kyleweems

<p>I have been using CrashPlan as well.. very cheap compared to other options I've seen. I actually got them on a black friday special for something like $40 for unlimited storage for the year.. but even the normal rates are very reasonable.</p>

<p>It isn't a 'solution'.. it's a part. With their software you can also automatically back up to another external drive in another location. So if you have a friend/relative willing to stick a drive on their desk, you can auto-backup to that drive as well as the cloud.</p>

<p>I keep an exact duplicate here with me updated daily, plus a cloud clone of all relavent data that is backed up daily, plus a drive at another location that is auto backed up to every day as well. It would take quite a catastrophe to wipe me out, at which point I'd probably not be worrying too much about data on drives :)</p>

<p>Photoshop has a built-in 'export layers as files' script. By default the background would become white if exported as a jpg. End result would be 81 individual files, with each layer icon w/ a white background.</p>

<p>Not sure why the issue of LR4 being faster/slower is in debate, since that wasn't really the original question.. but I can attest to it being significantly slower as well.</p>

<p>I have a 27" iMac, 2.8GHz i7, 12 GB 1067 MHz DDR3, running OSX 10.7.2.. the difference between LR3 and LR4 is extremely notable and I've considered reverting myself. I'm holding out currently in the hopes that they fix the problem but that may not last long.</p>

<p>Any of the professional labs will do a good job most of the time. I've used WHCC, Millers, BayPhoto, ProDPI, ACI, and H&H in addition to some album-specific companies. I've been pleased with the results from all of them most of the time, though there are always a handful of problems now and then.. just the nature of printing I suppose.</p>

<p>I've never been overly thrilled with mpix though I believe it is a branch of millers?</p>

<p>If you are letting them do the final correction for you, I'd try Miller's as from my tests they did the best job. (I normally do it all myself and don't let the lab adjust anything, but I'm a control freak like that and keep my monitors calibrated)</p>

<p>I use an Intuos 4 at the studio, and just got an Intuos 5 for home.</p>

<p>In both cases, radial menus are indispensable. I have the actual tablet keys set to various modifiers mostly, though with the 5 I now have one dedicated to swapping screens (I use dual monitors and having the tablet only pay attention to one at a time is hugely helpful for fine control). My top most key is set as a spacebar to pan/move around the image (this is the most natural key for my hand to rest next to based on the way I sit)</p>

<p>My bottom click on the Pen is brush resize/softness (keyboard shortcut cntrl+opt on mac for those who don't use it already btw). I'm constantly changing size/softness so being able to just click and swipe to change them is hugely helpful. My top click is a radial menu.</p>

<p>In that radial menu, it varies depending on if it's the 4 or 5.. the 5 has way more spaces in the top level menu whereas the 4 only has 4.. so since you're using the 4 we'll start with that. I have view all (cmd 0) and view mode (f) set on two menu tabs as those are commonly the first buttons I hit when I open a file. I then have 2 sub menus on the other tabs.. one for tools, one for commands.</p>

<p>In tools is obviously my common tools.. stamp, brush, healing brush, lasso, etc. Simple enough.</p>

<p>In commands are two different types of things.. common adjustments (curves, shadow/highlight, etc), and actions that I've assigned to keystrokes.</p>

<p>With this setup I can do basically everything without a keyboard or mouse. On the Intous 4 it is a bit irritating to have to use a sub-menu for tools, but with the 5 I can assign my most used tools to the top level menu due to the extra spaces it offers. The 5 is also touch sensitive so you can add multi-touch commands to the mix.. this again expands what you can do without the keyboard since you can assign even more things to your fingers, freeing up space in your radial menus.</p>

<p>Now, on top of all of this.. I use a product called x-keys. The one I have has 86 keys that I can assign macros to, which infinitely increases what I can do with a key press.. it's also significantly smaller than a keyboard, so I can fit it right next to my tablet without problem. I use iKey to create the macros for it. This allows me to automate even more tasks.. everything from launching programs, running PS actions, saving/exporting with particular settings, creating new orders with specific folders, the possibilities are endless.</p>

<p>My keyboard is for typing.. that's about it these days.</p>

<p>Do the dust spots show up immediately when opening the file in PS? Or is it only after you run the Nik software that they appear? If they show up immediately, it sounds like LR is not exporting the changes you've made properly.</p>

<p>If they don't show up until Nik runs, well.. hmpf. When you say that the cloned areas show up, what do you mean exactly? do you just see where they are, or are they gone completely and the original unedited file shows? Once LR exports the image to PS, that's that.. there is no way for Nik or anything else to undo those changes on the exported file. As far as any software (PS, Nik, etc) is concerned the image that shows up in PS is completely unrelated to any file in LR.. the file in PS is the only information they have to work with.</p>

<p>I'm sure I really have an answer for the problem either way, but at least it'd put us on the right track to figuring it out.</p>

<p>If you could post a couple images it might help a lot to figure out what's going on. Do this.. take a file and do your normal editing/adjustments/cloning. Export that file to a jpg directly from LR (probably want to downsize it for sharing sake). Then take that same file and send it to PS as you've been doing.. do whatever it is that is making the cloned spots show up and save out that file as a jpg (again downsizing is probably a good idea). If you want, you can actually just crop out an area that shows the problem close up at a larger size so it's easier to see.</p>

<p>I think the first question is actually what speed you are getting? How long is it taking to run a filter on a given image size, etc.? (by size I mean both data size, and resolution)</p>

<p>If you are way below average then perhaps there are some ways to make some big speed jumps, but at some point you'll probably only see minor improvements.</p>

<p>Honestly, so long as you know what each tool is doing exactly.. it makes little to no difference what order you work in.</p>

<p>I work in LR several hours a day, and I probably seem a bit 'random' with how I approach each image.. in reality, I'm just fixing/adjusting each thing in the way I know it will work best. The order in which I do it is irrelevant, since LR is a 'what you see is what you get' type program. You can adjust brightness/contrast, then color, then sharpness.. or the other way around, the end result will be the same.</p>

<p>The reason LR is laid out as it is, is simply because that's how most people will think.. one thing mostly builds on the thing before it. Me? I skip to what I need to adjust, then refine it as necessary. Because I use the program a -lot- I know how to get my result, the order in which I attack each issue in the image makes no difference in the result.</p>

<p>I do the majority of things with u-point controls.. once you learn to use them they can be very fast and effective. Learning to combine points that you are using to adjust with points around them to keep them in check can accomplish most of what you need.</p>

<p>There are times however when a mask is just faster.. if you need a solid area left alone (or changed) like an eye, tshirt, etc. then just brush it in.</p>

<p>I'm not sure if nx2 does it or not, but in some of the Nik software you can hold down cmd (ctrl on windows) while you are expanding/contracting the side of the control point and it will show you a live mask update. (note: if cmd/ctrl doesn't work, try alt.. I know one of them does it but I don't use it very often).. this can be a nice shortcut to see what you're doing.</p>

<p>Out of curiosity, when did you get the software? If you bought on/after Dec. 6th I believe.. you will get a free update to SEP 2 when it comes out sometime next month.</p>

<p>As to your question.. I don't believe there is a true undo function in the original Silver Efex Pro. You might try cmd+z (or cntrl+z on windows) as this works in most of their software. SEP is about 3 years old at this point and they've come a long ways in what their software can do since then.</p>

<p>I think you can also double click a slider to reset it, which isn't quite the same, but can be useful.. however it has been a while since I used the original version of this software so don't quote me on that :)</p>

<p>I liked Dave Hill's stuff when I first saw his work several years ago.. but now that everybody and their horse has copied it, it has become overdone and uninteresting.</p>

<p>You can get Western Digital 2TB drives at best buy for about $100 or so each usually.. I'd buy two.</p>

<p>Get a cloning software (not sure what is best for PC, I use carbon copy cloner for mac) and mirror your entire drive w/ daily updates to both drives. Store one somewhere not in your home.. at your office, at a friend's house, etc. (some people suggest a safe deposit box, but that's a bit annoying to me).. anywhere that you go regularly so that you can just swap out the drives when you go to that place. This way if somebody robs you, building burns down, etc. you are safe.</p>

<p>Might want to make sure a layer is selected, as PS will ignore the command if there isn't.. that's the only thing I can think off offhand.</p>

<p>They should show up under Filters down at the bottom, listed as Nik Software.. if for some reason they don't, go to File > Automate > Nik Selective Tool which will bring up their own little tool palette.</p>

<p>You might email customer support if they aren't showing in Filters and you want them to, but I personally use the selective tool. (though if I didn't have a huge screen, I would probably not want to all the time since it takes up space)</p>

<p>I'd try Walter's suggestion if you haven't already. Wipe everything Nik related from your computer, then do a clean install of all the 640bit software.</p>

<p>I've only seen the crashing problem from people who kept the 32bit installed and put 64bit on top of it.</p>

<p>Not strictly about this topic I know, but since Dell came up I figured I'd mention it. Dell service for the average customer, and Dell business service are night and day different. If you have a reasonably sized business account, they'll show up same/next day and fix stuff for you on site, and bend over backwards to help you. If you're a normal customer who calls in for service, you're more likely to get a response of 'ha, good luck with that' followed by a dial tone.</p>

<p>well put Andrew, thanks for that.</p>

<p>Mac customers aren't somehow special in the way they do or do not complain.. people who are upset complain about it, people who aren't don't.. that's just how it goes. It doesn't mater if we're talking macs, pcs, donuts or widgets. This inherently skews things when you only look at those who complain and use it as an estimator of how many people are unhappy. </p>

<p>Ridiculous expectations are common in all forms of customer service, it isn't just Apple.. but that does certainly account for many cases of "bad service" with any company.</p>

<p>Problems happen, it's a fact of any manufacturing. Apple on the whole seems to be better at fixing it than many other companies, but nobody is perfect. I've had great service from them over the years, replaced batteries, extended warranties on problems, full system replacements for things I didn't really expect to require them, etc. I do find going into an Apple store gets you -far- better service than other methods, which isn't an option for everybody unfortunately.</p>

<p>Of course, sometimes they suck. It may be a manager who isn't willing to budge, a tech who doesn't know what the heck they're doing, or somebody just having a bad day, but it happens. This is a fact of any company, of any customer service... it's an unfortunate one, but it does happen.</p>

<p>To those who are trying to use google results to make a point, don't bother. They're useless. Searching generic terms plus the addition of a company name is absolutely no indicator of anything.</p>

<p>There is also a large problem of perspective when using complaints as a judgement of a company. People who have problems complain, many of them complain as often as possible, as loudly as possible. People who don't have problems.. well they tend to be a whole lot quieter. So you get this massively skewed view of things when you only look at who is talking. You have to keep in mind the real number of customers, and how happy people are as well. That's where customer satisfaction surveys come in, they take a cross section of both (or at least try to).. and in those results, Apple is awesome.</p>

<p>Bob</p>

<p>Just to be clear, files processed in 64bit are not any bigger than other files. The comment above was stating that you only really need 64bit if you are dealing with large files (and therefor need the additional ram it allows you to use, assuming you have it).</p>

<p>I really wish the terminology in some tech was more clear and didn't overlap.. just with photoshop alone you deal with 8bit and 16bit color spaces (which does impact file size), then 32 and 64bit architecture (which is totally unrelated).</p>

<p>Charles</p>

<p>So you didn't ever give it to them for service? How do you expect it to be fixed then? You clearly didn't solve all your problems.</p>

<p>And not that it's even remotely on topic.. but the lack of blue ray support has been openly stated as a complication with licensing issues.</p>

<p>You should be able to set up LR to apply custom settings on import, so that it will apply auto white balance while importing to begin with.</p>

<p>Remove them all and do clean installs of the 64bit plugins, that's probably the easiest thing to try for a quick fix.</p>

<p>I have been using all the 64bit versions without any problems.</p>

<p>You can't fix hardware problems over the phone (odds are very high that's what it is), send it to them.</p>

<p>If it comes back and still malfunctions, you now have documented proof that they tried to fix it and couldn't, so you will get a lot further with your requests.</p>

<p>Just tested this and it works fine for me.</p>

<p>I converted the layer to a smart object, applied SEP with a color filter, reopened the sep smart object and changed the color filter, no problems. I also did the same process without using a color filter the first time around, works fine.</p>

<p>I'd contact Nik directly about it, I'd bet they try to help you out. It's possible that there is a bug with the demo software maybe?</p>

<p>Make sure that the color filters really show a noticeable difference in the image when you first open it in SEP.. some images there won't be much difference between one filter and another.</p>

<p>Also make sure that you are opening the smart object by double clicking the SEP smart object in the layers palette, and that you're not just running SEP again.. if you run sep a second time, it's converting a black and white image into a black and white image.. color filters won't matter.</p>

<p>The Cintiq is a high quality display (I believe it uses an eizo screen inside) but it comes down to what you're doing.</p>

<p>As somebody doing mostly photo work, you want the NEC and an intuos4 tablet.. the extra screen space is helpful here, and the intuos4 will certainly give you the control you want.</p>

<p>The cintiq really becomes helpful if you do a lot of other types of art.. digital drawing, painting, etc. as it's a more direct replacement for traditional tools and it's a more natural feel than pushing an arrow around a screen.</p>

<p>For pure speed, the cintiq is faster since you never have to 'guess' where you are on the screen. Sure you can put your pen down and figure it out and navigate from there, but it's still more like a very precise mouse movement than anything.. there is a bit of estimation involved. However for photo work the intuos is all you really need.</p>