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Mac For Photoshop


kdj

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Since there are people on these forums that know everything about everything :P

I need to get a Mac system to support a photographer who's going to be *forced* to do something in the digital domain. Since she prefers 8x10 negatives and exotic processes, this is not a natural transition and has to be done on a Mac since that's all people in Art Schools speak.

I'm computer literate but Mac and Art ignorant so I need help. Oh, she also wants a laptop machine so that she can cart her life around with her.

I'm wondering if I can get away with a loaded 15" Powerbook, driving the 23" HD screen as one machine for both purposes? I know that there'd be no way to do accurate color calibration with the native laptop screen but I don't see that there'd be any difference between the laptop driving an external screen or a desktop doing it.

There's obviously a difference in processing power between a dual 2.7GHz G5 and a 1.7GHz G4, but I don't know that it'll matter for photoshop images.

Is this a realistic idea or am I missing some thing and really do have to buy 2 machines?

Kevin

P.S. I have hopes that I might be able to manage a Mac since people tell me one can open a command line interface and speak Unix :o

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Kevin,

can you supply a few more particulars about what she needs to accomplish in the digital arena? Are we scanning negs or prints, shooting with a digital point&shoot, using a high end DSLR, a medium format back? What sizes of images are we working with --- and how are we manipulating them? Are we doing lots of funky filtration, or are we shooting and then doing minor cropping, color correcting, and printing? Are the images going to be published or printed for a commercial job? If printed how large? How many images will we be shooting before editing?

All of that will affect the answer. Why Mac only? Because of school requirements? Because you'll want to make sure that school types can fix it if she needs support during a class? (Kinda like going to Gunsite with only one gun? Better bring a 1911 --- they'll know how to fix that/have parts handy when it breaks?)

For the record: I've been shooting digital professionally since early 2002, toning on PC laptop and desktops of my own. I've been doing digital imaging on my employers MACs since 1994. There are advantages to both --- and there are considerations that seriously affect the laptop or laptop + desktop combo for both systems.....

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Why Mac only?  Because of school requirements?  Because you'll want to make sure that school types can fix it if she needs support during a class?  (Kinda like going to Gunsite with only one gun?  Better bring a 1911 --- they'll know how to fix that/have parts handy when it breaks?)

I gotta chime in here. I am a Mac evangelist, but I can't see why anyone who is doing Photoshop work needs a Mac. Photoshop is Photoshop regardless of the platform. I adore Apples, but if I only had a Microsoft machine, I would not invest in a Mac just to use any Adobe product. They are, (with very few differences), the same software.

-Chet

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Nik,

there are a couple of different aims, based on work to date.

One is to be able to produce "digital books" for specific forms of presentation. This basically means scaning images from prints (usually in the 10"x10" range printed from 6cm x 6cm negatives), and then printing. Minimal manipulation.

The other intent is to use this system for work prints. This will mean scaning negatives (either 6cm x 6 cm or 8" x 10" negatives), using photoshop to do the equivalent of dodging and burning, and printing, probably up to 20" x 12".

All of the above would be B&W.

Then there's also the generic color stuff, probably all digital, that one is forced to do to meet the MFA Photography requirements :P This would probably be done with a medium format digital back most of the time.

The mac is simply because everyone else in her world, including all the instructors, speak mac. Since she is *NOT* a computer person, the trivial mapping from the way things are done on a mac to the way things are done on a PC is anything but trivial. Even having 2 buttons instead of 1 and closing windows on the left instead of the right seems to imply the world is not the same.

I'm trying to keep life simple ;)

Thanks for the input,

Kevin

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Either platform will work well, as Chet (et al) say - I use Photoshop CS on a PC running XP. You can, in fact, color calibrate the laptop screen - there are solutions for this, now - I use a Color Vision Spyder and their OptiCal software for my CRT. The same Spyder can do LCD. It perhaps won't be as nice as a CRT, but... The Apple Cinema displays apparently see a lot of color sensitive work. Color Vision's new Spyder2PRO stuff will do both heads on the same machine. There are other color solutions, too....

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The Apple Cinema displays apparently see a lot of color sensitive work.

Yes, they do.

Here's my current setup.

23" & 17" Apple Cinema displays.

Under the table is a G5 1.8 GHz with 1GB RAM. :wub:

post-553-1116515552_thumb.jpg

-Chet

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Nice setup :) I have dual 21" Trinitrons (w/ Sun branding - same CRTs that Apple used to sell). Here they are w/ an obligatory wiener dog. Note the Enos forums on the left monitor. The right one does dual duty for my work SunBlade 1000, and as the right head on my AMD 3400+ w/ 1GB PC. The left head is color corrected, the right holds all my Photoshop palletes, etc.... I'd run a Mac if I had the money to switch over :(

post-4828-1116515989_thumb.jpg

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As Nik said, it depends.

For what you described, a Mac, or a PC will do the job. But IMHO, the Mac will give her less trouble and you are correct in that there will be more support for her ther with a Mac as there will be more Mac users around her (most likely anyway).

I do IT work for quite a number of Pro photographers in the SF Bay Area and they as a rule are all pretty much Mac in these parts.

I would recommend the Mac platform over the PC for one very big reason. OSX! It is as reliable as the day is long and for someone who just plain wants to use a machine and have no hassles long term, this is the way to go.

The PowerBook 17" would probably be the best choice as it gives you enough screen real estate to actually do work and it has the 100 GB drive as standard.

The DVD burner will allow 4.6 GB of images to be backed up at a pass (best way to backup images is to DVD and a FW HD).

Photoshop CS will be what she wants to run and she will probably want at least 1GB of RAM. I would suggest adding the 1GB upgrade on top of the base 512MB RAM the PowerBooks come with as the best option for the price. That will give you 1.5 GB which is plenty for still image processing.

As far as scanning goes, all the pro's out here are pretty much using the Nikon film scanners (Coolscan 9000 typically). The new Maxtor 300GB External FW HD's for about $300 bucks are the hot setup for additional storage (with that size image handling, she will need external storage). The FW drive will allow fast backups of projects while working and the ability to make a bootable backup of the PowerBook before travelling

I basically advise all pro's to back up all images to 2 sets of DVD discs (one kept at the studio and one in a safe deposit box, or fire rated safe at home).

You will never keep all your images in a portable. Most of the pro's I work with keep a tower at home with a whole lot of drive space and if they need a machine to travel with, they add a PowerBook.

The iBook is just not robust enough, nor does it have a good enough display for this task. They also do not have the direct DVI external display output that is needed for the Apple Cinema Display or a high quality third party DVI flat panel display.

The PowerBooks can be internally calibrated without third party software/hardware (if you do it right) so that they are pretty much on the money. To do real calibration, you need a densitometer and third party software to create a monitor profile. The by-eye calibrates I have done with the Apple monitor calibration utility have been equal to the calibrations I have seen done with a densitometer and third party utilities.

PM me if you want more info.

I am pretty darned sure your friend will be a whole lot better off on the Apple than on any PC. Especially if she prefers the analog processes in the first place.

--

Regards,

Edited by George
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Thanks for all the advice. No one said I need a dual g5 machine, so we're going with the Powerbook and an external display. It'll all be on the network so there are probably hundreds of GB of drives floating around to be filled in some fashion, as backups and I have a couple of firewire drives (that probably need to be reformated for a Mac!)

I get to add one of the fancy iTunes Airport thingies since I buying Apple stuff, so my benefit is that I get to run iTunes through my audio system :P

Thanks - this forum is a great place for info on ANYTHING!

Kevin

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