A (final) catalog renaming question

Hi.
I've just found the following tip on how to rename my LR4 catalog:
(First of all look up in LR under Help /system info the actual location and the name of your catalog.
Then close Lightroom.
Go to the folder and change the name of:
LR 4 Catalog.lrcat
LR 4 Previews.lrdata
to
YourName Catalog.lrcat
YourName Previews.lrdata), which I'm sure works well. However, on my PC the path is
"Library Path: C:\Users\Ole\Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom2Katalog\Backups\2011-11-08 2218\Lightroom2Katalog-2-2.lrcat",
that is, I suppose only a part of this will be the actual catalog, as I also have another catalog called
"Library Path: C:\Users\Ole\Pictures\Lightroom\Lightroom2Katalog\Lightroom2Katalog-2-2.lrcat
OK, this seems confusing, but to put it simple, I want to keep and rename the first of these, but I'm not quite sure which parts of the name I should change, ie how many back-slashes will have to be kept with the new catalog name. pe
Yes, I see I messed this up a bit. Hope you will be able to help, though.
Cheers,
Ole K

Hi Ole,
As long as you have one root folder encompassing every image you want to keep (such as probably "My Pictures"-folder) it is sufficiently organized.
You will move this folder (As-Is, with every weird subfolder!) to your new computer, along with your real working catalog and previews folder (the latter for convenience - you can let your new computer recreate the previews, but it may take more than the hours of 1 night, depending on the size of catalog and chosen preview size).
Should you have "?" for missing images and folders in LR on your new computer you will reassign the top root folder and everything should be spick&span.
I am not quite a fan of the *big electronic drawer* for REALLY everything, but depending on how much you shoot you should be well served e.g. by a date-folder structure with one folder per month (or even year?). 3000 images in one folder is without any problems, even in bug-times as in LR4.0.
But as dj_paige said, it is not worth while to reorganize the past.
Just start with such for new imports, let LR create these destination folders inside "My Pictures" during import. Then spend your time for other organisation. Ask yourself and the ones around you who may inherit your image data: how would you search for pictures several years/decades ahead? That is how you create dumb or smart collections, assign keywords and fill the title- and caption fields. No need to do much for location keywording any more if you feel comfortable with the map module.
Here is where I have my LR-knowledge from: Victoria Bampton's "The missing FAQs": http://www.lightroomqueen.com/books/adobe-lightroom-4-missing-faq/
Have fun, Cornelia

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Big Big batch rename question

Hi folks. I've seen a few batch rename questions before, but I think this one's a little different.
I have a long (8 minute) movie, one big piece in a FCP timeline. For reasons unimportant to this question, I need to break it up into about 50 little 10 second movies. I can do that easily but using the cutting tool and cut cut cut away until I've split my one item in the timeline into 50 pieces. I can then drag them into a bin. Of course, each one is called "final" (that's the name of the movie). I can select all those clips and make them independent clips, which now allows me to rename them.
Problem is, they need to be renamed to a bunch of unrelated words. ie "plane", "building", "sky" etc. So a simple batch sequence that names them 1, 2 ,3 is not what I'm after.
I have an exel file with a single column that lists all these names in their proper order. So far, I have successfully:
exported a batch list from my 50 clips in the bin that are named the same.
replaced the file names in that batch list with the names from my column of names
reimported that revised batch list into FCP. Their properties are all correct, ie the right name is with the right in and out points etc.
I'm stuck now where those clips have a red line through them. How can I relink the 50 clips in the timeline (which are all still called "final") with their properly named counterparts in the bin?
batch capture of course isn't a solution since there's nothing to capture.
Hope that's clear and thanks in advance for any ideas.
B

If you're running a 32 bit version of windows try Batch Rename
A really great piece of freeware that is easy to use.
There are also options within PS's batch dialog that allow you to do the same thing, but I find the above app so much easier.
I really miss it on my Vista 64 box...

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5.0 is not compatible with intel machines... 5.1 was the first version that did, and is no longer available, and wasn't free either. You need to upgrade to Studio 2 to run FCP on your machine.
FCP 4.5 (HD) also won't run on an intel mac...
FCE 4 will run on an intel Mac, however FCP HD is a ton more robust than FCE anything.
FCE might be all you need though. Depends on what you want to do... So what might that be? What format do you intend to edit? What sort of work is it etc... If you're a working professional, then there's no question FCS 2 is where you should be looking.
Jerry

Lightroom catalog maintenance question.

The Lightroom catalog is a convenient feature that allows changes to photographs without making changes to the original picture.
I have had problems when I have to reorganize folders and files in Windows. If I rename a folder in Windows I damage the path to the pictures and I lose the Lightroom catalog.
I have a very dynamic set of image files that have to be created and filed away (deleted) very frequently and the stability of the Lightroom catalog seems to be in the way. Maintenance of the Catalog feels like an extra burden.
What is the best way to repair (modify) the Catalog links to the Windows files when they have been deleted or renamed?
Thanks in advance.
Al

You can change the links via
http://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm
I have a very dynamic set of image files that have to be created and filed away (deleted) very frequently and the stability of the Lightroom catalog seems to be in the way.
Most people don't delete photos once imported into LR, and everything works very smoothly. Once the photo is imported, leave it in Lightroom. Saves you some work.
Furthermore, the idea of importing the photos to a certain location, working with the photos and then moving the photos somewhere else might make sense in your operating system, but in Lightroom this is an extra step with no obvious benefits (in my opinion). Better would be to import the photos to their destination, and not perform the two-step Move to Folder A followed by Move to Folder B.
By the way, I hope you understand that if you delete photos from Lightroom (but not from your hard disk), your edits may not stay with the actual photos. By default, the edits and other metadata are not stored with the photo files.
And as John said, an organization scheme that uses keywords and other metadata will be far superior in the long-run than moving photos from folder to folder and location to location.

Batch file renaming questions

Beyond knowing that such a facility exists, I have no knowledge about Bridge scripting. Can it be used to modify the standard batch file rename process in Bridge?
I would like to rename my Canon Raw images with the date (from EXIF Date Digitised) and a sequence number that resets to zero for each new date. This sequence number should accurately reflect the order in which the images were taken (via the time component of EXIF Date Digitised). I would also like to process all files in a subdirectory structure at the same time.
The standard Bridge batch rename process does not offer a counter that resets for each new date, nor does it seem to allow processing files in more than one folder at a time.
Can this be done? Do such scripts already exist? Alternatively, are there any commercial software utilities that can do this? I am already aware of a freeware solution called DIM but am a little worried about putting my faith in something with no guaranteed ongoing support - a concern that would be addressed by a script I can control myself or a properly supported commercial solution.

Hello? Hello? Is there anyone there?
Have I posted this question in the wrong forum or is everyone on vacation?

Canon EOS 7-D/Workflow Final cut Pro questions.

Today i just upgraded my final cut pro from 5 to the latest 7.0.3, and im having trouble viewing my clips.
First off, im very confused.
http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&articleID=3249
i read this entire article and still cant view my clip in the timeline. Here's what im doing.
I plugged in my card into a card reader,
next i opened final cut pro, and i opened up log and transfer.
my clips are all there, and i can preview them all.
Step 3 is what confuses me.
3. In the Import Preferences window, select 'Canon DSLR' as your Source, and then select the Transcode to format of your choice (such as ProRes 422).
when i open up my settings/preferences in the log/transfer settings i cant seem to find "canon dslr, or how to make it my "source".
instead, i see AVCHD PLugin, P2 PLug in, MPEG2 Consumer Cameras, and Canon E1. i selected the Obvious Canon E1 (because thats the plug in you download) and when i added it to the queue it finished and i am still unable to see it in the right window. There's audio but the screen is white.
So the burning questions i have..
What am i doing wrong?
What do you use for your easy format or custom format?

First don't use Final Cut to import directly from the card. Use Disc Utility to make a new image of the card from your card reader onto a hard drive. Make a back up copy of this by dragging it to another drive if possible. Now if anything goes wrong you are secure. Open one of these disk images and log and transfer from them with FCP.
You do this by opening log and transfer window. Use the top left button in the window to point to the files. On the other side of the left pane at the top open preferences, select the Canon E1 but then double click the little arrows which should open another window and offer a selection of versions of ProRes, choose Apple ProRes or ProRes LT, anything higher is overkill. Select the files you want and add them to the import queue. They should start importing automatically. You should be able to see files appearing in logging bin progressively. Whilst the import is happening do not touch anything else in FCP, allow the whole import to finish before playing with them.

Premiere Workflow Final Product Quality Question - General

Clarification: This is just a general workflow question regardless of hardware/software/cpu/gpu. I'm also not asking about rendering times - just how the final product looks.
Do any one of the following 3 workflow methods have any bearing on the "quality" or "look/feel" of the final output of a project.
Specific effects are named in my examples just for the heck of it - the root of my question is if any given workflow with any given effects applied affects the quality of the final export/render.
#1) Raw Clip => Apply Sharpness => Apply Levels => Apply Three-Way CC => Export final product.
#2) Raw Clip => Apply Sharpness => Export Clip => Import Clip => Apply Levels => Export Clip => Import Clip => Apply Three-Way CC => Export final product.
#3) Raw Clip (sequence 1) => Apply Sharpness => Create sequence 2 and drag sequence 1 onto it => Apply Levels to sequence 2 => Create sequence 3 and drag sequence 2 onto it => apply Three-Way CC to sequence 3 => Export sequence 3 as final product.

Jim's answer is probably based on the fact that no matter what you do to a video, exporting it will degrade the quality almost every time. But that is not only acceptable, but absolutely necessary. What video would you have that did not require some adjustments, even if just a straight cut.
In any case, I think the answer you really want is:
#1 looks normal. So that's fine.
#2 will degrade the image every time you export unless you export to a completely lossless codec like Lagarith - which creates HUGE files and is totally unnecessary. It is just a bad workflow.
#3 is technically the same as #1. It's fine. No problem. In fact, it can be quite handy sometimes to work that way. Nesting does not cause the problems that exporting does.

Export catalog problem/question involving previews.

I just returned from a month long trip with a laptop and external drive containing 280gb (~11000 raw files) of photos which are in the same directory layout as my desktop (year/date -- e.g. root/Photos/2012/2012-12-01). For speed reasons the catalog and previews are on the laptop's C: internal drive which is an SSD. Some of these photos have already been edited, and about half of them have * ratings. All of them have at least a few keywords assigned. I want to finish the selection and editing on my much faster desktop with better monitors.
My aim is to get the remote catalog into the desktop's catalog (on its SSD E: drive) and the raw files onto my big drive with all my other photos without losing any of my work. And then wipe the portable drive so it is ready for the next trip. The plan was to
1. Export the catalog and previews only.
2. Import that into the desktop.
3. Drag/drop the the raw files into the main photo drive (and manually reconnect each day if needed).
---The message I got with the export is: "Lightroom was able to export some of the photos to the new catalog, but encountered these problems." "Photo previews could not be found (4446)" ...and then it lists the raw names in expandable groups of 100. These photos do not appear to have anything in common but there are so many of them it is hard to tell.
So I have a couple of questions: What does this error mean? Are the previews in any way necessary to preserve my work? (as I understand it the previews are expendable and would just be rebuilt, and if this is the case, it is not a problem. But that's only what I have read from various online sources). The way I read this message, it is only a minor inconvenience but that is based on the assumption the previews are expendable and the catalog is what is important. What concerns me is the wording:
"Lightroom was able to export some of the photos" --which leads me to think the previews are not expendable.
If this were just a few dozen photos I would experiment, but I dont want to mess up my main catalog with thousands of potential errors! I am running 4.4 on both machines. Thank you in advance for any insight or advice!

George in Seattle wrote:
...---The message I got with the export is: "Lightroom was able to export some of the photos to the new catalog, but encountered these problems." "Photo previews could not be found (4446)" ...and then it lists the raw names in expandable groups of 100. These photos do not appear to have anything in common but there are so many of them it is hard to tell.
So I have a couple of questions: What does this error mean? Are the previews in any way necessary to preserve my work?
To answer your original question: You have probably ticked "Include available previews" when you did the Export as Catalog.
But not all previews were available, hence the error message.
I did not test if this affects the entire export of the catalog entry pertaining to the image in question.
But as you correctly stated: previews can be built by each computer running LR again, independantly. It just takes some time. But then so does the transfer of the quite substantial preview data (depending on size specified).
So I would not bother transferring previews, just leave it unticked. Then no such error messages would occur.
Your description no 1. would now be: export the catalog (i.e. the .lrcat file only, assuming you do 3. separately and have "Export negative file" unticked).
But if your travel-laptop did get a new catalog just for the trip, there would be no need to export anything.
Then you just plug your laptop accessible for your desktop, open your master catalog on the desktop and do an "Import from Another Catalog" from the complete travel-catalog.
Have your external-travel-HD plugged, then move the folders inside LR from travel-HD to your big disk.
Saves you reconnecting each folder.
Cornelia

Exporting to Final Cut Studio questions.

Hi Everyone.
Sorry for the rookie question. I have been searching for answers and found a few things about exporting but have a few question I was hoping someone could answer.
I have created a project in LiveType. It's 10seconds long. 720x480, square pixels, progressive. Final output will be on QT. The video is heavy on effects and takes about 2-3 minutes to render.
Which file do I use in FCPro? The LiveType file or the QT file that LiveType Renders? I was using the actual LiveType file that way if I have any changes I can go back... change it in LiveType and then it updates in FinalCut. However... that requires a lot of rendering time in FinalCut. Is that the proper process of importing and exporting between the two?
Also... I have the LiveType file exactly how I want it. I thought FinalCut might have an easier time using a QT file from LiveType. However, when I render from LiveType the .MOV file is 350megs... that seems kind of large to me for 10 seconds. When I import it into FinalCut I still have to render it, which takes forever and then if I add a transition it has to render that as well. My settings are the same for in Final Cut as they are in LiveType. I was hoping for a faster process. Why does FCPro have to render my .mov file if it's already 720x480, progressive, 30fps... all setting are identical?
Thanks in advance. Feel like I'm really close to understanding all that is going on... just looking for a little bit more guidance.

Hi Doug thanks for the reply.
I'm going to be showing this using QT that's why I want square pixels. It's never going to be shown on a TV screen. It's going to be projected using a projector to a screen. I like the look of a more rectangular image.
I'll stick with the .ipr workflow. Thanks for the advice.
I have another question. When I render my LiveType animation does it render it uncompressed? Is that why the .mov file it creates is so big? At a duration of 10 second the .mov file is about 350MB. When I import it into FinalCut it takes forever to render and work with... so does the .ipr file.
Is there anything I can do to speed up this process?
When LiveType finishes rendering my animation I created it opens the rendered .mov file for playback. I ended up saving it from this position using the .264 compression. Which took the .mov file down to 7megs and final cut is able to handle it much better. Is this OK?
Thanks again.

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Hi all,
New to Final Cut after sending my Avid packing. I won't miss it. I used Media 100 and Premier for years back in the 90's, so the Final Cut interface feels very familar. The one question I have is, can you turn off the video that displays over most of the screen during capture. This stuttering video drives me nuts and It covers most of the timeline and canvas. The capture display shows a set of color bars and says video disabled during this. I'm sure that you can display the video in this screen during capture by setting the video display settings, but between reading the manual and turning to my computer, my mind seems to be dropping a few frames. Can anyone lead me in the right direction. Thanks!

Nope, I'm afraid you will have to put up with that stuttering silent video .......... it can't be turned off - or the sound turned on.
The fact that it is covering part of the FCE interface should not matter as it is very inadviseable to attempt to use your computer whilst it is capturing.
If you don't like it, stick a plant pot in front of the monitor.

More LR 4 Catalog Conversion Questions

I have been a LR user since LR1 first came out and consider myself relatively knowledgeable about the program and how it works. However, I recently acquired LR 4 and have run into the problem a number of you seem to have found with moving from LR3 to starting off a new catalog in LR4. I've searced the databases and read a number of the discussions but have yet to find the solution to my particular problem. So, anyone who has the time and knowledge, I'd appreciate some assistence. I use a an iMac 24, with Snow Leopard (soon to upgrade). When I first loaded LR 4 I got the usual LR beta catalog (5 total images). I started from there opening the catalog dialog in the Library menu and selecting the one I thought should be uploaded. I did the same to the others shown. None of these contained my old LR 3 catalog. Many of the thumbnails were missing as were a lot of files with the evil question mark (and not so evil exclamation points). I've loaded LR4.1, backed up and optimzed the catalog, shut the computer down and started up again with some improvement (fewer question marks and blank thumbnails) but not enough images. I still have LR3 installed but the catalog there has also changed. I had around 18,000 images that were on the original LR3 catalog. I now have 14,000 or so on that catalog and 10,000 or so on the LR 4 catalog. The ones missing on the LR 4 catalog seem to be the most recent and am not sure about the LR 3 catalog though the most recent seem to be there. I presume I have not converted the appropriate catalog though I don't know which one it would be and have no idea how the LR 3 catalog changed. I realize I could start over, reconnect the originals and dump the LR 3 catalog but my negatives and xmps are scattered over lots of folders, many of which are not in order. I took my own advice and ignored folders for many years and now they're an unholy mess. I will continue to plug along and I presume eventually find a way to solve things but I would greatly appreciate suggestions that might lead to more rapid solutions. Thanks in advance.

I suggest you first locate all you catalogs spread all over your computer. Then study each one and see what exactly is there and whether you need the images from there or not. Keep your real ones and trash the rest.
Reconnect all missing files in all the catalogs you have left.
Choose the biggest, most important and possibly recent one and make it your main catalog. If needed, upgrade it to LR4.
Import the rest of catalogs into the main one.
Now that you have only one catalog with all images reconnected, all is left to do is tidy it up.

Why does my 4:3 miniDV video keep getting captured as 16:9? (Vidi/Final Cut Pro question)

This is partially related to Final Cut Studio, although not necessarily. I've been trying to back up dozens of my miniDV tapes on to my harddrive for several months now, racing against the clock as their video quality starts to degrade. Since Final Cut Pro started giving me problems with the timecode breaks, I started using a capture program called Vidi instead (v0.4.7) Everything was capturing well, considering, until just last week where several of my tapes, which were shot in 4:3, would capture as 16:9. That is, the video files were clearly stretched to a 16:9 aspect ratio and appeared distorted. Today I tried to go back to Final Cut (v6.0.6) to capture it the old way, and, lo and behold, the video was once again being stretched to 16:9.
A few things:
- I'm about as sure as I can be that these tapes were shot in 4:3. I've watched them several times on my TV and they are played back in 4:3, with the black bars on the left and right.
- I had actually captured video previously from one of these tapes a few years back and it recorded as a 4:3 video file, just as it should.
- I definitely have "4:3" checked off in Vidi when I capture the video. What's even more infuriating, is that BOTH Vidi and Final Cut show the video playing in its 4:3 aspect ration during apture. It's only when I check the captured file that it's been stretched to 16:9
- A tape I shot in 2008 captured perfectly with Vidi today - in it's 4:3 format. That seems to imply that it's not a software setting issue.
I'm starting to lose my mind with this, especially since I haven't found a single reference to this problem anywhere else. All I want is to get the raw DV data off of these tapes to work with at a future date, and I'd like it to be exactly as it was originally shot, not distorted. Maybe some bit of code on these tapes got messed up over time, resulting in capture software to think it was shot in 16:9? These tapes aren't anywhere near my oldest ones - they're from 2010 and 2011. Is there something obvious I'm missing when I capture these videos? If there's no other solution, is it possible to squeeze them back to 4:3? It might not look as good as if were captured in it's native format, but I'm out of ideas.

Not sure if it makes any difference for archiving purposes, but dv files (dv streams) are not generally recommended for use in fcp. .mov with the dv codec is how fcp captures SD video via firewire. Someone a few months ago claimed that .dv was fine with fcp, but I seem to remember that audio will always need to be rendered and since I always use fcp for capture of DV material, it's not an issue for me.
You can use compressor to both convert to .mov with the dv codec and reset the anamorphic flag. Not sure if there will be any loss of quality, so it might be worth testing this. Perhaps someone with more knowledge will speak up regarding this or alternative methods of converting .dv to .mov
What problems are you having capturing from within fcp? Shouldn't be a problem. I find that setting the easy setup correctly is crucial for successful capturing. Even if all the individual elements that seem to compose the easy set up are correct, there can still be problems. Perhaps you might want to start a new thread regarding your capture problems and we can see if we can solve the problem.

Final Cut Pro question

i want to make high def. blu ray dvd's in dvd studio pro or iDVD. you can only do that in final cut pro share and that is too cheap/easy. example: adobe cs5 is compatible to make blu ray high def. dvd's on encore. i believe that there can be a resolution to this problem. i need to work more professional for my business. i dont want to change from this software, for i worked adobe premiere cs2 and it was not good. i found final cut pro a lot better. now, i find better cs5.
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What are your export settings when you export the text? You could be uneccessarily adding compression to the image when you don't need it. Also, the computer display is never the best place to get an accurate view of your video. Try watching it on a monitor or TV, and see if the problem persists.
And yes, direct export to mpeg2 (m2v and aiff) is fine. To burn a data CD use a program like Roxio Toast or Tiger's own built in DVD burning software.

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Ok, so I have a 2.66 Mac Pro with 2GB of RAM. I am now starting to work with HD content, so I just got 2 more GB of RAM from OWC. But I've been reading that I should probably have more than 4GB of RAM to work with HD content. I have the ATI card on the Mac Pro btw.
I just want peoples' opinion on this. Is 4GB enough? If not, I get confused about the Ram's performance on the Mac Pro. Don't I have to get to 8GB of Ram in order to get the RAM to act quickly? I'm not sure how all that works, but I just remember reading on here ram should be doubled for its bandwidth to reach max potential. Does that mean 6GB of RAM will be fine? Or does it have to be 2, 4, 8, 16 GB of RAM for it to be the fastest it can be? Does it slow it down if I use 6GB of RAM?
I can probably afford 2 more GB of RAM, but I don't want to put 6 in my system if it actually slows it down. Thanks for your help!

Well, the system came with 4 X 512MB of Ram, so I'm
getting 2 x 1GB of Ram in the mail. That'll give me
6 DIMMS. I could've sworn that I had to match DIMMS
top to bottom for it to work. But you're saying to
put 4 DIMMS to fill up the top tray and then just
place the remaining 2 DIMMS on the bottom tray? Am I
understanding that correctly?
Yes. Each riser board has two pairs of slots, numbered 0 through 3. You MUST match 0 and 1 with the same type and size of RAM if you fill those slots on a board, and you MUST match 2 and 3. Otherwise, you can put whatever pairs you want on whatever boards.
Performance-wise, though, you get the best results by:
1) Filling both RAM boards' 0 and 1 slots with the same size and type of RAM. Same with 2 and 3 on both boards.
2) Placing dual rank (usually 1GB or higher capacity) RAM in 0 and 1 on both boards, as those are the slots that are usually hit first, and dual rank RAM is faster.
If you can afford it, you might consider getting an additional 2x1GB pair of the same brand you already have. Then, you could put those 4 modules in the 0 and 1 slots on each board and the 512 modules in 2 and 3. This will put your faster dual-rank RAM in the lower numbered slots, and will make sure that module sizes are matched across boards, which will maximize performance.
Also, I tend to have a lot of software open when I
edit. Soundtrack, Motion, Livetype, FCP, soon CS3
and other random software is usually open when I edit
(like iChat and Mail). Will 4GB still be enough you
think? I didn't mention all that in my first post,
so I apologize.
If you're running all of that, you might well find that extra RAM is helpful, particularly if you're processing in the background. Even if not, switching between applications will be smoother and faster with more RAM. This is another good reason to think about getting another 2x1GB pair.
Also, this whole Ram bandwidth thing has me confused.
If I do end up getting 6GB of Ram (4 x 1GB and 4 X
512MB)does that slow down my Ram? Does the fact
that I have 2 different types of DIMMS slow down my
Ram? It's all so confusing
A tiny little bit that you may not notice, and no.
Right now you have 4x512MB in your 0 and 1 slots. This is pretty optimal for a setup of 512 MB modules, because having the same type of RAM paired across boards in the same numbered slots increases your memory performance.
If you add 2x1GB in the 2 and 3 slots on one board, your existing memory (the original 4x512MB modules) will still be able to transfer data at just as high a rate as before. The 2x1GB modules in 2 and 3 will be slower because they're not paired with another 2x1GB pair on the other board, but that will only affect accesses to the data stored in those modules, which the system will tend to use last.
What will slow down somewhat is that each request the CPU makes to transfer data from your existing 4x512MB RAM will take a bit longer to start because you have put modules in the 2 and 3 slots on one of the boards. Once it gets going, the transfer will happen at just as high a rate, but the setup time is longer by a small amount.
Chances are, the performance improvement you'll see with the extra RAM running all those apps will totally overwhelm any such slowdown. Note that I don't know of anyone who's benchmarked a real impact of that, all the discussions I've seen about such a slowdown are just theory.
However: those 1 GB modules in 2 and 3 will operate at a slower rate than they could because you don't have another 1 GB pair on the other board matched up with them. That's why I suggested getting a 2nd pair of 1 GB modules for the other board.
Finally, if you do get 4x1GB, swapping those 1 GB modules into the 0 and 1 slots will ensure that they get used first, and since most 1GB modules are substantially faster than the 512 MB modules, you'll want that for best performance. However, unless you get a couple of additional 1 GB modules to fill out the set of four, I would not recommend swapping the 512 MB modules into different slots. The fact that you have a matched set of 4x512 in slots 0 and 1 is a big speed benefit if you don't get a matched 4x1GB set for your expansion.
I hope that I haven't confused the situation...
-- Mark
4-core 3 GHz Mac Pro w/ 4.5 TB HDD and 10 GB RAM, 17 Macbook Pro 2.16 GHz

A (final) catalog renaming question

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