Applications and Hardware that TANK, BIGTIME!

Question

Hello All;
I have been really busy over the past few weeks, but need to ask your group, and maybe warn you all in case Photoshop CS2, Lightroom v 1.2 and my Mac decided to tank all at the same time...
I am a D-65 disciple and evangelist, Minneapolis, MN June '05, and I wish I could have called a few of you over the weekend. I shoot food and fine art images across the country.
To shorten an otherwise long and sad obituary, one of my clients called about Tues. of last week, and wanted to know if I could shoot Friday thru Monday, and deliver the entire shoot to Marshall, MN and also to an Idaho designer. We shared a conference call with one of the clients and started developing a plan...
I lined up a borrowed Canon 1ds, 11MP. I have been shooting w/ everything from a Kodak DCS, Phase MF, Canon (my preference), and Nikon, but in analyzing the budget w/ my client, there was no money available for a camera rental. The marketing director was freaking out because she was already way over budget for the year, but they needed just a few shots for a Trade Show in Houston that starts on Thurs. of this week.
I juggled my thoughts... To further consolidate, my client and I were to split $2500 for a weekend shoot. Pretty good dough, and I needed the work... but wait... there's a whole lot more...
We shot Sat. and Sun, and did the 11 shots in about 9 hours, and then I started Post Sat PM and sent all the players the first round of web galleries.
Sun. after wrapping and returning 900 lbs of very delicate and expensive equipment to its rightful owners (800 lbs, and about $60K), I returned to my office to continue Post. I sent the second round of web galleries (Generated from LR--works awesomely when it works but flipped a coin and left...) and everyone was ecstatic with the speed in which I was delivering.
My clients' client last week was discussing one horizontal print 25"x36" for the trade show with about 11 smaller prints 12"x12". On sunday the VP of Marketing came to the shoot, and we decided we were going to do 11 horizontal 24"x36" prints... I called a bud who printed limited edition collections and the solutions were en route...
Enter complexities...
My client was C. Her clients were D and S. D and S had a designer in ID. D and S also had a printer in Marshall, MN that S gave me her contact's name... Mary was the contact and even with Google and a phone number, I didn't talk to the printer until Tues. AM. I was going to finish the file work, but D, C and I had planned on 11 24"x36" prints, and I called a friend, J, who's company printed and mounted limited editions (1 each of 11 is a pretty limited edition...) and could FedEx the prints to Houston Tuesday PM.
At 5:30PM Mon, S called me to tell me she loved the shots. (Thank heaven for LR 1.2!) She told me the cutoff for FedEx was 7PM local and 8PM if I didn't mind driving 34 miles round trip to MSP, the international airport with a FedEx station.
To further consolidate, at that point she told me they were going with 1 24"x36" vertical print and 11 smaller 12"x12" prints...
I thought, holy sh*t! Which side of the planet did she get up on? S, D, and C had not communicated with either the printer, the designer, or moi to make this decision. Because I had worked at that point 14 hours looking at microwaved food until I was 254B in the face, I started looking for an exit point. The files had not been burned to a DVD--there was about 9GB of Data, and I Missed the f*ing FedEx cutoff... Where was Tom Hanks when I really needed him? Wilson, Wilson???
I had followed the D-65 protocol but needed a refresher course in Lightroom. Hope to sign up for the closest one, as soon as I get the dough...
Lightroom V1.2, Photoshop CS2, Mac (I'm on G4 Laptop maxxed out w/2GB DRAMM and multiple Seagate Barracuda 300GB EHDs for storage. I had run through my actions, letting PS2 do the heavy lifting. I had all 12 shots (the extra was the first shot w/ a MacBeth card) in

Answer 1

The forum cut the last message short... Copying and pasting here...
Lightroom V1.2, Photoshop CS2, Mac (I'm on G4 Laptop maxxed out w/2GB DRAMM and multiple Seagate Barracuda 300GB EHDs for storage. I had run through my actions, letting PS2 do the heavy lifting. I had all 12 shots (the extra was the first shot w/ a MacBeth card) in several layers, and backed up twice. I needed to import those files into LR, and got a question, "Do you want LR to update the files?" I hit OK. But when I did this, LR compressed those layers and I tried multiple times to hit undo, but it didn't work. The files had been exported at 36"x36" PSDs and looked like sh*t because of some oversharpening that was going on.
I panicked... I then decided to copy the DNG files at 16" and 240ppi per D-65. I ran the actions again on the original shots and they looked terrific. No orange peel oversharpening... Where was the Lone Ranger when Tonto could have done it?
I burned a DVD and took it to the closest Kinko's/FedEx, paid $50 and Leon told me the DVD wouldn't make it to Marshall, MN until Wed. AM. Leon must have been pulling my leg, but FedEx guys don't do that...
I went home and had more than a couple stogies and Christian Brothers fine Brandy VSOP on the rocks.
At that point, I was in deep Manure!!! C would be pissed, D would not offer me an extended contract and S could be left in her dark corner. G, the designer didn't know (to his credit), and Mary was still in Marshall counting soybeans...
I woke the next morning, now Tues. Had we delivered the files to the limited edition printer in Mpls. like we talked with C and D on Sunday, the prints could have been in Houston by evening. But NOOOOOOO! S had thrown a slow looping curve at 20mph, but underhand, and I was sucker enough and hungry enough to go for it...
S called about noon on Tues. and asked for a Fed Ex tracking number. I told her there was none and that I was doing one more round of files and would have them to the designer, G, within minutes. She was nearly dripping with honey and happy...
At 1PM on Tues. I sent 240ppi jpegs in a Zipped file, and about 10 minutes later I got an email that said, "PERFECT!" Thanks so much! from G.
So to encapsulate further, Talk sizes, formats, money, and everything you know before you agree to work for a few dollars more than burger flippers, especially on a weekend and more so w/ a tight-as* deadline...
I'm off to happiness, Loon Chili, fine artville and boobalichen...
Have a swell day!
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