3 Fashion shows...check
1 wedding..check
1 private portrait session to edit...check
1 lighting workshop to attend...check
1 more private portrait session to set up...check
1 kids birthday
Oh, and maybe an early spring rainstorm to find out if the downspouts are frozen...oh good, they are.
Yep, that was 7 days.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
As you can see, I kinda have my hands full...
Friday, March 13, 2009
Vista 64 - 48 hour Later
So, after a five year run as my main workstation, I finally retired my old friend, my P4 2Ghz Gateway machine.
....Good times...
Okay, on with the new...
I've been watching the prices on Dell Studio computers for close to a year now, keeping a keen eye on things like processor speed, included ram, and last but not least, the OS. A friend of mine picked up an XPS system last year and it came with Vista, it was pretty fast, but it really started to perform when migrated the machine to XP64, plus it started using the RAM more efficiently. I wanted to go 64 bit at well, but I wasn't so sure I wanted to have to track down a version of XP and go through the whole compatibility thing with drivers.
Dell stepped up in the last few months offering more of their mid range models with Vista 64, and a couple weeks ago a pretty much ideal system went on sale. Armed with my firm's Employee purchase program's code in hand, I called Dell and ordered my new system, a rocket machine with a quad core processor, 6 Gb of RAM and a whopping Terrabyte of storage - I'm one of the people that actually has the ability to back up a Terrabyte because of my Network Attached Storage devices, so that saves me a large chunk of issues.
Since I phoned in the order, and had time to speak with my representative, Sai, I made some minor alterations in what I purchased, mostly removal of stuff I didn't want, trial antivirus, MS works, and so on leaving myself with a system that was pretty much just the hardware and the OS.
From there, the tweaking and setting up began. I had fully backed up all my data earlier in the week to external drives and NAS devices, so there was very little to the process of importing that data to my new machine (except, of course, I still have not gotten a Gigabit switch, which is on the map for today). Beyond that, installing my own antivirus, productivity tools, and of course, communication tools.
The biggest complaint people have with Vista is all the popups and security warnings. Since I know all my software is reputable, it does get a little annoying fast, so I jumped over to Lifehacker.com and turned that off pronto.
I did run into a minor snag when I tried to install my monitor calibration system, the Spyder 2 Express that I got from a very good friend for Christmas, does not come with the 64 bit drivers on the CD. A few minutes of downloading later, I had the newest 64 bit supporting software on my drive, and a quick reinstall allowed me to continue. That was probably the biggest frustration I had. Seriously.
A few other minor preference changes like disabling the Dell Dock and the Side Bar tools because they just get in my way, and I was off to the races.
And race this machine does, no question about it. The Vista Home Premium 64 is quick, but when you load software that is also 64 bit, like Lightroom, strap in for an amazing ride.
Lightroom opens and is ready to work in about the same time it takes to say "Adobe Lightroom version 2 64 Bits". I don't just mean the splash screen loaded, I mean it's up, the library is ready, and I can start working. Since lightroom is my main workhorse for processing photos, I was delighted to see the rocket speed it runs at. I'm having to adjust to the performance, no kidding, having to get used to jumping from tool to tool rather than having that couple seconds to think.
There are a lot of complaints about Vista, and let's face it Apple's Vista bashing campaign has not helped. Primarily, though, the complaints have come from people who like to game a lot, which I don't have a problem with, but I just don't game a lot which eliminates that issue for me. Another thing I don't do is download a bunch of desktop enhancements and media sharing tools (Ahem: Limewire) which rob you of system resources and clutter up your machine like a 3 year old with a crate of lego in a small room. Left clean and optimized for productivity and output, Vista is a performer, and the pure advantage of 64 bits just adds an aggressive edge to that fact.
There's one more little detail that I'd like to put on the table in defense of Vista to the Apple bashing campaign. Adobe and Apple have had strained relationships the last few years, not sure why, but Apple has managed to step on Adobe's toes enough that when the new shiny version of Photoshop with 64 bit support was released which promised (and delivers I might add) 6 to 10X the performance of the 32 bit version, it was only released for Vista 64. OSX may be a full 64 bit OS, but Mac users are running at 32 bits in Photoshop, and now having seen it run full speed, you guys are seriously missing out, sorry.
....Good times...
Okay, on with the new...
I've been watching the prices on Dell Studio computers for close to a year now, keeping a keen eye on things like processor speed, included ram, and last but not least, the OS. A friend of mine picked up an XPS system last year and it came with Vista, it was pretty fast, but it really started to perform when migrated the machine to XP64, plus it started using the RAM more efficiently. I wanted to go 64 bit at well, but I wasn't so sure I wanted to have to track down a version of XP and go through the whole compatibility thing with drivers.
Dell stepped up in the last few months offering more of their mid range models with Vista 64, and a couple weeks ago a pretty much ideal system went on sale. Armed with my firm's Employee purchase program's code in hand, I called Dell and ordered my new system, a rocket machine with a quad core processor, 6 Gb of RAM and a whopping Terrabyte of storage - I'm one of the people that actually has the ability to back up a Terrabyte because of my Network Attached Storage devices, so that saves me a large chunk of issues.
Since I phoned in the order, and had time to speak with my representative, Sai, I made some minor alterations in what I purchased, mostly removal of stuff I didn't want, trial antivirus, MS works, and so on leaving myself with a system that was pretty much just the hardware and the OS.
From there, the tweaking and setting up began. I had fully backed up all my data earlier in the week to external drives and NAS devices, so there was very little to the process of importing that data to my new machine (except, of course, I still have not gotten a Gigabit switch, which is on the map for today). Beyond that, installing my own antivirus, productivity tools, and of course, communication tools.
The biggest complaint people have with Vista is all the popups and security warnings. Since I know all my software is reputable, it does get a little annoying fast, so I jumped over to Lifehacker.com and turned that off pronto.
I did run into a minor snag when I tried to install my monitor calibration system, the Spyder 2 Express that I got from a very good friend for Christmas, does not come with the 64 bit drivers on the CD. A few minutes of downloading later, I had the newest 64 bit supporting software on my drive, and a quick reinstall allowed me to continue. That was probably the biggest frustration I had. Seriously.
A few other minor preference changes like disabling the Dell Dock and the Side Bar tools because they just get in my way, and I was off to the races.
And race this machine does, no question about it. The Vista Home Premium 64 is quick, but when you load software that is also 64 bit, like Lightroom, strap in for an amazing ride.
Lightroom opens and is ready to work in about the same time it takes to say "Adobe Lightroom version 2 64 Bits". I don't just mean the splash screen loaded, I mean it's up, the library is ready, and I can start working. Since lightroom is my main workhorse for processing photos, I was delighted to see the rocket speed it runs at. I'm having to adjust to the performance, no kidding, having to get used to jumping from tool to tool rather than having that couple seconds to think.
There are a lot of complaints about Vista, and let's face it Apple's Vista bashing campaign has not helped. Primarily, though, the complaints have come from people who like to game a lot, which I don't have a problem with, but I just don't game a lot which eliminates that issue for me. Another thing I don't do is download a bunch of desktop enhancements and media sharing tools (Ahem: Limewire) which rob you of system resources and clutter up your machine like a 3 year old with a crate of lego in a small room. Left clean and optimized for productivity and output, Vista is a performer, and the pure advantage of 64 bits just adds an aggressive edge to that fact.
There's one more little detail that I'd like to put on the table in defense of Vista to the Apple bashing campaign. Adobe and Apple have had strained relationships the last few years, not sure why, but Apple has managed to step on Adobe's toes enough that when the new shiny version of Photoshop with 64 bit support was released which promised (and delivers I might add) 6 to 10X the performance of the 32 bit version, it was only released for Vista 64. OSX may be a full 64 bit OS, but Mac users are running at 32 bits in Photoshop, and now having seen it run full speed, you guys are seriously missing out, sorry.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Concept shot
Yet another concept shot.
I do this kind of thing to my poor family all the time, come up with an idea and have to test it to see how well it actually works before I try it with a client.
As with many of my ideas, the initial attempt was not bad, but now I have an idea what to do with it in real application.
Most of the real magic in this kind of high contrast photo happens in post production, there simply isn't nearly this much contrast in camera. Lightroom works very well doing this kind of simple post production, and the nice thing is that if you shoot in manual as I did, you get a bunch of different poses and simply synchronize the same settings onto each image to get the same look at the end.
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