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From Hotel Rooms to Cold Storage: A Retoucher’s Guide to Managing 100MP Files Without Losing Your Sanity
November 20, 2025
Transparency Note: I don’t recommend gear I wouldn’t trust with my own files. The links below are Amazon affiliate links—meaning if you buy the gear I use to survive, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It helps fund the caffeine required to retouch 100MP files.
The year was 2021. I was holed up in a resort—not sipping mojitos, but doing a four-week retouching residency. Living off room service. Wrestling with amenities and bedsheets. Dragging window pulls down five stops while pumping saturation to “smack you in the frontal lobe” levels.
The photographer was shooting Phase One. Medium format. 100 megapixels. If you know, you know.
Every so often I’d leave my cave, sneak into a guest room, offload these monster RAW files, then haul them back to my setup to process like some nomadic file-mule. What I needed was speed. What I demanded was reliability. And what I refused was gear that looked like it belonged behind a gas station counter.
This is the workflow that saved my ass then, and still anchors my entire archive today.
(Just make sure your machine has at least Thunderbolt 3).
The On-The-Go Speed Demon
Acasis Thunderbolt 3 NVMe Enclosure
100MP RAW files through a normal USB-C drive feels like you're pushing data through a Capri Sun straw. You need a firehose.
Enter the Acasis Thunderbolt 3 enclosure (~$80).
Why I swear by it:
The Build: Unibody aluminum. Clean. Minimal. It’s gear with taste—which is rare.
Bus-Powered: No brick. No wall-wart. No “where’s the outlet?” panic. It runs straight off Thunderbolt. It’s basically witchcraft.
Tool-Free: Your hands are the tools. If you can open a bag of chips, you can open this.
Repairable: Detachable TB3 cable. Replaceable. Future-proof. Kevin-certified.
The Engine:
Samsung 990 PRO SSD 2TB (~$169). Same class of SSD inside your Mac.
This pair gives me roughly 3000 MB/s reads/writes. Not quite internal-drive fast, but easily in the “shut up and get back to work” category. Use Blackmagic Disk Speed Test to run benchmark tests.
Note: Because of Thunderbolt bandwidth bottlenecks, you don't strictly need the newest 990 PRO; a 970 PRO or 980 PRO will perform similarly if you find a deal. Also, throw a Thermal Pad on the SSD to help with cooling.
The Studio Mothership
I don’t keep RAWs forever—I’m a retoucher, not the Library of Congress. But the masters? The layered PSDs? The 16-bit heavy hitters? Those stay.
Eventually, you accumulate enough NVMe sticks to start looking like a tech hoarder. That’s when the OWC Express 4M2 becomes the mothership.
The Features:
Build: Aluminum. Heavy enough to feel serious.
Noise: Whispers. The older model sounded like you parked a Cessna on your desk. This one is zen-mode.
Flexibility: Pop in four Samsung NVMe sticks and boom: instant access to everything you actually care about. No more excuses on why you haven't updated your portfolio.
A Note on RAID: The $240 version relies on macOS (Disk Utility) for RAID 0/1, which is free. The $380 version comes with SoftRAID, which is required if you want RAID 5 (extra safety if a drive decides to unalive itself).
My Setup: You want 4 identical drives because RAID is a "lowest common denominator" technology. I run two drives as RAID 0 (Speed), and the other two drives as individual volumes.
Why? Because having 4 drives as RAID 0 = higher failure rate. If one drive dies, the whole volume dies. With only 2 drives in RAID 0, you cut that risk in half. The individual drives are a bit slower than the RAID 0 pair, but they still run laps around your Samsung T5.
The Insurance Policy
This is where projects go when they’ve retired from active duty. The Seagate Expansion 22TB.
It’s cold storage. Slow as hell. But gigantic. Not glamorous. But essential. Nothing more to really say.
The Financial Damage
If you want to replicate this tiered system—fast mobile drive, fast studio array, massive archive—here’s the math:
$80 — Acasis TB3 enclosure
$676 — 4× Samsung 990 PRO 2TB ($169 each)
$240 — OWC Express 4M2
$250 — Seagate 22TB external HDD
Total: ~$1,300 before tax
Is this cheap? Absolutely not.
But you’re holding the digital assets for high-end architecture campaigns. This isn’t a hobby. This is the job. Reliability is the whole point.
This is what works for me, my needs, and my machine. Don't blindly follow my process—build what works for you.
Stay tuned… I'll share my workflow, archival process, and how I back up to the cloud next.
Until then, sayonara.
-Kev
From Hotel Rooms to Cold Storage: A Retoucher’s Guide to Managing 100MP Files Without Losing Your Sanity
November 20, 2025
Transparency Note: I don’t recommend gear I wouldn’t trust with my own files. The links below are Amazon affiliate links—meaning if you buy the gear I use to survive, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It helps fund the caffeine required to retouch 100MP files.
The year was 2021. I was holed up in a resort—not sipping mojitos, but doing a four-week retouching residency. Living off room service. Wrestling with amenities and bedsheets. Dragging window pulls down five stops while pumping saturation to “smack you in the frontal lobe” levels.
The photographer was shooting Phase One. Medium format. 100 megapixels. If you know, you know.
Every so often I’d leave my cave, sneak into a guest room, offload these monster RAW files, then haul them back to my setup to process like some nomadic file-mule. What I needed was speed. What I demanded was reliability. And what I refused was gear that looked like it belonged behind a gas station counter.
This is the workflow that saved my ass then, and still anchors my entire archive today.
(Just make sure your machine has at least Thunderbolt 3).
The On-The-Go Speed Demon
Acasis Thunderbolt 3 NVMe Enclosure
100MP RAW files through a normal USB-C drive feels like you're pushing data through a Capri Sun straw. You need a firehose.
Enter the Acasis Thunderbolt 3 enclosure (~$80).
Why I swear by it:
The Build: Unibody aluminum. Clean. Minimal. It’s gear with taste—which is rare.
Bus-Powered: No brick. No wall-wart. No “where’s the outlet?” panic. It runs straight off Thunderbolt. It’s basically witchcraft.
Tool-Free: Your hands are the tools. If you can open a bag of chips, you can open this.
Repairable: Detachable TB3 cable. Replaceable. Future-proof. Kevin-certified.
The Engine:
Samsung 990 PRO SSD 2TB (~$169). Same class of SSD inside your Mac.
This pair gives me roughly 3000 MB/s reads/writes. Not quite internal-drive fast, but easily in the “shut up and get back to work” category. Use Blackmagic Disk Speed Test to run benchmark tests.
Note: Because of Thunderbolt bandwidth bottlenecks, you don't strictly need the newest 990 PRO; a 970 PRO or 980 PRO will perform similarly if you find a deal. Also, throw a Thermal Pad on the SSD to help with cooling.
The Studio Mothership
I don’t keep RAWs forever—I’m a retoucher, not the Library of Congress. But the masters? The layered PSDs? The 16-bit heavy hitters? Those stay.
Eventually, you accumulate enough NVMe sticks to start looking like a tech hoarder. That’s when the OWC Express 4M2 becomes the mothership.
The Features:
Build: Aluminum. Heavy enough to feel serious.
Noise: Whispers. The older model sounded like you parked a Cessna on your desk. This one is zen-mode.
Flexibility: Pop in four Samsung NVMe sticks and boom: instant access to everything you actually care about. No more excuses on why you haven't updated your portfolio.
A Note on RAID: The $240 version relies on macOS (Disk Utility) for RAID 0/1, which is free. The $380 version comes with SoftRAID, which is required if you want RAID 5 (extra safety if a drive decides to unalive itself).
My Setup: You want 4 identical drives because RAID is a "lowest common denominator" technology. I run two drives as RAID 0 (Speed), and the other two drives as individual volumes.
Why? Because having 4 drives as RAID 0 = higher failure rate. If one drive dies, the whole volume dies. With only 2 drives in RAID 0, you cut that risk in half. The individual drives are a bit slower than the RAID 0 pair, but they still run laps around your Samsung T5.
The Insurance Policy
This is where projects go when they’ve retired from active duty. The Seagate Expansion 22TB.
It’s cold storage. Slow as hell. But gigantic. Not glamorous. But essential. Nothing more to really say.
The Financial Damage
If you want to replicate this tiered system—fast mobile drive, fast studio array, massive archive—here’s the math:
$80 — Acasis TB3 enclosure
$676 — 4× Samsung 990 PRO 2TB ($169 each)
$240 — OWC Express 4M2
$250 — Seagate 22TB external HDD
Total: ~$1,300 before tax
Is this cheap? Absolutely not.
But you’re holding the digital assets for high-end architecture campaigns. This isn’t a hobby. This is the job. Reliability is the whole point.
This is what works for me, my needs, and my machine. Don't blindly follow my process—build what works for you.
Stay tuned… I'll share my workflow, archival process, and how I back up to the cloud next.
Until then, sayonara.
-Kev
From Hotel Rooms to Cold Storage: A Retoucher’s Guide to Managing 100MP Files Without Losing Your Sanity
November 20, 2025
Transparency Note: I don’t recommend gear I wouldn’t trust with my own files. The links below are Amazon affiliate links—meaning if you buy the gear I use to survive, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It helps fund the caffeine required to retouch 100MP files.
The year was 2021. I was holed up in a resort—not sipping mojitos, but doing a four-week retouching residency. Living off room service. Wrestling with amenities and bedsheets. Dragging window pulls down five stops while pumping saturation to “smack you in the frontal lobe” levels.
The photographer was shooting Phase One. Medium format. 100 megapixels. If you know, you know.
Every so often I’d leave my cave, sneak into a guest room, offload these monster RAW files, then haul them back to my setup to process like some nomadic file-mule. What I needed was speed. What I demanded was reliability. And what I refused was gear that looked like it belonged behind a gas station counter.
This is the workflow that saved my ass then, and still anchors my entire archive today.
(Just make sure your machine has at least Thunderbolt 3).
The On-The-Go Speed Demon
Acasis Thunderbolt 3 NVMe Enclosure
100MP RAW files through a normal USB-C drive feels like you're pushing data through a Capri Sun straw. You need a firehose.
Enter the Acasis Thunderbolt 3 enclosure (~$80).
Why I swear by it:
The Build: Unibody aluminum. Clean. Minimal. It’s gear with taste—which is rare.
Bus-Powered: No brick. No wall-wart. No “where’s the outlet?” panic. It runs straight off Thunderbolt. It’s basically witchcraft.
Tool-Free: Your hands are the tools. If you can open a bag of chips, you can open this.
Repairable: Detachable TB3 cable. Replaceable. Future-proof. Kevin-certified.
The Engine:
Samsung 990 PRO SSD 2TB (~$169). Same class of SSD inside your Mac.
This pair gives me roughly 3000 MB/s reads/writes. Not quite internal-drive fast, but easily in the “shut up and get back to work” category. Use Blackmagic Disk Speed Test to run benchmark tests.
Note: Because of Thunderbolt bandwidth bottlenecks, you don't strictly need the newest 990 PRO; a 970 PRO or 980 PRO will perform similarly if you find a deal. Also, throw a Thermal Pad on the SSD to help with cooling.
The Studio Mothership
I don’t keep RAWs forever—I’m a retoucher, not the Library of Congress. But the masters? The layered PSDs? The 16-bit heavy hitters? Those stay.
Eventually, you accumulate enough NVMe sticks to start looking like a tech hoarder. That’s when the OWC Express 4M2 becomes the mothership.
The Features:
Build: Aluminum. Heavy enough to feel serious.
Noise: Whispers. The older model sounded like you parked a Cessna on your desk. This one is zen-mode.
Flexibility: Pop in four Samsung NVMe sticks and boom: instant access to everything you actually care about. No more excuses on why you haven't updated your portfolio.
A Note on RAID: The $240 version relies on macOS (Disk Utility) for RAID 0/1, which is free. The $380 version comes with SoftRAID, which is required if you want RAID 5 (extra safety if a drive decides to unalive itself).
My Setup: You want 4 identical drives because RAID is a "lowest common denominator" technology. I run two drives as RAID 0 (Speed), and the other two drives as individual volumes.
Why? Because having 4 drives as RAID 0 = higher failure rate. If one drive dies, the whole volume dies. With only 2 drives in RAID 0, you cut that risk in half. The individual drives are a bit slower than the RAID 0 pair, but they still run laps around your Samsung T5.
The Insurance Policy
This is where projects go when they’ve retired from active duty. The Seagate Expansion 22TB.
It’s cold storage. Slow as hell. But gigantic. Not glamorous. But essential. Nothing more to really say.
The Financial Damage
If you want to replicate this tiered system—fast mobile drive, fast studio array, massive archive—here’s the math:
$80 — Acasis TB3 enclosure
$676 — 4× Samsung 990 PRO 2TB ($169 each)
$240 — OWC Express 4M2
$250 — Seagate 22TB external HDD
Total: ~$1,300 before tax
Is this cheap? Absolutely not.
But you’re holding the digital assets for high-end architecture campaigns. This isn’t a hobby. This is the job. Reliability is the whole point.
This is what works for me, my needs, and my machine. Don't blindly follow my process—build what works for you.
Stay tuned… I'll share my workflow, archival process, and how I back up to the cloud next.
Until then, sayonara.
-Kev
