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Any Photographers have an option on Retina iMac

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fathergll

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Sep 3, 2014
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I'm curious for all the photographers out there, has the resolution of the Retina iMac improved your workflow or editing of photographers with Lightroom/Photoshop?

I take it that the resolution allows you to full 14.7 megapixels at once? How much of a real world impact is this over 2550x1440?
 
fathergll said:
I'm curious for all the photographers out there, has the resolution of the Retina iMac improved your workflow or editing of photographers with Lightroom/Photoshop?

I take it that the resolution allows you to full 14.7 megapixels at once? How much of a real world impact is this over 2550x1440?
Click to expand...

It makes it a lot easier to correct details, you just notice everything.
 
fathergll said:
I'm curious for all the photographers out there, has the resolution of the Retina iMac improved your workflow or editing of photographers with Lightroom/Photoshop?

I take it that the resolution allows you to full 14.7 megapixels at once? How much of a real world impact is this over 2550x1440?
Click to expand...

Not tried it yet but my RAW file size is approx. 17.90 Megapixels (5,184 x 3,456) so its very close without having to scroll around *lol* :)

Cannot wait to try it out. :)
 
Mine is being shipped in 2 days. I shoot a D800 with very large RAW files. I'm curious to see how this works out because I have a shoot that I have been holding back for processing through Lightroom.

Will let you know!
 
I have some raw photos i can check out tonight from an engagement shoot. Ill let ya'll know.

Shooting with a 6D so its pretty massive
 
I think editing photos will be great! I'm very picky about perfection and this will enable me to see more of my image, in much greater detail. It looks like it will be another week before my 5K iMac arrives, but I'll be sure to provide an update once I've had a chance to work with it for a few days!

Bryan
 
Be forewarned: the higher resolution not only buys you greater detail, but also (apparent) greater micro contrast and saturation. Images with lots of saturated colors will now explode off the screen.

I do seem to be using the vibrance slider a lot less these days.

The only other thing I notice is that when I want to zoom in, the 1:1 setting barely changes anything, so I have to go to 2:1.

----------
fathergll said:
ha need to make sure everything really is in focus
Click to expand...

Indeed. Images with "marginal" focus and sharpness are no longer acceptable.
 
anyone in here using Lightroom w/base spec iMac 5K? Interested to know as I dont know if I want to wait for an i7/256GBSSD/16GB/295x spec monster *lol* when thats $4K and when $3K may suffice. (i don't game and edit some 1080p/4K video)

All my photos/videos are on an external NAS over gigabit LAN.
 
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I bought the retina primarily with photography in mind. I have just transferred over all of my photos from the PC to the Mac and put a slideshow on to see how it went. I was astonished at the clarity and colour of the shots, especially portraits.

My RAW files Filled the screen, and although I only have the base retina imac (but with 16gig RAM) the slideshow was smooth and no jerkiness or shudder.

One thing I did learn was that I need to improve my post processing skills. I was able to see more mistakes than on my old screen, especially too much use of sharpening!
 
Steveatesh said:
I bought the retina primarily with photography in mind. I have just transferred over all of my photos from the PC to the Mac and put a slideshow on to see how it went. I was astonished at the clarity and colour of the shots, especially portraits.

My RAW files Filled the screen, and although I only have the base retina imac (but with 16gig RAM) the slideshow was smooth and no jerkiness or shudder.

One thing I did learn was that I need to improve my post processing skills. I was able to see more mistakes than on my old screen, especially too much use of sharpening!
Click to expand...

hmmm that's a good case for the base model. what program were you using? I use lightroom on my i7-3770 w/16gb ram and hd5770 w/256gb ssd
 
enroh said:
hmmm that's a good case for the base model. what program were you using? I use lightroom on my i7-3770 w/16gb ram and hd5770 w/256gb ssd
Click to expand...
Lightroom doesn't use the GPU, so the base model should be just fine. Upgrading the processor would help a little just because it's faster, but since Lightroom doesn't use hyper threading, it wouldn't be a huge difference.
 
I mainly use Aperture, but apart from the pictures being much nicer to view (my raw files are 7kx5k so every extra pixel helps), the most surprising improvement was to thumbnail displays. You can clearly see exactly what's in each thumbnail, even with them set far smaller than I used to have it. It makes it so much easier to find the right image among large numbers. That to me has been the biggest improvement I wasn't expecting.
 
FredT2 said:
Lightroom doesn't use the GPU, so the base model should be just fine. Upgrading the processor would help a little just because it's faster, but since Lightroom doesn't use hyper threading, it wouldn't be a huge difference.
Click to expand...

This is all true, but it is widely assumed that LR6 will use both the GPU and hyper threading.
 
dandrewk said:
This is all true, but it is widely assumed that LR6 will use both the GPU and hyper threading.
Click to expand...

That is what I was seeing in an Adobe forum yesterday. I am also hesitant to use spinning disk in the system as I am accustomed to having pure SSD. I just don't want to wait for a new comp *lol* ...perhaps i need to bite the bullet and just go all i7/295x/SSD
 
enroh said:
That is what I was seeing in an Adobe forum yesterday. I am also hesitant to use spinning disk in the system as I am accustomed to having pure SSD. I just don't want to wait for a new comp *lol* ...perhaps i need to bite the bullet and just go all i7/295x/SSD
Click to expand...
SSD, more more thing that Lightroom doesn't benefit very much from. As for next Lightroom using GPU, I would love it, but I'm doubtful that it will happen.
 
dandrewk said:
Be forewarned: the higher resolution not only buys you greater detail, but also (apparent) greater micro contrast and saturation. Images with lots of saturated colors will now explode off the screen.

I do seem to be using the vibrance slider a lot less these days.

.
Click to expand...



I went to the Apple store again last night and I noticed this as well. Depending on the picture it was incredible the difference. It's almost as if the Retina iMac had a vibrance setting lol

For example I downloaded this image of a lion from a Nikon D810 on a Retina iMac and 2013 one. The difference was pretty incredible http://www.grigphoto.com/img/s5/v133/p708434855.jpg

My only concern would be the image you are seeing seems to be completely different then someone else is seeing(if that makes sense lol). It's like the retina is on a different level.
 
I'm still learning the display. Images are pretty amazing, and sharpness, focus, and other parameters may need adjustment. It is very nice to be able to not have to scroll around.

But I agree with tillsbury; one of the things that has become apparent is that it's SO much easier to organize because of the clarity of thumbnails and icons. It's amazing that you can have so many of these in window at once, and still be able to cull, add metadata, and organize simple because you don't have to blow them up. It is a huge time saver. I can actually use icon views in the Finder now to do things with groups of photos; it used to be useless to me because they were either too small or too few.

Also, I had to adjust my ergonomics. You get closer to a retina iMac. And if you use a second monitor, it may have to be further away. That required I do some sorting out on the real desktop.

I'm not a pixel peeper, but I don't think I could spend much time on a regular monitor again. Just the text sharpness, even aside from the images.
 
robgendreau said:
I'm not a pixel peeper, but I don't think I could spend much time on a regular monitor again. Just the text sharpness, even aside from the images.
Click to expand...

You guys are killing me lol. *Must not buy retina iMac*


But seriously I can see that being a huge advantage to a workflow
 
FredT2 said:
SSD, more more thing that Lightroom doesn't benefit very much from. As for next Lightroom using GPU, I would love it, but I'm doubtful that it will happen.
Click to expand...

Photoshop has long supported GPU, so Adobe has the graphics engine. It's used mainly for the more exotic filters and 3d, things that LR does not have. So, little need to include GPU support.

Until now. With RiMac and 4k monitors, there is a valid reason to include GPU support. Pushing all those pixels in full frame mode, quickly scrolling through images - it's a major toll on the system. There also may be some new functionality added to LR6 that can benefit from the GPU.

I don't understand why you say LR doesn't benefit much from SSD. True, adjustments are done in a sideboard text file, but importing/exporting images, or even loading images into memory, all are much, much faster with SSD.
 
dandrewk said:
I don't understand why you say LR doesn't benefit much from SSD. True, adjustments are done in a sideboard text file, but importing/exporting images, or even loading images into memory, all are much, much faster with SSD.
Click to expand...
One would think that there would be a real benefit, but as is so often the case, real world performance often falls far short of benchmarks. The most careful analysis of Lightroom and SSD that I know of was done by Ian Lyons, a Photoshop and Lightroom expert. It's a bit old, but I have no doubt that the findings are still valid.

http://www.computer-darkroom.com/blog/will-an-ssd-improve-adobe-lightroom-performance/
 
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