What was supposed to be a 30 minute upgrade turned into a huge headache. Below you will read about the problem, attempted solutions, and the final outcome.

Before we get down to details here are the specs on my computer that might be relevant.

• MacBook Pro 15-Inch Core 2 Duo (June 2007, MacBookPro2,2)
• This macbook is using SATA 1 (1.5Gbps) controllers inside and cannot achieve SATA II rates)

After much looking and talking with my buddy Jason about possible a SSD for my Mac I found the G.Skill Phoenix Pro 120GB SSD SATA II 2.5″ on sale at Newegg.  With a $100 off the retail price it was too good of a thing to pass up.  Two days later the drive arrived at my house.  I was so excited.

I preformed a quick backup via Time Machine and powered off my Mac.  Using a youtube tutorial I opened up my Mac and replaced the old HDD with my new SSD.  I then closed the lid, fired her up, and loaded from a Snow Leopard Installation Disk.  Upon accessing Disk Utilities I attempted to format the new SSD but it failed to show up in the selection window.  Fearing I was sent a DOA I pulled the drive out, replaced it with my old HHD and placed the SSD in an external enclosure.

I then plugged the external with the SSD into the computer and the SSD mounted on my desktop. YES! It was not dead.  I opened up Disk Utilities and formatted the disk to 1 Partition, Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and GUID Partition Table.  Thinking this might solve my problem I turned everything off and put the SSD back into my Mac and loaded up from the SL Installation Disk once again.

WTF nothing again!  Having spent most of my day messing with the drive and attempting to reach customer support I gave up and filed for a RMA.  Drive was shipped off to CA and took about 7 days to reach there.  Upon confirmation of delivery a new drive was sent to my house from NJ and arrived in 2 days.

I open the new drive up, crack open my mac, plug in the new SSD, load Disk Utilities from the CD and… NOTHING!  I’m about to freak out.  Pull out the SSD, shove it in the external, load from cd, open Disk Utilities and sure enough there it sits.  This time I decide to load a fresh copy of OSX Snow Leopard from the cd onto the SSD.  Once installation finished I put the SSD back into the computer and fire her up loading from the SSD.  Chime.  Everything is working now.  I watch the introduction video and load some apps to make sure it’s all really working.

Wow.  Looks like some progress.  I then restart and load from the CD so I can run Time Machine and load everything onto my new SSD.  But what happens?  Once again the drive does not show up in Disk Utilities when loading from the CD.  WTF?  Pull the SSD back out of the computer, into the external and load from disk.  Now I can see the SSD and run the Time Machine transfer and place everything onto the SSD.  SSD back into the mac and fire up.  Everything works great and is right where I left off with my HDD.

Now my questions are.

• Do I still have a messed up drive?
• How long will this drive last?
• Why wont the drive show up in Disk Utilities when I load from the CD?

Possible answer could be that the build on the OS CD is to old to recognize the newer SSD.  Or that the fact the drive is SATA 2 and my computer has a SATA 1 controller could be a factor.  Although it should not be because SATA 2 is backwards compatible with SATA 1.  Only time will tell but for now I am riding the wave as fast as my SATA 1 controller will let me.  Never can escape the bottleneck can you?

Stay tuned for benchmark and Lightroom Test.

Lightroom running in 32-bit

Now I was really disappointed to see this because I though Lightroom 2 was supposed to run in 64-bit. So I went into my applications folder, found the Lightroom 2 app, and pressed Command i to get more info on the program. There I found the culprit. There was a box that was checked for the app to run in 32-bit mode.

32-bit Mode

To fix this problem simply uncheck the box and open the app. When the application loads you should see that it now says 64-bit on the tittle screen. Running Lightroom in 64-bit now has given me a huge speed boost all over the application from load up time, to editing, and export.

64-bit

Have you been in a situation where the subject you wanted to shoot was in the shade or had a shadow cast on it, and the background was blown out in your attempt to properly expose your subject?

EXAMPLE

In this post we are going to cover how to make much better photos out of situations like this.

Equipment needed

Camera that allows for manual exposure

Flash (on camera or off camera)

Light Meter (optional)

Step 1. Camera Settings

First thing to do is make sure your camera is set on manual. We need total control over the cameras shutter speed and f-stop to make a proper exposure. Also make sure your shutter speed is at or under 1/250th of a second because most cameras flash sync speed won’t allow for faster shutter speed when shooting with flash. If you are getting a black band across the bottom of the photo this is because your shutter is closing before all the light can be captured and you need to lower your shutter speed.

Step 2. Background

The next thing we are going to do is set our cameras exposure for the background. If you are shooting digital take some test photos until your background is exposed correctly and you have it looking how you want.

If shooting film I would meter the light and underexpose between 1/3 to a full stop under the settings on the light meter.

For my photo I knew I wanted the background full of color from the green plants and trees in the background. To achieve that look I came up with a shutter speed of 1/90th and an f-stop of 9.5.

Step 3. Flash

Our next step is to set the flash so the subject can be properly exposed. If you do not have a light meter and are shooting digital start taking test photos and lower or power up your flash until the subjects exposure is correct.

If you have a light meter simply meter your light to your exposure settings.

Step 4. Take the photo

Make sure your composition is correct and press the shutter button. If you have done everything right you will have a photo where the subject and background are both exposed correctly and will give you a much better photo then one we started off with.

If you enjoyed the post and would like to see more like this please let me know and I would love to see any work of anyone who was inspired to try a shot like this after reading this post.