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Mac and Photoshop a necessity in the design world?
Chasky
Registered Users Posts: 31 Big grins
Thanks for checking out the thread.
The Issue: I've started taking courses to become a graphic designer. At home I've always used a PC with Microsoft Digital Image Suite, but in class all we use are Macs with photoshop. My PC has served me well for what I've been doing, but the classes make it seem like Mac is a necessity in the overall design world.
What I Do: I picked up photography early this year and have just been going nuts with it. I do all sorts of local sports photography and I am trying to get into portraits. I just love it. I currently enhance my shots through my design, but the more I get into portraits the more I feel like I could benefit from investing in a Mac and the whole photoshop suite.
My Question: Will getting myself a Mac and Photoshop give me more opportunities to enhance my work? I love adding all the grunge and swirls and vector art to my work, but can't find an easy way to do it with what Im using... is Mac/Photoshop the solution?
I'd appreciate any help on this one, thanks
The Issue: I've started taking courses to become a graphic designer. At home I've always used a PC with Microsoft Digital Image Suite, but in class all we use are Macs with photoshop. My PC has served me well for what I've been doing, but the classes make it seem like Mac is a necessity in the overall design world.
What I Do: I picked up photography early this year and have just been going nuts with it. I do all sorts of local sports photography and I am trying to get into portraits. I just love it. I currently enhance my shots through my design, but the more I get into portraits the more I feel like I could benefit from investing in a Mac and the whole photoshop suite.
My Question: Will getting myself a Mac and Photoshop give me more opportunities to enhance my work? I love adding all the grunge and swirls and vector art to my work, but can't find an easy way to do it with what Im using... is Mac/Photoshop the solution?
I'd appreciate any help on this one, thanks
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Hi Chasky and welcome to the forum,
You may find you need photoshop for the work you are doing, but photoshop runs as well on a pc as it does on a mac. No need to spend the extra money on a mac just to run photoshop.
Wayne
The reason Photoshop is mentioned is because that's the app through which most digital workflow is currently taught, and the Mac is traditional and still very common. So, they recommend a Mac with Photoshop as the path of least resistance. You can use other hardware and software if you're smart enough to adapt Mac/Photoshop tutorials to whatever you choose.
What you need for hardware, is a computer that you are comfortable with and trust, that doesn't hold you back. Many people feel that's a Mac. But many others are so comfortable with the Windows way and not bothered by the maintenance that it doesn't hold them back; those people don't need to switch to a Mac. In reality there are many photographers doing just great with Windows.
Same with Photoshop. Photoshop works the same on both Mac and PC. It is undeniably the most powerful and the most standard. But if you know image processing, you can can get it done with competitive products. If you are primarily about raw workflow, you may be better off with Lightroom or Aperture instead. But the key is to understand image processing and digital workflow. Then use whatever will get you where you want to go.
(I use a Mac and Photoshop, but actually, more Lightroom these days.)
While Photoshop is starting to be displaced as the go-to tool for most photographic work, it is critical to know the processes of its operation, and more importantly, to learn the vocabulary associated with Photoshop. Many other tools have adopted the same lingo, and most professionals speak Photoshop.
Eventually you will learn In-Design and Quark. I find it useful to think about the requirements of the individual job or project, and then the specific tools that are needed to fulfill the requirements.
M
The biggest challenge I have is remembering where the key modifier is as the physical keyboards are laid out differently (laptop vs 110 keyboard).
Other than that, they both work the same, what I use at the office I also use at home. No problems.
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Photoshop is pretty much king of the hill, but by no means a necessity. Lightroom handles photo editing really well and while it won't offer the ability to add the grunge and vector art you mentioned (at least not that I've figured out anyway) you could use Gimp (a free alternative to Photoshop) to add it after processing in Lightroom.
In the end, Apple has the BEST marketing department on the face of the planet and Photoshop has worldwide name recognition, but both have very viable alternatives.
SmugMug QA
My Photos
MACs are better why? Basically time. Time to complete a task and when your PC is crashed or uploading the security patch for the second time today you ain't getting nothin done.
More details
1) Available Memory.
Lightroom and Photoshop are RAM hogs! To protect a PC from locking up, PC's only will make available ~750megs of RAM in LR no matter how much RAM you have on board, with PS you can tweak out a lttle more. MACs allow more available RAM depending on how much you have on board. This means with everything being equal between the 2 machines you get from point A to point B faster with a MAC than a PC. (Google memory allocation in Lightroom and photoshop). Oh you say I have both and I can't tell a difference? You haven't loaded the system down yet.
2.)Screen resolution and color on a MAC is a lot better and can match your LAB printer profile better.
3.)MACs are more reliable. There is a reason they cost significantly more and people still keep buying more of them. Once you have a MAC you never go back people say. Apple reported their best profit ever recently in this horrible economy. If Apples wheren't the cats meow they would be hurting like Dell right now.
4.)Intel is delevering there state of the art chips to be introduced in Apple's before PC's. Why MACs make Intel look better with better reliability and performance.
5.)More secure. There is a lot on this, if you want more details look it up but less down time chasing viruses and other harmful software.
BDL(Bottom Damn Line)
In the end your computer is just a tool to deliver a product. It all depends on how much you want to spend. I can publish a photo using the latest MAC book pro with the newest photoshop and publish the same photo with a old PC single processor 256k ram using photoshop 6 and you will not tell a difference. I mean all the core features with PS haven't changed that much.
A mentioned here:
Your workflow should determine your investment in your tools.
I can restate that sentence this way also:
Your time should determine your investment in your tools.
Really its all about time. If you have a lot of photos shot in RAW that your client needs when they get back from lunch then you have to plan for that.
Lightroom - Processes larger volumes of RAW images quickly. I can get about 250 photos ready for proof in 1 hour.
Photoshop - use it on select images the 4 and 5 star ones you want to enhance or artistically modify. There are action for just about anything that makes enhancement a touch of a button.
DavidBroadwell.com, My Smugmug Home
Okay, sounds good. Just wondering... we formatted external drives to save to for the Macs we use in class. If I get photoshop for a PC will I be able to access the files I saved from a Mac on my PC? Thanks for the input!
http://www.sportsshooter.com/members.html?id=9538
A PC cannot read Mac disk formats natively. You'll need to install something like MacDrive on your PCs to read the Mac-formatted disks.
The file format itself is the same, whether you saved them as PSD, TIFF, JPG, PNG, GIF...they will open on Mac or PC. As long as you can read the disks they're on.