If youre a photographer you should not get a Retina MacBook Pro

[MCAsan]

I am lost at folks somehow thinking changing a sky or cloning out an object is somehow wrong. The only way that would be wrong is if you violate an assignment, or contest rules, that calls for a documentary type image that is basically untouched (or than minor sharpening of raw images..etc.).

People in general love Ansel Adam's work. They think of him as some type of purist. Please remember that he was anything but a purist. He tweaked his images in his lab via different chemicals, papers, doge and burn...etc. Some images he worked and reworked for years. If he could have have had LR. PS, plugging...etc......he would have been all over them. He created art, not documentaries.

So unless your assignment/customer or a contest rule specifies a documentary type photo.....knock yourself out in your lab to create the final image you like. Make the final image be your art.

 

[Beta Particle]

I wouldn’t say it is wrong, but I think it goes beyond photography at that point.

As I mention, basically anything that Lightroom is capable of doing, is what I am comfortable with using on an image and still calling it purely a photograph. I might go as far as saying that cloning out a distracting background element would be fine. (and the new content-aware tools make this incredibly easy)

But when you start adding things to a photograph from another image, or moving elements around in a scene, that’s when you’re no longer doing photography, you’ve entered the realm of image manipulation.

And that can still be Art—I just don’t consider it Photography.

 

[MCAsan]

Photography is painting with light. No specific style is included or excluded by that name.

Painters have so many styles/schools: realistic, surrealistic, impressionist,...etc. We do not seem to have a problem with painters deciding how they want to delver their vision.

And yet, we want to paint a photographer into a very narrow box of documentary or realistic styles. That shows how photography is still a very young art form. We have a hard time getting past realism because that is what we see in everyone's snapshots. But photography can, and should be, so much more than documentary snapshots.

 

[yjchua95]

Better gear will not make you a better photographer, but better gear will absolutely give you better photographs.

There are technical limitations in low-end gear that restrict the results you can achieve, and reduce the quality of your images. Lower resolution, slower lenses, noisier images, slower framerates, less controls, more depth of field etc.

You can create a world-class image with the 1100D, but it will be much easier to achieve your vision with a 1Dx and the final results will be better.


And due to the nature of digital cameras & sensors, you should learn how to edit your images. While I do not advocate “unfaithful” editing to images (replacing the sky in a photograph with a more dramatic one for example) the controls available in Adobe Camera Raw are more akin to developing your photograph and the dodging/burning process that was applied to film, and you better believe that the “Pros” are making use of these tools.

If Photoshop is too complex or daunting for you, I would recommend looking at Lightroom. It’s far easier to understand, and is tailored to photographers shooting RAW, rather than image manipulators. There is also a great series of video tutorials available for purchase from Luminous Landscape that will help you grasp the basics, and teach you how to use the more advanced tools available.

Yes, you've got a point there. I noticed a huge difference the day I got my 5D Mk3 to replace my 60D. Although I don't use ACR, I still use the built-in RAW image processing in my 5D Mk3.

Thanks for the tip, I will download a trial of Adobe Lightroom and try it. Usually, all I need is the ability to remove sensor dust and cropping. Other than that, all other editing is done on board the camera itself.

 

[inhalexhale1]

After a few weeks deciding that I should sell my late 2011 Macbook pro and get a Retina Macbook pro I have decided not to. Here are my reasons on why I will not be getting one from a photographer’s point of view.....

3. Bootcamp looks blurry/fuzzy at 1440x900, 1650x1050 or 1920x1200, native resolution at 2800 x 1800 everything looks to small to be usable. And the other resolution looks like ass. The gpu can’t handle games at 2800 x 1800 and 1gb is not enough for that resolution.

How would an inability to play games at native res make the laptop bad for photographers?

 

[AZREOSpecialist]

……a (Pro) photographer should consider not getting a rMBP is not the screen; it is the OS.

Lion is such a hindrance to a pro workflow that it isn't even nice, ML doesn't fix that. Do a google on the subject (don't expect me to do it for anybody, research your own).

The fact that I can not use 10.6.8 on the rMBP is a deal killer for me.

Lion is such a hindrance to a pro workflow that you can't even list any issues that are actually a hindrance. Great post!

----------

Photography is far more than framing and taking a photo… photography also involves post-processing of that photo (whether digital or film) in order to properly develop the image. In the old days we used different types of developers and papers to achieve the effect we wanted. We used hand tools with our enlargers to selectively dodge/burn areas so we can purposely lead your eye to certain areas of the frame.

If replacing a background helps the aesthetic quality of your photo and to bring better focus to your subject, then there is no problem as long as it is done properly and wile avoiding artifacts. If there were an easy/fast way to do this in the old days, photographers would certainly have taken advantage of those tools. The only difference is that today such digital tools are available to everyone to use - even those with no photographic talent or knowledge. It all comes down to what you do and how you do it.

The best photographers don't simply take photos, they make them.

 

[Joseph Farrugia]

The irrelevant & useless paternalistic drivel you have written has nothing to do with the subject or even my post you are replying to; the fact that I happen to be a long-standing pro makes it even more .
I understand you might be an avid amateur & that you have absolutely no clue on what I referred to, but that is no excuse for your post to go off a completely irrelevant tangent with such a silly attitude……no problem, you'll learn all about what makes good conversation one day

(Friendly hint to get you started on your research & google studies⎯⎯⎯> it is all about workflow)

Lion is such a hindrance to a pro workflow that you can't even list any issues that are actually a hindrance. Great post!

You know, you could try "reading", starting with my post

Photography is far more than…………
(irrelevant paternalistic drivel & bla-bla from azreo snipped).

 

[DeeEss]

Lion is such a hindrance to a pro workflow that you can't even list any issues that are actually a hindrance. Great post!

----------

Photography is far more than framing and taking a photo… photography also involves post-processing of that photo (whether digital or film) in order to properly develop the image. In the old days we used different types of developers and papers to achieve the effect we wanted. We used hand tools with our enlargers to selectively dodge/burn areas so we can purposely lead your eye to certain areas of the frame.

If replacing a background helps the aesthetic quality of your photo and to bring better focus to your subject, then there is no problem as long as it is done properly and wile avoiding artifacts. If there were an easy/fast way to do this in the old days, photographers would certainly have taken advantage of those tools. The only difference is that today such digital tools are available to everyone to use - even those with no photographic talent or knowledge. It all comes down to what you do and how you do it.

The best photographers don't simply take photos, they make them.

Um....no...the best photographers take photos. Yes, they make them but at the time of shooting. It's the retouchers who change backgrounds.

 

[DeeEss]

Also anyone who says better gear doesn't make for better photos isn't being truthful. It won't point the camera at something better for you, no. But it will give you better photos.

Sometimes it's "worse" gear that gives you better pictures. Old lenses etc. Get things in check. It's your message first and then chose the gear to convey the message.

 

[PeterJP]

Um....no...the best photographers take photos. Yes, they make them but at the time of shooting. It's the retouchers who change backgrounds.

You're saying only unretouched photography is "real" photography (because the rest is only retouching) ? That's about as simplistic as saying Picasso isn't a good painter because his models aren't realistic. Or as simplistic as saying performance art isn't "real" art because you can't buy it and take it home with you.

There's more than one way of doing photography. Photoshopping and retouchng is definitely one piece of photography technique, as are the traditional processes (cyanotype, bromotype, ...), as is the craft of trying to build your own cameras or lenses (see Miroslaf Tichý), and so on. Nobody is forced to work with any of these techniques. But they together construct the bewilderingly wide scope of the art of photography.


Peter.

 

[DeeEss]

You're saying only unretouched photography is "real" photography (because the rest is only retouching) ?

Yep, that's what I'm saying.

That's about as simplistic as saying Picasso isn't a good painter because his models aren't realistic. Or as simplistic as saying performance art isn't "real" art because you can't buy it and take it home with you.

Um...no it's not. You're talking apples (no pun intended) and oranges.

as are the traditional processes (cyanotype, bromotype, ...)

No, that's printing. You don't need traditional process to make a photo.

build your own cameras or lenses

No, that's camera building. You don't need to build a camera to make a photo.

together construct the bewilderingly wide scope of the art of photography

They are a part of it, yes, but photography is photography. You can argue till blue in the face, i'll never agree that manipulation is photography. Getting it right in camera, the decisive moment, lighting, exposure and subject connection and doing it all at once to convey a message - That's PHOTOGRAPHY.

 

[PeterJP]

Yep, that's what I'm saying.

Seen that photography means writing with light, I think your definition is extremely narrow. The rest of your post comes down to giving aspects of photography names to make them seem as if they're outside of the art. That warrants no further response.

I'm also not very familiar with the use of the rMBP for photography as I don't currently have one. On that bombshell, I will retire from answering to this thread


Peter.

 

[Sir Al]

I know this thread is old, but it came up during a Google search on something unrelated and I just had to say a few things.

Can't tell the difference between Retina and non-Retina? It's a gimmick? If one thinks this they either need to look at a Retina-ready app displaying a picture or run it in native resolution without scaling.

Cannot run Bootcamp? Never heard of DPI scaling in Windows? How do you use it on HDTVs far away? Of course running anything except in native mode is not going to be optimal.

While I agree with doing photo editing on a calibrated external monitor (I do photography and calibrate my displays with Spyder btw) because laptop screens are just not cut out for accurate colour output, the MacBook Pro Retina display is one of the best laptop displays I have ever used, even colour-wise. It even surpasses many external displays I have in terms of how much colour it covers. After spending a few hours on the Retina and going back to one of my externals, everything seems washed out and less crisp (due to resolution). Now you can't chug around expensive external monitors everywhere you go, but if you are shooting while traveling, it's good to have a nice display with you so that you get a better feel of the colour in your photos and even make adjustments. Then you can fine tune when you get home on your displays that cost more than the laptop itself.

If you can't understand the benefit of a high resolution display, then you can still purchase the non-Retina MBPs - just make sure not to select the high resolution BTO option...

I'm sure most of this has been pointed out somewhere in this thread, I just didn't have time to read it all. I just wanted to share my 2 cents.

 

[Pheo]

You are obviously not a traveling photographer - this is the best notebook for someone who needs their computer on location / in the studio / across the country and the world. If you're traveling 2 weeks every 2 months you'll change your mind real quick.

I've tried everything and I can guarantee you this is the best machine for retouching on the go - ever. And I've tried every mac possible.

Want credentials? www.alvinnguyen.com

Great photos dude!

 

[swerve147]

You are obviously not a traveling photographer - this is the best notebook for someone who needs their computer on location / in the studio / across the country and the world. If you're traveling 2 weeks every 2 months you'll change your mind real quick.

I've tried everything and I can guarantee you this is the best machine for retouching on the go - ever. And I've tried every mac possible.

Want credentials? www.alvinnguyen.com

Really now? This statement and Alvin's website is all I need to know that the rMBP is great for pro photographers. /thread

 

[mcewangus]

I'm sorry but... WHAT???

I couldn't disagree more. My productivity as a photographer has increased tremendously since buying the rMBP. This MB is a computer FOR artists, including photographers.

I thoroughly recommend the rMBP, it has more than doubled my ability to deliver results in the field and within very tight timelines, particularly where event photography is concerned.

This machine is a beauty and a beast: it delivers.

 

[AlvinNguyen]

Really now? This statement and Alvin's website is all I need to know that the rMBP is great for pro photographers. /thread

Thank you! Months later, I'm still satisfied In the interest of more weight / size savings I've moved to a 13" rMBP and it's even better for traveling. I've added an iMac at home for the long editing sessions but even the 13" rMBP has no issues for editing on the fly.

Great photos dude!

Thank you!

 

[luisaragon]

I own it and absolutely love it. I wouldn't give it up for anything...except maybe a new Mac Pro when it comes out.

However, there is one bad to it is the lack of a Firewire port. If you work with medium format cameras with Firewire tethered digital backs, you are forced to use batteries using the Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter. That may not be optimal for some folks. For digital techs, it's a killer.

 

[nickandre21]

I do photography as my hobby nothing professional but the retina screen is just much better then the previous glossy screens on the macbook pros. I know a professional fashion photographer and he swears by the retinas screen. Although he does much of his editing on an external monitor.

 

[CHMK]

notice this guy has negative votes... how do u do that? can only see a vote up button

 

[Ann P]

notice this guy has negative votes... how do u do that? can only see a vote up button

This forum used to have a thumbs down button, it's since been removed.

 

[Interstella5555]

notice this guy has negative votes... how do u do that? can only see a vote up button

The thread is 18 months old, things have changed.

 

[RoboWarriorSr]

This forum used to have a thumbs down button, it's since been removed.

Was there a reason why? Sometimes I still see thumbs down buttons from newer threads/post.

 

[Krazy Bill]

Was there a reason why? Sometimes I still see thumbs down buttons from newer threads/post.

Because people's feeling got hurt and the ensuing therapy they had to get was expensive.

Personally, I considered it a badge of honor to rack up negative ratings in the double digits. That takes skill my friends.

 

[Orlandoech]

How would an inability to play games at native res make the laptop bad for photographers?

Lol I was thinking the same thing.