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Author Topic: 1st Edit - manage large qty of RAW captures before deadline...before bedtime??  (Read 9106 times)

RaglePhoto

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In my view, Lightroom 4.2 is the gold standard for producing the best results digital imaging can provide, however the initial import and preview stage is far too slow (my Mac is only two years old) for realistically culling through images from a serious shoot day.  Capture One is no better.

My colleagues and I use Photo Mechanic to quickly click through and delete out-focus and seriously garbage images before renaming and properly importing/processing.  Why isn't the efficiency of $150 Photo Mechanic built into my $700 Photoshop Suite?
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RFPhotography

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Why isn't the efficiency of $150 Photo Mechanic built into my $700 Photoshop Suite?

Have you heard of Bridge?
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RaglePhoto

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Thank you, Bob Fisher.  Yes, I have heard of Bridge.  I use Bridge frequently when I only want to review a test file without cluttering my Lightroom catalog.  Bridge performs exactly the same as Lightroom when first rendering a RAW preview, regardless of whether processing the Canon, Nikon, or Fuji X- files I work with most, there is still a significant (1~5 seconds) delay over Photo Mechanic.

If you aren't willing to do the heavy-lifiting of researching your ideas before submitting them as answers or suggestions (albeit veiled in smugness), then please don't waste my time with frivolous posts.  With that out of the way, if you have any informed ideas about why Adobe applications require so much time to render RAW previews relative to Photo Mechanic, I would be happy to listen.
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AFairley

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I use Breezebrowser to cull, it is extremely fast and if you shoot RAW+JPEG, it can display with a single thumbnail for the image.  Very flexible tagging and selection capabilities.  It's still faster than LR even after LR has generated previews.

[EDIT] However, I realize this speed is because I shoot RAW+JPEG, and Breezebrowser is displayin the jpegs.
« Last Edit: November 20, 2012, 01:03:59 pm by AFairley »
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RFPhotography

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Thank you, Bob Fisher.  Yes, I have heard of Bridge.  I use Bridge frequently when I only want to review a test file without cluttering my Lightroom catalog.  Bridge performs exactly the same as Lightroom when first rendering a RAW preview, regardless of whether processing the Canon, Nikon, or Fuji X- files I work with most, there is still a significant (1~5 seconds) delay over Photo Mechanic.

If you aren't willing to do the heavy-lifiting of researching your ideas before submitting them as answers or suggestions (albeit veiled in smugness), then please don't waste my time with frivolous posts.  With that out of the way, if you have any informed ideas about why Adobe applications require so much time to render RAW previews relative to Photo Mechanic, I would be happy to listen.

I'm cut to the core.   ::) 

I experience none of the problems you claim with Bridge.  I find basically no delay in rendering previews.  It's certainly far faster than the import process in Lightroom.  It is, despite your protestations, a viable solution.  So I do, indeed, feel the functionality you seek is included in Photoshop. 
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RaglePhoto

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AFairley: Thank you for the suggestion.  I will look into Breezebrowser.  Tagging that carries through the LR import would be a dream, but I am content to be able to rapidly loupe sharpness and delete trash images.
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RaglePhoto

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BobFisher:  Maybe my 2~3yo macs are the cause of my slow Adobe rendering.  It's encouraging to know that it is possible for Adobe to render high-quality previews instantaneously...I just can't seem to make it happen on the machines I use.  Are you including 100% sharpness louping in your assessment?  Are you running on Apple platform?
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john beardsworth

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Remember there's a fundamental difference between what PhotoMechanic/BreezeBrowser and Lightroom/Bridge are doing. The former are simply looking at the image's embedded JPEG previews, using the graphics card, while the latter are decoding the raw data. It's a bit like asking why you can view transparencies immediately but have to wait for prints. That said, I'd love Lightroom to be able to browse the embedded previews (like Aperture 3).
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RFPhotography

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Not running on Apple.  I'm ABA - Anything But Apple.  I'm working on a PC with an 8 core processor, 16GB of DDR3 RAM and a video card with 1GB of on card RAM on Win7 64.

You can set the thumbnails to preview based on the embedded jpeg.  That will speed things up.  Then, it will only render high quality previews when you go full screen.  On my machine, that takes a fraction of a second.
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AFairley

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AFairley: Thank you for the suggestion.  I will look into Breezebrowser.  Tagging that carries through the LR import would be a dream, but I am content to be able to rapidly loupe sharpness and delete trash images.

I edited my earlier post because I realize the speed is the result of shooting RAW+JPEG, and BB is displaying the JPEGs and ignoring the RAWs.  Still, if you shoot that way, you can evaluate the images.  BB lets you tag images with a number ranking, but I don't know if that' something that's recognized by LR.
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RaglePhoto

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JohnBeardy:  THANK YOU for an answer to my original question!  The ultimate solution would appear to be an option to browse embedded jpegs as Photo Mechanic does...forgoing tonal quality for a quick sharpness assessment.  As BobFisher mentioned "You can set the thumbnails to preview based on the embedded jpeg."  At the moment I am testing that option...as a Mac user avoiding RAW+JPEG capture, I am limiting my enthusiasm.

Addendum:  I tried using Embedded/Sidecar jpegs for preview, as outlined here:
http://www.photokaboom.com/photography/learn/Lightroom/h_more/speed_up_Lightroom.htm

Ultimately the overall import/preview, louping process is still incredibly slow in LR4.2.  Unless I'm making some basic blunder (entirely possible), Photo Mechanic is my answer until either LR or my brains evolve further.
« Last Edit: November 20, 2012, 03:05:16 pm by RaglePhoto »
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RFPhotography

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Just to be clear, I was referencing Bridge, not LR with setting the previews for the embedded jpeg.
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RaglePhoto

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BobFisher:  Aha!  Yes!  Thank you!  In Bridge: click on the coarse checkerboard button below the 'Metadata' tab to "Browse Quickly by Preferring Embedded Images."  With this activated I can quickly run through a first edit and rate images using stars which will (hopefully) write into xmp data which will remain intact after import into Lightroom.

I feel hugely encouraged.  Thanks again.

–Jonathan
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RFPhotography

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 ;D
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Phil Indeblanc

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Bridge I have not bothered with in the last year or so as it has horrible NAS or server drive support. Always crashing and had lots of hicups on populating files. (at least on PC and my experience) Not sure if that was a known prob and they recently cleaned up their act?

A 2 year system may be the problem. 64bit, and quad or more with loads of ram are what these larger 18mp+ or more files demand.

PhotoMechanic I remember being fast. Breeze Browser is fast as mentioned, and so is ACDSee. FastStone is also fast.(and I think free). PhotoSupreme is another you might like.  But all these I know about on the PC

But the folders/thumbs/preview options ACDSee gives isn't had in the others. Maybe FastStone is close in flexibility. All these are free tests trials for 30 days. See what suites your needs.
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