Section 2: Image Editing

Computer: operating system

Macintosh was the tool of choice for computer graphics and photography all during the '90s. Over the past several years there have been some serious compatibility issues between MacOS and Epson printers. This is not something I follow, so I can't say whether the issue remains. If you already use MacOS, by all means stick with it; just don't feel there is some great need to switch to it from Windows. Unix is coming along rapidly, but at this time doesn't support a full and mature suite of editing software. Windows XP (excepting Media Edition!) just gets the job done, with the one weakness of requiring serious virus and malware protection if being run on a system connected to the Internet.

Computer: system unit

Photography favours a desktop computer; a sufficiently powerful laptop will do, if connected to a usable display. The more horsepower you throw at it the better, but today's desktops are so powerful you'd be hard-pressed to find something seriously under-powered. Upgrading to two gigs RAM is the most important consideration. A second internal hard drive is a very useful luxury for Photoshop. Any video card capable of running a 1600 x 1200 pixel display at 32-bits is just fine. (Most of what differentiates video cards is more relevant to motion picture photography and gaming than still photography.) Most critically, digital photography demands a huge amount of file storage, and several hundred gigs of free internal hard drive space are certainly needed.

But digital photography demands so much storage that external USB drives are a necessity. Buy at least a 250 gig external drive along with your computer, and use it to back-up all your image files on a frequent basis. Keep it disconnected from the computer and not plugged in to a power outlet when not in use (this is to prevent any of several types of component failures to your computer taking out your back-up data).

Computer: display

This is one area in which you do not want to skimp. Today, LCD happens to be the technology of choice. For size, 1600 x 1200 pixels is a decent minimum; think twice before opting for anything smaller in either direction. But size is just for starters; there are all kinds of complex quality issues; you can avoid them by sticking to NEC, EIZO, or LaCie and budgeting at least $1000 for this one item. For example: my son recently bought a 21" Apple iMac. This is an extremely attractive, elegant general-purpose machine; but it's not up to serious photo editing standards. There are no user-controls for the built-in display except for brightness and resolution. The "sharpness" parameter is fixed at a useless and extreme setting, so one has no way to judge how much USM to apply during post-processing, except via trial-and-error.

Computer: display profiling

If you've bought a recent high-end display, it will give you at least 97% accuracy out of the box, both in colour and gamma (brightness response curve). That final 3% accuracy is important, and over time presumably even LCDs will gradually degrade. So a good profiling/calibration tool, such as the EyeOne Display 2 is still required, although not as desperately as it was just a few years ago,

Software: editor

You can't skimp here, either. Adobe Photoshop remains a necessity for serious digital photography. Yes: you can get started and go quite a way using less expensive tools. Eventually, however, you'll hit a brick wall, so you may as well start with Photoshop, rather than have to learn a new interface when you switch to it. The trick (assuming you're not rich) is to pay the considerable price for Photoshop the minimum number of times. Adobe is like Microsoft: it's a publicly-traded company with absolutely no ethical imperative save maximizing shareholder profit. Any version of Photoshop from CS (version 8) on is functionally just fine. CS and CS2 have the advantage of not requiring registration and not surreptiously phoning home ("automatic updates") each time you start them to see whether to lock you out or not.

Software: raw converter

You absolutely need to shoot raw instead of JPEG for reasons partly detailed under point & shoots, above. There are some freeware raw converters, and they show promise, but as I write this nothing on the market approaches Adobe Lightroom for all-around excellence. Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) produces exactly the same output as Lightroom and comes "free" with Photoshop, the gotcha is that you need to upgrade Photoshop itself to use the most recent version of ACR at any given time. So if you have a version of ACR that supports your camera, you can use it in combination with the also-"free" Adobe Bridge (file management software) that also comes with Photoshop. Otherwise, I recommend springing for Lightroom.

My general recommendation would be to buy a remaindered or used copy of Photoshop CS2, plus the latest version of Lightroom, then pay to upgrade Lightroom only when required to support a new camera.

Software: noise reducer

If you find yourself taking pictures at high ISOs, you'll find that noise (false-coloured pixels) is a serious issue. Both Photoshop and ACR/Lightroom have modest noise reduction (NR) built in; but to deal with serious levels of noise you need a dedicated NR product, such as Neat Image, Noise Ninja, and Noiseware. Buy one of these if and when the time comes that you need it. (Interesting new exception: Lightroom 3's built-in noise reduction is first-rate.)

Software: other

For sharpening, upsampling, and printing learn to use the facilities built into Photoshop. There is a Pandora's box of add-ins and external apps that promise the world. My recommendation is that your time and money is better spent learning to use Photoshop.