In need of new computer/editing software

[michele_anderson2]

<p>I have a new camera and need to get a new computer and editing software. I have had MacBook for the last 10 years and need something more current. I have never done digital photo editing before. I have heard a lot of good things about Lightroom. Any suggestions on what I need to purchase (preferably Mac since that is what I'm used to)?</p>

 

[keith_b1]

<p>Lightroom is good, but somewhat demanding of computing power. Get the highest spec'd Mac you can afford: quad core, i7, max RAM(16GB is good, 8 will still work.)<br>

Watch Lightroom video tutorials if it's hard to figure out from scratch.</p>

<p> </p>

[Wouter Willemse]

<p>For software, Lightroom is probably the widest used program among photographers, as it is very tailored towards these needs. It isn't the only choice, though, so it might be worth spending some time to try different programs to see which one makes most sense to you (all of them are capable programs, but the user interfaces are quite different, which makes a lot of difference): DxO Optics Pro, CaptureOne, Iridient (mac only) are all worth trying. Your camera may also have come with software, which for quite some manufacterers isn't bad. In case of Sony, you can get a Sony-only edition of CaptureOne for free.</p>

<p>You will get/see mostly recommendations for Lightroom, as it has more users, and it is an incredibly well-rounded package. There are also more tutorials and books. But it isn't everyone's cup of tea, so trying out for yourself is time well spent.</p>

<p>Photo-editing tends to be RAM intensive, so 8GB is really the minimum I'd get at present. A faster CPU is always welcome, but if the budget forces a choice, I'd get more RAM (as with many current notebooks, upgrading later is not possible!). If you do not need mobile use, definitely look at an iMac, a larger screen is most welcome with this kind of work.</p>

[hjoseph7]

<p>Try ACDsee Ultimate 8, it is cheaper than Lightroom and does most of what it does. Or if you are into Layers and select tools, then Photoshop Elements is a good place to start. </p>

[eric_brody]

<p>Congratulations on your start into the wild world of digital imaging. Were you to give us some idea of your photographic and computing sophistication, we might be able to better advise you. What do you want to do with your photography? Do you aspire to detailed deliberate landscapes, quick street work, portraits, travel with your family? What camera and lens(es) do you have? What is your approximate budget? Do you intend do print or to put photos on the web. The reflexive recommendation of Lightroom is good, but might be more than you need. The "standard" for "serious" photographers :-) is Lightroom or Capture One, usually with full Photoshop. For people like me, who've been at it in one form or another for 50 years, the Adobe $9.95 monthly price for their package is a bargain, but you might be happier with a one time purchase of Elements for under $100. Your first computing decision is between a desktop and laptop. If you'd prefer a desktop, and want to stay with Apple, the current iMac is hard to beat, pick your price, get a decent size drive, and as much memory as you can afford and have fun. If you'd prefer a laptop, the same applies with a Macbook Pro. If you go the laptop route and are "serious," consider and budget for an external monitor and calibration of said monitor, such as an NEC with Spectraview. All that might be overkill, for both your photography and budget. Also, perhaps more importantly, check your local photo scene and/or college scene for classes and friendly groups. Avoid camera clubs with RULES! And, most importantly, slow down and have fun!</p>

[michele_anderson2]

<p>Thank you all for your replies! Just to answer a few of Eric's questions... I am a outdoorsy girl who has always had a passion for photography, but am now planning on seeing if I can get better. I am now an empty nester, so I have more time and travel in my future. I don't plan on making it a career, but would love to take professional quality photos. I'd like to frame ones that I am especially proud of but would also like to share them with friends on the web. I am unsure of my capabilities so I'm hoping to stick with a software program that is more user friendly. One thing that has made me more interested in purchasing a software program as opposed to a subscription service is that I fear that it'll continually be updated and I'll have a hard time getting to know it well. One question for Eric, what did you mean when you said "stay away from camera clubs with rules"?</p>

[gerald_wallace]

<p>For editing software, there are many that are very good at little to no cost. My wife has access to many of the Adobe products (Lightroom, etc. ) however, she likes and uses "Fastone" software. You may want to investigate if you like the idea of no cost software.</p>

[eric_brody]

<p>Hi Michele,<br>

I'd love to help but...you're a bit vague, no personal criticism intended, about your goals. "Professional quality photos" does not say much. Indeed, you did not really answer any of the questions. You sound like you might not be quite ready. We still do not know what camera you're using, or any of the other parameters I mentioned.<br>

All of what I discussed is a sizable investment not only in money but also in time. Any photo software program worth working with is a bit like a foreign language, in that it must be used regularly or skills will decline. With due respect, I'd do some more thinking, make lists, on paper, of what you really hope to accomplish before you start spending time or money. Please revisit this forum, we can often help but we cannot read your mind in terms of your goals. Best of luck.</p>

 

[eric_brody]

<p>I forgot to answer Michelle's question about "camera clubs with RULES." I honestly don't know if they still exist, but in the past there were "camera clubs" in many places. They had competitions in which they (someone or a panel) "judged" photos on the basis of fixed rules of composition and other criteria. I hope and expect they no longer exist. I personally prefer a critique in which a reviewer, often a workshop leader or other person with reviewing expertise, comment about an image or group of images. This is a two way conversation with reviewer and subject able openly to discuss and debate various aspects of an image from the technical to the esthetic. I hope that is clear. You can still disagree; the ultimate response is always "I like it this way."</p>

[Uhooru]

<p>Michele, I suppose it will depend on whether you want a laptop or a desktop. I tend to agree with Keith but that's my preference. If you do get a Mac, they come with a program called "Photos" It has some adjustments and filters on it and its free. I've never used it as I really like Lightroom. </p>

[marc_rochkind]

<p>Macs aren't a good choice for photo editing. See this post:</p>

<p>http://www.photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/00dfUC</p>

[Uhooru]

<p>Read the whole thread if you want to get a more informed viewpoint. What Marc actually means is that in his opinion Macs aren't a good choice. As you will see there are many that disagree. Its sort of disingenuous to present an opinion as fact. There are reason's beyond marketing hype that so many creatives use Macs. </p>

[james_de_h]

<p>Buy the best monitor you can afford and work back from there. Software? PS Elements.</p>

[JRCrowe]

<p>Something like <a href="http://www.frys.com/product/8564009?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG">this</a> would be a good starter computer. It has the capacity to add and upgrade if needed and the price is very reasonable. The only thing I would add is another 8gb of RAM.</p>

[Richard Williams]

<blockquote>

<p>One thing that has made me more interested in purchasing a software program as opposed to a subscription service is that I fear that it'll continually be updated and I'll have a hard time getting to know it well.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>You might consider Affinity Photo, which is getting very good reviews, is reasonably priced, and does not require a subscription:</p>

<p>https://affinity.serif.com</p>

<p>In general, both Mac and Windows are good choices provided they run the software you need and you are happy with the pricing. At the moment, Affinity is only available for the Mac.</p>

[DavidRabinowitz]

<p>the choice of computer specs depends a lot on how much work you intend to do with the photos...i work in photoshop with heavy files that need a lot of RAM or else it will slow down the processing of commands especially as the hard drive becomes filled...if you are just taking pictures and adjusting the exposure, contrast, saturation and cropping as needed, you won't need the best and far from it...i'd just be careful of buying more than you need...as far as software goes, again it depends how much you want to delve into post-processing...if you want to stick with changing exposure, saturation and the like, you might find something cheap or no cost, sometimes manufacturers of camera's and other hardware come with software that can make those adjustments...</p>

[richsimmons]

<p>I will second Richard's suggestion for Affinity Photo. It is very good. I own it and it's companion Affinity Designer. Together they cost $100. $80 if you catch the sale. It is a very capable product (and I have a full blown Adobe suite) that would be capable of what you would like to accomplish. Except it doesn't have digital asset management (DAM) capabilities. I like Lightroom and the more I use it, the less I use Photoshop. I really like Lightroom for landscapes, but like anything, what you put into learning any program, will determine how well it works for you. There are demos for Affiinty and Lightroom. Each last 30 days, try them both. <br>

<br />As far as a computer, I like my Mac over my PC. Less maintenance, less worry, less tweaking needed. In the last 10 years I've owned 2 macbooks and the only reason I had to upgrade was because of software, not because the machine stopped working.</p>

[michele_anderson2]

<p>Look Eric, I came here as a person in need of advice. I stated that I am new to digital editing and that I just purchased my new camera. At this time, I am using a Mac that is 10 years old. I was interested in updating, taking photography classes and photo editing classes to improve my skills. I thought this would be a good place to come and get some advice. I've gotten some great feedback here, but immediately, you called me out saying I didn't answer my questions properly, and "wasn't ready" and expecting you to be mind readers to figure out my goals. It wasn't really the welcome I was expecting, and now you are calling me a troll. I don't know how you can expect people to engage with you when they are treated this way. To everyone else to responded to me, again, I thank you for your replies. I will reread them and move forward with my next steps to become the photographer I've always wished I could be.</p>

[richsimmons]

<p>Definitely a rude comment, but I've found that to be the exception and not the rule here on PNet. I am curious as to what camera you did buy. Your only other thread, you were interested in the D750, people suggested the D7200, sell your lenses for more wide angles, etc. But doesn't matter because with either one of those cameras you want a computer with as much processing power and ram that you can get. Lynda.com might be a good place to start for lessons. Lightroom 5 by Scott Kelby is a good book to get started with as well. It's over a thousand pages and makes a good reference.</p>

[michele_anderson2]

<p>Thank you Rich. I ended up buying the D750 and keeping my old lenses. At the time I wrote the thread that you are referring to, I was waiting for it to go on sale at a tent sale that my photography store was having. I didn't end up purchasing it at the time because it wasn't part of the sale. I then decided to wait to see if it would go on sale on Black Friday, then Christmas... it never went down further. I thought I'd wait to see if it would come down after Christmas and finally went down a small amount so I ended up purchasing it the day before I started this thread. I think I will love it for years to come. :)</p>

[richsimmons]

<p>You will enjoy it. I think next time I will go FX, but my D7100 is pretty awesome still. I have the 70-200mm AFS VR1 as well. For wide angle I found a great bargain on keh.com for a Tamron 10-24mm. Not the best wide angle, but outdoors at F5.6 to F8, it's pretty sharp, but it's made for DX. There is a Nikon 14-24mm/2.8 you could use or the 16-35/f4. KEH has a <a href="https://www.keh.com/shop/tokina-16-mm-28-mm-f-2-8-wide-angle-zoom-lens-for-nikon-f.html">Tokina 16-28</a> for a good price.</p>

[Richard Williams]

<p>As raw files were mentioned in the old thread, you might also want to try Nikon's own (free) Capture NX-D:</p>

<p>http://nikonimglib.com/ncnxd/</p>

<p>It's not a substitute for a fully-featured image editor like Photoshop or Affinity, but it does have a raw converter that I find works very well with Nikon files (better, for me, than Adobe's conversions, at least when I tried them last).</p>

[michele_anderson2]

<p>Rich, thank you for the lens suggestions. I love my lenses but know I will need lighter weight ones for what I want to do down the road. A wider angle lens will be on my list for sure.</p>

<p>Richard W, my camera came with a CD (Nikon ViewNX2). When I tried to load it on this computer, it couldn't. That is what brought me here. I'm going on a long trip very soon, and am trying to decide if I should just shoot all of my photos in JPEG because I will not have the knowledge or equipment to work with RAW files. I am a little bummed because I know some of the scenery will be beautiful and while I hope to get back there again one day, I don't know that I will.</p>

<p>My daughter is starting a new job this summer and she will be getting a work computer. She has a 2015 Macbook Pro (13") that was custom upgraded to 1TB of storage. She told me last night that I could just have hers when she gets her new one. So it looks like I'll end up with doing that instead of buying something else.</p>

[richsimmons]

<p>That'll work, but spend the money on an external monitor, a good mouse/trackpad and you'll be in business. But find out how much ram the laptop has and max it out. At least 16 gig.</p>

[Uhooru]

<p>Actually, if you want to stay with mac, Eric's first reply about the computer side, is sensible. If desktop, one of the iMacs are great. If you can afford one with the larger screen and i5 or i7 quad core and dedicated graphic card, that will last you for a few years. Laptop? More expensive as you know and probably any of the mac book pros are great but especially the 15" models, but you can always get a second monitor as well. Of course a lot of your choices depend on your budget. On anything you get, would recommend 16GB of memory. if you want a windows computer, the Dells and HPs have good value. There's other threads here on computers. <br>

Maybe if you had a chance you could check out some of the options available and then come back and ask if they would be suitable. Also, if you have a local photo school teaching digital photography or something like that, you could always give them a ring and see if they have a suggestion. Let us know what you decide. Unfortunately, so much of this is driven by cost, so you will have to decide what you think you can spend for all this stuff:) You've got a great camera, so now you are the place so many of us were of having to upgrade around the new camera tech. But think of all the fun you are going to have and the great photos you will take.!</p>