000 on my laptop… I see no noticeable difference
This isn’t what I’ve heard elsewhere, but I’m not sure he’s wrong. I don’t really know if my catalog with 5000 runs faster than those with 40,000 plus.
Now we just need a thousand more people to say what they think and we’ll get down to the bottom of this 
I’ll add in my thoughts on some of the pictures I took for people that might be interested
Let me know if you like that.
At the end of the post (13 pictures down)
Is my favorite one… so make sure you see them all I guess.
To see full gallery get a password and go here
She liked her shoes even though she never wore them because we couldn’t see them and they sank into the grass.
I showed some more serious kinds of poses in the last pose i thought I’d add a smile more usual to her.
I would think most girls would want pictures of themselves that look like they belong in some magazine. They buy those wedding magazines all the time anyway right 
Well I did a few that way and she oblidged nicely.
An old friend is getting married and we did his engagements at his brothers house.
They wanted me to focus on having a few more B&W than usual…. so I added a lot towards the end.
You can see more of them if you see the whole blog post.
to see the full gallery get a password and go here
Why not use the local scenery to prove the point right?
Towards the end we were just playing around.
Being 4 shoots behind I think I’ll just post a couple pictures that caught my attention as I sort through pictures.
Usually I wait until I’m done looking through all of them and then make sure I pick the best.
I thought I’d put up these two because she looks so very different in these pictures.
These two are a very different view of her… if you knew her you’d understand.
I hope to post a few more of her later so you can see what I’m talking about.
I had so many examples that I doubt I’ll fit them all into one post
But you can see a gallery of 200+ here
And if you ask for a password you can see all the 650+ that made the cut.
There are also two galleries on facebook - 2
You’ll notice there isn’t one focal picture in the bunch. There’s not one that is the pinnacle of perfection… but to this family there are many many that represent each person and will be fun to them.
Here are some examples:
As opposed to…
In the previous post I said why “Traditional” family portraits suck to do. (for me)
Now I’ll say why I think non-traditional family pictures could be the most fun a photographer could have.
What kind of pictures am I talking about?
I’m talking about unique experiences and events with tons of fun stuff going on… and a photographer is there to capture the moments.
A family Reunion
A day at the park
Game Night
A vacation
A Hike
A BBQ
Anything but just standing there in a line
Be creative!
One Possibility for the best pictures ever
I would much much rather show up at a house early in the morning as the family has a wonderfully prepared breakfast, eats together (all traditional like) then they head off to the park or beach or woods together and have a pic-nic and laugh and tell jokes and enjoy eachothers company. Perhaps throw the frisbee around or go swimming. Here and there they can line up so they’re all in the shot, either more formally or in their element. But those shots won’t be the focal point. Then they return home and all individually do the things they like doing. Dads fixing the old project car and getting greasy, mom is cooking, sewing, planting or vice versa. The little kid is playing with his cars. The young girl has her ballet outfit on. The teenager is playing his/her favorite sport, talking on the cellphone or using the computer haha… of they invite some of their friends along to do stuff. They have a BBQ and a party or what not….
The possibilities are limitless
I’m just coming up with this stuff on the spot… who knows what it could be… the possibilities are limitless.
What do you do with the pictures?
Again… Be creative.
Make a book.
Use on Blog, emails, websites
To REALLY document your family… not some stiff portrait
have lots of pictures for the walls… pick the best of each person
An EXAMPLE
I reconfirmed this theory by doing a 3 day family reunion with my family 3500 pictures later!!!
Check out the next couple of posts.
Continue reading about Non-Traditional Family Pictures… fun for This photographer
I’m not to into taking family portraits…
There’s a lot of stressing out going on in portraits.
Feeding Each other STRESS
Parents get stressed because they want things to go perfectly.
When kids get grumpy or distracted… the parents start to freak.
Which in turn makes the kids freak out more… which in turn…
I’m sure you get the picture.
Not “Good” Money
Besides family pictures aren’t really good money (comparatively)
It’s my opinion that the price structure for family pictures was based on buying prints.
This mindset of wanting mainly prints is largely disappearing for most families.
Prints aren’t as “big” as photographers would like
Heck I personally would rather have the disc than a print on my wall… specially since I move more often and I use blogs, websites and facebook mostly and I can print stuff up myself just fine.
So people don’t want as many prints but the sitting fee for portraits has largely stayed the same.
Then there’s the people who think that because a CD costs $1 (which it doesn’t more like .15 cents) that charging them $100 for a CD is next to highway robbery.
Personally I don’t like being in charge of printing… I want to be paid for what I do (photograph) I don’t want to push products (like prints, albums etc)
I understand that the market and the abundance of new photographers will push prices down for photographers as some raise their prices (like I do all the time)
Not For me
All I’m saying is Traditional Family Picture sessions are not worth it for me.
I put up with boring weddings because they’re a lot of money and they’re very important.
Go to a studio for the traditional Shots
But i think if people are looking for good prices for family pictures they should go to studios, that’s their thing.
The Exception
That being said I have actually had a couple of families that were all right and enjoyable experiences
And in down times I’m sure I’d say yes because the money is nice… I’m just saying I don’t like it much.
But I like a “real” job…. way way less!
Continue reading about Family Portraits Suck… for photographers.
I wish I could recommend foresters camera service in SLC.
I enjoyed talking and working with the guy at Kew’s Camera service in Provo…
and would recomend him as he has great prices.
Even though he gave my D200 back to me and said there were no prices. (didn’t charge anything)
And replaced the grip for like 25$
And there was most certainly a problem… backfocusing… but his type of test would have never found it.
FORESTERS
Then i called nikon and they said send it here or take it to an authorized fixer upper.
So i drove to SLC and left it there.
They promise to call back within 48hrs… First off that’s a Bold Faced LIE!
I called back instead the first time.
They thought they might have the machine to fix it… they don’t so they would send it to Nikon and take care of things. I paid them money to ship it… i like that convenience for me.
But this is where it went down hill… that was like 2+ weeks ago.
I’m suppose to get a call back giving me an estimate on cost to fix.
Let alone the fixing time! NOTHING. I called and they’re closed…
I will call back tomorrow and then let you know what’s up.
I’m on the list for a D700… but I don’t know if I really was going to get it.
Now I might have to! Now if I only had the $3000 to actually get it!
I really had hoped I could recommend them in good faith… but foresters has let me down terribly.
I am back from my trip to Oregon.
I drove 1800 miles and took about 5000 pictures (lots of family)
I will work on getting those up and edited soon.
Hopefully before I start my 6 photo shoots in the next 7 days.
I am sad to say that before I left I wasn’t able to post pictures from all of my shoots I did in June or July.
But I was just aiming to get them all edited (which i did)
And unless there’s a clamoring I don’t see my self getting to them.
And august is going to be even harder. 10 weddings and bridals to go with most of them.
But I will try hard to post from an event from time to time.
Let’s hope I get around to it more than i expect.
The other thing that makes it difficult is that I’m hoping to post more to the Envision the World Blog
scott
Continue reading about Back from Oregon - Posts on the Horizon
For my 100th post I thought it would be a good time to celebrate YOU!
The number of readers has doubled recently since I fixed the google problem.
But I’d like to have you share your websites so that I can know who you are and follow what you do.
Or you can share other interesting photography blogs/sites that you like.
Hope to hear from you!
For my 99th post I decided to celebrate and allow ya’ll to become fans on Technorati
Fun stuff eh?
Just trying to show off some stuff from back in June
Here’s the first shoot I did with my new 70-200 2.8 VR
There’s a business park on the border of provo and springeville with lots of grass a stream and a big pond. Also some nice weeping willows. I’m not sure what it’s called but I know how to get there.
It’s been a while since I’ve been so I took the most recent couple there.
They’ll be getting married august 2nd
Engagement shoot in downtown provo
I suggest starting early.
You have about 1-2 hours after official sunrise until the sun peaks over the mountain.
Yes it’s early but if they’re alright with it it’s a great time of the day with good lighting and empty streets.
