Photo editing. what do you use? Pros and cons of PC vs Mac

Forums › Digital Imaging › Photo editing. what do you use? Pros and cons of PC vs Mac

KennyM

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#94603 14-Dec-2011 20:31

Just doing some research into computers for photo editing.

From what I know iMac used to be how a LOT of photo editing was done. But doing some reseach now it seems like you can get software/hardware for any platform. (photoshop for instance)

Ive always had a Windows PC, but am not biased. Im not trying to start a mac vs pc war, am more interested in what other photographers find to be the best, and what drawbacks have been found.

Whats the advantages/disadvantages of having Windows/Mac?
What other hardware/software is useful or should be stayed away from...For example. touch pads, certain screens are better/worse etc etc

What ive seen at the moment is a 27inch iMac is about $3000.
But for $3000 I could build a similiar hardware spec'd windows pc, and still have enough change for a 42inch TV to use as a secondary screen.

I havnt looked at the specific software that comes with windows/mac, but those prices exclude photoshop or any other editing software

As much as I like the second Idea. If im going to be able to produce better and/or time saving on a certain setup, then thats the way id like to go.

One Pro for building my own hardware is I can have 2 drives in Mirrored raid to protect my images. (vs the mac plug in 'time capsule'?)

Edit: There are a LOT of different types of 'photoshop' Even advice on that would be helpful : )

timmmay

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#558053 14-Dec-2011 20:57

Photoshop works great on either platform, and both platforms are reliable and stable. For the same performance a PC is generally cheaper. Don't go mac because you think it'll be faster, or easier, or more productive for photo stuff, it's the same on both.

I use Photoshop on PC, it's what I know, it works well.

Disrespective

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#558188 15-Dec-2011 09:58

I use Adobe Lightroom for the majority of my photo editing with a little done in Photoshop if required by the client.

I've used Windows and MacOSX pretty extensively and for those pieces of software I mentioned, i'd say it makes little to no difference at all as to what OS is being used. If you know windows well, then continue with windows.

I've done a partial switch to OSX solely because I have a Macbook Pro and figured it was foolish not to at least try OSX on it (I was running Windows as the primary partition on it for years). I can't see much difference in usability for me at all. In many situations it's still disadvantaging me but i'll hold out and see if I can get used to it.

Jaxson

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#558215 15-Dec-2011 11:08

Disrespective: I use Adobe Lightroom for the majority of my photo editing

Have recently found this and it's been a breath of fresh air. ie it's really good, maybe not the interface but the results and flexibility are really worth a look.

Hammerer

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#558268 15-Dec-2011 12:49

In general, Windows applications still have more keyboard shortcuts. This can be a significant advantage when performing a chain of tasks when you otherwise have to wait for the GUI to update before you can use the mouse.

Macs were used in the publishing industry (starting in the 1980s when early Windows couldn't compete) and were the platform of choice due to file and format compatibility. That is not so much the case today where there are more open formats and more cross-platform compatibility.

KennyM

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#558427 15-Dec-2011 19:23

Seems to be pointing me towards a windows based system then.

Any other software thats come in useful?

I mean, photoshop would be nice. But its another big chunk of $$$ just for that. But if I need it, I need it.
But if most of it is addons and extentions im never actually going to use, but lightroom has everything included that I will...

So still keen to see what people are using.

Thanks for the help thus far

timmmay

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#558488 15-Dec-2011 22:14

I really don't use PS much. Almost everything I do could be done in Photoshop elements, assuming it has layers.

I use CS4 Bridge/ACR to process RAW photos, but with the new adobe license terms of having to upgrade every version not every third i'll probably switch to something else. Maybe Capture One, maybe DxO optics. I do really like Bridge/ACR, and CS4 will keep working, but I want some of the newer RAW technologies.

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stevenz

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#558674 16-Dec-2011 12:51

Unless you _need_ the feature of some app that is only available on the Mac, then stick with PC and you'll be able to get a significantly more powerful machine for the same price. Virtually every Adobe application is available in an identical, or nigh-identical form on both platforms.

We've got an in-house designer here using CS5.5 and nothing she does on the MacPro couldn't be done in the same fashion on a Windows system.

That said, I'm quite partial to Pixelmator in OS X and my old copy of CS4 which I managed to scrounge is an OS X license.

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da5id

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#559072 17-Dec-2011 19:08

I agree with what most here are saying. I do graphic design for a living, and used a Mac on my last in-house job. The Adobe programs are pretty much identical on both PC and mac platforms (I use a PC at home) apart from the CTRL and ALT key swaps - by that I mean that on the PC the CTRL is on the bottom left of the keyboard, but on the mac, the equivalent key is Command, which is where the ALT key is on the PC.

So, if you end up using one platform a lot, you might end up pressing the wrong key combinations for a while if you need to switch to the other platform. If you're only going to use the one platform altogether, then it probably doesn't matter.

I was in PB Tech a few months ago, and the guy in there did say that you'll need quite a high spec PC to run the new Photoshop 5.0 and above. It'll still be almost half the price of a Mac though.

timmmay

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#559075 17-Dec-2011 19:15

Don't believe everything (anything?) salespeople say. Photoshop 5 was released years ago, CS5.5 is already out, it's CS6 that's out soon, it's about version 15. There's no reason to think it'll need a faster PC than the 5.5.

Disrespective

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#559167 18-Dec-2011 10:06

timmmay: Don't believe everything (anything?) salespeople say. Photoshop 5 was released years ago, CS5.5 is already out, it's CS6 that's out soon, it's about version 15. There's no reason to think it'll need a faster PC than the 5.5.

QFT That being said I wouldn't want to try running it on anything less than an intel core i5 (or equivalent dual/quad core cpu) with 8GB RAM. Especially if you'll be using it daily and want snappy responses from it. It works on less (min specs here: http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/mastercollection/tech-specs.html) but works better with more obviously.

da5id

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#559366 18-Dec-2011 20:50

Yup, I ended up getting the Core i5 with Philips 234 LED monitor all for about $1200.
Still cheaper than the Mac.

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timmmay

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#559391 18-Dec-2011 21:52

Disrespective:
timmmay: Don't believe everything (anything?) salespeople say. Photoshop 5 was released years ago, CS5.5 is already out, it's CS6 that's out soon, it's about version 15. There's no reason to think it'll need a faster PC than the 5.5.
QFT That being said I wouldn't want to try running it on anything less than an intel core i5 (or equivalent dual/quad core cpu) with 8GB RAM. Especially if you'll be using it daily and want snappy responses from it. It works on less (min specs here: http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/mastercollection/tech-specs.html) but works better with more obviously.

I was using a Core2 quad with 4GB RAM until recently, using Bridge/ACR and Photoshop quite a bit. I'm on an i7 with 16Gb RAM and two SSDs now, and it's a bit faster, but it's not night and day. Having the SSDs in the old machine may have made it seem faster though.