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Building a Lightroom PC

paulstamatiou.com

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Re: Building a Lightroom PC

#131

Post by virtualritz »

I use both Lightroom and Darktable regularly.

While DT has a bit more bumpy UX, it makes up for that by being more flexible than LR and really fast on Linux with a good GPU with OpenCL support. And there is nothing that LR can do that DT can't.

I.e. you don't need to shell out 6k for new box to make LR run fast. Just bite the bullet and learn another RAW editing app.

If you have thousands (or ten thousands, in my case) worth of RAWs processed in LR, just keep editing them in LR if you still have to. I often hear this as a reason why people don't want to switch.

I switched to DT in 2011. Everything before is LR. I use LR when I get images from friends who use LR and want me to do some advanced stuff for them or when I have to touch one of my pre-2011 RAWs. It is always slow on the same machine, compared to DT, but it's quite ok if you use it occasionally. :)

Re: Building a Lightroom PC

#132

Post by josephg »

cageface wrote: post #90

I'm leaning in the same direction myself. My 2017 MBP Pro has been a disappointment. The touch bar is a nuisance. The excessively large trackpad leads to a lot of phantom taps, and I'm still using adapters to plug things into it. Since I'm wrapping up the last of my iOS client work there's nothing really tying me to macOS any more and a PC seems to provide way more bang for the buck for the things I care about - Andr…

2016 MBP with touchbar reporting in. I have the 13” model without a dedicated graphics card, and I made the mistake of getting an external 4K display. The laptop can use the display, but everything is remarkably sluggish for a computer I paid $3000aud for. Especially safari with a few tabs open. The most embarrassing part is that I sort of got used to it and stopped noticing, until I spent time on my Windows gaming pc. The difference is night and day.

I’ve recently ordered an external thunderbolt GPU enclosure, and I’m hoping I can solve the performance issue that way. But in the long run ... I’m not really sure what I want to run on my next computer. To be honest all the answers seem a bit bad. Macs are overpriced and underpowered. Linux on a laptop still seems like an endless stupid time hole - I had the Ubuntu installer reliably kernel panic on me the other day. And windows ... does windows support smooth scroll yet? Can you turn off the telemetary and pre-installed games in the start menu? Will I be able to install and try out the database or exotic programming language of the week on Windows, or will it be more fighting?

Is it just me or did computers stop feeling better with each generation? When did we lose our way?

Re: Building a Lightroom PC

#134

Post by pmlnr »

Both me and my wife recently realized something: the JPEG produced by the Pentax cameras we own are 90% of the time better than what we achieve with hours of raw conversion tweaking.

Given that I'm not doing retouching most of the time, dealing with raw files becoming more and more a pain, without an actual gain.

Had anyone else thought about this?

Re: Building a Lightroom PC

#135

Post by hultner »

pmlnr wrote: post #134

Both me and my wife recently realized something: the JPEG produced by the Pentax cameras we own are 90% of the time better than what we achieve with hours of raw conversion tweaking. Given that I'm not doing retouching most of the time, dealing with raw files becoming more and more a pain, without an actual gain. Had anyone else thought about this?

I usually shoot to JPEG and RAW simultaneously. Most times I never touch the RAW file but in case I ever want they're there. Disk space is cheap nowadays so redundancy isn't a real problem for me anymore.

Haven't used a Pentax expect for my trusty K1000 so I don't know if they support that.

Re: Building a Lightroom PC

#136

Post by ropiku »

nicolaslem wrote: post #104
patrickg_zill wrote: post #80

Paul (and anyone else who uses Sony cameras) I would like to suggest that you test out Capture One for processing your RAW files. I have found it does a better job of handling the Sony files than just about anything else. Also is GPU accelerated. My experience is based on the Sony RX10 files, and a friend of mine who uses it for handling his A7Rii files. A free version is available for use with Sony RAWs; or you can…

Lightroom is plain bad with Fujifilm X-Trans raw files so I tried to find an alternative but I couldn't. The Lightroom workflow really is what makes the difference. I feel at home with Lightroom. So I keep exporting jpegs that look like garbage until Adobe decides to have decent support for the Fuji X line.

Try Capture One since they have specific support for X-Trans since version 10. Or if you want to continue Lightroom you can bulk transfer the raw files with Irident X-Transformer then import them in Lightroom. Only worth it if you really want the best quality.

Re: Building a Lightroom PC

#137

Post by baldfat »

Washuu wrote: post #39
PStamatiou wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair point :) I should reconsider. The UltraSharp line is factory calibrated but yea that doesn't mean much as it varies between display.

It is factory calibrated for general desktop usage, but not necessarily for photograph reproduction. Buy the cheapest Datacolor Spyder5(S5X100). The hardware is same between all the versions and only the software differs. Then get the open source DisplayCAL( https://displaycal.net/ ) that works with Datacolor sensors and other manufacturers. I calibrate my display once or twice a year. I also use it to calibrate my g…

I use the Open Source Hardware colorhug and it works with DisplayCAL

  http://www.hughski.com/
If you are also printing than you need to spend more money on a calibrator that works with both screens and printers.

I can't tell you how huge the difference can be even on high end monitors. I had a friend that swore all Macs were calibrated and he got mad at me when I laughed. After we did the calibration he realized how wrong he was.

Also buy this: SpyderCHECKR 24 and use it as the first picture at any new site. Color correction within 10 seconds.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LPS46TW/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_tt...

Re: Building a Lightroom PC

#138

Post by toomanybeersies »

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…

It's ironic that you quote Ken there, because he is definitely in the camera nut camp.

His entire site is dedicated to cameras and lenses, virtually nothing on actually composing or photographic technique. Most of his photos are generic family holiday snaps, particularly his newer photos.

Re: Building a Lightroom PC

#139

Post by mxfh »

tzs wrote: post #103
07d046 wrote: post #19

I can't imagine spending $6000 on a computer for editing photos and then saying "It also means I don't plan to buy and meticulously use a color calibration device". My computer might not be half as fast, but at least I know my blues are the shade of blue I think they are.

> My computer might not be half as fast, but at least I know my blues are the shade of blue I think they are. I've wondered if one could do color calibration using any ordinary digital camera and some clever software, but don't know enough about how color calibration actually works on computer to figure out if it would actually work. The idea is that you would have some reference photos of assorted physical objects o…

Color calibration is a chain, you need to know if your camera is calibrated too, so you need at least standardized targets, finding random objects of known color that cover the whole color space sufficiently is not trival, only then you could use your calibrated camera to measure a displayed target.

But I wouldn't cut corners there and just get a calibration device for about $100 plus a standard color calibration target. Certainly more sensible investment, then the difference between a 2k and 6k rig.

Re: Building a Lightroom PC

#140

Post by swaggyBoatswain »

PStamatiou wrote: post #61
farslan wrote: post #55

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.

Thank you!! It's the very rare comments like this that bring me joy. While I mainly do the site and photosets just for myself (so so many times when I'm out to dinner with folks and am telling a story about some trip I can instantly pull up the set and show the journey) it's nice to see when others get some value from it, especially for something that has consumed countless nights and weekends over the years.

I really like the blog as well, its one of the nicest I've seen.

Are you using your own custom made jekyll site?

Just curious about how you designed your blog and what components you use

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