Macbooks, what Post Processing software?

p1tse

p1tse

Suspended / Banned
Messages
2,391
Edit My Images
No
saving for a macbook.

complete newbie to macs and post processing, but want something where I can pick up and learn, develop and not quickly outgrow by limitations to the software.

Any thoughts?

Although still saving and would like to get the right one which will last. Current laptop is in its 4/5th year now and is struggling.

Macbook on paper looks like it has all i need, but everyone says go for the Pro. So looking at the pro I see there are two versions of the 13", one more expensive, with quicker processor, more RAM and hard drive space, what are people thoughts on the basic MBPro?
 
Having owned and used a MacBook Pro for just about a year, I can highly recommend them. I wonder though if 13" will give you enough space to effectively process you photos? Depends on what software you use I suppose but they all have a certain about of room taken up by the toolboxes etc. Maybe the 15" would be better for you. Something to think about anyway.

As far as software goes the obvious ones are LightRoom (v3 out in the spring) and Aperture (v3 out immanently?). If you want localised brush tools then Adobe have the lead with v2 of both packages and obviously you could get Photoshop too.

I personally use Aperture 2 for organisation and most of my editing and only go to CS3 when I need localised brush tool. You can try trials of both Aperture and LightRoom and then make your own mind up!
 
I use iPhoto for basic stuff but Aperture for organising and slightly more detailed processing... :shrug: ...not that I can be bothered to do much more than pretty basic stuff so they meet my simple needs... :D





08.gif


 
Hey,

I use Photoshop Elements on my macbook pro, the CS version is obviously availabe, too if you're looking to get serious.

If you wanna save the cash, Gimp is cross-platform but their site seems to be down for some time now. I also never tried it so I'm not sure how it runs.. there is a native program derived from gimp that is called Seashore that might be worth checking out.

Also, check out this thread for links to more software, some Mac, too.

Anyone know if Aperture is worth buying?

Also, besides the much nicer aluminum unibody, one of the core differences between the regular macbook and the pro is it's display. It still takes some time to get used to (which brightness to set it to) when editing photos, though. But everything is very crisp, clear and contrast and colours are amazing. I'd definitely recommend saving the cash you're gonna spend on photoshop and use something cheaper on a macbook pro. I've got the 15.4" 4GB 2.66GHz intel one with a ssd and am very, very happy with it. Had a regular white mb before.
 
Although I use an iMac for most of my work, I find that my MacBook can do all I need of it with no problems. When I ordered it, I specified the faster processor (2.26GHz), which is now standard, 4GB memory (the max) and a 320GB hard drive. This is £920 compared with £1150 for the 13" screen MacBook Pro. If you want a bigger screen, you must pay at least £1340, which is close to what a new iMac with a 27" screen would cost!
I run iPhoto for playing, Aperture for real work, and DxO for batch processing. On my iMac I also have Lightroom, LightZone and Photomatix; altho' I rarely need them on my laptop I am sure that if it was my only computer, there would be sufficient capacity, so long as I archived photos onto a big desk top drive, not a bad idea anyway.

I love Aperture; I use it from choice, although I have all the others listed. The ability to produce book archives (for the coffee table), with text as and where you want, is a big plus, not easily achieved with the other software.
 
thanks

not really sure what needs i'll need yet.
i'll have a read through post processing and see what people do and get upto.

anything above 13" on the macbooks just seem very expensive and i think i'll rather buy a pc laptop then for less
 
I use aperture on my iMac, Love it. Its so clean and easy to use.
 
p1tse said:
thanks

not really sure what needs i'll need yet.
i'll have a read through post processing and see what people do and get upto.

anything above 13" on the macbooks just seem very expensive and i think i'll rather buy a pc laptop then for less
Click to expand...

They do 'seem' very expensive but they are worth it so in that regard I think they are good value. Once you have one, even the 13", you'll know! :thumbs:
 
A Mac is more of an investment, there going to last 4-5 years before they need upgrading. there that good.
 
what's the cost of these?

my main pics are of people, cars

both with car and people shots if outside would like to do some cool sky tricks, like top gear type pics and with people, maybe some skin tones etc.
 
question:

would my nikon d90 software or iphoto do batches of raw conversion to jpeg?

my current laptop struggles with sorting pictures, so don't get a chance to shoot in raw
 
iPhoto, does RAW to JPEG conversion with you import but I dont think you can adjust it . Nikon Software, don't know (but probably).
 
iPhoto will seamlessly handle your RAW pictures, it is enough for most simple tasks.

Make sure you give LR and Aperture a try. Neither is BETTER than the other some prefer one others the other.
 
p1tse said:
question:

would my nikon d90 software or iphoto do batches of raw conversion to jpeg?

my current laptop struggles with sorting pictures, so don't get a chance to shoot in raw
Click to expand...

iPhoto is simple.

Highlight the photos you want to process, then FILE -> EXPORT and then you have choices for sizing and a multitude of other parameters.

-Rob
 
thanks

is it worth the initial upgrade from 2gb to 4gb RAM?
 
p1tse said:
thanks

is it worth the initial upgrade from 2gb to 4gb RAM?
Click to expand...

Yes its worth upgrading, it will cost £65 to do it yourself or about £80 through Apple. On the Macbook you might as well let Apple do it.
 
thanks
will keep that in mind
for me i would prefer to pay an extra £15 for apple to do it so i'm covered

lookforward to it when i do make the jump as my current laptop is only 2x256MB LOL

if I go for the MBP would be interested to upgrade HD from 160 to 250. shame it doesn't come with it like the white MB. surely its on the cards when they do an update
 
p1tse said:
thanks
will keep that in mind
for me i would prefer to pay an extra £15 for apple to do it so i'm covered

lookforward to it when i do make the jump as my current laptop is only 2x256MB LOL

if I go for the MBP would be interested to upgrade HD from 160 to 250. shame it doesn't come with it like the white MB. surely its on the cards when they do an update
Click to expand...

Save the money Apple charge you for upgrading the drive and get one of these. It's 7200rpm, so a lot quicker than the drives they ship with.

You can then make some money back by eBaying the drive it was shipped with :D
 
If you know any students they get about a 15% discount and also can get apple care for £40 rather than over £100 for 3 years hardware and software cover.

The RAM and the HDD are user serviceable parts so have a look and see what you can get them for, i got a 500gb drive for about £40 so put that in recently.

Great bit of kit and well worth the money.

I used to use iPhoto (which is free when you buy a Mac) but i have out grown it and now use Lightroom.

Mac
 
crashtestmac said:
If you know any students they get about a 15% discount and also can get apple care for £40 rather than over £100 for 3 years hardware and software cover.

The RAM and the HDD are user serviceable parts so have a look and see what you can get them for, i got a 500gb drive for about £40 so put that in recently.

Great bit of kit and well worth the money.

I used to use iPhoto (which is free when you buy a Mac) but i have out grown it and now use Lightroom.

Mac
Click to expand...

The discount varies dependent on what level student you are ie university students get a bigger discount than college students (Plus some colleges and universities get bigger discounts than others!). Also some computers get a bigger discount. The Mac pro's discount was over 20% when I bought mine and the Mac Mini's was only about 10%.

  • CS4 Design Premium £235 (indesign, photoshop, illustrator, flash pro, dreamweaver, fireworks, acrobat pro)
  • CS4 Photoshop £135
  • Autodesk Revit Architecture 2008 (inc AutoCad) £32 !!
  • CS4 Dreamweaver £79
  • CS4 Web Standard £165 (dreamweaver, flash pro, fireworks, contribute)
  • CS4 Design Standard £155 (indesign, photoshop, illustrator, acrobat pro)
  • CS4 Master collection £375 (Adobe InDesign® CS4, Photoshop® CS4 Extended, Illustrator® CS4, Acrobat® 9 Pro, Flash® CS4 Professional, Dreamweaver® CS4, Fireworks® CS4, Contribute® CS4, After Effects® CS4, Premiere® Pro CS4, Soundbooth® CS4, OnLocation™ CS4, Encore® CS4)
  • Adobe LR2 £79
  • Corel Painter 11 £64
  • Corel Paint shop pro £42
  • CorelDraw graphics suite X4 £94

There are some bargains to be had at the student shop :)

Oh and Windows 7 professional £30, MS Office £28 (mac or pc)
 
If you let me know the spec you are looking at i can check the student discount for you.
 
Sack off the Macbook idea, they are not a patch on the Imac. If you want to do any serious PP work you will need the screen realestate of the Imac. Try one side by side with a Macbook and you will see what I mean.

I'm not knocking the Macbooks, they deffenately have their place and I would have one if I could justify it, but having a 24" Imac I am spoiled somwhat.

Now if Apple brought out their much rumored sub-note :nuts: that would be different.
 
Lostgear said:
Sack off the Macbook idea, they are not a patch on the Imac. If you want to do any serious PP work you will need the screen realestate of the Imac. Try one side by side with a Macbook and you will see what I mean.

I'm not knocking the Macbooks, they deffenately have their place and I would have one if I could justify it, but having a 24" Imac I am spoiled somwhat.

Now if Apple brought out their much rumored sub-note :nuts: that would be different.
Click to expand...

Some people want the portability. That is why I bought the 17" macbook pro, same screen resolution as a 24" monitor at 1920x1200 ! With 500Gb max HD and 6Gb Ram it is as quick as the previous iMacs which are based on mobile technology hence the 2 memory slots.

Also you can plug a macbook into a 24" monitor and have the same resolution. Previous generation Intel iMacs are basically laptops built into a monitor with a desktop hard drive so getting the same speed Macbook and a 24" monitor, apple keyboard and mouse will effectively give you the same thing plus the portability.
 
portability is key

if i could have a second unit, i would get a desktop for sure with big screen

cowasaki , thanks for the list and prices
i also hear of lightroom too

Jim.R , interesting about the hard drive, but how do you load up original sotware from factory etc.

crashtestmac , i'll have a think and get back to you.
is ms office £28 for higher ed as above?
 
I have the macbook with the memory upgrade - it used to be fine with CS4 and RAW but never really batch processed too much. I also have an iMac and have totally converted to Apple (would like to get rid of a Netbook at some point in the future).

Remember that iPhoto does convert but does not have Adobe Camera RAW. iPhoto is great for what it does (and the Apple Photobooks are great through it) but I am not tending to use Photoshop Elements 8 (on trial right now) for most editing. I like Bridge....

Chris
 
p1tse said:
Jim.R , interesting about the hard drive, but how do you load up original sotware from factory etc.
Click to expand...

You get a restore disk with the Macbook. There are various guides around on the net about how to restore from it. Google is your friend :D
 
Lostgear said:
Sack off the Macbook idea, they are not a patch on the Imac. If you want to do any serious PP work you will need the screen realestate of the Imac. Try one side by side with a Macbook and you will see what I mean.

I'm not knocking the Macbooks, they deffenately have their place and I would have one if I could justify it, but having a 24" Imac I am spoiled somwhat.

Now if Apple brought out their much rumored sub-note :nuts: that would be different.
Click to expand...

I disagree with this on a lot of levels but I'll make the main points here:

A laptop is portable and an iMac isn't. If you want a portable computer, an iMac isn't even worth considering.

As I do with my Macbook Pro, you can plug an external monitor when doing proper editing work. Back in the day, Apple used to give these adapters away with the laptops but these days it's another £25. I got one and hook my MBP up to a 20" monitor when I'm doing proper editing work. The desktop with utilise both screens so you might even end up with more screen real-estate than with a 24" iMac, albeit over two monitors.

The MBP is great in a studio environment as you can review your images quickly to see if they're up to scratch, make setup adjustments, then do the real editing at home when you've got your other monitor hooked up.

It's a personal choice. If the OP wants portability, there's no use in suggesting he "Sack off the Macbook idea". Macbook Pros are plenty powerful for doing adjustments. Sure the screen is going to make it tricky but, as I mentioned, add another monitor and you've got a fantastic setup.

Back on topic, I use Bridge and Photoshop CS3 but I'm going to be switching to Lightroom after trying the v3 beta. It's not cheap but it's a lot more integrated and slick than my current setup. Runs like a dream on a Macbook Pro as well!

George.
 
Slight off topic but can CS4 'when run on a Mac' (iMac in particular) fully utilise 4, 6 or even 8gb of RAM ?

I've read that a external HD linked with firewire is a good option to use as the scratch disk in photoshop too :thinking: anyone tried this??
 
adobe lightrooms fantastic and very fast on the macbooks
 
Eddie1 said:
adobe lightrooms fantastic and very fast on the macbooks
Click to expand...


as i have no experience with any of these softwares, can you list a few bullet points on why lightroom is fantastic? i've heard of lightroom being mentioned a few times
 
pablob said:
What about 4GB to 8GB? Is that worth it?
Click to expand...

for the base model 2GB to 8GB cost loads from apple, will look it up

i think the other models i.e. non 13" come with 4GB as standard so maybe a little cheaper to upgrade to 8GB

bit off the topic, holding off for a MBP because of finances, but with the MB coming with 250GB as standard and the other MBP range with 4GB as standard, i'm going hedge my bet the new update to base MBP next year will come with both ;-)
 
p1tse said:
for the base model 2GB to 8GB cost loads from apple, will look it up

i think the other models i.e. non 13" come with 4GB as standard so maybe a little cheaper to upgrade to 8GB

bit off the topic, holding off for a MBP because of finances, but with the MB coming with 250GB as standard and the other MBP range with 4GB as standard, i'm going hedge my bet the new update to base MBP next year will come with both ;-)
Click to expand...

I answered the memory upgrade question in one of the last top tips :) LINK

Any new update will come with improvements somewhere :)
 
p1tse said:
for the base model 2GB to 8GB cost loads from apple, will look it up

i think the other models i.e. non 13" come with 4GB as standard so maybe a little cheaper to upgrade to 8GB

bit off the topic, holding off for a MBP because of finances, but with the MB coming with 250GB as standard and the other MBP range with 4GB as standard, i'm going hedge my bet the new update to base MBP next year will come with both ;-)
Click to expand...

If you intend on upgrading the RAM, get as little as possible factory fitted, because in all likelihood there will no spare RAM slots from the factory and you will have to take out all the factory fitted RAM to upgrade.

Honestly, upgrading the RAM youself is so simple I wouldn't bother getting Apple to do it. It's actually quite rewarding, and is designed to be a user process.

8GB memory is around £70 from Crucial.

Self-upgrading the HDD will be a little harder to do simply due to the software transfer process. However if you are going to be using RAW I wouldn't use the internal HDD for storing images because it will fill up in the blink of an eye (well, not quite that fast, but it will be full soon enough).

If you must insist on using RAW, buy a 1TB external HDD for £65, use that for image storage, and it's easy enough to swap over when it's full. Use the internal HDD for software and Lightroom catalogues and metadata.

So what I would recommend would be get the small HDD and low RAM model now, upgrade the RAM yourself, and use an external HDD for image storage (in fact you'll need two, one for backup.)
 
p1tse said:
is ms office £28 for higher ed as above?
Click to expand...

That offer has now changed or I cannot locate it! I actually got it for £8.95 directly from microsoft (for the enterprise version) because of work :)

As a student you can buy it now for £38.95 with Windows 7 for £30 too

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/education/studentoffer/

Again with my LAST two tips you can install a Windows environment for FREE so you can run windows 7 legally for £30 and get the Mac version of office for £38.95
 
martsharm said:
8GB memory is around £70 from Crucial.
Click to expand...

8Gb from Crucial is A LOT MORE THAN £70 !

Best price I found was £220 from Scan but the prices go up and down all the time so check everyone. If think you might be looking at iMac prices. From this version of the iMac Apple have actually changed to a desktop setup so there are now 4 memory slots and it uses normal desktop ram the macbooks etc use SODIMMs again I have covered this in the top tips HERE
 
I have a 2008 Black MacBook. It is dual core 2.4GHz. I use Aperture 2.1 on it for my workflow. The 13" screen size doesn't bother me at all, I guess it's the way that Aperture is laid out that makes it easy to use on smaller screens. I upgraded the RAM to 4Gb, a process that took all of 5 minutes.
If I do need the real estate then I'll either wire up my 24" LCD to the MacBook or use my G4.
Early on in this thread someone said that Mac's are a good investment and will last 5 years. My G4 is 6 years old now and it only just starting to struggle with the newer applications, a lot of this is down to the fact that new software only works on Intel Mac's.
 
Cowasaki, I have read your top tips, and they are very detailed, thank you.

To err is human, yet I try to do it as little as possible. Here I failed. I meant 4GB RAM. Apologies for anyone who thought I had found a stonking bargain.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top