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Building a Lightroom PC

paulstamatiou.com

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Re: Building a Lightroom PC

#51

Post by Aloha »

Anyone can be an amazing photographer - but there is a distinction between a camera nut, and a photographer, to this end, Ken Rockwell makes a really interesting point:

"You need to learn to see and compose. The more time you waste worrying about your equipment the less time you'll have to put into creating great images. Worry about your images, not your equipment."

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamera.htm

You can guess which category I feel this fellow falls into.

I hope he got a great deal of pleasure building his system - it does look very impressive (if not downright pretty), but it doesn't make me think any more, or less of his photography.

Re: Building a Lightroom PC

#52

Post by icantdrive55 »

tlrobinson wrote: post #20
th0ma5 wrote: post #8

Step 1. Be wealthy :P I am always enamored with the simplicity of one's living space being directly proportional to wealth. I try hard to not have much stuff, but my living options are seemingly always going to be working class style places with pretty much the antithesis of what is apparent in this photo. Of course the camera lies, and I shouldn't compare my insides to some else's outsides. There's probably a new pu…

"I have too much stuff. Most people in America do. In fact, the poorer people are, the more stuff they seem to have. Hardly anyone is so poor that they can't afford a front yard full of old cars." http://www.paulgraham.com/stuff.html

Yea, I got to,

"I first realized the worthlessness of stuff when I lived in Italy for a year. All I took with me was one large backpack of stuff."

1. The old cars are usually project cars that offer hope to many people. They think one day I will be able to get that vechicle on the road again--if I can get sone disposable income. Reality is most won't, but I get it.

2. Rich guys and Brad Pitt can live out of backpacks. Loose the credit card for a few days and see what happens. You start to look at trash differently.

3. Yes--the peasants keep stuff. Yes--they need to cook, and they need that stuff to cook. Yes--they fix things when they break, so they can't throw away tools, and stuff.

4. When the tyranny goes, that old bike comes in handy.

5. I'm a little sensitive when rich people tell me what's valuable, or how to live a full life.

I grew up with the wealthy, and their kids. They just are so disconnected, their advice only makes sense in their gated communities. Many claim they were poor when they were young, but 99% of the time, broke was only going out to dinner once a week during the tough times.

Re: Building a Lightroom PC

#54

Post by PStamatiou »

Aloha wrote: post #51

Anyone can be an amazing photographer - but there is a distinction between a camera nut, and a photographer, to this end, Ken Rockwell makes a really interesting point: "You need to learn to see and compose. The more time you waste worrying about your equipment the less time you'll have to put into creating great images. Worry about your images, not your equipment." http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamera.htm You c…

I am definitely of the same mindset - but it's also my hobby and I do get some fun from building a bit of an overkill system (and documenting it in detail) :) I also viewed the build as its own project - I tend to do these very long blog posts about such projects in the 12 years I've been running my website.

I started out with just the cheapest camera I could get my hands on, including working on my high school's yearbook staff in ~2000. Now that I've been working for over a decade and have some resources I pick up a few gadgets here and there for my hobbies.

Re: Building a Lightroom PC

#55

Post by farslan »

Not related to the blog post, but I think Paul has one of the best looking personal websites on the web. Simple and clear, but very delightful to read. Also he has amazing travel posts with nice photos. For example, his Japan post triggered me to travel to Japan three years ago. Keep up the good work Paul.

Re: Building a Lightroom PC

#56

Post by Sevrene »

Aloha wrote: post #51

Anyone can be an amazing photographer - but there is a distinction between a camera nut, and a photographer, to this end, Ken Rockwell makes a really interesting point: "You need to learn to see and compose. The more time you waste worrying about your equipment the less time you'll have to put into creating great images. Worry about your images, not your equipment." http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamera.htm You c…

Interesting point! I admit that spending a lot of time worrying about equipment with little or no direct effect on the work or how you produce it is over the top — but worrying about equipment makes a lot of sense for any creator and especially in photography. Different lenses and different cameras will have a huge impact on your final photograph. Changing your tools affects your work flow and your final photograph as a result. Swapping cameras or lens will obviously affect your final image much more so than changing PC but it's still there and it is worth thinking about.

Re: Building a Lightroom PC

#57

Post by PStamatiou »

ss248 wrote: post #36

Really expected more when i read the title. It's a stretch to call this a "water-cooled machine", when it's just one all-in-one CPU cooler. Water-cooled machine should be a custom loop. It's a lot more hassle, but that's exactly why it's interesting. All-in-one systems are just like traditional air systems with big radiators, the only big difference is that you can move the radiator around.

Custom loops are such a hassle between leak testing, constantly changing the liquid, adding anti-algae additive. I've done many of them when I was really into PC building in the early 2000s (I was even on the FutureMark 3DMark Hall of Fame for a while for some extreme overclocks). The new AIO coolers are extremely performant and a no-brainer cost wise. No harm in trying out the new tech :)

Re: Building a Lightroom PC

#59

Post by midnitewarrior »

dc3k wrote: post #23
gt_ wrote: post #6

The first item in the ‘Tweaking Windows’ section is Disable User Account Control . Can someone share a clear explanation of what this means and the nature of the risks involved?

UAC limits software to user privileges, even if you're running an administrator account. If you're running an administrator account, you just click YES in a popup to grant elevated privileges when they're requested. If you're running a user account, you enter an administrator password. Disabling UAC lets anything you run use administrator privileges without alerting you. Similar to running a Linux box as root. It's a…

It may be stupid depending on what you are doing, and how savvy a user you are.

The problem with UAC is that 90% of users have no idea when it would be necessay to click "no" when that dialog box shows up. For them, it's the box that always annoys you and you have to just click "yes" to make it go away.

I understand what it's supposed to do, but have had it disabled since it was released, and have saved hours of task interruption it in exchange for no other problems.

Re: Building a Lightroom PC

#60

Post by nerdwaller »

AmVess wrote: post #45
Bromskloss wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what sense are they calibrated if things vary between displays?

They do a base calibration. Do a Google search for Dell Calibration report. It shows what they calibrate. Keep in mind, it's still a pretty loose calibration. I've never once gotten two of the same models that look the same out of the box.

This has driven me nuts more than once. I’ve very intentionally ordered two “matching” monitors at the same time, supposedly from the same lot, and they were vastly different. It may be an overreaction but since a number of years ago I’ve gone to just one big and nice monitor (even if it’s not technically as nice as the others) because those details get in my head so much.

As the saying goes: “comparison is the thief of joy” - so I remove the second thing to directly compare to.

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