My first Drobo 5D arrived today. I just spent about 1/2 an hour prepping it and firing it up. Haven't installed an SSD in it yet, but the speeds I've seen so far are remarkable. Pulling up and saving files in Photoshop happens so fast that the saving dialogue boxes close instantly after one clicks the "OK" tab, even with D800 files at full TIFF res.

The bottle neck currently is the fact that it's the only Thunderbolt drive I have, so moving anything from other drives is limited by the read/write speeds of the slower arrays. Once I have the array filled with client files, I'll be able to take advantage of the speed. Having everything stored on Thunderbolt arrays would save an incredible amount of time over a year. A stack of 5D arrays hooked up to the newest iMac platform would be a real treat.

I also want to purchase the latest iMac, they just look so nice. But that might be a tough one to sneak passed the wife

Hi Steven,

I think Apple was a tad optimistic on release dates. The smaller version said "November" and there's no sign of them so far. The 27" said December, so they have a month to make good on that. They do look pretty cool.

Halle and I burned up a couple of loaves of bread this afternoon. When I clicked this, I think both parties were wondering what they had gotten themselves involved in.......................

Delivered a Christmas present to one of my favorite clients this afternoon. A 40" pano of the T-38 post dusk image. We printed it on an Fuji pearl paper then did a special overlay with a protective high gloss, micro thin product. The presentation was more dramatic than I anticipated, and hitting it with a strategically placed accent light will make for a breathtaking presentation. A second edition is being printed for HQ.

First unscientific 5D speed test. A 35 GB folder took 9 minutes to download from the 5D to my MacBook Pro desktop. Same folder took 90 minutes to copy from the desktop to an array in my network via ethernet cable.

The real time saver for me will be the lack of a lag in pulling, retouching and re-saving images. The rest you can just begin and walk away. Although it has to be a great deal easier on the drives to run for 9 minutes vs 90 x all the backing up I do in a year's time.

JWilsonphoto wrote:
Hi Steven,

I think Apple was a tad optimistic on release dates. The smaller version said "November" and there's no sign of them so far. The 27" said December, so they have a month to make good on that. They do look pretty cool.

Jim,

The 21" iMacs went on sale yesterday. Apple just made their deadline.

Someone needs to offer a Thunderbolt card reader. Man that would speed things up at the end of a day.

Mark

Jeff W. wrote:
I've been up to my elbows in alligators that past couple of weeks getting ready for a last elk hunt with my oldest son before he leaves for med school. Unfortunately, the hunt got canceled when he came down with a serious case of the flu and had to be hospitalized. With some unexpected time to fill while I'm waiting for my son to repair, I've been rolling through one amazing page of MA2A images after an other.

To fill the void that would have been travel today, I've been working on the images for my upcoming Southwest Aviation Review article on the F-35B. Accordingly, I offer one last teaser photograph before my article comes out next week (keeping fingers crossed). Sometimes I like backlit images

You did the impossible, making that plane look good. Great work Jeff

Steve, I look forward to welcoming you to Austin!

Rusty1 wrote:
You did the impossible, making that plane look good. Great work Jeff

Thanks Vance. Here is a blended monochrome version that I thought turned out well.

Jeff looks like it's airbrushed very cool

Jan-Arie wrote:
Jeff looks like it's airbrushed very cool

+1! Gorgeous effect, Jeff.

Jeff W. wrote:
Rusty1 wrote:
You did the impossible, making that plane look good. Great work Jeff

Thanks Vance. Here is a blended monochrome version that I thought turned out well.

I fully agree with Vance. Wonderful work

Aviationbuff wrote:
Jeff W. wrote:
Rusty1 wrote:
You did the impossible, making that plane look good. Great work Jeff

Thanks Vance. Here is a blended monochrome version that I thought turned out well.

I fully agree with Vance. Wonderful work

+1 How do you do that - if you're not giving away trade secrets?
Niall

Jan, SteveZ, Chris, & Niall - Thanks for the positive encouragement, you are too kind.

I actually processed this image two different ways in SEP2 (1 emphasizing structure & 1 emphasizing tone) and then blended them in CS6. Once I was happy with the blended monochrome, I took the image into CEP4 and used the "Midnight" filter on it to give the image some serious dark glow. After the "Midnight" treatment, I changed the CEP4 layer from "Normal" to "Overlay" and reduced the opacity to 15%. I also did some dodging and burning in CS6 to help blend the various post processing techniques to my taste.

Combine my post processing work with the unexpected magical back lighting in the afternoon and I got a much better image than I had originally envisioned. While I'd like to say I deftly pre-visualize every image before I trip the shutter, it don't always happen that way for me kids. It is nice to get a surprise like this once in a while. I guess I shouldn't be so quick to give up on an marginal image

CEP4: whazzat? Color Efex Pro? You mean I have to buy another piece of third-party software just to keep up?

Wow, Mark
, I never thought that We would ever see a beam of light stopped. I wont go into the cheetahs, as I am a cat person and anything that shows cheetahs moving like that is worth every second of viewing. Bet it would be fun, to attend one of those lectures at MIT.

Tom

I bought Silver EfexPro first and then liked it so much that I bought the rest of the suite Colour Rfex, Viveza (both of which I use a lot) Define (which I use occasionally to remove noise) and Sharpener Pro, thus spending about four times what I would have spent if I'd bought them as a single set!!! The only one I use is very little is the sharpener - CS6 sharpening tools are as good as if not better than the Nik Output Sharpener (IMHO) and I have yet to work out how you access the RAW presharpener from within CS6 RAW palette!!
Niall

Beautiful Jeff!

I agree Niall. The Sharpener Pro proved to be of very little value to me.