What do you process images on - Mac or PC?

Do you use a mac or a pc to edit your wedding pics? I also am wondering -when we are editing a

picture...it really depends on what perspective you take while looking at your moniter. Sometimes pics can

look darker or lighter from where you viewing them. So, with that in mind, how do we know how to judge

how they most likely will look when printed - darker or lighter? I also understand about color spaces but

like I said depending what perspective pics can have a range of tones.....do i judge my color by looking

straight on at the picture and figure this is the way i should interpet it?

To be honest the most important thing is to make sure whatever you do is consistant. If your

monitor is on the side of your desk and you always look at an angle thats okay, as long as

you learn to know what you are getting.

 

Calibrate your monitor (means setting the colours to something standardised) and then keep

making prints until you know exactly what the next one will look like.

...mac, for the record.

If you're concerned about the angle of view you can always consider a CRT monitor instead

of an LCD.

 

And by the way, I'm using a Mac. I use a windows laptop when travelling, but I don't use

this for serious processing, only for making quick selections. I find the result totally

unreliable.

If you want support from friend, then PC. Not a lot of people know MAC and when it break down or how to do simple thing like setting up email clients and other configurations, it will cost you at least $35/hour from tech support.

 

MAC is a great machine, but it rediculously expensive and no support from friend when you need help.

 

About monitor, you need to purchase monitor calibrator and use the icc profile that the lab provided for you.

Well I have a degree in it, so I'm sort of stuck with PC's. I still favor the CRT monitors. I am running Intels new fast core 2 duo with 4 gbs of ram. I'm happy!

I am a MAC user, and SUPER unhappy with my G5. It has crashed and crashed and crashed

on me. I have been dealing with apple for TWO YEARS on this, they just installed a NEW

harddrive a week ago and so far my computer has crashed twice and has frozen up and is

slower than before. So many mac users rave about their macs, but it has been nothing but

heart break for me and I spent a ton of money on this darn thing!!!

 

Calibrate your monitor. I use the sprider pro2. It's awesome!

 

Darice

Macs Macs Macs - We loooooove Macs! Somebody above said that not many people know

how to use a Mac. I'd have to disagree. I've been working as a graphic designer and

photographer for ten years now and every place I've worked (several newspapers, a few

magazines and with another photographer) has used a Mac setup. I think it's pretty much

the standard when it comes to creative work. They are more expensive, but worth every

penny. (And I've never had trouble finding somebody to work on them when they need it)

 

Do you by any chance have one of the new(ish) iMacs, Meg? That's what I have and the

moniter is a lot like you said - different darkness/colors from different angles of view. Last

time I got prints from the lab I just compared them to the moniter and figured out I have

to be looking directly at the moniter with no tilt at all for it to match. Hasn't been a

problem, but it is a little annoying. Like others mentioned, make sure you calibrate the

moniter to get good color.

Mac. But it doesn't matter all that much. It's what you're used to more than anything.

 

Mac was my path because almost all of the graphics houses and photographers are Mac

based. Out entire Creative Department at the Ad agency is Mac as are all the ad agencies

I've ever been involved with.

 

Weird that Apple replaced that G5 hard Drive ... that rarely is a reason a Mac crashes ... it's

usually a conflict somewhere ... with 3rd party programs usually. Or if it is in desperate

need of defraging or having it's permissions verified or in need of cleaning the Cache' or if

you overload the Hard Drive so it runs out of juice. Hope it gets resolved for you, I have a

G5 dual processor and it screams ... the few times it has crashed was because I let the HD

go below 50% capacity with all the junk I had on the desktop. Turns 'em into a slow witted

machine : -)

I use a PC, and LaCie LCD monitor. I calibrate the monitor with the Monaco Optix. I'm happy with my set up, but do need a new PC. PC is all I've ever known and I haven't found a good reason to switch horses. Whatever system you use, be sure to get plenty of memory and hard drive space, with at least one additional hard drive. If you're sending your printing out, then ask your lab if they have an ICC profile you can get. Your monitor will still need to be calibrated. If you don't get an ICC from them, get some test prints.

 

What are you using now? What kind of monitor? Has it been properly calibrated with a colorimeter?

A Mac and for the record I regret it. I have NEVER EVER encountered such unbelievable aweful

and useless customer service. My laptop broke and it took them about a month to get me my

computer bacl to me b/c they messed up shipping twice and then lost it in their system and

couldn't locate it and it was impossible to have people get back to you. Not to mention they

messed up the backup service- thankfully what they did with my computre didn't erase my

hard drive or I wouldv'e lost alot of work. I also ended up paying from my pocket $200 for a

messenger service because I couldn't take the chance of having my laptop lost again... and

the cherry on top? The only way to complain is to send a hand written letter to the main

offices. Apple the computre company doesn't even have an email address for customers!

I use a PC, but love MACs. I just wish they were less expensive.

Mac. I don't make final edits on a laptop, which is the only monitor that I've experienced

which has brightness changes when viewed at differnent angles. For consistent color and

brightness, you may just want to purchsae a desktop LCD monitor that can remain stationary,

doesn't have such drastic changes in color or brightness when viewed at different angles, and

can provide consistent results. I went one step further and acquired the calibration settings

from my lab to make sure I was getting consistent color results from screen to print.

Went from PC to MAC....i wish i did it years ago. Running a G5 and what a difference in

speed...it has cut my time in half.

 

Dave

Marc, when I defragmented the my mac, it GOT WORSE!!! At one point the computer

stopped turning on altogether. I have cleaned out my computer, emptied cache, I have

taken out a lot of files and photos off the harddrive completely, and still it crashes! The

bug reports that appear are not just when using ps, but also with word, itunes, and etc. I

also have an external hard drive as to not over load my hard drive, I have 2gig of memory

and still my computer fails. I am thinking that maybe it's the mother board. I think they

gave me a bad computer from the get go!

 

the Apple people are not helpful. They just keep you on the phone for many hours.

Sometimes I seriously consider quitting my photography business because of this. I had a

pc before a mac and had almost idential issues, so I am wondering if there is a higher

power saying "No, you're not suppose to be doing photography anymore". It's kind of

hard to operate a business when your computer keeps dieing on you!

Macs are great but they are overpriced. The biggest problem with a PC is the variable quality between manufactures. Most of the over the counter consumer PCs are junk, HP/Compaq, Dell, Gateway, all trash. Find a local computer builder with a good reputation, and tell him what you need. He or she will build you a machine that puts the big PC manufactures to shame. Later if something goes wrong you wont be on the phone talking to someone in India. A solid, dependable, well built PC can be as fast or faster then a Mac that costs twice as much.

Just upgraded to a Mac Pro w/ 4GB RAM. Photoshop screams even under emulation! I use an Apple Cinema Display (23") and calibrate it with Monaco OPTIX. When calibrating, calibrate to gamma 2.2 and native white point (for LCDs - 6500K for CRTs). I moved from PCs 4 years ago - and I work in IT. Why? I simply prefer Mac OS X to Windows XP - simple as that. The OS is more than 50% of the equation. And the 64bit Mac OS X (Leopard) looks a lot more promising than Vista. If Photoshop CS3 will be 64bit, then you'll need a good 64bit OS.

 

Bogdan

"A solid, dependable, well built PC can be as fast or faster then a Mac that costs twice as much."

 

Todd, be careful there. My Mac Pro is cheaper than a dual Xenon PC from any reputable PC manufacturer I've priced. Plus, you pay for quality hardware..

 

Bogdan

I have a Mac and a PC, but I use the Mac. When I changed to Macs I felt that finally I had a

computer made by someone who didn't hate me.

Added comment about PC's.. The new operating, if it ever comes out, is pretty interesting. With Vista you will be able to have up to 128 gbs of RAM. Right now the max for XP is 4 gbs. Looking forward to seeing what is in store with Photoshop, Mac, and PC's during the next 5 years. Also heard that the hard drives will be replaced with solid state drives, instead of the current spinning drives, so the speed of the solid state hard drives will be a heck of a lot faster. This is said to happen in about 2 years! Wow, wouldn't this be great news for the future! Hopefully, both Mac's and PC's will be much more stable.

I prefer PC and the reason for that is that there are so many plugins that won't work with Mac's, but it is up to the individual.

I had a PC custom build with a tb and 4 gig's of RAM and I believe it is as powerful as any Mac and if I do have a problem I can call the builder of my computer and he comes out within hours to help me out, that to me is VERY important because I can't afford to loose to many days of working time. Anything can happen to a PC or a Mac and the chances of getting it fixed at a reasonable time are much better with a PC.

As far as the pictures I calibrate my monitor once a month and every morning when I turn it on it recalibrates itself to that setting. I also have a hood on the screen so it blocks light from the top and the sides.This keeps what I see pretty consitent. My second screen I use only for the photoshop tools so I can keep them open at all times. Keeping your monitor calibrated is the most important thing of all.

Mac, no complaints.

used to use a PC, switched to mac G5 w/ 4 gigs RAM running canon DPP and aperture + PS CS.

 

no complaints so far with anything.

Mac.. PC... Mac... PC. The discussion is often times based around which people think is more stable or reliable, or is based strictly on what they are already familiar with. First off, new Macs use the same baisc hardware as PCs, including their drives, and intel based processors. So most, if not all hardware discrepencies now have an equal playing field.

 

What tends to make a PC less reliable, is the fact that windows is a far more finiky operating system (however, not as much so with xp sp2). What that means in reality, is that the more you do to it... the more misc progreams you install... the less careful you are about changes you make, the easier it is to muck up the operating system. Mac OS is more difficult to goof up as a lot of such configuration and customization is hidden from the user.

 

I personally support a network with over 1000 XP sp2 PCs, and 3 macs (yes.. 3) and globally, the pcs are exceptionally reliable. The biggest failure I see, is hard drive failure, which has nothing to do with any type of mac/pc debate. It's simply the one piece of the computer with the most moving parts, that also generates heat. The exame same issue exists with Macs. I have a few friends that are hard core mac users, that have had their drives fail. We have nothing but problems with the 3 MACs on our network, but only because we are running a server 2003 environment, and there are some compatibility issues. The MACs themselves, run just fine.

 

So in my opinion, if you know how to build a clone PC, and know exactly how to keep an XP os running smoothly, you can build one hell of a system for a fraction of the cost of a MAC, with the same reliability. If you aren't in the know of how to keep a PC running smoothly (and most people are not) and are inevitibly going to end up breaking the OS.. the a MAC is maybe the way to go.

 

In short:

Is the machine running on a PC based network? = use pc

Is the machine running on a MAC based network? = use mac

Is the machine a stand alone computer in your office? = follow the above.

I went Mac about 5 years ago and I'll never go back to a PC. This might not sound all that impressive but previously I'd been using a PC for 13 years.

 

Anyway, for color issues - make sure your monitor is calibrated (regardless of which OS you're on), calibrate any printers that you may be proofing to, and if you send photos out make sure everyone is using the proper color profile.