For years, whenever I’ve traveled, I’ve gone through the trouble of dragging a MacBook Pro, charger, and cables along with me. I tried something different on my most recent trip, and I don’t think I can go back.
After a day of shooting, I’d get back to the hotel and begin the process of importing images, typically to a temporary Lightroom catalog, anxious to start editing my favorite shots from the day. Each night, however, I was disappointed by the experience: between being tired from a day of hiking and sightseeing and frustration with Lightroom’s annoyingly slow experience on a laptop, I was never happy with the results.
I was using a top of the line MacBook Pro, with the images natively stored on the fast SSD. Despite having some of the best portable hardware, I was still facing a five-second delay just moving between images. Nothing saps enthusiasm like a five-second wait for every image just to load when culling through 500 shots. Rendering 1:1 previews was also torturously slow and would push any opportunity for image review even later into the night.
After I’d skipped through the images, too impatient to actually check each one, I’d hone in on a few favorites and actually start to edit. A trackpad, even one as good as the MacBook’s, is not enjoyable to use for the small sliders or finicky brush tool in Lightroom. Stitching any panoramas or merging to HDR would also trigger a minute or more of blasting cooling fans and an unusable laptop.
Frustrated with the whole process, I’d usually settle for just having my images imported and quickly put the laptop away. I tried different hardware, different versions of Lightroom, and even tried to adjust my expectations, but over the years, I’ve never been happy with my on-the-road edits. None made it into my portfolio, and anything posted to Instagram was just as likely to have come from my phone.
Editing in the field is crucial if I were shooting something for quick delivery, but when shooting for my personal portfolio or enjoyment, it is just easier to wait. I save bag space by bringing a small laptop, tablet, or nothing more than my phone. I’ve looked at some alternative products for backing up images without a laptop; I find the Gnarbox to be an interesting, if expensive, option. On shorter trips, I’ve just shot to both cards in my camera and split them between my carryon bags.
Gnarbox is an option for backing up your images in the field, no laptop required.
Looking at it now, I actually think it is for the best to delay the editing process until I got home. Having a bit of distance between the excitement of taking the shot and actually culling the images helps the winners stand on their own merits and prevents me from getting too attached to a shot that isn’t as strong. It has even saved superfluous steps in my workflow: no temporary Lightroom catalog that lives on my laptop and less dealing with duplicates between different drives.
At home, I’ve got large, color-calibrated monitors, a Wacom tablet, and much greater processing power. Images render quickly, and I can work with my entire library at my fingertips. The entire experience is better, and I believe that when I’m out shooting, I can better focus on the process. Ordinarily, leaving my gear behind would be a disaster when traveling, but in this case, I might be forgetting my laptop more often.
You might check my comment below. I personally believe it has to do with the fact that Lightroom, by default, applies sharpening / noise reduction and these options have a significant impact when switching between multiple images and accessing 1-1 previews. Try moving those sliders to zero and saving that as the default. You might see an improvement.
AFAIK the lens corrections does the same. I tend to apply them in the beginning, but if ones computer is slow it could help to apply them as the last step of RAW processing.
Don't get me wrong, LR is not that far but I think some of you don't even use it or don't know how to use it. If you take a closer look you'll find that you can setup LR to your like with culling (I think since the second last release). You can use the quick previews like in PM and you can tell LR to render it later when you have the resources. BTW. I'm using PM with LR and I'm also using C1 for certain images only. But to be honest, the lastest upgrade from C1 11 to C1 12 is 159 EUR so I will give up on C1.
I'm a PC user and have a 2012 Asus Rog G75VW with C drive as SSD but just normal drives for D and external and i have NO LAG. I can easily edit hundreds of images per hour. I edit video on it too. ALL HAIL WINDOWS because no matter who I meet with an apple, their apples do NOT function like a well made Asus ROG laptop! - I just got a new Asus ROG for my birthday, but my 2012 model is still INSTANT in EVERY performance.. photo and video.. it amazes everyone.. I shoot Canon, and I edit with Photoshop CS 6 and Adobe Camera Raw plugin.. I paid $1500 for photoshop before it became subscription only. My images load INSTANTLY and I edited 200 images for a client in an hour yesterday out and about on the lappy
I use a 2017 ROG and its a beast for Photo and Video editing.
I never bring a laptop or even consider editing in the field and it was never a problem – until I got an email from the CEO of the company, asking if I could send him the final version of a shot from the previous day and I was sitting in a hotel room in San Francisco! :-)
Capture One Pro. Do a little research. Also, try using an external mouse instead of the trackpad.
I have a 6 year old Asus ROG G75VW and a new Asus ROG laptop, they're both more powerful and fast than ANY of my friends macbook pros.. - there is NO LAG - and I'm a video editor too. I use a wireless mouse which I still use on my lap, I just run the mouse along the laptop below the number keys (Asus Rogs have plenty of space for that)
Thats one of the brands I'm considering for my next upgrade due to Apple and their latest stupidity. Glad they're working out for you.
These portable backup boxes take me back :) must be about 15 years ago when these started popping up? Everyone here had one and frantically backed up their 4mb CF cards.
As for on the road, I started with a MacBook Air, external backup, etc. Chunky processing of D800 files. But it worked. I did a lot of big job trips so I could edit in the evenings and get client feedback before shooting the next day.
Moved on to a MacBook Pro and external SSD drives, faster, better.
THEN. PhotoMechanic walked into my life and revolutionised how fast things could be done. LR is my processor of choice, love or hate it, it works. I used to use C1 with a Phase One camera then got sucked into the Adobe life.
Anyway, PM and LR. The go-to for fly-away jobs. Plus a couple of SSD backups.
The IPad Pro smokes Lightroom and there is no more enjoyable experience than after a day's shoot, sitting down in the hotel bar with an ipad and a drink culling and editing images. It's a totally different experience to having to open a laptop and place it on the table or your lap. Thumbing through large amounts of images and starring your favourites is so easy. So easy I can do it while walking! Then when you get home just sync it all to your desktop system. Job done.
I use the RAVPower Filehub, a SSD drive and my iPad when traveling. Easy to use and much lighter to carry around when you dont want to leave your equipment in a hotel or airbnb.
The file transfer is a bit slow, but totally worth it; I start the file transfer and then spend some time quality time in my surroundings. Later I'll be able to cull and do some light editing in LR on the iPad for social media sharing.
The RAVPower hub also comes in handy as a spare battery charger for my phone or iPad.
http://wap.ravpower.com/rp-wd03-filehub-6000mah-power-bank-portable-wire...
Any recommendations for raw file image editing on the iPad Pro with something other than LR?
Lightroom runs quickly on the iPad Pro.
Something is wrong with your computer, I shoot at times a thousand photos a day over multiple jobs with compositing in photoshop through Lightroom initially, I don’t know but my images pop and fly in my 2015 loaded MBP. I can color correct 2-10 images in Lightroom, load into a layered stack in PS and composite in 2-5 minutes flat to save. If it took 5 seconds to see an image my computer would be in the trash
because the 2015 was the last year the MBP was a good laptop.
Use capture 1 and your problems are solved.
For those looking for just a backup solution while traveling without a laptop, I highly recommend the Lacie DJI Copilot Boss 2TB drive: https://amzn.to/2E1uT3v
It offers a better price per GB compared to Gnarbox. Contrary to the WD Passport Pro, Lacie DJI Copilot Boss drive offers a USB 3.0 port for connecting a card reader (for CF, CFast, XQD cards) as well as connecting another HDD to do a secondary backup. WD Passport Pro offers USB 3.0 connection only to transfer data from the drive to the computer, while the card reader can only be plugged into the USB 2.0 port (file transfer is slow, at less than 30MB/s and unusable for 4K video files). Lacie DJI Copilot Boss supports many RAW file variation as well as many other files, like 4K video, documents etc. While on the drive, one can copy a photo/video file to the phone/tablet/computer and edit it there.
In my opinion, Gnarbox is not a great solution for a backup, as it comes at the hefty price/GB. Unless one needs the extra features, like video editing capabilities on the go...
Something I found that increased my Lightroom performance on all of my different Macs (10 year old iMac, brand new iMac, new-ish Macbook Pro), is to drag the sharpening and noise reduction sliders all the way to zero and then resaving that as the default when importing new images. Night and day difference especially when rendering 1-1 previews.
The other thing that bogs down Lightroom are lots of local adjustments (graduated/radial filters, brush strokes). I typically leave those until last (if used at all). Then I apply sharpening/NR to one image and sync that change to the rest.
Something about Lightroom having to render sharpening/NR/local adjustments each time the image loads really drags it down. Eliminate those 3 things and it moves a lot quicker for the majority of your work.
I'm with you. I really like to take photos and take a week or two before i look at them. For me this takes the emotional connection out of the photos and lets me look much more objectively at the photos. In reality when on a trip i flip through and pick 1 or 2 to post quickly, but i wait until i get home, the images are really backed up and i've had some time away from them to really edit and process.
Gnarboxes are great.. a little expensive.. but great..
If you're a nerd and a "do it yourself" kinda guy/girl.. you can build something very similar to a gnarbox with a raspberry pi and an external hdd for a fraction of the cost.
https://petapixel.com/2016/06/16/turn-raspberry-pi-auto-photo-backup-dev...
https://chiselapp.com/user/dmpop/repository/little-backup-box/home
Confusing... Do you solely want to backup or have the joy of editing the same day? This box is only a backup. And when wanting to edit on the road, try culling in photo mechanic first. And then edit the chosen ones in your editor of choice. And why not use an editor without catalogue. It is temporary anyway.
This reads more like 'Why is Lightroom rubbish on a laptop' or just 'Why is Lightroom rubbish' rather than a case against traveling with a laptop.
The performance issues you mention are hilarious. I'm not using LR and therefore I have no experience with 'a five-second delay just moving between images', 'torturously slow (..) 1:1 previews', 'small sliders or finicky brush tool' or an unusable laptop for minute or more when 'stitching any panoramas or merging to HDR' and my laptop is way slower than yours.
It seems you could broaden your horizons beyond Lightroom.
Capture One.
I wouldn't bother generating 1:1 previews. I'd just be looking at basic previews to assess color, exposure and composition. Having shot film for a month in a place where I couldn't get test rolls developed and found errors upon return home, I just can't shoot any substantial amount without doing an IQ check.
Also, on a persnickety note about "I’d hone in on a few favorites", "hone" is a transitive verb, so it requires a separate subject and object, and its use in the expression "hone in on" is actually a mistaken substitution for "HOME in on". "Home" is an intransitive verb which applies to the subject, such as a homing pigeon which is trained to return to its home.
This is a very common error, but as a former copy editor I just can't let it slide. Sorry.
Who on earth ingests into Lightroom without first culling in Faststone (my fave), PhotoMechanic, FastRawViewer or Capture One ? I am struggling to think of a reason why anyone would do that?! Egads!
I still need email so this is not an option and a very expensive option I might add plus all the bits and pieces cables etc if you use an external HD. 13" Laptop and Ext HD this way you have 2 copies of your files, plus watch entertainment in the evening.
This is why people need to STOP raving about apple! Apple is NOT the best for photo editing. In 2012 I bought the Asus G75VW and I can edit 3500 images in 18 hours
the laptop turned on instantly, and it works faster (now that it's 6 years old) than my friends brand new apples. I'm also a videographer, and I edit video on the go with Edius (pc based) and have NO LAG...
My husband just got me one of the newest Asus ROG laptops, and amazingly it's even faster than the old one, but the old one is still faster than any of my friends new macbook pros...
Your disappointment is with the horrible software by Adobe. Not with using a laptop, regardless the fact that you use the product being a boutique minority solution, what I as a seasoned computer specialist would not consider ever. The downfall of DEC and their "super duper superior Micro VAX and VMS" left me with a decade of dead knowledge and taught me a lesson always to flow with the market winner, no matter how crappy it might be (speaking of the infamous 640k PC-DOS, and its great-great-great child MS-Windows). But back to Adobe: They are too busy with implementing and maintaining their money sucking schemes. They do not care about you and the software performance. They are a near-monopoly
If you imagined that you impressed somebody with your kinda weird and certainly irrelevant time travel back to 1984, I have to break the news to you... YOU FAILED! As I was reading along, I had to stop for a moment and wipe my eyes to see if I was reading you correctly and realized, you really did wander out into Fantasyland for a moment there. Grab hold of something quick and try to drag yourself back to REALITY IN 2018. Go ahead! Work your way back to sensible, rational, cognitive thought... We'll wait! In a conversation where photographers are discussing the newest, safest and efficient products available in 2018 to use to backup their images and data and you wander off into a 640k hypo-glycemic moment? Come back Thomas! Come back! Just to cheer you up, you are going to be amazed that our monitors are not longer restricted to 16 colors. AMAZED you will be!
First you're suing Lightroom. Second you're using a Macbook to run Lightroom.
nothing like PhotoMechanic, ..... ingest, assign all basic necessary meta-data, backup shots, make some quick selects if necessary, .... 15" MBP fits right in my Peak Messenger bag, along with 2 full size probodies, a prime lens or two, and 2 think tank lens pouches attached to carry 24-70, 70-200, ........ everything I need to move quickly in the hot summer sun, and grab some shade when need, ingest, and edit a shot or 200!
Also perfect for when you are shooting cageside at madison square garden on new year's eve!
Not busting anyone's balls at all, just sharing how I do it when I need to travel light and without a power source, .... also see where it would be nice to also pack one these in that setup too, .... so much easier than the film days!
In the field?
I m using an Apple iPad Pro with Lightroom CC and a Gnarbox for an additional backup. Get an iPad with 512GB or 1TB and an Apple Pencil and you will be happy! :)
sometimes I use my Note 9 and I can tether it to my Nikon as larger LCD monitor for both video and photos. plus it has a stylus to edit photos if need be.
What about editing apps on your phone?
If you need to edit on the go, it won't be to print on a bilboard.
Usually, you want to share your trip right away on social media.
I am not a pro but if you read my blog post this is how I did my back ups on my summer holiday this year.
http://moodycameraphotograghy.blogspot.com/2018/08/photo-back-up-on-road...
If you read my blog post this is how I did my back ups this summer on my hoiliday.
http://moodycameraphotograghy.blogspot.com/2018/08/photo-back-up-on-road...
I follow Jeff Cable and I think on his blogs for when he covers the Olympics, he uses Photo Mechanic to quickly zap through his images to cull. He has a narrow timeline to get images out with his contract.
I backup to a 10.5" iPad Pro. Since the iOS 12, copying form an SD card has become super fast. The iPad's Photo library is not connected to iCloud, so it won't start backing up 100s of RAW files when on WiFi, important when traveling with a celular WiFi hotspot so not to get all the data allowance eaten up. And if I do want to edit on the go, I import the RAW into mobile Lightroom. Or Affinity for some heavier lifting. So it's a perfect mobile backup with editing capabilities (and a pressure sensitive Pencil!). BTW, for more casual travel snapshots I nowadays use the Lightroom Camera on an iPhone (with clip-on super wide and tele lenses). It takes spectacular HDR DNGs, super flexible to edit and push hard, great for Instagram.
for me the best value for money and the RavPower FileHub. the perfect companion for travel photographer
I suppose like most of us here, we haven't found the perfect solution for storing, backup and editing images while on the road. For years I've been using a MacBook Pro or a MacBook Air, which work very well but are heavy. I recently bough a 2018 iPad Pro hoping it would allow me to copy, backup and edit, but the damn Apple iOS won't allow me to easily attach a USB drive. I know there are kludgy ways to do this, but I haven't found anything very satisfying. Come on Apple, this is the 21st century, give us a real operating system for iOS devices. I recently bought another MacBook Air for travel, mainly to segregate my personal and business records from prying eyes when I cross international borders, and I don't keep passwords and email on it. I've never had a problem, but just being careful.
use this RavPower FileHub you can connect your iPad Pro to an external hard drive, you can also work in Lightroom
take a look here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaW1RlIauOE
Thanks, the DLNA hack may have solved the problem for me. I bought the RAV4 after seeing some youtube videos that looked promising. I'll give it a try and let you know.
dropping 500 bucks for a 500 gig ssd drive, say what? What exactly are you paying for here that commands a premium over a 100 dollar samsung ssd drive? Doesnt seem worth it if its just a little more waterproof and drop proof.
So you just flew 2000 miles to Banff and then took a float plane into the interior to photograph bears. After spending three days and taking 2500 images you pack up your gear and head home. When you get home and look at your images you find that many of them were out of focus, had tons of spectral highlights from the rivers and several were poorly exposed. But you are happy that you didn't have to get out the tablet or notebook to have a look at these images when you were in a position to go reshoot and correct these problems. And you were especially happy to have just pissed away $5000 for this trip and have nothing to show for it. Is that about right?
Ignoring the fact this article is just an ad for Gnarbox, I have to call out the author on his claims his images are taking 5 second to load in LR on a “top of the line MacBook Pro”. Now I’m not an Apple fan boy, far from it, I’ve just bought new MBP’s for the studio and I hate that we have to buy dongles to connect to drives, monitors etc, it drives me nuts.
That being said though our current machines, and our older versions, suffer nowhere near the type of lag the author talks about. We work solely on MBP’s using LR, Capture One, Camera Raw & Bridge, shooting with 5DSR’s, often tethered, often working on files on LaCie Rugged drives and we NEVER have this type of lag.
Unless the author is working on 200mp files I’d say there’s an issue with his set up.
I solved the problem with a 2TB Western Digital MyPassport at less than half the price. In camera I write the RAW files to 2 memory cards and copy them to the MyPassport at the end of the day, so I have 3 copies of each file, and I don’t erase the files on the MyPassport until it’s full. So I can travel without the laptop, mouse, external hard disk and power supplies, and I can wait until I’m back home to edit. Highly recommended.
I really miss the old Epson P series, great devices for storing and viewing images when doing location work.
Use this ($43) and any external HD/SSD you want. https://www.amazon.com/RAVPower-Wireless-Portable-Streamer-Cellphone/dp/...
I just don't understand why people keep putting up with this slow bloated lightroom. C1 absolutely screams on my Surface Book 2, and thats definitely not as fast as a decked out 15" mbp. People are so quick to blame the hardware, when it's garbage software at fault.
I the LR one off purchases for desktop ran way faster than the Adobe CC LR subscription package you get now. Photos would display instantly. I dont know what Adobe has done but the software is hell slow now.