Best way to split Lightroom files for performance ?

[mikeyw]

Hi,

Like most i'm constantly trying to get better performance from Lightroom. On a 400 image edit every second really helps !

I've an i7 PC with 32Gb ram, one sata SSD, one PCIe SSD and a standard sata HD

At present i have all my Windows installation, Lightroom installation, cache & catalogues on the fastest PCIe SSD and just use the sata SSD for all the raw files i'm editing. The standard sata drive is simply for backup.

Once the raw files are in place i wouldn't imagine the load on the slower SSD is much so would it help relocating the cat and or cache files over onto the slower SSD to spread the load more ?

I'm just adding a GTX 1050 ti 4GB card which should help but also think about if file locations are a factor.

Many Thanks,
Mike.

 

[sk66]

I think the main concern is where the cache and swap files are located/accessed. A significant speed increase can also be obtained by editing using smart previews instead of the full size original.

 

[mikeyw]

Thanks, they are on the fastest storage but along with everything else bar the raw files.

 

[BillN_33]

Can all RAW files be compressed without any loss to the naked eye of image detail?

Does compressing the files in Camera or in LR help or does that only relate to DNG's to dng's

(I've been looking at this as the DNG files out of a Leica Q are uncompressed and the 24MP sensor generates 40MB RAW, (DNG) files)

In LR there is the ability to compress these 40MB DNG files to much smaller dng files of about 5MB - on reading about this on the internet apparently such action does not reduce any image detail in the file

The Leica M11 with a 60MP sensor is churning out uncompressed 100MB RAW, (DNG), files

How true is all this Steven?

 

[sk66]

Can all RAW files be compressed without any loss to the naked eye of image detail?

Does compressing the files in Camera or in LR help or does that only relate to DNG's to dng's

(I've been looking at this as the DNG files out of a Leica Q are uncompressed and the 24MP sensor generates 40MB RAW, (DNG) files)

In LR there is the ability to compress these 40MB DNG files to much smaller dng files of about 5MB - on reading about this on the internet apparently such action does not reduce any image detail in the file

The Leica M11 with a 60MP sensor is churning out uncompressed 100MB RAW, (DNG), files

How true is all this Steven?

LR's dng compression is lossy, but there is potentially a whole lot of information in a raw file that is visually imperceptible. I.e. a human can only detect about 7 different values between each stop of light, while there are more than 8k values in the last stop/bit of a 14 bit raw file... that's a whole lot of redundant/useless data...

I don't use dng, so I can't say from experience/testing. But I have tested every version of Nikon's raw file compression (as well as 12bit/14bit/flat jpegs). And I can say with some confidence that in most cases you are unlikely to find any negative to file compression (even to the degree of 8 bit jpegs). In rare cases of extreme manipulation you might find an issue; but in that case the image probably wasn't that great to start with.

 

[BillN_33]

LR's dng compression is lossy, but there is potentially a whole lot of information in a raw file that is visually imperceptible. I.e. a human can only detect about 7 different values between each stop of light, while there are more than 8k values in the last stop/bit of a 14 bit raw file... that's a whole lot of redundant/useless data...

I don't use dng, so I can't say from experience/testing. But I have tested every version of Nikon's raw file compression (as well as 12bit/14bit/flat jpegs). And I can say with some confidence that in most cases you are unlikely to find any negative to file compression (even to the degree of 8 bit jpegs). In rare cases of extreme manipulation you might find an issue; but in that case the image probably wasn't that great to start with.

Thanks you Stephen - it's not only the storage of these large files it is also the processing of them as it's got to the stage that when I upgrade my camera, I'm thinking about an M11, I need to also upgrade my iMac - the facility in LR to compress DNG, the Leica RAW files, down to almost one 10th of their size is very interesting.
I have some very large Tiff files, 100MB+, which were created in PS when I stacked a load of flower and insect shots, I've not found a way of compressing these safely.

 

[Dave Canon]

Why is your system slow? I am running the latest version of Adobe plus lots of MS office and everything is almost instantaneous now. With my last PC i7 HDD's and older Graphics card the speed was awful. It used to take 30 mins to boot up W10 and some Topaz processes could take many minutes. Since I bought a new PC, i9, one SSD, one HDD and a fast Graphics card running W11, it is now very fast. It boots in 45 seconds and even Topaz processes take only seconds.

Dave

 

[sk66]

I have some very large Tiff files, 100MB+, which were created in PS when I stacked a load of flower and insect shots, I've not found a way of compressing these safely.

You could flatten the image and it would be far smaller without visual loss. Of course, there would be a lot of data loss and re-editing would be difficult.

 

[BillN_33]

You could flatten the image and it would be far smaller without visual loss. Of course, there would be a lot of data loss and re-editing would be difficult.

Oh I remember now that option of "flattening" all the layers, but as you say they are then all lost, the layers that is