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New Rig, Fresh Start ...

RustyBug
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · New Rig, Fresh Start ...

So, I've got the new MBP rig.

How would you set it up ... Structure / Workflow, etc. Files / LR catalogs / Apple Timeline / Cloud / Backups / Folder Structure / Programs, Partitions, Calibrations, etc. or pretty much anything you can think of wrt your "lessons" learned" or "best practice" (or, just your preference)?

What "MUST DO" or "DON'T DO" do you consider key essentials to GET RIGHT, right from the get-go. Not being familiar with Mac, just checking for "gotcha's" before I get started.

How clean is it right now ... pretty clean, I haven't even turned it on yet.

I'd like to just hand it to someone, and have them optimize it for me, then hand it back and be good for life ... but, then I wake up and find reality staring me in the face.

Nov 11, 2022 at 09:53 PM

Ray Swindle
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · New Rig, Fresh Start ...

You use to be able to set up a training session with someone at the Apple Store for a familiarization course. During COVID, Apple provided me with a phone session with a technical person for familiarization. You might contact Apple to see if you can set up a familiarization chat.

You might be able to contact customer service and they may connect you to a technical support person to help you out.

Nov 11, 2022 at 10:53 PM

RustyBug
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · New Rig, Fresh Start ...

Ray Swindle wrote:
You use to be able to set up a training session with someone at the Apple Store for a familiarization course. During COVID, Apple provided me with a phone session with a technical person for familiarization. You might contact Apple to see if you can set up a familiarization chat.

You might be able to contact customer service and they may connect you to a technical support person to help you out.

Thanks Ray, I appreciate that.

I've already taken the familiarization course (summertime) with the Apple store ... part of my decision to make the move from PC to Mac, before taking the plunge into the investment. I made the time investment to decide to switch it. Then the $$$ investment to get it. Now I need a bit more info investment, to do it (right).

But, I'm asking here is from a Real User PHOTOGRAPHIC perspective ... about how folks have set up shop with the Mac. General users don't think / work the way photographers do. General users don't have workflows with LR database, etc. Popular usage, may not be sage advice for business approach. Many Mac fans may say, use Timeline, it's great. Which may / may not be what I really want to do from our photographic / business perspective.

My experience with the Apple Store (which included trying to get specific to how to use the Mac for our purposes), was less than impressive (being very kind, here).

Just wondering if there are certain "hidden" aspects (pro / con) of setting up shop with the Mac to be aware of. You know, those "Gee, I wish I'd known that back when I was setting things up."

kind of stuff.

Basically, a How Photographers should set up a Mac, for Dummies.

Personal insight / experience of lessons learned or tips / trick to make it best, kind of thing. Watch out for this, make sure of that, stuff. Links to other resources (hopefully oriented to our needs) are welcome, too.

Let's just say, I trust you guys to steer me right, WAY MORE than the Apple store.

Nov 12, 2022 at 06:04 AM

eyal
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · New Rig, Fresh Start ...

There really isn't much to a Mac and it stays 'clean' much better than a pc does with, for the most part, simpler installation and uninstallation.

But, that being said, main thing I would recommend is that you make a folder for Lightroom on your main drive for the catalog, previews and any imported files you are planning to cull and edit.

Simple as:
1. Open Finder (usually far left of dock at bottom - the one that looks like it has smiley face)
2. Click on what you named your Mac which may be one of the last entries under the Favorites on the left sidebar. You should then see the main window with Applications, Download, etc folders
3. Right click on an empty space in the main window and then New Folder. Name it Lightroom

Now in LRc, click on the menu bar at top under the Lightroom Classic and choose Preferences
General - make your LR catalog in that folder you just created.
I click the option to keep my presets with my catalog.

Your internal SSD is your fastest possible disk so the catalog and previews want to live there.

Time Machine on an external is super easy. You can buy a Sandisk 2TB SSD on Black Friday and use that as your Time Machine backup.

There is a great program called Carbon Copy Cloner that you can set up to make copies of folders, whatever. I have that set to copy that Lightroom folder (and all imported images there) every few hours to a RAID attached to the Mac. It does other copying as well so I end up with 3 physical backups at any given time.

Other than that, I think everything else if more of a 'play with settings and see what you like'

Hope that helps

Nov 12, 2022 at 06:21 AM

Chris Dees
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · New Rig, Fresh Start ...

As an addition to what eyal wrote.
I have my images from present year at the MBP SSD.
All other images are on a an external SSD (could be a HDD as well).
After a (long) edit session I backup the images (and catalog) of the MBP to an external HDD. I use FolderSynchronize for this.
Once a month I copy the images to two HDD's. One stays in the house, the other one outside.
Once a year I backup the keepers to the external SSD and HDD's and delete all images on the MBP SSD (using LR catalog and re-direct the closed year to the external SSD).

Structure of the map Images (under pictures):
Year
Year + Month + <Event>
Year + Month + <Event> + type (JPG or RAW)
Year-Month-Dag (only with longer projects or holidays)

Images: Timestamp + <Event> + type (JPG, NEF, TIF, XMP) if necessary with number)

All documents are in the cloud.

Timemachine: every hour for everything except Images and Documents

No partitions, just default Apple structure

Nov 12, 2022 at 06:55 AM

mcbroomf
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · New Rig, Fresh Start ...

I didn't move from Win to Mac as my main photo machine is desktop (still Win) but I switched my laptop from an HP to the new M1 MBP.

To be honest I didn't change anything about the way I use it (from the HP). LRC, PS are the same, I don't keep anything on the MBP Desktop (I see quite a few people using the Desktop as a filing system) so my catalog and cache are dealt with the same way (and I keep cat off board in a TB SSD, but I think this is your main machine so you probably do that differently).

This is my travel PC so I don't backup images from it (they are all moved to internal drives on my desktop and get backed up to TB DAS and and NAS.

It might be useful to describe how you plan to use your laptop (main/travel, on desk/on lap, external/internal storage, 2 screens etc ...)

Nov 12, 2022 at 08:02 AM

schlotz
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · New Rig, Fresh Start ...

Mac's are pretty much clean. Your setup for photography can essentially mimic what you were doing via Windows if that is what you want. Basic structure/config I've been using follows simple logic.

1. Your internal hard drive has limited space but also has the fastest I/O. Depending on size, keep only current year photos on it, everything else gets moved to external storage. External storage is a topic/conversation all to its own.

2. LR catalog(s) are kept on the internal drive.

3. Any software that gets added, I put the installer into its own subfolder under the a main folder called 'installed'.

4. Backup... oh boy lots opinions on this one. Personally, I played with Time Machine for a year and ditched it for Carbon Copy Cloner. Just get and start using CCC. You can thank me later.

5. Don't be an early adopter for LR or macOS upgrades. Resist temptation, it has saved me more than once. EX) current LR version will not backup catalogs to NAS based storage. It will get fixed, I do have a work around but I'm content to wait until it's officially resolved.

Agree with Mike above, if you could describe how you plan to use the MBP we might be able to be more specific.

Nov 12, 2022 at 09:31 AM

RustyBug
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · New Rig, Fresh Start ...

Thanks guys.

The MBP is my main rig. I have no desk, no external monitors.

For storage, I have the 4TB SSD (read / write speeds, longevity / reliability) on board, and a small external LaCie drive (pre-Mac purchase, still unused / clean). Thought, I'd just go with a library of external drives, each year (or multi-year). Thought about a NAS, but am not there yet.

I'm mostly low volume (i.e. non-event) and have processed all images one by one, 100% by hand, from RAW ... never using presets, etc. So, I've not been attracted to LR's database or batch processing power to this point. I never felt like I needed the catalog / db for my low volume. The years have started to accrue, so it might be time to think about it. A few uses for bulk development have cropped up for consideration, so I'm thinking about it differently going forward.

Looking ahead to the next 10 years, (or back at the last ten), I can start to see that it might have some benefit to me (another learning curve), so that has me thinking I might want to set up the MBP "correctly" for LR use from the start.

So, as a non-LR user (I've used it a few times, just never cataloged with it), I'm not versed in strategic use. Mostly working in PS, then as Bridge / ACR got better, using Bridge more, PS less. I have C1 and used it for almost a year. Then, ACR improved (to me) and I haven't used C1 much since then, but with the newfound power of the MBP, I will revisit C1 with the MBP.

Nov 12, 2022 at 10:50 AM

RustyBug
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · New Rig, Fresh Start ...

schlotz wrote:
Just get and start using CCC. You can thank me later.

Thanks Matt,

Sounds like I should thank you now, and make CCC my FIRST STEP.

This is EXACTLY the kind of thing I was hoping for from you guys (knowing I'd NOT get it from the Apple store).

Nov 12, 2022 at 11:04 AM

sbay
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · New Rig, Fresh Start ...

RustyBug wrote:
How would you set it up ... Structure / Workflow, etc. Files / LR catalogs / Apple Timeline / Cloud / Backups / Folder Structure / Programs, Partitions, Calibrations, etc. or pretty much anything you can think of wrt your "lessons" learned" or "best practice" (or, just your preference)?

In terms of this, there's nothing really special about mac os x. Just make sure (1) you have a logical file structure with every image having a unique id and (2) you have a backup strategy with at least two copies and one offsite. That's 95% of what you need to worry about. If you have external drives, you'll want to move them over HFS+ (apple filesystem) instead of NTFS.

But there are a lot of UI things that you can setup to make your life much easier.

* enable right click in system preferences for the mouse
* setup mouse gestures
* setup virtual spaces
* setup mission control and hot corners
* setup 360 scrolling on magic mouse
* helper apps like karabiner-elements (keyboard customization), apptivate (quick program launcher), magnet (window manager)
* safari should be your go to browser (most power efficient, privacy) but if you need better adblocking try firefox (ublock origin)

You may not use all the UI elements / modes of operation but they can be very very handy and makes a big difference in customizing your mac for you.

Nov 12, 2022 at 11:27 AM

RustyBug
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · New Rig, Fresh Start ...

sbay wrote:

If you have external drives, you'll want to move them over HFS+ (apple filesystem) instead of NTFS.

Hadn't heard of HFS+ before. Not sure how my LaCie is. The store said I'd be able to use it for either PC (when I bought it) or Mac (knowing a switch might be in the future). I don't recall any mention of HFS+ ... but, that could just be my poor memory.

I haven't used this drive yet, so will I need to do anything ... or, will it be an automatic thing when I set it up with the MBP?

Nov 12, 2022 at 11:40 AM

eyal
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · New Rig, Fresh Start ...

If the Lacie is empty, it is easy to change the filesystem

Great keyboard shortcut: Command and Spacebar - brings up Spotlight which is a search engine for your system. Type in Disk Utility and you can format the Lacie from there.

Just be careful that you are choosing the Lacie and not your internal or other drive with any data as formatting to a new file system will delete everything on it.

For externals, choose HFS+. The newer APFS is great for internals and maybe external SSDs but not external spinning drives.

You can use that command and space to find just about anything on a Mac. Also the search in Mail and in Finder is very good as well.

Nov 12, 2022 at 12:31 PM

RustyBug
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · New Rig, Fresh Start ...

eyal wrote:
If the Lacie is empty, it is easy to change the filesystem

Great keyboard shortcut: Command and Spacebar - brings up Spotlight which is a search engine for your system. Type in Disk Utility and you can format the Lacie from there.

Just be careful that you are choosing the Lacie and not your internal or other drive with any data as formatting to a new file system will delete everything on it.

For externals, choose HFS+. The newer APFS is great for internals and maybe external SSDs but not external spinning drives.

You can use that command and space to find just about...Show more →

Sounds pretty straightforward, thanks.

Yup, I remember the warnings about formatting C: from way back when, so I get your point.

Okay, so I know how to setup the backup drive, and where to get good backup software for it. Maybe I'll turn it on, now.

Nov 12, 2022 at 03:13 PM

RustyBug
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · New Rig, Fresh Start ...

sbay wrote:
In terms of this, there's nothing really special about mac os x. Just make sure (1) you have a logical file structure with every image having a unique id and (2) you have a backup strategy with at least two copies and one offsite. That's 95% of what you need to worry about. If you have external drives, you'll want to move them over HFS+ (apple filesystem) instead of NTFS.

But there are a lot of UI things that you can setup to make your life much easier.

* enable right click in system preferences for the mouse
* setup mouse gestures
* setup...Show more →

Thanks. I figure there's plenty of ways to setup UI stuff ... will have that to learn, too.

Keyboard customization catches my attention, recalling that I wanted some things different when I was checking them out. All in time, but good to know it's an option.

Nov 12, 2022 at 03:20 PM

SejalPatelMU
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · New Rig, Fresh Start ...

I second what eyal stated. It took me years to get to that system. The couple of things I did until I got my iMac was:

1. I kept the LR catalog, 1:1 previews and Smart Images on my MacBook. With 4TB I might keep my current year of images on my SSD. But I had on 1TB on my 2014 MacBook Pro. I kept all images on an external drive (back then it was a WB Elements 2TB HDD) and now it is an 8TB NVME SSD (OWC Express 4M2) it is not as fast as the internal drive but it is way faster than the HDD (800-900 MBs read/write).
2. I second the carbon copy cloner to a NAS (I have a synology) the problem, I always ran into was that Macbook wouldn't be plugged in sometimes when CCC was ready to run. With my iMac I do not have that issue. DO NOT try to run LR images stored on the NAS, it is DAMN slow. I guess with the new Ethernet ports it may be a bit faster but I hated it.
3. The NAS gets backed up via Synology USB Copy to an attached 18TB G-Drive. And it also gets backed up to the cloud via Synology HyperBackup using BackBlaze S2 (cheapest solution).

CCC runs every Saturday night, USB Copy Every Sunday Night and HyperBackup every Monday night (low network usage).

I once had my 8TB WD Mybook power supply die and almost lost my entire photo library (Landscape and Family). Luckily I always buy two of the same thing and I just swapped the drives and was able to recover everything, but that what prompted me to get the Synology. I then had the power supply die on the Synology, and thats what prompted me to get G-Drive and keep a full local backup of the Synology.

I also keep two separate catalogs: Landscape and Family. No reason to scroll through baby pictures when I am editing or working on my Landscape stuff. Some may disagree with that, but I like a little separation :-)

Sejal

Nov 12, 2022 at 08:47 PM

schlotz
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · New Rig, Fresh Start ...

I recently ventured into using a NAS for the first time. Knowing that access speed can be an issue, I spent a lot of time researching options. Went with QNAP specifically because it offered direct connection to my MBP M1 via Thunderbolt 3. Turned out to be a good choice. The 5G stress setting using BlackMagic's Disk Speed Test on a NAS share via TB3 yielded approx 1990 MB/s read & over 540 MB/s write, and this is without any supporting NVMe cacheing. Issue right now the latest ver of LR has an acknowledged bug where attempting to back up your catalog to a NAS will fail. Adobe will get it fixed but I won't upgrade until it happens.

Nov 13, 2022 at 08:34 AM

Bob49
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · New Rig, Fresh Start ...

Congratulations on the MBP.

You might consider these two steps if you use LR to import: 1. On importing from a card, have LR make a second copy of the imported files to a separate drive, just in case. That way your cards are backed up consistently. 2. Select the LR catalogue setting that backs up the LR catalogue every time you exit LR. The MBP will do that very quickly (if the LR cat is on the internal drive), and LR seems less likely to bog down if the catalogue is current.

Nov 13, 2022 at 11:15 AM

rscheffler
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · New Rig, Fresh Start ...

SejalPatelMU wrote:
I once had my 8TB WD Mybook power supply die and almost lost my entire photo library (Landscape and Family). Luckily I always buy two of the same thing and I just swapped the drives and was able to recover everything, but that what prompted me to get the Synology. I then had the power supply die on the Synology, and thats what prompted me to get G-Drive and keep a full local backup of the Synology.

This is a reason why I no longer buy HDDs sealed in enclosures from the factory. Or run a NAS RAID system where perhaps the hardware 5-10 years down the road will fail and the replacement hardware/software might not recognize the old RAID array when the drives are moved over to it... I buy bare drives and use CCC to clone multiple copies and migrate to larger drives as they come down into the sweet spot for most storage for the dollar.

Just a follow up to my own MBP14" purchase in early September. I'm now slightly regretting only getting 1TB internal storage... Over the past couple months I've been testing the mirrorless waters and trying a variety of Canon cameras. When I had the 45MP R5 and shot a number of jobs on it, those ~50MB raw files ate through storage pretty quickly. I've mostly been trying out various ~20-24MP options and that eases things a bit, but if I don't keep on top of current projects and process them out quickly, even then storage fills up quickly (my 2TB external SSD that acts as an intermediate backup and overflow is already quite full).

Nov 13, 2022 at 11:30 PM

schlotz
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · New Rig, Fresh Start ...

Yup, storage space can get chewed up pretty quickly with larger RAW file sizes. A good culling process can help keep it in check, but only to a point.

Nov 14, 2022 at 09:04 AM

eyal
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · New Rig, Fresh Start ...

rscheffler wrote:
This is a reason why I no longer buy HDDs sealed in enclosures from the factory. Or run a NAS RAID system where perhaps the hardware 5-10 years down the road will fail and the replacement hardware/software might not recognize the old RAID array when the drives are moved over to it... I buy bare drives and use CCC to clone multiple copies and migrate to larger drives as they come down into the sweet spot for most storage for the dollar.

Just a follow up to my own MBP14" purchase in early September. I'm now slightly regretting only getting 1TB...Show more →

I like my setup with a RAID5 attached to my MacBook Pro which gets me cheap large storage with the ability to replace a single dead drive while also boosting read/write speeds to approximately those of a standard external SSD. That gets copied to a Synology NAS.

I import all images to my internal 1TB SSD but also feel the need to process files fairly quickly to free up space. I've only gotten in trouble with back to back to back high school football games with 4,000 images (A1 at 30fps can generate lots of photos) and had to work hard to cull and process.

Nov 14, 2022 at 10:21 AM

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