Photo editing nightmare

[bigbadneil]

Guys
I currently have a 2012 Apple MacPro that has been upgraded to be able to run OS Mojave

The problem I have is that I am using a Hasselblad H6D100c camera and when I try and process the files its painfully slow (each file is ~267MB).

I have 3 x 6TB internal drives that store all my files and a 2TB SSD Drive as the main working drive.

I also have a new MacMini that is hooked up to my Smart TV and I use that sat on the sofa surfing the web and emails...........its seems very fast but then its not running photo editing software

So my question to the gang is what would be the best Apple computer to buy to run Phocus/PScc software for all my photo editing. I am thinking another MacMini with a bunch of superfast external hard drives (if there's such a thing). Im retired now so need to watch my pennies but I don't want to have to by twice.
I appreciate any feedback

Neil

 

[ellsworth]

Unfortunately, I don't have any experience with Hasselblad nor it's Phocus software to be able to give you a definite and clarified answer but before upgrading to a whole new system, I would recommend upgrading your RAM from 32GB to 64GB first. Also, check to see that you're running the latest version of Phocus software (I've read that there's been some large improvements recently.) That should help out a lot.
Also, check to see if Phocus allows you to adjust and increase your RAW Cache size. This should allow the software to store more image data, which should speed up cycling of previews of your images.
If you find that your system is still slow, I would look into using Adobe's Lightroom software to edit your FFF RAW files. Hope some of this helps.

 

[jwhittaker]

Its really about bandwidth and drive speed as for transfer rates. MacMini or iMac with at least an i5 or i7 16gb ram 32gb and 64gb would be best with thunderbolt 3 external enclosure. Also there is a speed difference in hard drives, I have 4tb toshiba X300 and 4tb Toshiba x300 drives and the 5tb are almost 2x as fast though for rendering and processing most of the work is done with your computer. I don't have a Hasselblad camera, but installed Phocus on my 2017 15: MacBook pro and it ran as well as photoshop, lightroom and affinity photo, my computer is 16gb ram with 3.1 ghz i7

 

[bigbadneil]

Okay so I was busy last night. I moved 90% of what I had in the pictures folder into one of the 6TB internal drives. I now have 1.75TB spare space in my main SSD drive. Phocus is loaded in the applications folder in that same SSD drive. In my pictures folder I now have a new folder for initial imports , so that when I import new picture files they are put into the same SSD drive eliminating Phocus having to pull them from one of the internal hard drives. I did two imports today and they were so so...........better than before but still so so. I went to disc utility and to my horror I noticed that it is showing that my New SSD drive (Main Drive) is an external drive not an internal drive.............could that be where the issue is?
Note my new SSD drive replaced one of the internal 6TB drives so its not an external drive but internal

 

[bigbadneil]

Okay so I was busy last night. I moved 90% of what I had in the pictures folder into one of the 6TB internal drives. I now have 1.75TB spare space in my main SSD drive. Phocus is loaded in the applications folder in that same SSD drive. In my pictures folder I now have a new folder for initial imports , so that when I import new picture files they are put into the same SSD drive eliminating Phocus having to pull them from one of the internal hard drives. I did two imports today and they were so so...........better than before but still so so. I went to disc utility and to my horror I noticed that it is showing that my New SSD drive (Main Drive) is an external drive not an internal drive.............could that be where the issue is?
Note my new SSD drive replaced one of the internal 6TB drives so its not an external drive but internal

More info on that Main SSD Drive

 

[HDFan]

I went to disc utility and to my horror I noticed that it is showing that my New SSD drive (Main Drive) is an external drive not an internal drive.............could that be where the issue is?

There have been a few posts about this issue. I would run a disk speed test (such as Blackmagic) to see what speeds you are getting. What do you see? If the results are as expected I don't think it would be a problem.

I did two imports today and they were so so...........better than before but still so so.

There a lot of things happen during an import. How do you do the transfer, via a memory card and card reader or .... ? Is the problem in the transfer speed (camera to disk), or processing speed by the software?

 

[weaztek]

Here's what I've done for my photo workstation: Mac Mini i5 w/ 16GB RAM, and 250GB SSD from Apple. 32" LG 32UD59-B monitor READ: over a USB-C to DisplayPort cable, a plan to upgrade one or both of the RAM chips myself once my warranty expires, Sabrent Rocket Pro NVMe 1TB USB 3.2 External SSD (about $150), several hard drives running in the background for storage and backup.

In terms of modern, external SSD drives there is SSD (slow), NVMe over USB 3.2 (faster), and NVMe over Thunderbolt (fastest).

My system/apps/fonts/email takes about 50% of my 250GB internal SSD. That leaves me around 75GB for working photo files. If I need more space I offload them to the 1TB external SSD which is ~75% as fast as my internal SSD. I've heard a Thunderbolt NVMe can be faster than the internal drive.

My photo archive is just stored on an external HGST hard drive over USB 3.1. It's about ~10% as fast as my internal SSD so I copy working files to an SSD before editing.

 

[jz0309]

I use Lightroom/photoshop, no experience with your tools... what does activity monitor report in terms of ram/disc/cpu usage?

 

[bigbadneil]

There have been a few posts about this issue. I would run a disk speed test (such as Blackmagic) to see what speeds you are getting. What do you see? If the results are as expected I don't think it would be a problem.



There a lot of things happen during an import. How do you do the transfer, via a memory card and card reader or .... ? Is the problem in the transfer speed (camera to disk), or processing speed by the software?

I tried

 

[HDFan]

Are the 3 internal drives setup as JBOD or are you using something like software RAID, or were you trying to open the SSD? You were logged in with administrator privileges?

On the drive which gives the error, what does Finder Getinfo show? It should look something like this:

There are variations. Your username or staff might show as read & write. MacOS permissions and ACLs are complex. (For diehards there is a lengthy discussion in the Apple Pro Training Series: MacOS Support Essentials).

staff (the primary group for local users)
wheel (the primary group for the root system account)

Permissions are hierarchal. Read/write folder permissions allow you to change, rename, or delete a file in the folder assuming you have read/write permissions for the file itself.

In summary for Backblaze to work you must have read/write permissions for the drive as well as for all folders in the hierarchy down to the folder which you want Backblaze to use.

 

[DrBrush]

I have little expertise in this area, but remember that modern NVMe drives, and especially those used by Apple in their recent computers are much much faster than SSDs (as big of a jump as spinning disk to SSD). So if you are limited by read / write that might make a considerable difference.

See: https://photographylife.com/nvme-vs-ssd-vs-hdd-performance

 

[monokakata]

I'd be thinking about your CPU as well as your drives. Have you looked at usage when you're working on those files?

I had an i7 iMac (2014) with 32 gb ram and 1 tb SSD and it was fine (in Lightroom CC) when I was shooting with a Nikon D810 but when I went to the D850 everything fell apart. Response to adjustments was terrible. Huge lag.

An iMac Pro (8 core, 64 gb ram) solved that completely.

You're working with files that are almost 5x larger than what brought my old iMac to its knees.

So I'd at least look at what's happening with the CPU. Perhaps you could download a trial copy of iStats, which has a very nice display.

Also, Intel Power Gadget might give you some clues.

 

[bigbadneil]

Are the 3 internal drives setup as JBOD or are you using something like software RAID, or were you trying to open the SSD? You were logged in with administrator privileges?

On the drive which gives the error, what does Finder Getinfo show? It should look something like this:

View attachment 871259

There are variations. Your username or staff might show as read & write. MacOS permissions and ACLs are complex. (For diehards there is a lengthy discussion in the Apple Pro Training Series: MacOS Support Essentials).

staff (the primary group for local users)
wheel (the primary group for the root system account)

Permissions are hierarchal. Read/write folder permissions allow you to change, rename, or delete a file in the folder assuming you have read/write permissions for the file itself.

In summary for Backblaze to work you must have read/write permissions for the drive as well as for all folders in the hierarchy down to the folder which you want Backblaze to use.

Mine shows this and it wont let me change it even though I have unlocked it with my admin password????
[automerge]1571685812[/automerge]
what about if I click on this?

 

[HDFan]

What it is asking is whether or not to change the permissions for the current folder and everything in it (files, folders, sub folders, sub folder files, etc.). Since your permissions match what I have at the root level on my SSD boot drive I'd hold off making any changes.

Are you able to create a folder /Users/yourusername/Backblaze and use that?