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For photography purposes, air or pro?
- Thread starter alejandror91
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Lol yourself. Exactly *what* is a professional photographer in your eyes? Like most, I charge money and do mainly events.
And who distributes RAW files to clients? Especially to clients that wouldn't know what to do with them? Even many journalistic submissions are "untouched" (for legal reasons) and turned over in jpeg.
There isn't a single photographer I know that delivers in TIFF format. Exactly for the reasons you cite (size). I suppose if you're doing fashion or billboards maybe but seriously... the majority of pro photographers don't do those things. (or not very often).
Again, you have some misguided definition of what a professional photographer is. Enlighten me. You do realize that a 4gb USB will roughly hold the same amount of data as that DVD you're complaining about right?
Exactly *what kind* of clientele are you talking about? They don't have USB ports?
I didn't really read the whole thread, since it's already at 3 pages. However, I'm sure many have suggested what I will.
I would go for the MBP and if you can, the 17". This is what I have. By default, the 17" has a high resolution screen which is great for photos and really great for editing. I'm by no means a professional, but I've done a good deal of amateur pictures. The screen is pretty much close to life like. I use Lightroom, Photoshop and Aperture. I have the glossy which sometimes doesn't work as well, but I have an AG SP protector on it.
I would go for the MBP and if you can, the 17". This is what I have. By default, the 17" has a high resolution screen which is great for photos and really great for editing. I'm by no means a professional, but I've done a good deal of amateur pictures. The screen is pretty much close to life like. I use Lightroom, Photoshop and Aperture. I have the glossy which sometimes doesn't work as well, but I have an AG SP protector on it.
I know there's different schools of thought on this but ... Your friends and family compensating you for your time doesn't make you a professional.
I consider a professional someone whose primary source of income comes from photography.
You assume too much. Clients are the only people you're every going to share files with? You don't move files from one machine to the other?
I cited the file size of TIFF for the purpose of illustrating the significance of having on board storage. Bar none, TIFF is the format you want, if you're printing anything of significance.
I think the definition has been covered, and the advantage of optical media over USB is cost (I would have thought that one to be a no brainer)
Anyway, all in all ... Macbook Pro > Macbook Air for photography.
How about 40 weddings last year, a dozen bar/bat mitzvahs and the occasional band shoot. Plus 2 second shooters at 90% of my events?
<raises hand>
Uh... yes. They are the ones paying me.
I use external USB drives. NOT those slow, antiquated and silly-assed optical disks.
That's nice but what does this have to do with your argument that optical media is some kind of defacto standard that will never die?
Seriously. Exactly what do you shoot that requires TIFF format for printing? 20-25MB RAW photos shot with pro gear and processed down to 5-7mb jpegs provide gorgeous prints up to 11x14". Most wedding photographers deliver up to 1000 images per client. And they're supposed to convert all these images to TIFF and burn them to optical media? LOL!You define a"pro" that should fully support themselves yet quibble over $15 in extra media costs for a client that pays on average $2200
My friend... if you want to school yours truly on how to run a photography business you need to do some homework first.
sounds like the people that say the Air is good for professional photography dont use an Air as there primary machine for professional photography, so thats not a great argument
It's more typical with commercial clients. The photographer is unlikely to be the last person who adjusts that image. Usually it's a disk or more commonly these days, ftp transfer.
Air's do work great for photography and in certain situations, are preferable--i.e., travel to remote places, transmitting images quickly for editorial/sports, etc. Air's run photo mechanic and photoshop really well these days. Their weight makes them real easy to carry even while shooting. Lots of "pros" use them daily for their jobs.
If you do tons of commercial editing, or post stock on agencies that require large files obvioulsy the pro's win. In what I do (all ftp transfer), I don't need an optical drive, so it's just dead weight. But sitting down to edit through hundreds of shots, it is nice having a bigger screen and faster processor for actions.
I think most photogs back up to external drives, so a big internal drive isn't needed. In large commercial shoots, sometimes external drives are just given to the client at the end of the day. So having a smaller internal ssd shouldn't be an issue.
to each their own, as usual each tool has its place.
If you do tons of commercial editing, or post stock on agencies that require large files obvioulsy the pro's win. In what I do (all ftp transfer), I don't need an optical drive, so it's just dead weight. But sitting down to edit through hundreds of shots, it is nice having a bigger screen and faster processor for actions.
I think most photogs back up to external drives, so a big internal drive isn't needed. In large commercial shoots, sometimes external drives are just given to the client at the end of the day. So having a smaller internal ssd shouldn't be an issue.
to each their own, as usual each tool has its place.
Regarding Matte vs Glossy screens - assuming you're operating your Macbook under ideal lighting conditions, is it that significant an issue assuming you're colour correcting by the numbers?
Levels, curves and the info palette are still just as useful under either screen types for measuring luminosity and setting your white, black and neutral points.
Photographers can make it even easier on themselves by using a grey card whenever possible to set the mid-tones in one image and propagate the correct white balance to all 1000 (or however many) images.
Provided you have a calibrated profile as recommended by your printer, I think you should be okay on either display.
Levels, curves and the info palette are still just as useful under either screen types for measuring luminosity and setting your white, black and neutral points.
Photographers can make it even easier on themselves by using a grey card whenever possible to set the mid-tones in one image and propagate the correct white balance to all 1000 (or however many) images.
Provided you have a calibrated profile as recommended by your printer, I think you should be okay on either display.
Well... this.
The Air is very fast, but lacks dedicated graphics (not sure if this makes a difference in photo apps but definitely in certain video editing apps).
The biggest problem is the screen, while not bad, is still not very good compared to Pro in many regards. Even then, the Pro screens are still bottom of the barrel because of the limitations of TN technology.
There's also the issue of slight artifacts showing on matte due to the coating.
I wouldn't recommend the Air for Photoshop at all. It can run Photoshop, but not to the extent a professional would be able to use it, I don't think. Plus 4GB is kind of limiting. It's good enough for website interface and the likes, though, but not for fixing posters.
If it's just about photos, then Lightroom fares much better, and Lightroom can be used on the Air for some quick fixes. But going beyond, you'd find that more processing power is necessary. The Air literally chokes really hard when applying more than 10 adjustments to any photo larger than 15MB RAW in Lightroom.