Table of Contents
What Specs Do I Need For Photo Editing?
Purchasing a new desktop can be difficult. There are several models to pick from, each with a wildly different price tag. How do you get the best value for your money? The first question you should ask yourself is whether you often fly or mostly work from home. Desktop PCs have a lot of upgrade opportunities but are difficult to transport. Despite their shortcomings in terms of hardware and upgradeability, laptops are preferable for people who are always on the go.
Another factor to remember is the scale of the screen. Editing on a large computer is much more enjoyable than squinting at a cramped laptop computer. If you are considering purchasing a notebook, you can also consider purchasing an extra big screen for picture editing.
Many working photographers purchase a notebook for on-the-go jobs and then have a beast of a machine at home or in the office for editing, which requires a lot of storage space and computing capacity.
We recommend avoiding All-in-One PCs (which have the hardware installed into the screen) because they are severely limited in terms of upgradeability. It is also inconvenient for photographers who use several drives for storage. The Microsoft Surface and the iMac, on the other hand, have outstanding specifications and excellent displays.
Which is better, a PC or a MAC?
One of the most commonly posed and hotly argued questions is: which is easier, Windows or macOS? Our recommendation is to go with the method that you are most familiar with. Someone who is familiar with Mac, on the other hand, would find the same to be real.
One undeniable benefit of the Mac is its more “tiny” product choice in comparison to the overwhelming array of Windows-based PCs. In other words, if you buy a new Mac with only medium – high-end specs, you may be fairly certain that it will be able to run your editing programmes smoothly, while an uninformed consumer can purchase a low-spec PC that cannot do the job.
Monitor
Before you start looking for a phone, get a console – and calibrate it, for goodness sake. As photographers, we are concerned with achieving the highest possible picture quality. When you print your files, you would be frustrated if you edit them on a computer with a small colour palette, and it is much too vivid. They obviously would not correspond to what you see on the projector. When shopping for a new machine, it is easy to become preoccupied with which processor to choose or whether we can invest in a larger hard drive.
Finally, in terms of resolution, a 4K screen is excellent, but it is more expensive. Our recommendation is to choose the colour over the resolution. 4k resolution is good, but colour fidelity is much more critical.
Laptop or desktop computer?
This is something that is specific to your case. Modern laptop computers are extremely powerful. The graphics card is the only thing holding them apart. However, with the advent of the external graphics card, this is becoming less of a problem.
The obvious advantage of a notebook is portability. Travelling with a laptop allows you to edit when on the go. You can also get pictures from your flashcards (always back them up before you format the card, though).
The opportunity to turn your laptop into a work computer has never been simpler with new laptops. This portability, however, comes at a premium. A notebook will still cost more than a desktop PC with comparable specifications. If you do not need the versatility benefits of a laptop, you can get a desktop with comparable specs for less cost.
CPU
The CPU is the system’s memory. When shopping for a machine for photo editing, the processor is where you can focus your attention to get the most bang for your buck. The cores are the most important feature to search for in processors. In layman’s words, a processor is divided into cores. Since each core can operate on a different job, the more cores you have, the more multitasking the programme can do (or the better its ability to split tasks down into smaller parts to complete it quicker).
It would be best if you ideally were looking at a quad-core to a six-core processor. A quad-core processor reaches this sweet spot of performance to price ratio, but if you can afford it, a six-core processor can have better performance. After that, unless you are a very heavy fan, adding more cores will have little value.
RAM
If you only use your machine for photo editing and do not use several layers and effects in Photoshop, you can comfortably get by with 8GB of RAM. If you want to go beyond and above, or if you intend on purchasing a camera with a high megapixel count, such as the current 64MP Sony, you can increase this to 16GB.
RAM is one of the least expensive improvements to make when configuring a device. Although you do not need 16 or 32GB right now, as in all computer-related purchases, get the best spec you can afford. This helps you to use your screen for a longer period of time. RAM is one of the easiest upgrades to do on your own. However, keep in mind that in some machines, especially laptops (yes, Apple), this is not something that can be achieved until you have purchased the device.
Card Graphics
Any users are duped by the graphics card (or GPU). You may not require a super-powerful graphics card for photography. It serves only one function, which is to keep your monitor running. Now, if you want to run a dual monitor 4K rig, it is worthwhile to spend a little on your graphics card, but unless you want to do some extreme games, you will not find the value of high-end graphics cards in virtually all photo editing scenarios.
The graphics card can speed up some photo editing applications, but the price to cost ratio of a higher-end graphics card is not as advantageous as saving the money elsewhere, such as an update to your CPU. Learn graphic design with Blue Sky Graphics today from the comfort of your home, and start designing and editing!
