ImageIngest

During my foray into the world of web design, I came across a Paid FTP application for Macs that really rocks.  I had been using a free app called CuteFTP Mac, that I was turned on to by RC Concepcion ,over at KelbyTraining.  CuteFTP was free and well cute…and has done me well for the past year, but when I got into some very heavy uploading/downloading it really bogged down. So I researched some other FTP apps and nothing seemed to compare to the feature rich, well designed Transmit 4.  Besides winning all the coveted MAC awards this application just gets more of my attention with each use as I explore it in ‘go-to’ situations.

An example is this screen shot, here I’m trying to ID which HDD partition that I have a file on to upload….the GUI  for navigation is great, the file path are right out there to see and track:

The next feature is a sync program that you can use to create a FTP backup, rather than downloading your entire sire from your server”

and I’m sure that sooner or later I’ll be taking advantage of mounting FTP disks or even a Amazon S3 CDN, as advertised:

and the feature that gives this a ‘go-get‘ rating is SPEED. Transmit 4 delivers some impressive results

1. 4x – List files
2. 18x- Download files
3. 2x – Delete Files
4. 25x – Upload files

Be prepared to payout some cash $34 for this little app, or keep a look out for discounts…

Nothing is more frustrating and time wasting than trying to recreate your software customizations once you have migrated your software to another computer after a fresh OS install.  In my case, both my Photo Mechanic preferences were highly customized for my workflow optimization and my PhotoShop Actions (really a fancy macro executions) were just very complicated.

Going off to Google land, ended up with a lot of funky feedback, so I then went direct to experts.

Photomechanic: ….. Thank you for contacting Camera Bits.

Export the Photo Mechanic settings to your computer. Open the Photo Mechanic Preferences and click on the Export button, then save the file to your local machine. Give the file any name that you will remember. Once the file has been saved, copy or move the preference file over to the new computer.

Import the preference file. Open Photo Mechanic’s Preferences on the new computer and click Import. Choose the file that you exported on the old machine and import the settings.

Well, that was easy enough ! The one area that will need your attention is to set your cache folder location and colorspace (ProPhoto-nothing else recommended as an alternative due to its hugh color space).

CS5

My resource for migrating CS4 ACTIONS to CS5 ACTIONS, was a concern to me.  To the rescue was a small how to video that Moose Peterson did on preparing your computer for CS5 migration.  It was another very simple tip and worked for me flawlessly.

Simple open up your PS4 Actions,

1) Highlight the Action Folder to Export

2) In the upper right hand corners are some small arrows that once you press will display a drop down list, Select Save Actions

3) Open up CS5, goto ACTIONS, and Load Actions.

Very simple…very easy….

I also read that you should keep a copy of  your Actions backup in case of a Hard Drive failure..So making the process above part of your backup routine might be something you’d want to consider.

My ingest workflow is sending my ‘working’ RAW NEF files directly into my new MacBook, which has been purposely partitioned with 2 X 2.0TB Hitachi Deskstar™ 7K2000 HDD set up as Raid 0. def.(RAID 0 (striped disks) distributes data across multiple disks in ways that gives improved speed at any given instant).

Then by design to mitigate any problems with that setup, I will do a full synch against my working files using Chronosynch, to  an external enclosure that has two independent esata 1T Toshiba HDD.

The data safety robustness of the workflow could have been improved and the capacity of going from 4T to 1T was going to hit a wall someday, and a hardware upgrade had been immanent……..well that wall came up early last Saturday when I ingested and backed up as part of my normal workflow.  This time I had to put about 10 gig onto the 2nd external drive as the first one was a capacity.  Three hours later an error message popped up from Drive Genius REV 3 that my RAID 0 was corrupt and that fix was to erase and repartition and rconfig the RAID…OMG…lots of work, but my data was secure on the external HDD’s.

To get me to a new level and solve the robustness and capacity issue, I turned to Lloyd Chambers site to look for enclosures recommendations.  I knew that I had 4 X 1T HDD around , and that I had to move away from my limiting two separate enclosure and find something to put everything under one configuration.

To the rescue is the best product that I have seen come out of OWC in the three years that I have buying products from them.  The product enclosure is the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2. This is the UBER ENCLOSURE.

It has everything and can be configured any which way via a selectable RAID switch.  The power supply is built in (no more bricks !), the fan is quite (modulates to demand), the led status lights are not obtrusive, the grill and housing are made of quality aluminum, it has solid foot padding of 1/2 dollar size vibration rubber, it can be configured sub 2T or plus 2T, it’ll hold 4 X 2T drives, and it has every data transfer cable system that you could want, USB-2,FW400,FW800 or Esta.  whew….

But the best part is that you can configure it as a RAID 5, because this enclosure is using an Oxford 936QSE chipset that enables that feature.

I had never heard of or used a RAID 5, but here is description excerpt from the quick start manual :

INSTALLATION & SETUP

I am a MAc user, so after loading up the four HDDs, turning of my MAC, plugging in the power cord and ESATA, then repowering up,  the initialization message came up as portrayed in the manual via the MAC disk utility.  I did hit a snag when I tried to partition my HDD, the drive would not reformat, and Disk Genius 3 helped to resolve that issue.

I had previously erased and reformatted two of the four HDD’s, so I’m thinking that maybe my issue, and for the past 24 hours I have had the new setup on erase free space to wipe everything clean, tonight I’ll defrag and then synch my working photos to this drive.

Reading the manual, I now understand that the maximum capacity of a RAID 5 configuration is the combined size minus the size of one drive. In my case, 4X1T-1T = 3TB…..which addresses my capacity issue, and the robustness issue is now addressed because if one drive fails, it can be replaced and the data rebuilt…….now where did I put that spare 1T HDD …..

Good stuff at an affordable price of $320

(drives not included)

OWC

Manual Link

I have been working at perfecting a process to take all those Images that have been uploaded and Ingested off-location (meaning away from my home base) and how to get them Ingested and Uploaded when on-location (meaning back at home).

This secret is trying to keep things simple, use the simplest software available, and have the simplest hardware. In all cases your software needs to be the same on both your off/on location computer, and your hard drive enclosures can benefit by having multiple connectivity capabilities to use as USB, firewire or Esata.  I will walk you thru the process, software, software settings and hardware

Here is the work Flow:

Off location:

1. Insert CF card (My preference: PhotoFast) into MacBook Pro with either USB, Firewire or Esata Express 34 Card Reader. (My preference Sonnet Esta 34)
2. Use Photo Mechanic software as your Ingest tool. Add field keyname metadata, setfile name to date of shoot,reset sequence to zero, set file location transfer and begin Ingest.
   1. Transfer files to MacBookPro HDD partitioned as ‘FritzImages1′ (My preference: MacBook Pro 17″, 2.8Ghz,6GB,500gb)
   2. Transfer files to External enclosure with HDD partitioned as ‘MBP Achieve’ (My preference: OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro mini, Quad Interface)
   3. This allows me to have two sets of my files for redundancy.
3. Erase & Reformat CF cards (in camera with D3s or Image Rescue 3 SW by Lexar)

On location

1. Use external enclosure (OWC mercury Elite) from step 2.2 above. Connect via Esata to MacPro
2. Use software program BackupList+ to identify files to transfer and upload.
   1. Upload files to 2 separate locations 3.1 & 3.2
3. Upload files to MacPro from external HDD partition “MBP Archive”
   1. Transfer files from external HDD partition MBP Archives to MacPro partitioned ‘FritzImages1′
      1. Note: 86 GB took 20 minutes using Firewire 800
   2. Transfer files from external HDD partition MBP Archives to External HDD 2xT2 Raid 0 partitioned MSTR Data
      1. Note: 86 GB  took 12 minutes using ESATA
4. This allows me to have two sets of files for redundancy
   1. 1 set of ‘working’ files on MP FritzImages
      1. This will be backed up later for redundancy as part of standard backup workflow
   2. 1 set of MSTR Files on External HDD using RAID 1
5. Erase files on external HDD MBP Archive

Okay, so there you have it…it has taken a while to nail down the process, software and hardware.  You should be able to follow this, or make modifications as you see fit.  The off location Ingest workflow is fairly straightforward and routine. The On location Ingest is made possible with the quad Mercury Elite, the FirmTek Card for the MacPro, the Newer Technology Raid-1, and the last piece which came together for me last night was the BackupList+ software.

All of the hardware was recommended by Llyod Chambers and the hardware can all be found at OWC.

And by the way all 3 1/2 HDD in this system are 2.0TB Hitachi Deskstar™ 7K2000

The Basics of any HDD work flow should be a)partition system files from work files 2) 3 way redundancy. either by clone, synch or archive:

1. Clone = exact copy of Host Drive, I’ll use this on my system files & work files, example #3; s/w Carbon copy clone
2. Synch=two way match of Host and Remote Drive, I’ll use this on my ‘working photos’; example #2; s/w Chronosynch
3. Archive=Historic backup of Host, this is were time machine shines, I’ll TM my system & work files;example #4 (I’ve had issue with TM and don’t trust with Photos):s/w Apple
4. Clone=exact copy of Host Drive, I store MSTR of all photos (untouched) and have RAID 1 setup; Hardware solution; G-Safe*,

The piece that continues to be been missing in my work flow is Offsite Storage in red above. , because I don’t have a solution I Mirror RAID 1 #5/#6

I recently tried a relatively new service for MAC users at BackBlaze.com

After grabbing a user name and password, my 15 day trial began,  the upload speed is very very slow and in my case 2Tb of Photos calculated out to be an upload time of 365 days !

So this is not an option for me, so I’m still looking for that off site or on line storage.  My images just can’t fit in some paper folders ala Prez.

Mirror 1 RAID

Note on G-Safe:

Early this week, this 14 month old solution, had a system failure of one of its 1T HDD. Because the system was Raid1 mirrored and is hot swappable. No real issue with data loss. However, I’m intending to upgrade both drives to 2X2T. I was lucky that the other drive did not go down and because there was no three way redundancy, I would have been in trouble. I like Gsafes, out of the box solution. I have a few other of there storage systems, but I have had three returns in the past two years, so there reliability is not that good in my experience.  I would venture to building your own system for a lot less if your mechanically inclined. ref: Llyod Chambers.

Build your own

I decided that with 1/2 of my Mirror Raid1, hot swappable 1T out for repair at G-Technologies, that I just wasn’t comfortable with only one HDD holding all my photos for the last year with no backup so I purchased from OWC,

1. 2 X 2.0 TB Hitachi 7K2000 7200RPM SATA I/II HD with 32MB Cache and an
2. A special enclosure made by Newer Technology the Guardian MAXimus RAID-1 External eSATA/FireWire 800/400+USB 2.0 Dual Hard Drive Enclosure Kit. Supports 2 x SATA HDDs! Quad Interface, Oxford 936 SATA chipset.

The description gives it away, the enclosure will hold 2 X2T HDD and with a Quad interface anything can hook up to it !

The price tag for this setup is around $485 and a comparable GSafe is $700. The G-safe has removable hot swappable drives and a few more bells and whistles, but I’m looking for a lean system, and here it is.

The assembly was very easy, you are provided a nice instruction manual, and quick visual screen shots on how to initialize the system using your MAC disk utility application.

I decided to run the HDD with the e-sata port thru my MAc-Pro, and the speeds are great, considering that my write time is slowed due to the redundancy factory of the mirror drive.

The fan noise is louder than normal, but peering over to see the blue light steady state is reassuring that the data work flow is back on line !

Okay this is about as KISS as you can get…but it WORKS like no other laptop stand I have used.  After a simple setup, you lay your gear on it, it will keep your cords raised up off the desk, you’ll have a small space under the stand for paper,pens, and your hands are at an ergo position, and the screen is at a decent angle to view…..

Then if you need to take it traveling, (and you will want this one with you). All you do is unassembled and snap folded flat, store it with your laptop, (it’s really light) and and then you can reassemble at 25,000′.  Then set it up on your tray (it overhangs) and you’ll be inspired to open up your PS4 and relax because unlike past trips, you will not have to worry about that ass in front of you, or those screaming bouncing kids, accidently  pushing their seat back so as to crack the lcd screen and making you misrepresent God’s 10 commandments.  This gear has been field tested !

Nothing is quite perfect, and I’ve permanently modified mine (back in the DD) by taking one set of sticky strips and moving it to the front paws of this device, then I can simply lift up the front legs to slide the laptop backwards, out of the way, if I need the desk space to work on.

And now for your special tip.….I try to always by from the OEM (I also Google to see if I can get thru Dist), so I own three of these and paid Keynamics $19.99/each + $12 for shipping….I just found out that I could have paid half of that, $9.99 and 1/2 the shipping…..So you should go out and get you one of these, you’ll really be glad you did….even if just to use on flights….but I don’t know…I was glad to have mine while on all my ground travel adventures, just for the ergonomics and safety of keeping water and stuff off the keyboard…

Where to buy……Surprised me to…..Other World Computing OWC….

I do not know if you have this issue of having a lof of drives with a lot of partitions and trying to keep them mounted or unmounted with out the pains of having your MAC trying to give you instructions what to do with the other volumns on the drive.

I looked and looked and finally found a SIMPLE works everytime FREE app for MAC that might assist you as you do your file/volumn managment.

You may be like me, a heavy Mac user with two computers (laptop and main), iphone with lots of data that has to have the exact same content on all machines, no matter which piece of equipments is updating the working files.  There are various solutions out there that will provide internet synching, and I’ve tried three or four of them in the last six months, but they didn’t impress me….until now.  A newcomer to the scene is an application called DROPBOX.  They take the KISS mantra to the extreme level.

You start off by downloading the app and installing it on both machines, you set up a free account with 2 Gig of free data storage, (upgradeable at a premium), then link your equipment. It is that easy…and it is reliable and fast as it is easy….

I can now travel with my MBP and work on files, transfer files,delete files on the MBP, and come home and find all updates current on my MAC Pro.  And…let’s say I made a deletion on the MBP and really didn’t want to, and it takes a few days after I return to discover my error. All is not lost, just hop up to DROPBOX and you can look thru your history and reinstall file back into the folder and both machines are in synch !!

There is only one feature that has limitation, that they say they are working on.  You need to establish a SEPARATE folder for DROPBOX, and then put your subfolders into it.  This means, if you have photos stored in a unique location, you need to move those folders as a subfolder into the dropbox folder.  For now, I don’t find that an problem at all. I like to have one place for  my active files that must be in exact synch, and using this application focused on that workflow is extremely beneficial.

More Info: Wikipedia