Photo work on MacBook Pro

[todd_torfin]

<p>I am curious what software do I need if I want to design my website.  I have a website right now that I have through 1and1.  I use Frontpage 2003 to maintain the website. <br>

Those of you that have a website using a MacBook Pro who do you use to host your website and what web design  software do I need to to move my website from 1and1 using Microsoft Frontpage.  If anyone has suggestions on what web hosting service and software please let me know.<br>

Also do those that use a Mac just use Photoshop for a Mac to do Photoshop designs or is there something that Apple has that can do layering and some of the things Photoshop can do.<br>

I am going to buy a Mac so just curious do you guys recommend a MacBook Pro or just the Mac with a 20 or 24 inch screen?  Are the Mac's that just have the screen can a projector be hooked up to them for presentations?  Also I have a wireless router is it compatiable with a Mac?</p>

[PuppyDigs]

<p>I use Dreamweaver and Photoshop and have been very happy. Everything else seems a bit farty in comparison.</p>

<p>I have a both a MacBook Pro (15") and a 24" iMac. Once you get used to the 24" screen, you'll only wanna use the MacBook Pro for travel. The MacBook Pro is great, but the iMac is a lot faster and the screen more color accuate, doesn't change contrast with head movement and, of course, much larger.</p>

[todd_torfin]

<p>Puppy Face, can you hook up a projector to the iMac?  What version of Photoshop do you have for Mac?  Is your Dreamweaver a Mac version?</p>

[PuppyDigs]

<p>If you mean a slide projector, no. It does have a video out port for DVI displays. I've always thought Dreamweaver was a Mac-only program but I could be mistaken.</p>

[gorasinski]

<p>Dreamweaver is not Mac only product, and is a very good tool,but not as perfect as trxt editor and knowledge of code ;)<br>

I am not a MAC user (as yet) and surely there must be either VGA or DVI output, from the latter it is easier to convert to analogue (VGA), from analogue it is more difficult to convert to digital.</p>

[john clark]

<p>Yes, both Macbook and Macbook Pro can be connected to a projector (of the computer variety).  Or an external monitor.</p>

[g dan mitchell]

<p>I used to be essentially a web developer. I built and ran one of the first college web sites in the country. I created and ran online communities and used content management systems. I taught online college courses. I created and delivered web training for hundreds of users. </p>

<p>And, yes, I hand coded everything.</p>

<p>Today I would just get a Wordpress account somewhere and either attach it to one of the gallery tools (e.g. Gallery2) or a third-party commercial gallery tool (Zenfolio, Photoshelter, PBase, etc.) I would not bother with the old school web site design software.</p>

<p>Apple sells a program called Aperture. It is reportedly quite a fine program, and there are a number of photographers who use it. However, Apple just missed their window of opportunity with this application when Adobe rushed Lightroom into the market, and Lightroom is now far more common and better integrated with Photoshop. Photoshop alone or Photoshop plus lightroom would be the most common Mac photography setup if you want to do the full-blown "editing in masked layers" thing.</p>

<p>You can do Photoshop on a Macbook or Macbook Pro. It can run the program just fine as long as you get a reasonably fast model with plenty of RAM and the largest internal hard drive you can find. (I'm typing this on an older Powerbook G4, the last and most powerful of that breed. It can run Photoshop, but not particularly well.) Your biggest issues with running PS on a Macbook Pro will be the small screen size and the current limit of about 500GB for the largest hard drives. </p>

<p>500GB of storage is not much at all for an active photographer and you'll soon need more storage. This could take the form of external drives and/or network storage. At some point 500GB of internal storage may seem limiting even with the additional external storage. (Of course we may find that larger drives become available at that point, too.)</p>

<p>The Macbook monitors are quite nice, but 15" (or 17") is just not a lot of screen real estate for running Photoshop. You can do it, but you wouldn't choose to if you had another option. (Many who can or need to do so get a laptop for a second computer and only use it when away from the main machine.) You can add an larger external monitor pretty easily and, these days, at a reasonable cost. But at the point you are adding additional monitors and attaching external hard drives you are getting away from the advantages of the portable machine.</p>

<p>I use a high-end 24" iMac for my photography, and I am quite pleased with it. Unless you are scanning large format files you probably don't really need one of the more expensive "tower" systems - the iMac would do just fine. You can attach an external monitor to the iMacs as well if you need to expand your work area.</p>

<p>A good solution if you want a good workstation and portability is to get the iMac as your main machine and then augment it with the least expensive Macbook for those times when you travel or have to show something to a client. </p>

<p>Dan</p>

[Brad_]

<blockquote>

<p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: georgia; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">Today I would just get a Wordpress account somewhere and either attach it to one of the gallery tools (e.g. Gallery2) or a third-party commercial gallery tool (Zenfolio, Photoshelter, PBase, etc.) I would not bother with the old school web site design software.</span></p>

</blockquote>

<p>Bingo.  I process my photos in Lightroom.  And either generate flash galleries in Lightroom's Web module; or export a group of pix for a Wordpress SimpleViewer container.  Which then gets uploaded and integrated into my daily <a href="http://www.citysnaps.net/blog/">urban photoblog</a>.  Very easy; even on the road.</p>

<p>I haven't updated my photo website in three years.  That's going away soon - way to tough to maintain...<br>

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: georgia; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></p>

[keith reeder]

<p>"Today I would just get a Wordpress account somewhere and either attach it to one of the gallery tools (e.g. Gallery2) or a third-party commercial gallery tool (Zenfolio, Photoshelter, PBase, etc.) I would not bother with the old school web site design software."</p>

<p>+ 1.</p>

<p>I can hard code pretty well, and I have used Dreamweaver professionally.</p>

<p>Nevertheless, all my websites these days are based on freeware php blog/CMS scripts (<a href="http://www.simplephpblog.com/">Simple PHP Blog</a> for my photoblog and <a href="http://textpattern.com/">TextPattern</a> for my photography site) and I'll <em>never</em> go back to the "old ways".</p>

<p>That said, this is a pretty good, free, alternative to Dreamweaver - and it's cross-platform too: <a href="http://net2.com/nvu/">http://net2.com/nvu</a> .</p>

[PuppyDigs]

<p>The OP didn't actually say what type of website he was designing. I assumed it was more than a simple blog, MySpace or gallery as a separate app isn't really needed for those types of things (the hosts have onsite tools). iWeb is one of the easiest and most elegant apps I've tried for site design. It ain't free but is about the cost of a Big Mac combo when you consider it's included in the iWork suite. The main problem is it's optimized for use with Mac.com and you have dance a bit to use it elsewhere.</p>

[keith reeder]

<p>That's why I mentioned TextPattern, Puppy Face - it's <em>far</em> more than "just" blogging software...</p>

[scott_ferris]

<p>I use a MacBook Pro 17" most of the time, I have external monitors at home and work. I have written 300 page websites in just text edit programs longhand and have Dreamweaver, Photoshop (Complete CS3 Suite) LightRoom and Aperture.</p>

<p>It really depends on what you want to achieve. It is easy to get superb results with just LightRoom and a basic sitebuilder. If you want to take an interest in what you are making then Dreamweaver is still tough to beat and you can do a free trial to have a play. It is a huge program though, very much the Photoshop of websites, and can take a while to get even decent results without some instruction.</p>

<p>From a software point of view I would say LightRoom first, Dreamweaver second and see where that gets you.</p>

<p>Screen real estate is a non issue given the price of decent monitors now, all Apple laptops support an additional screen and all can run a digital projector, I had  Dell one running today, I strongly reccomend a good extra monitor.</p>

<p>Storage is an issue, but if you are serious and turning out a reasonable number of pictures then even desktops are going to limit you sooner rather than later, but with daisychainable 1tb drives out there for well under $200 it really isn't a major concern, not the best way to do it and you would be well advised to work out your storage needs and sort out a strategy for that with the ability to backup and add more storage. I use eSATA drives via the express card slot. This gives uncomplicated, one cable, access to 15tb of configurable drives.</p>

<p>Take care, Scott.</p>

[todd_torfin]

<p>For my regular website I use frontpage, website is <a href="http://www.toddtorfin.com">www.toddtorfin.com</a> and have a gallery link to <a href="http://www.toddtorfin.zenfolio.com">www.toddtorfin.zenfolio.com</a>  I would like to be able to just use one to put text and some design elements such as link buttons how would I go about doing that?  Some of the post suggest getting a Wordpress account and attaching it to zenfolio.  Can someone explain that process to me and how that works.   Frontpage is not bad but I am currently struggling with making my own link text or link  buttons.  I have one I created for a link to the gallery using Corel Print Shop Pro.  Any suggestions on what I should do?</p>