The little spinning wheel question

[MiniD3]

Hi guys
I was making my first attempt at focus stacking using Photoshop with 8 images tonight
The final image was OK but the system looked a little glitchy along the way

When I was in the final stages of auto blending the layers, the little multicoloured spinning wheel started, then went grey, and the process "appeared" to stop?

I moved the cursor a little, and the spinning wheel started again, this repeated itself several times

Eventually, the process finished and produced a good image
Was the above spinning wheel and "stop/start" a problem?

I am running a 2012 iMac
3.4 Ghz i7
750 GB SSD
32 GB ram
Would have thought this should scoot along just nicely?

the other time I see the spinning wheel is when I am backing up the vaults in Aperture but it does not appear to cause a problem or stop along the way

....Gary

 

[MCAsan]

Use Helicon Focus instead. The program is optimized for focus stacking.

http://www.heliconsoft.com/heliconsoft-products/helicon-focus/

 

[MiniD3]

Thank you,

But I already have Adobe CC so thought I would try out this option, if the general feedback indicates this option is "glitchy" I will then have a look at either Helicon Focus or Zerene Stacker

 

[steveash]

How long did the process take? Did you have any other applications running? I would expect a process like this to take a while on any computer as it is using both processor and memory (especially if they are high-res 16 bit images). Any additional use of either by other apps as well as a full hard disk will slow it further. The stopping/greying of the spinning beach ball is just because the processor is working overtime. You may get better results if you change photoshop's performance settings in the preferences.

 

[MiniD3]

Tks Steve,

The process for 12 images, did not take as long as I thought, perhaps 2-3 mins
and yes they were 16bit
The final image is nearly 400MB
Finally, no other processes running
....Gary

Edit:
I just had a look at preferences under Performance,
The usable ram was set at about 65%, not at 100%
Thank you for pointing that out, learning all the time
Will try a small stack in the morning and see if there is an improvement using most of those 32GB's

 

[MiniD3]

How long did the process take? Did you have any other applications running? I would expect a process like this to take a while on any computer as it is using both processor and memory (especially if they are high-res 16 bit images). Any additional use of either by other apps as well as a full hard disk will slow it further. The stopping/greying of the spinning beach ball is just because the processor is working overtime. You may get better results if you change photoshop's performance settings in the preferences.

Your the man Steve!
Much appreciated!
Ran another new raw 16 bit PSD file stack,
Worked perfectly!
Grey spinning wheel paused a little but no SBBOD!

Thank you for support help, much appreciated
Now PS is running 32bit of ram
Regards,
Gary

 

[steveash]

Good to hear it. Adobe really should make the performance settings a bit more obvious. You may also find that after working on large files like this after closing them Photoshop continues to hog your memory until you quit out.

 

[MiniD3]

Good to hear it. Adobe really should make the performance settings a bit more obvious. You may also find that after working on large files like this after closing them Photoshop continues to hog your memory until you quit out.

Good point, haven't noticed any difference but will make sure I quit out
I do get the SBBOD when backing up vaults in Aperture but the process is still fast, I think it'd just my external HDD's slowing the process down
....Gary

 

[CHNO-Chris]

Good point, haven't noticed any difference but will make sure I quit out
I do get the SBBOD when backing up vaults in Aperture but the process is still fast, I think it'd just my external HDD's slowing the process down
....Gary

More often than not, especially when we're talking large files, spinning hard drives are the bottleneck. Lost count of the number of designers I've worked with that have switched out HDD's for SSD's and virtually eliminated the SBBOD.

 

[MiniD3]

More often than not, especially when we're talking large files, spinning hard drives are the bottleneck. Lost count of the number of designers I've worked with that have switched out HDD's for SSD's and virtually eliminated the SBBOD.

Thats my next move, (SSD externals), but I keep buying camera lenses and photography gear instead

At least I have a SSD in the Mac
....Gary