MacBook Pro: I am making my Studio 100% portable. My camera is tethered, lighting is now battery powered and all that is left is a laptop. I want to be able to show a client their...

Day.Old.Pizza Loc: Maple Grove, MN

I am making my Studio 100% portable. My camera is tethered, lighting is now battery powered and all that is left is a laptop.

I want to be able to show a client their pictures as they are being taken, do minor touch-up and give them a digital picture(s) on site if that’s what they want.

I would like to hear from anyone who has moved to portable photo editing on a Mac laptop.
I currently use Capture One Pro and Affinity on an old Macintosh desktop. What laptop did you go with 14” or 16”? M1 or M2? Pro or Max? I’m sure any of them are noticeably faster than my current box. Does a laptop have enough real estate to use for efficient digital editing?

Any comments will be appreciated.

fredpnm Loc: Corrales, NM

I have the Mac Book Pro 16" M1. It runs PS and LR just fine, but I would get the 16Gb of RAM next time. I've not seen any issue with only 8Gb, but my photography is just a hobby. I think professional use would demand the 16Gb of RAM. I use a 4TB external USB SSD to store photos keeping the laptop memory free for programs. I also run the Topaz suite on the MacBook without an issue.

Some of the post-processing is very much faster than my i9, 64Gb desktop PC, and others not so much. In general I'm pleased with the MacBook's performance and I'm sure the M2 is even better.

Day.Old.Pizza Loc: Maple Grove, MN

Thanks, Fred. When you are editing in LR on your laptop screen can you see all of Your LR window and controls and the photo you are editing? I’m concerned the photo will be smaller and more difficult to edit. How have you found editing on a laptop as compared to a desktop Mac?

jackpinoh Loc: Kettering, OH 45419

Day.Old.Pizza wrote:

I am making my Studio 100% portable. My camera is ... (show quote)

I have an 13" M1 MacBook Air and an 16" M1 MacBook Pro Max. I use an OWC thunderbolt dock to connect the Pro Max to a BenQ photo monitor when I am home. The Pro Max has 64 GB of memory and a 4TB SSD, and is ideal for photo editing. The MacBook Air is useable but very slow in comparison. I greatly recommend and external monitor.

ejrmaine Loc: South Carolina

I have a 14" M1 MacBook Pro with 16 G RAM. The 14" screen is great, but of Rmy home use I use a 27" Monitor. The M1 is very fast. The 14" Screen is adequate for minor processing, but the 16" would be my choice for what your looking at.

imagextrordinair Loc: Halden, Norway

Day.Old.Pizza wrote:

I am making my Studio 100% portable. My camera is ... (show quote)

Mac Pro M2 Max

Be sure to calibrate your screen (s) with something like Spider X. I notice going from an ASUS gaming laptop with 64 gb ram and other great features, the Mac is far superior when it comes to editing, file transfer and video work. Photoshop instantly loads on the Mac when Windows can take up to a full minute.

Day.Old.Pizza Loc: Maple Grove, MN

Thanks ejrmaine, I had not considered a second monitor. My desktop is still useable so perhaps a laptop could use it’s screen when I’m editing back at home.

jbk224 Loc: Long Island, NY

I have the MacBook Pro M1 16". Everything said so far is on the money. Definitely 16GB, but 32GB will give you more flexibility with video.
Also, Capture One Pro works as if on your Studio..no issues.
But....I would look into the 15" M2 MacBook Air if this is strictly for onsite work and not your primary computer for editing. Only up to 24GB and graphic cores not up to MBookPros.
There are unbelievable deals on the M1 Pros. Normally I would go to Apple's Refurbished..but not at this time. B&H and others are selling these new at great discounts. Most current reviews suggest grabbing the M1 compared to M2 as the changes are incrementally not significant in performance. Good luck.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Day.Old.Pizza wrote:

I am making my Studio 100% portable. My camera is ... (show quote)

ANY of the M1 or M2 series MacBooks with 16GB memory and 1TB storage will be more than sufficient for what you want. Don’t skimp on memory or storage.

I use an M1 MacBook Air as my primary computer. It has been great for 23 months. I have a portable hub and a 27” desktop monitor, and a bunch of outboard drives and SSDs. Lightroom Classic and Photoshop run fine, as does Final Cut Pro. The Apple Silicon Macs run circles around Intel Macs, and use 1/3 the power while doing it.

Watch MaxTech (and other) reviews on YouTube of the models that interest you and buy with confidence.

Just Fred Loc: Darwin's Waiting Room

As you can tell, your basic answer is, "Yes." I too, have an M1 MacBook pro and an M2 MacBook Air. The former has 16Gb RAM and the latter 24Gb. I use LR Classic and cloud, ON1 and Luminar NEO. All of the controls are visible when I edit. When I present (at the photography club to which I belong) I connect to a 4K 42" TV via AirPlay. About the only think I've noticed is that I sometimes see artifacts or small objects that I may have missed during my initial editing.

Toment Loc: FL, IL

My MacBook 14” M1Pro is great. Very fast.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

imagextrordinair wrote:

Mac Pro M2 Max

Be sure to calibrate your screen (s) with something like Spider X. I notice going from an ASUS gaming laptop with 64 gb ram and other great features, the Mac is far superior when it comes to editing, file transfer and video work. Photoshop instantly loads on the Mac when Windows can take up to a full minute.

One thing to know is it’s not currently possible to home calibrate the screen of a M1/2 Mac laptop with a commercial colorimeter. Apple calibrates the laptop screen with an expensive lab device, and apparently they feel like the tolerances of the commercial devices are beyond what they’ve already calibrated the screen to. In other words, you can make it worse with a commercial colorimeter☹️.

That doesn’t address drift however, apparently Apple has determined that drift is again less than commercial colorimeter tolerances. Time will tell. And maybe that will change, but that’s the state of things right now.

neillaubenthal

If you’re going to do a lot of editing on the laptop…get the 16 inch Pro. Any of the Apple Silicon machines will be worlds faster than what you’re using now. You can’t upgrade EAM or drive later…so get 32 GB which will be fine for Capture 1, LR, or PS and whatever size drive ypu like…I suggest 2TB minimum. Might also want to consider a large monitor for working t home because more screen space is always better…but with the 16 you’ll do just fine.

fredpnm Loc: Corrales, NM

Day.Old.Pizza wrote:

Thanks, Fred. When you are editing in LR on your laptop screen can you see all of Your LR window and controls and the photo you are editing? I’m concerned the photo will be smaller and more difficult to edit. How have you found editing on a laptop as compared to a desktop Mac?

To be fair my main editor computer the MAC Mini uses two 32 inch monitors, so yes the images are smaller on the laptop. You can hide the left and right panels, if necessary, but what you see will never match what I see on the 32 inch monitor. Zooming becomes more of your friend on the laptop.

I think all of the other responses are good indications of what you can expect from the Mac Book regardless of which model you pick.

Good Luck...

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I have a MacBook Pro and last year I hooked up a second monitor to it. No problem. You just need an HDMI cable or a USB3 to HDMI cable. Plug it in and adjust the settings (probably to mirror the screen) and you're done. Depending on your MacBook you can hook up 2 to 4 monitors. I like having 2 separate monitors so I can use LR on one and PS on the other.