Posted by Joyce Dumas on November 11, 2008 at 11:48 AM
One of my students is buying a laptop for photo editing and asked me for suggestions. Does anyone have any specific ideas for features to look for (besides lots of memory) or model suggestions?
Any and all help greatly appreciated.
Posted by Robert Fisher on November 11, 2008 at 12:12 PM
Aside from lots of memory, if your student is seriously into photography then you might suggest spending a little less on the laptop and getting a a good accessory monitor. Laptop monitors really are the weak point in the mix. For quick, on the fly stuff they're OK but I wouldn't trust one for truly critical work.
Aside from an accessory monitor, if s/he's going to be using CS4 then a laptop with a dedicated graphics adapter that has at least 256MB of memory would be a good idea too since CS4 has been built to allow it to use the RAM and processing capability of the graphics adapter in addition to the system CPU and RAM.
Posted by Don George on November 11, 2008 at 12:14 PM
My thought only,,,I wouldn't use a laptop for serious editing. Its great for downloading and storing in the field but I use a desktop for editing. The reason is as you move the screen on the laptop you end up with an inconsistent image.
Posted by Jim DeWitt on November 11, 2008 at 12:40 PM
I think it depends on the level of work the student is doing, and the version of Photoshop they plan to run.
I use a MacBook Pro in the field with 4GB of RAM and the biggest hard drive I can find. As others have noted, a laptop monitor is difficult to keep calibrated. Temperature seems to really affect mine. But an inexpensive external monitor solves that. If the student is gong to run PS CS2 or earlier, even a simple MacBook might be adequate.
But there's no substitute for going to a computer store and trying things out. With Macs, most stores will let you take in photos on a CD or a flash drive and test the editing software. Windows, because of virus threats, not so much.
Posted by David Bostedo on November 11, 2008 at 12:46 PM
I use a laptop for everything. As mentioned, the screen is really the biggest weak point. Assuming you aren't willing to get a desktop :
I'd suggest paying for the upgraded resolution (to 1050 lines, or even 1200 lines) and at minimum a 15" monitor. Then I'd definitely calibrate the monitor with some hardware package. I'd also look for a 512 MB video card, and at least 250 GB hard drive. And plan on buying a portable drive of the same size (at least) for backups (in addition to burning CDs or DVDs for really critical stuff). Some laptops come with two drives, which is great for backup but bad for weight and power. If both can be easily accessed and swapped out, it's not a bad way to make backups.
Yes, for the money, a desktop will be faster, more ugradeable, have a better, bigger monitor, more storage, etc. - but I still went with a laptop. A laptop with a separate, calibratable, monitor is a good compromise, but I wasn't even willing to make that jump. So if you're aware of the limitations, and are OK with them, laptops are terrific.
This is just my opinion of course, although I don't feel that my images are super color critical. Of course, I still get very good screen to print matching, and I've heard that my particular laptop (Dell Inspiron 8600 - about 5 years old now) has a great screen compared to most laptops. I'm a little worried about upgrading it, in fact, and finding that a newer monitor doesn't calibrate well...
Posted by Nathan Buck on November 11, 2008 at 4:51 PM
I can second what David has said here. I use a 3 year old laptop, and photos have always looked really nice on it. I have another machine where they do not look good - the whites get blown out. Also, we just got my wife a Latitude D830 and I am surprised that her screen, even at the native resolution, makes photos appear some what posterized. I had planned to get a new laptop when I needed one - I like to mess around with my photos while sitting at the couch watching TV...now I am not so sure what to do.
Nathan
Posted by David Bostedo on November 11, 2008 at 7:56 PM
Nathan - A couple notes :
-- As far as the posterization goes, I think that could be a couple of things : either a smaller number of bits per color, or a small number of colors available to simultaneously display. And a wide gamut monitor (available on some laptops now) can exacerbate this. Getting the upgraded displays with the larger resolution might help this, but I'm not sure.
-- I'd suggest that no one ever use anything but their LCD screens' native resolution. If you need things to be larger, increase the font and icon sizes, don't decrease the resolution. It does awful things to sharpness and sometimes color when using other resolutions.
-- There are a few threads out there on other forums about laptop monitors (Open Photography, NSN, Luminous Landscape, etc) but no real consensus. Every time someone mentions a pretty good monitor, they're quick to say that they wouldn't use it for "color critical" work. Well I guess none of my stuff is color critical, as long as I get good print matching, and everyone looking on line sees something pretty close to what I see. I wish there was some site out there reviewing laptop monitors with that in mind.
Posted by S Govindarajan on November 11, 2008 at 9:39 PM
Hello Joyce:
Earlier this year, I bought an 14" asus (model F8Sn) primarily for processing images. It is fairly inexpensive and has worked well for me so far. It is light, has dual hard drives (total ~320G), a good processor (core 2 duo 2.5GHz), a good video card (9500GS w/512MB RAM) and 3G of RAM. It comes loaded with Vista Home Premium (may not be the best OS), but you can always wipe that out and load your preferred OS version. The screen works well, but is no substitute for a real monitor.
You can always buy external HDs to store the images.
Hope this helps,
Posted by Joyce Dumas on November 12, 2008 at 7:45 AM
Thanks for all the helpful input. It'll help me give a more informed answer. Knew I could count on you guys.
Posted by Jerry Greer on November 12, 2008 at 10:20 AM
I use a custom built Dell Precision Mobile Workstation with a Dell docking station. It's great, when I get back from the road I walk to my office, click the computer into the station and I have all the amenities of a desktop. Here are the peripherals and the computer info that I have with the station.
Dell Precision M4300, Core2Duo T9300 2.5GHz CPU, 4 GB RAM, XP Pro SP3, 3 year Pro service (US Based)
24" HD Display + 17" LCD secondary monitor
eSata II connection to my Antec 1T External HDD
Firewire 800 & USB 2.0 conection to 2T of external HDD's and printers
I will never go back to a desktop for my photo work.
Jerry, David, anyone else...
This topic interests me too, because I absolutely hate being stuck inside in a corner to do all my photo editing.... especially if it's a beautiful day out. Color precision is highly crucial for me & the kinds of photos I'd be working on. So, with your Dell, are you able to do editing with PS, etc. even outside in daylight? For me this would be the clincher as far as getting a laptop at some point. If one could work that well, I wouldn't have to get grumpy about being stuck inside. - Anna Lisa
Posted by David Bostedo on November 14, 2008 at 12:05 PM
Anna Lisa - Outside is very tough with bright afternoon sun. I've tried it a bit and it's been a total failure. With some dense shade, like under a big tree, or at off hours it's OK. Either way, if you're doing things you really consider color critical, it's a bad idea. To a large extent your ability to judge color is determined by ambient lighting. Changing that lighting frequently by going in and out of doors will be bad for editing purposes (particularly since outdoor light changes so much). If you're going to bother profiling your monitor and considering your image to be color critical, you should worry to some extent about the way your room is lit.
Posted by Jerry Greer on November 15, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Anna Lisa,
I use a Comp-U-Shade on my laptop and I do have the ability to calibrate the monitor (I purchased the M4300 with the new trueview LCD) but I do all of my detailed color work back in the office in the 24" HD Display. This is where I can best control the ambient light.
Discussion
12 repliesAny and all help greatly appreciated.
Aside from an accessory monitor, if s/he's going to be using CS4 then a laptop with a dedicated graphics adapter that has at least 256MB of memory would be a good idea too since CS4 has been built to allow it to use the RAM and processing capability of the graphics adapter in addition to the system CPU and RAM.
I use a MacBook Pro in the field with 4GB of RAM and the biggest hard drive I can find. As others have noted, a laptop monitor is difficult to keep calibrated. Temperature seems to really affect mine. But an inexpensive external monitor solves that. If the student is gong to run PS CS2 or earlier, even a simple MacBook might be adequate.
But there's no substitute for going to a computer store and trying things out. With Macs, most stores will let you take in photos on a CD or a flash drive and test the editing software. Windows, because of virus threats, not so much.
I'd suggest paying for the upgraded resolution (to 1050 lines, or even 1200 lines) and at minimum a 15" monitor. Then I'd definitely calibrate the monitor with some hardware package. I'd also look for a 512 MB video card, and at least 250 GB hard drive. And plan on buying a portable drive of the same size (at least) for backups (in addition to burning CDs or DVDs for really critical stuff). Some laptops come with two drives, which is great for backup but bad for weight and power. If both can be easily accessed and swapped out, it's not a bad way to make backups.
Yes, for the money, a desktop will be faster, more ugradeable, have a better, bigger monitor, more storage, etc. - but I still went with a laptop. A laptop with a separate, calibratable, monitor is a good compromise, but I wasn't even willing to make that jump. So if you're aware of the limitations, and are OK with them, laptops are terrific.
This is just my opinion of course, although I don't feel that my images are super color critical. Of course, I still get very good screen to print matching, and I've heard that my particular laptop (Dell Inspiron 8600 - about 5 years old now) has a great screen compared to most laptops. I'm a little worried about upgrading it, in fact, and finding that a newer monitor doesn't calibrate well...
Nathan
-- As far as the posterization goes, I think that could be a couple of things : either a smaller number of bits per color, or a small number of colors available to simultaneously display. And a wide gamut monitor (available on some laptops now) can exacerbate this. Getting the upgraded displays with the larger resolution might help this, but I'm not sure.
-- I'd suggest that no one ever use anything but their LCD screens' native resolution. If you need things to be larger, increase the font and icon sizes, don't decrease the resolution. It does awful things to sharpness and sometimes color when using other resolutions.
-- There are a few threads out there on other forums about laptop monitors (Open Photography, NSN, Luminous Landscape, etc) but no real consensus. Every time someone mentions a pretty good monitor, they're quick to say that they wouldn't use it for "color critical" work. Well I guess none of my stuff is color critical, as long as I get good print matching, and everyone looking on line sees something pretty close to what I see. I wish there was some site out there reviewing laptop monitors with that in mind.
Earlier this year, I bought an 14" asus (model F8Sn) primarily for processing images. It is fairly inexpensive and has worked well for me so far. It is light, has dual hard drives (total ~320G), a good processor (core 2 duo 2.5GHz), a good video card (9500GS w/512MB RAM) and 3G of RAM. It comes loaded with Vista Home Premium (may not be the best OS), but you can always wipe that out and load your preferred OS version. The screen works well, but is no substitute for a real monitor.
You can always buy external HDs to store the images.
Hope this helps,
Dell Precision M4300, Core2Duo T9300 2.5GHz CPU, 4 GB RAM, XP Pro SP3, 3 year Pro service (US Based)
24" HD Display + 17" LCD secondary monitor
eSata II connection to my Antec 1T External HDD
Firewire 800 & USB 2.0 conection to 2T of external HDD's and printers
I will never go back to a desktop for my photo work.
This topic interests me too, because I absolutely hate being stuck inside in a corner to do all my photo editing.... especially if it's a beautiful day out. Color precision is highly crucial for me & the kinds of photos I'd be working on. So, with your Dell, are you able to do editing with PS, etc. even outside in daylight? For me this would be the clincher as far as getting a laptop at some point. If one could work that well, I wouldn't have to get grumpy about being stuck inside. - Anna Lisa
I use a Comp-U-Shade on my laptop and I do have the ability to calibrate the monitor (I purchased the M4300 with the new trueview LCD) but I do all of my detailed color work back in the office in the 24" HD Display. This is where I can best control the ambient light.