It is official Lightroom 4 is snail slow

ZerodogZerodog Registered Users Posts: 1,480 Major grins
edited July 20, 2013 in Digital Darkroom
I have been using LR since 2 was released. I downloaded LR4 the day it hit the market. And I am a HUGE fan of LR. It does most everything I need. Especially for handling large volumes of photos. 1000s of them from event photography. I regularly will shoot events with 10,000 photos and process all of the files in some way before uploading them to my smugmug site. I was excited for some of the new features of LR4. Mostly for soft proofing. And for the new adjustment powers.

Pros:
  1. Soft proofing
  2. Much better detail out of my RAW files in every way. Shadows, Highlights and even colors
  3. I like the new slider functions
  4. Much better masking for the adjustment brushes
  5. Clarity looks much more like the high pass filter in PS this is really nice.
Cons:
Slow as hell for anything requiring an export. This means burning CDs or uploading to the internet straight out of LR. :flush


I didn't notice a significant speed issue when using LR to import and adjust photos. IF there is any lag here it is minimal. Where I notice this speed issue is on upload and export. How slow? Here is an example. To upload a 60pic gallery to Smugmug using Jeffery's uploader plugin was going to take 59min. Using LR3 with the same gallery and Jeffery's plugin 5min shown on the status bar. A 114 image gallery said it was going to take 4.5 hrs in LR4. LR3 plowed through this gallery in about 8min. So for some people these times might be OK. For me, I am uploading 4500 images from a motocross........... This is fricken ridiculous.


Trying to export to a folder is a similar experience. It is very slow. A 50 image gallery takes maybe 5min. Once done the Smugmug uploader can suck those files to the site in minutes. But this is also not a good solution because of the speed of the export.:deal A 600 image CD would take quite a long time.


I ended up abandoning ship on LR4 and going back to LR3 to upload this gallery. Luckily LR3 read the metadata of 4 and our number plate tags were intact. What a huge waste of time. I called my ISP, tech supported like crazy with SM, messed with computers. I tried it all for 2 days straight. I was freaking out because of this. It would have taken me 2 weeks to load this stuff and that would mean no sales. I will be done tonight with my trusty LR3.


Adobe should be ashamed. This speed is a joke. How is it OK for them to downgrade a software in this way. Yes there is some benefit to this program, but it doesn't outweigh killing one of the programs key uses. Why would I need to build a hotrod computer to get maybe? the same performance of 3? :rolleyes
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Comments

  • PilotBradPilotBrad Registered Users Posts: 339 Major grins
    edited March 27, 2012
    FWIW... My experience has been the opposite. I find it to be slightly quicker than LR3, even on export, however I am running an i7 w/ 16GB of RAM. I'll do a bit more testing and report back if I find anything different.
    Brad
    My SmugMug
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited March 27, 2012
    ne_nau.gif I just uploaded 600 very large JPG files from my 5DII/7D in about 40 mins from LR4/SmugMug Publish feature. I can't say that LR4 is slower, I'm sorry!
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • ZerodogZerodog Registered Users Posts: 1,480 Major grins
    edited March 28, 2012
    What system are you running Andy? Here is my basic spec on the system I tried LR4.

    Lenovo x201 Laptop Win 7 64bit
    Intel Core i5 2.67GHz
    8gb RAM

    Not the best but no slouch. I haven't tried with my desktop yet with the big graphics card.
  • CWSkopecCWSkopec Registered Users Posts: 1,325 Major grins
    edited March 28, 2012
    Just a shot in the dark as I haven't uploaded through LR4 yet (still figuring it out and trying to correct 4 years of bad cataloging through Bridge), but have you tried SmugMug's own upload plug-in? Mayhaps, Jeffery's upload plug-in hasn't been updated to the new LR4 architecture yet...?
    Chris
    SmugMug QA
    My Photos
  • Manfr3dManfr3d Registered Users Posts: 2,008 Major grins
    edited March 28, 2012
    I noticed that LR4 is somewhat slower generating previews when zooming to 100% compared to LR3. Maybe it's because my entire library (30k photos) was just converted to LR4 ?
    “To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk.”
    ― Edward Weston
  • novicesnappernovicesnapper Registered Users Posts: 445 Major grins
    edited March 28, 2012
    This might help somewhat, this also pertains to building previews, to speed displaying an image. Hope it helps
    Optimizing Lightroom for Best Performance: Top Ten Lightroom Speed Tips


    http://thelightroomlab.com/2009/07/optimizing-lightroom-for-best-performance-top-ten-lightroom-speed-tips/
    http://retroimages.zenfolio.com/
  • ZerodogZerodog Registered Users Posts: 1,480 Major grins
    edited March 28, 2012
    novicesnapper wrote: »
    This might help somewhat, this also pertains to building previews, to speed displaying an image. Hope it helps
    Optimizing Lightroom for Best Performance: Top Ten Lightroom Speed Tips


    http://thelightroomlab.com/2009/07/optimizing-lightroom-for-best-performance-top-ten-lightroom-speed-tips/


    This does not help with this problem. I need to try the SM pluggin. I tried it when it first came out and wasn't a fan. But that was a while ago too. I need to see if it speeds up LR4 on upload. For some reason I am thinking it has more to do with the export process than anything. LR exports each file to a temporary folder before uploading. This saves your changes so the world sees what you see.

    I still want to hear from Andy about his system?
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited March 28, 2012
    Zerodog wrote: »
    I still want to hear from Andy about his system?

    I doubt it's system related.
    20120328-dxfwngygr9r9aem4iun5xbgp6n.jpg
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • ZerodogZerodog Registered Users Posts: 1,480 Major grins
    edited March 28, 2012
    Not apples to apples there. Mac and that thing is looking pretty rippin. Double the memory I have. I think it is probably memory related.
  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited March 28, 2012
    I have wondered why the Mac LR download is so much smaller than the PC.
    Moderator Emeritus
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  • novicesnappernovicesnapper Registered Users Posts: 445 Major grins
    edited March 28, 2012
    I posted that for Manfr3d, to show how to optimize catalogs and pre build previews. Feel free to edit my posts right on out of here lol. Have you notified Adobe of this, for possible work arounds?
    http://retroimages.zenfolio.com/
  • Manfr3dManfr3d Registered Users Posts: 2,008 Major grins
    edited March 28, 2012
    novicesnapper wrote: »
    I posted that for Manfr3d, to show how to optimize catalogs and pre build previews. Feel free to edit my posts right on out of here lol. Have you notified Adobe of this, for possible work arounds?

    Thanks! I figured I just rebuild all previews and see how it goes then. The system should be
    fast enough (16gb, quadcore 2.93ghz i7).
    “To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk.”
    ― Edward Weston
  • eoren1eoren1 Registered Users Posts: 2,391 Major grins
    edited March 28, 2012
    Saw that LR 4.1 is to be posted 'this week' to address performance issues and add support for the 5DmkIII...
    Looks like I'll finally be ready to update from 3.6 (I was scared off from the lost curve tone and other settings that happened with the initial catalog migration to 4.0)
    Eyal
    My site | Non-MHD Landscapes |Google+ | Twitter | Facebook | Smugmug photos
  • DonRicklinDonRicklin Registered Users Posts: 5,551 Major grins
    edited March 28, 2012
    I a having no speed issues with LR 4.0 running on a MBP with the system and LR w/ previews on an SSD 3G drive and the catalog on another internal HD.

    Scrolling and importing is quite fast.

    Don
    Don Ricklin - Gear: Canon EOS 5D Mark III, was Pentax K7
    'I was older then, I'm younger than that now' ....
    My Blog | Q+ | Moderator, Lightroom Forums | My Amateur Smugmug Stuff | My Blurb book Rust and Whimsy. More Rust , FaceBook     .
  • ZerodogZerodog Registered Users Posts: 1,480 Major grins
    edited March 28, 2012
    DonRicklin wrote: »
    I a having no speed issues with LR 4.0 running on a MBP with the system and LR w/ previews on an SSD 3G drive and the catalog on another internal HD.

    Scrolling and importing is quite fast.

    Don

    Yeah for me importing, scrolling, previewing and general running of LR is fine. Pretty much as it was with 3. The exporting to web is what is killing me. Exporting in general is just slower, a lot slower.........at least with my computer.
  • ian408ian408 Administrators Posts: 21,938 moderator
    edited March 28, 2012
    Have you looked around for tips on improving performance? There have been a few for other Adobe products that have made a difference.
    Moderator Journeys/Sports/Big Picture :: Need some help with dgrin?
  • aerialphotoaerialphoto Registered Users Posts: 299 Major grins
    edited March 28, 2012
    I've not noticeable difference. I exported several hundred 60mp images to 16bit tif files from raw yesterday, overall the time was roughly the same as LR3. Uploading to Smugmug and flickr have been no different than LR3 (then again my internet is snail-slow to begin with).
  • dixondukedixonduke Registered Users Posts: 197 Major grins
    edited March 28, 2012
    FWIW, I love LR4. I find it pronouncedly faster than LR3 on all fronts. Import, develop, export. Uploading to Smugmug is the same in my opinion, I use the LR plugin for uploading as well.
    Duke
  • cmasoncmason Registered Users Posts: 2,506 Major grins
    edited March 29, 2012
    May want to try out the new LR 4.1 Release Candidate: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom4-1/

    Addressed performance issues in Lightroom 4, particularly when loading GPS track logs, using a secondary monitor, and the controls within the Develop module.

    Also supports 5DMkIII if you are so lucky
    Photos
  • WilliamClark77WilliamClark77 Registered Users Posts: 164 Major grins
    edited March 30, 2012
    DavidTO wrote: »
    I have wondered why the Mac LR download is so much smaller than the PC.

    I don't know for certain and only ASSuming it's because the Mac version is 64 bit only. The Winders version is both 32 and 64 bit.
    http://williamclark77.smugmug.com/
  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited March 30, 2012
    WilliamClark77 wrote: »
    I don't know for certain and only ASSuming it's because the Mac version is 64 bit only. The Winders version is both 32 and 64 bit.

    thumb.gif
    Moderator Emeritus
    Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
  • JimClarkJimClark Registered Users Posts: 305 Major grins
    edited March 30, 2012
    check you prefrences how bout the Camera raw cache setting
    "Christianity, if false, is of no importance,
    and if true, of infinite importance. The only
    thing it cannot be is moderately
    important." C. S. Lewis
    http://www.photosbyjimclark.com/
  • NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited March 30, 2012
    I think it's the lack of RAM. Come think of it, running a 64-bit software on a 64-bit system effectively turns your 8Gb into pretty much 4Gb. LR4 and CS6 do like a lot of RAM. I noticed a *significant* performance difference between my (otherwise fiarly decent) 8Gb laptop and (I admit, newer and more powerful) 24Gb tower for these applications. I know, not a fair comparison, but it did look like the amount of RAM can be a bottleneck here.
    Can you beef your up to 12..16?
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
  • BradfordBennBradfordBenn Registered Users Posts: 2,506 Major grins
    edited March 30, 2012
    I will say that dual screen does bring it down to a crawl but from my profiling it does not seem to be taking lots of RAM, I think it is the video render for me. I am running an iMac i7 so I should be fine. Soon I will be jumping up to more RAM but am a little disappointed in the speed natively.
    -=Bradford

    Pictures | Website | Blog | Twitter | Contact
  • ian408ian408 Administrators Posts: 21,938 moderator
    edited March 31, 2012
    If it's a memory problem, then you should see this in the Activity Monitor (Applications->Utilities->Activity Monitor.app). Fire it up then
    start LR. I should think it won't consume more than 110MB or there about. The more important thing to watch is the amount of free memory.
    If you run out, the system will swap and that will slow things down too.
    Moderator Journeys/Sports/Big Picture :: Need some help with dgrin?
  • BlackwoodBlackwood Registered Users Posts: 313 Major grins
    edited March 31, 2012
    cmason wrote: »
    May want to try out the new LR 4.1 Release Candidate: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom4-1/

    Addressed performance issues in Lightroom 4, particularly when loading GPS track logs, using a secondary monitor, and the controls within the Develop module.

    Also supports 5DMkIII if you are so lucky

    It certainly helps the performance.
    Marc Blackwood | HYPERcontrast
  • ZerodogZerodog Registered Users Posts: 1,480 Major grins
    edited April 2, 2012
    Blackwood wrote: »
    It certainly helps the performance.

    So you tried it? If so where did you notice improvements?
  • BlackwoodBlackwood Registered Users Posts: 313 Major grins
    edited April 2, 2012
    Zerodog wrote: »
    So you tried it? If so where did you notice improvements?

    Just manipulating sliders in develop.

    It's more responsive, I particular the rendering.
    Marc Blackwood | HYPERcontrast
  • Manfr3dManfr3d Registered Users Posts: 2,008 Major grins
    edited April 2, 2012
    I can't help it but LR4 really is slower than LR3 on my Laptop (2.3Ghz c2d, 8GB RAM)
    when rendering previews and when rendering jpegs for export. I noticed it while
    importing a couple of 10MP jpegs from my Canon S95. LR3 used to fly through
    these files, LR4 not so much. On the Desktop I don't notice a difference though.
    “To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk.”
    ― Edward Weston
  • basfltbasflt Registered Users Posts: 1,882 Major grins
    edited April 4, 2012
    i installed the RC for 4.1 too
    seems indeed better
    Bas

    /ɯoɔ˙ƃnɯƃnɯs˙ʇlɟsɐq//:dʇʇɥ
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