While everyone has focused on the internals of the new M2 & M3 Mac's, they have not mentioned that all M series Macs support Thunderbolt 3 or 4. The Pro series M chips support Thunderbolt 4, which gives you the capability of running 2 4k displays at 60hz from a single Thunderbolt connection. You can also run Thunderbolt drives giving you 40 megabit performance from an external SSD. This way you can configure a smaller internal SSD, and still have great file performance, and upgrade storage as necessary.
Lightroom stores all of the PP information, and metadata information in the catalog. You can create an additional "backup" of this by enabling the option write metadata to xmp. This will create a sidecar file next to your image file, with the pp and metadata. During the backup process Lightroom (Classic) checks the catalog for corruption, so you need to preform them at intervals. You especially need to back-up prior to upgrading a version number. Store your back-up in a different location, than your Lightroom catalog. That being said you need to clean out old back-ups manually. There is no need to keep any more than the last 5 and most people only keep 2 or 3.
On a Mac File>Save>Save Image. This will turn on a button over the image to change image settings and a button to save the displayed image. I'm sure there is a similar dialog in Windows.
Try to position yourself where the sun is at your back. Keep the animal in clear light, not shadows. Anticipate the action, by watching. Start shooting early, when you think it's about to pick-up its head, and keep shooting. Remember, you will need cull a lot of bad images, to find the one or two gems. Under-exposure causes more noise, than high ISO. Use AP or manual with auto ISO. Only allow the camera to control only one setting, if any. Your D7100 lens and tripod are more than capable of producing great wildlife images. Remember, many great wildlife images were taken on ISO 400 film with 2fps manual focus cameras. Just expect to only get a couple of good shots, from a session. As far as PP, try to crop-out or clone out shadows, to reduce noise. Also reduce sharpening and add blur to those areas. If you do get the budget to upgrade, the $120/year Adobe Photography Plan is a good start, probably more important than a new camera body. Just remember you may need to upgrade your computer hardware to use it.
One important consideration about using an iPad for photo editing, is the lack of local storage. Everything you do needs to be stored in the cloud, and downloaded on to your Mac, for inclusion in your photo library. Although, you can plug an external drive into your iPad, most application's won't use that in favor of cloud storage. Though I don't use C1, I have added my iPad Pro into my workflow. I download cards into LrC on the Mac and upload DNG's to CC. From there I can use the iPad to cull, and do basic edit's in LR. The information syncs back to LrC on my Mac. The iPad, with Apple Pencil also makes a great small pen tablet, when paired to the Mac, during editing.
Did a check for updates on CC and it just showed up.
The R6 II is not supported in LrC 12.5, which is the latest available release. LrC 13 is slated for release later this month, and will most likely include support. I expect it to release around Adobe Max, which starts today.
I use a 550EX from the late 1990's on my Canon T3i, for general flash, and fill flash. The difference is the power and capability. The 430EX has a GN of 43M at iso 100, it can be optical triggered by a larger Canon flash, or the built in flash on your 7dII. The 550EX has a GN of 55m at ISO 100, it can act as an optical controller for other Canon flashes, as well as a remote flash. The 580EX has a GN of 58M at ISO 100, it basically does the same thing as the 550EX with a little more power. The 430 and 580 EX II, have the same functions as the earlier models, but for flashes mounted on the camera, you can change settings using the camera's menu system. That being said, for your application, go with the highest power, a 580 or 600.
I too recently switched from Windows to an M2 MacBook. I did find it harder to interface to printers than it was on Windows. Started with an Epson, replaced it with a Canon. Setting up the Canon was harder than I expected, and it is difficult to find how to change print settings, but it works well. As far as Adobe apps, it runs circles around my 2019 I7 Lenovo laptop in Photoshop. Things that took several seconds on the Lenovo, are instant on the Mac. Biggest piece of advice, keep your OS up to date. Currently running Ventura 13.5. Looking forward to Sonoma in October, when they will have an improved printer interface. Next if you can buy AppleCare for your Mac. Apple support has been a huge help resolving issues, including taking it to the Apple Store for in person assistance.
Early electronic shutters like on the D850 took a long time to move data off the sensor. You may set a shutter speed of 1/250. Each pixel only takes in light for 1/250. However it may take 1/30 or longer for the entire sensor to read. The effect would a black section of picture if the exposure was controlled by flash.
My experience is my wife’s M2 MacBook Air with 8gb runs circles around my Lenovo i7 with 16gb when using Photoshop 2023.
Did you turn on “Dual Pixel RAW”? Adobe Camera Raw can’t convert CR3 files created using Canon’s DPR. You must use Canon Digital Photo Professional to convert to tiff files for Photoshop or PSE.
In Lightroom, there is no way. Lightroom Classic's Print Module will allow you to combine multiple images into a single "print" that can be saved as a jpeg. To make a true photo collage, you need the capability of layering. Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, GIMP, and others have this capability.
When writing on photo paper only use a soft pencil. An Ebony pencil is best, if not an 8B, or 6B. For resin coated paper the pencil won't work, use a Zig marker. I can find all of these at my local Michael's crafts in Southeast Michigan.
Are the tiff files the same file names as the dngs? Did Aurora create an XMP file of the same name, or rewrite the xmp's created by Lightroom? Do you have Lightroom set to Automatically write changes into XMP? One suggestion is move the dngs to a separate directory from the tiff files. That way Lightroom, won't become confused about which file the XMP belongs to.