Hi. New old guy here with spotty and varied experience over the years. Did some black and white from camera to print back in high school. Now retired and in the digital age. Ultimately I would like to be able to take a nice image and be able to edit and print it myself. Have a Nikon D750 and i’m looking to pair it with a computer and printer. Any recommendations would be appreciated.
Thanks
Steve V wrote:
Hi. New old guy here with spotty and varied experience over the years. Did some black and white from camera to print back in high school. Now retired and in the digital age. Ultimately I would like to be able to take a nice image and be able to edit and print it myself. Have a Nikon D750 and i’m looking to pair it with a computer and printer. Any recommendations would be appreciated.
Thanks
What kind of computer are you currently using?
Welcome to UHH Steve. Hope you enjoy yourself.
Welcome to the forum Steve.
I was sort of the same. I "worked my way," through high school and college with photography. I am a physician so used my photography often for academic purposes, vacation, children and then grand children. When we moved to a condo, I gave up my darkroom and had to depend on sending out my photos, so it became rarer and rarer. I really didn't take digital too seriously for pleasure until around retirement then traded in all of my film cameras and lenses and went digital. All probably like you did. I stayed with Nikon as well. You can go as nuts as you can afford and but all srts of things, it all depends upon what you like to do. Almost any computer will work and there is a wide variety of software you can use. I bought a single user version of Adobe PhotoShop Elements 2018 on sale last summer on Amazon Prime day, it cost $50. It is really all I have needed. I took a couple of classes in digital photography and photoshop. I don't plan on going back into it "professionally," so that is really all I have needed to have fun.
Older HP in dire need of replacement even without the photo use. Open to ideas, have heard Macs are good but would like to hear personal experiences.
Steve V wrote:
Hi. New old guy here with spotty and varied experience over the years. Did some black and white from camera to print back in high school. Now retired and in the digital age. Ultimately I would like to be able to take a nice image and be able to edit and print it myself. Have a Nikon D750 and i’m looking to pair it with a computer and printer. Any recommendations would be appreciated.
Thanks
Welcome to the forum. Have fun and ask questions and post images. A great way to learn.
Steve, you will get into windows versus Apple discussion. I switched several years to a MacBook Pro and never looked back. I liked the system so much I bought a Apple Desktop also.
Here is one computer you may want to consider with enough DRAM and SSD Drive.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1441826-REG/apple_z0vd_mre5_bh_13_3_macbook_air_with.htmlYou may want to consider keeping your images on two external drives.
I use Lightroom and Photoshop.
You asked about printers and I now upload all my print requirements to COSTCO. They use a silver halide wet chemical process that is Archival. My 3 cents.
Thank you very much for your detailed answer appreciate it !
Thank you very much for your detailed answer appreciate it !
Welcome to UHH Steve. The big question is, what is your budget for a computer and printer? You will probably get more suggestions from folks knowing that.
Steve V wrote:
Hi. New old guy here with spotty and varied experience over the years. Did some black and white from camera to print back in high school. Now retired and in the digital age. Ultimately I would like to be able to take a nice image and be able to edit and print it myself. Have a Nikon D750 and i’m looking to pair it with a computer and printer. Any recommendations would be appreciated.
Thanks
Dell makes good desktops, but you don't need the most expensive one they make.
Memory -
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-much-ram-does-your-pc-need-probably-less-than-you-think/http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-much-ram-does-your-pc-need/Processor -
http://gizmodo.com/dont-waste-money-on-intels-top-processor-1791426602http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2404674,00.asp
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/intel-core-i5-vs-i7/http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/intel-core-i9-vs-i7-vs-i5-cpu/https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/intel-core-i5-vs-i7/http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/core-i5-vs-i7https://www.extremetech.com/computing/210703-intel-core-i5-vs-core-i7-which-processor-should-you-buyGenerally speaking, printers are cheap, and ink is expensive. If you want to print good pictures for yourself, look for a good photo printer. On the other hand, you can get better results at a much lower cost by have them printed by Costco, Walgreens, Adoramapix, or any one of a dozen other companies.
As for editing software, there are lots of option, from free to expensive.
Affinity
https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/software-review-affinity-photo-1-5-2http://www.shutterbug.com/content/affinity-photo-software-review-has-photoshop-met-its-match#d1c5lY5EQ03QoLjh.97http://www.diyphotography.net/affinity-photo-can-give-adobe-run-money/https://www.tomsguide.com/us/affinity-photo-1.5,review-4257.html
Others
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/best-lightroom-alternativeshttp://digital-photography-school.com/a-beginners-guide-to-choosing-the-right-post-production-software/https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/photo-editinghttps://www.reviews.com/photo-editing-software/https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-photo-editing-software,review-1972.html
http://www.redmondpie.com/best-adobe-photoshop-alternatives-for-windows-and-mac-list Affinity
http://www.shutterbug.com/content/affinity-photo-software-review-has-photoshop-met-its-match#d1c5lY5EQ03QoLjh.97http://www.diyphotography.net/affinity-photo-can-give-adobe-run-money/https://photographypro.com/photo-editing/For free -
https://www.darktable.org/https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/59324818https://www.lightstalking.com/how-to-edit-rawtherapee/https://www.lightstalking.com/free-photography-software/http://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-free-photo-editorhttp://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/the-best-photoshop-alternatives-that-are-totally-free-5974500http://lightzoneproject.org/
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