Lightroom Performance Upgrade

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ightroom has been an integral part of my photography work for as long as it has been around. I was an early adopter of it when it was added to the Adobe portfolio, and I remain a daily user. I built a new computer when we were in Seattle, and it was happily zipping along when I built it whether it was working on photos or rendering video edits. However, in recent times, I found that Lightroom was getting very sluggish.

This was becoming very frustrating. The idea of building a new machine wasn’t top of my priorities right now. I didn’t want to be going through all of the migration issues again. It has got easier over the years and is now not too onerous but there are still things that need to be done that I forget until something minor doesn’t work. Before embarking on that, I did start paying attention to the performance metrics of the current machine.

As I was using Lightroom, I noted that the processor was rarely getting heavily used and I have a ton of RAM and, while that was getting quite well used, it also wasn’t getting maxed out. However, the offload to the graphics card did seem to be making that get used a lot. I took a look online at recommendations for graphics cards and decided that my first port of call would be a card upgrade.

Graphics cards are not cheap. The demand for the AI sector has put pressure on graphics chip pricing. I am also competing with the serious gamers which means even more upward pressure on the price. However, I got something that was identified as having good capabilities for Lightroom. It showed up quickly (doesn’t everything these days – how strange it feels when something is going to have a long lead time) and I went about squeezing it into the case. The previous card was considerably smaller and required a lot less power. I had to remove some of the internal elements to get this to fit. It also needed three power cables versus the one for the previous card. All of this was relatively easy although far less so than it would have been if I was putting the thing together from scratch.

I powered the system up and, after a few driver installation processes, the machine was ready to fire up Lightroom. It opened up and I immediately noticed the difference. Scrolling through the catalogue, previous rendered immediately and the log in scrolling was gone. I opened up an image and created a virtual copy to play with the masking functions. The first mask model was rapidly created and then the brush functions were tried. Absolutely no lag and great responsiveness. It was like a had a new computer.

Looking at the performance metrics, the processor and RAM were much as before but the new card was working away busily and was using a load of RAM. It was certainly doing what was hoped. This wasn’t a cheap upgrade to make but it has effectively given me a new level of performance by changing one component and leaving everything else as was. That seems like a win to me.

The Sun Was Going Away Rapidly!

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Last summer, the evening show at Old Warden included a flight by the de Havilland Comet. It was both in a formation and making some solo passes. The light had been absolutely excellent, but I was getting concerned that the light might be gone before it flew. The bright red paint has the potential to look excellent in very low angle sun, and I wanted to see that if possible.

It started out in a four-ship formation, and I was hoping that they would then do solo performances. Instead, the Comet ended up doing a series of formation passes with the Lysander. This was an interesting combination, but I was hoping to isolate it a bit. With a bit of luck and planning, I was able to get some individual shots that I liked. Sadly, the light was definitely on the way out by this time and, instead of having some gorgeous warmth on a red airframe, things were a little muted. Even so, not a bad thing to wrap up the air show.

What is Going on With This Kite?

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Windsor Great Park has a lot of red kites. As we walked along one path, it seemed like there were more of them than we could count. The breeze along the ridge made it easy for them as they swooped back and forth looking for food. Mum and Nancy pointed me at a tree along the path. On the branch, one of the kites had landed and was surveying the scene. Something about it seemed odd as I took the shot, but it was only when I got home and looked at the images that I realised that it seems to have a rather wonky beak. I’ve no idea whether this makes life tricky or not but seemed healthy enough.

Look at the Tailplane on the Bone

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I have been looking back through a variety of shots from old visits to Red Flag exercises. Therefore, there is going to be a steady steam of Red Flag photos in the near future. Sorry if that gets a bit repetitive but I assure you that they will be different types on the whole. I start with the B-1B Lancer. This example was taxiing along the runway as it backtracked for departure. The pre-take off routine includes exercising the full range of travel for the tailplane and it really can move a long way. This shot showed it in the full nose up position.

Docklands at Night

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I was attending an event in Docklands for work, and my hosts were gathering for a drink in a bar upstairs at the hotel prior to the dinner kicking off. The view across Docklands at night was really nice but I was there for work so had to try and ignore the view for a bit. However, as we got our stuff together to head down for the main event, I figured I was going to be fine getting a quick picture through the glass. Normal reflection issues but you have to take advantage of the opportunity.

Electrifying Dash 7

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As a youth, the de Havilland Canada Dash 7 was, if not a widespread aircraft, one that was reasonably popular. This was a time when STOL operation was such a big deal with the idea that STOL aircraft would make operations from cities more of a thing. This idea didn’t last long but, at the time, a four engined aircraft with the ability to guarantee climb out in an engine out condition was important which also is why the 146 was a four engined plane.

As the focus shifted to regular airports, twin engined turboprops took over including the same company’s Dash 8. The Dash 7 has hung around in niche uses but they are not easy to find. Air Tindi operates them in Canada and one of their airframes showed up in Seattle a while back. Magnix is a company that is making electric powerplants for aircraft and it is supposedly using a Dash 7 as a testbed. It showed up at Boeing Field for a publicity event. Sadly, I didn’t see it in flight, but it was out on the ramp at the FBO for a while before it was moved into the hangar for the event.

Some Video of the Hovercraft

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I posted some shots of the Hovertravel operations previously and, at the end of that post, I mentioned that I had switched to video. Sometimes, when the lighting isn’t great, the photos can look a bit dull. However, video seems to work better in such conditions because the motion is more dominant than the colours. It also gives a better impression of what is happening. A still shot doesn’t easily convey that something is drifting sideways or turning tightly. Video gives you that.

The wind meant that the motion was pretty dynamic for the approach and departure from the terminal. Also, there were a few other vessels in the vicinity and that needed to be routed around adding a bit more interest. I realised that, while the conditions weren’t great, it was quite clear looking across to Ryde. With the 200-800mm on one body and a steady support on a post, I was able to video the departure from Ryde and the whole transit. The Wightlink catamaran did time it really badly crossing in front of me just as the hovercraft was rotating on the slipway but never mind. Since it was 4k footage, I was able to do a bit of stabilisation and zooming in when processing the footage afterwards. It would be nice to have had more natural sound, but the wind was so strong, the footage only has the sound of buffeting of the microphones. Here is the video I pulled together from all that I shot that day.

Someone Having a Fun Ride in a Spitfire

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I alluded to this post in a previous one. The Spitfire rides operating from Solent Airport take people up in a two seat Spitfire. I was down on the seafront at Lee on Solent when I heard the sound of a Merlin at power. I had almost every setting wrong on the camera but managed to switch to the right shutter speed and get the frame rate reset as it climbed out. This did take a bit of time and while the best top side view of it turning east were on display. Things were a bit more level but the time I got some shots off. Not idea but still okay. A while later, they returned from their trip, and we had a fly through along the runway alignment before they landed. I would like to plan better to be there in the future in a more planned way.

Tracking the Pan Bending the Wires

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I had stopped off to eat some lunch in my car after a meeting, and I was alongside the west coast mainline. There were plenty of trains zipping up and down the track as I ate and I did take a few images while I relaxed. Only as I looked through the images when I was back at home, and I zoomed in to see which images were sharp did I notice the tracking of the pantograph along the overhead wire. The upward pressure was deflecting the wire by varying amounts depending on where it was in relation to the supports. It is interesting how much it can move the wire when passing so swiftly.

Reprocessing Some Backlit Shots from LAX

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Every once in a while, I put together two things that I hadn’t previously connected. I have been playing around with the masking tools in Lightroom for ages to put different processing on aircraft versus the sky in the background. When I had done some photography from helicopters over LAX, the lighting had been good on the northern complex but the planes arriving and departing the south complex had been quite harshly backlit.

The processing approach I was using at that time did not make for very good results and so I had tended to ignore the shots I had taken on that side and focus on the north complex instead. Then, while looking at something from another photographer, it got me thinking that the masking tools would be a good option to revisit these backlit shots and try and get a more balanced looking image.

You can’t escape the fact that, if the original shot is not great, you aren’t ever going to turn it into something marvellous. However, there is the potential to come up with something significantly better than I had previously managed.

Selecting the airframe with a more cluttered background is a bit tougher for the automated tools so a fair bit of manual addition and subtraction was needed. However, because you are against a ground background rather than a sky, there is a certain amount of tolerance that you have for not getting the selection absolutely perfect. You don’t want glaring issues, but it won’t be as conspicuous as it is with a sky behind.

With the masking applied, it is a lot easier to come up with an exposure for the planes that looks a lot more like the eye would have perceived whilst still having a background that is okay. I can actually darken it a bit more in order to make the plane pop. On one of the shots, there was a second plane on the taxiway in the shot, so I selected it separately to give it a reasonable look without it taking over the image as a whole. This was a very satisfying process with some images I had previously left alone.