There are two different types of hard drives on the market. One is a spindle hard drive and the other is an SSD or solid-state drive. The spindle drive has been around for a long time. These drives are found in 2.5 inch and 3.5-inch drives. 3.5-inch drives usually need auxiliary power. 2.5-inch drives usually run on bus power(gets power through data connection). These drives are electro-mechanical data storage devices. The platters rotate between 5400-7900 rpm and a magnetic arm moves across the platter to read and write data. The read/write speeds of these drives are around 115-250 MB per second. The downfall of a spindle drive is that the read/write speeds are slow and they can easily break because they have moving parts. The pros are they hold large amounts of data and are the most cost-effective.
The 2.5-inch drive is usually a portable drive that runs at 5400 rpm on bus power. They are most common in laptops, but most new computers use solid-state drives and portable external hard drives. It is one of the more common drives found in box stores and it is most likely a consumer drive. The 3.5-inch drives run at 5900-7900 rpm. Usually, the faster the rotation the faster the read/write speeds. They offer the most bang for the buck but usually require separate power. These drives can be found as desktop internal drives(mostly replaced by SSD’S), NAS drives, or external non-portable drives. Spindle drives come in consumer and enterprise variants.
Enterprise drives are usually made for NAS(network-attached storage) or servers and are much more reliable, rated for around 1 million hours, and have better warranties. The main spindle drive brands are Western Digital and Seagate. Toshiba is also in the market. Hitachi or HGST used to make spindle drives but Western Digital bought the company. Examples of Enterprise drives are Western Digital Red Pro and Seagate IronWolf Pro. You can get enterprise hard drives in external drives. I use one by Glyph, Glyph does not make drives. Most likely it uses Western Digital or Seagate. I usually just call the manufacture and they will tell you the exact specifications.
If you are ever wondering which drives are the best, a company called Backblaze publishes the failure rates of the drives they use. Backblaze is a personal and business backup service. I use and love this company. They backup your computer and all hard drives for $6 a month but you can get a discount if you pay for the year. This is not an offsite cloud-like google drive but a backup solution. The process is automated in works in the background.
SSD or Solid State Drive
The SSD is a flash memory drive that has no moving parts and works with semiconductors and NAND-style chips. They are lighter and more portable, require less power, and are crazy fast. SSD’s are found as internal hard drives as well as external drives. SSD’s two most common form factors are 2.5 inches and M.2. Most 2.5″ SSD’s run a SATA which was developed around 2000. M.2 drives run on both SATA and PCI Express. Some M.2 drives running PCI Express also support NVMe. Most computers these days are using SSD’s are the main hard drive. The speed of the drives lets your computer boot up and work at much faster speeds. The downside is they are more expensive(but prices are dropping) and they don’t hold as much data. It is typical these days to see smaller SSD’s in a laptop to run your OS and all other data saved on external drives instead of the internal SSD. This is the way I have been working for the last 6 or 7 years. I actually made on old 2010 MacBook Pro useable by replacing the spindle drive with an SSD. SSD speeds vary on a variety of factors but read/write speeds are around 450-3000 MB per second. Just like any drive they do have a limited life and will slow down when they reach the number of times they can read/write data.
I presently use an internal SSD in my laptop, an external SSD as my working drive, two external spindle drives one enterprise and one consumer, and four Western Digital NAS Red drives in a Qnap Network Attached Storage running Raid 5. I would suggest that anyone buying a new computer of any kind do not buy one with a spindle drive.
If you would like to learn about the differences in SD cards check out this blog I wrote https://www.jcwphoto.com/sd-cards-are-not-created-equal/
Are you looking for a studio portrait? I am completely mobile. I can work at home or on location. Hey and you can always do a combination of studio and location work. I do prefer to photograph outside but indoor studio portraits is a great option in the colder months. This image was toned with the matte look and gradient map to give it that color graded effect. The lights used in this image were simple, just a hair light and beauty dish. It was taken with a shallow depth of field so it would quickly fall out of focus. Feel free to take a look at my other portraits on contact me for more information. Hey don’t forget about photos when it is snowing. It is a great time for portraits. If you are not available when it is snowing I can ad falling snow to any image.
I purchased a pack of unopened Sunflowers this weekend. This is my third photo of this series. Today, I have three different versions of the same image. Let me know which one you like in the comments below. This image is one straight image not stacked like the last one. I
Depth of Field can be an issue when photographing in macro photography. Focal length, aperture, and distance to subject all play a part in the depth of field of an object. Even though I was shooting at F 22, a very high aperture the distance to the subject reduced my depth of field.
My goal with this image was to have all the little hairs stand out. The only way this could be achieved was a process called focus stacking. I took six sequential frames, moving the focus on each frame. (Note, you will need a tripod to do this. ) Using Adobe Photoshop, I then stacked the images together and told Photoshop to blend the in-focus areas of each frame. The result is an extended depth of field. If you are interested in learning this process check out this YouTube tutorial.
Looking for a Camp Hill or Central Pennsylvania photographer to photograph your products. I can photograph food or other complicated commercial setups such as this reflective watch. This image is a combination of multiple layers to help control the values and give it that pop!
My first job in school was product photography for John Snyder Photography in Chicago. We photographed products for Williams Games and Plummer-McCutcheon magazine. I can put those technical skills to work for you.
Stop using those phone apps to retouch your selfies. I can use high-frequency retouching in Adobe Photoshop to retouch your portraits. High-frequency retouching separates the color layer from the detail layer in Photoshop. This allow me to to fix blemishes, skin color and shadows without removing detail. This will give you a more natural look than just blurring your face. I can contour you face, shape your eyes, nose, mouth, head and body. Need thicker eyelashes, no problem I can add them too. Retouching is totally free and painless for all portraits I take.
If you would like to see the process, I have a YouTube tutorial I made for this image. The description has time stamps so you can skip to any part of the video you would like to watch.
This is a more extreme version of retouching and face shaping. I added digital makeup to to this subject. You can see how I changed her face shape with makeup and shadows. I can do anything from mild to extreme retouching.
Feel free to contact John Whitehead Images to schedule a spring portrait. Retouching is totally free for all portraits I take.
Photography is only one part of the finished product. I photographer with good toning skills can turn an average image into something amazing. I also offer free profressional high frequency retouching on all of my portraits. This technique separates the detail and color layers. Retouching can be simple or involved. It is all up too you. I offer blemish removal, skin color correction, sculpting, eye brightening and modeling, lip retouching, face and body shaping, hair retouching, and fake eyelashes. If there is something I missed let me know and I can most likely do it.
Well is has been a long cold winter in Central Pennsylvania. Last year my Star Magnolia didn’t bloom because freeze that killed all the blooms. It almost happened again this year but I did get a 50/50 bloom. Here is an image I took yesterday before heading out for my birthday dinner with family and friends. I am booking for spring and summer portraits so don’t forget to call.
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Every wanted a custom painting of your dogs or children but can’t afford it. I can turn any portrait into a watercolor painting. Feel free to use the contact form for inquires on the process. Archival printing is a great printing option because there are a variety of high quality textured papers.