siberian_wolf Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 Hello all as Im starting photography I know I will be ideally getting a computer just for my photography work (i.e. Photo editing, designing photo books, storing photos, etc) basically anything like this goes 'whoosh' over my head so Im wondering if anyone could help me pick what would be the best computer set up for me to look for to be able to run what I want. Will be using software such as Photoshop/other editing software, photo studio software, will be using internet also, prob other photo related software EDIT: Seem to find Windows easier to work with than Apple BTW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 Buying a Mac is a waste of money anyway IMO. The best thing you can do is find a few you like and post them up on here for us to see, then we can tell you what they are like for what your after doing. The only advice I can give really is you need a computer with plenty of memory above all else. A decent graphics card will help as well, although not as essential as you might think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valkyries Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 sorry it's over my head lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyshqa Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 I'd also suggest as well as a decent computer you'll also want an external hard drive or two so you can back up all of your photos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siberian_wolf Posted July 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 [MENTION=1]Marc[/MENTION] this may seem like a daft question but how do I tell if it has a decent graphics card? Already plan on getting an external hard drive. Learnt that when had all my puppy photos on a laptop and it then broke and couldn't get anything off the hard drive either! Was glad I had copied them to cd! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted July 3, 2012 Report Share Posted July 3, 2012 Post some up and will tell you is best bet. Or give us a budget and some of us will look :-) you after laptop or desktop? Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparks Posted July 3, 2012 Report Share Posted July 3, 2012 i would suggest going for a desktop for this kind of thing, plenty of memory is key do you have a budget? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NicTurtle Posted July 3, 2012 Report Share Posted July 3, 2012 I do agree that a desktop might work best as I have trouble editing photos on my laptop. Sometime the monitor is just off even after I calibrate it. Look at the 5th photo down on my website and you'll see what I mean. Nicole Chelonis Photography » Lifestyle Portraiture and Wedding Photographer in Redding, California On my laptop monitor the color looks fine, but on a desktop monitor you can tell there is a green color cast. That being said, I spend so much time on editing photos that I still use the laptop for convenience. You are more likely to be able to find a desktop computer with the processing power you need at a cheaper price than a laptop. If budget is a factor and you are a beginner with photography I highly recommend starting with Adobe Lightroom rather than spending the $600 on Photoshop. You can do most of your basic (and even some not so basic) edits in Lightroom, plus its great for keeping track of your photos in "catalogs". I have both and I'm learning to do much of what I need to in Lightroom after spending years doing every little thing in Photoshop. Back to the PC, if you can find a quad core with 4-8 gig of RAM you will be well off. A dual core can work, but might get frustrating if you use huge files and lots of edits/layers. Something like this will work and give you some space to grow as software evolves [h=3]Dell Precision T1600 Tower Workstation[/h] 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i3, Genuine Windows® 7 Professional, 4GB memory, 250GB HDD, 22-inch widescreen monitor Your minimum for Photoshop should be taken from their system requirements page [h=3]Windows[/h] Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® 64 processor Microsoft® Windows® XP* with Service Pack 3 or Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 1GB of RAM 1GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on removable flash storage devices) 1024x768 display (1280x800 recommended) with 16-bit color and 256MB (512MB recommended) of VRAM OpenGL 2.0–capable system DVD-ROM drive This software will not operate without activation. Broadband Internet connection and registration are required for software activation, validation of subscriptions, and access to online services.† Phone activation is not available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elyse Posted July 9, 2012 Report Share Posted July 9, 2012 Personally, I would suggest a Mac...but they are out of most people's price range. The good thing about Macs, is their screens are the top of the line and they display the 'true colours'...you never have to adjust them and they're high quality. If you don't want to shell out the money for Photoshop, there's a free version of it called 'GIMP'. While not entirely the same, it has many of the same features and its free! (Personally, though, I prefer Photoshop.) If you plan to have a laptop or a desktop, having 1 or 2 external drives is key. One can be for backup, and another can be for extra storage space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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