I used to use my Nikon for IR but there are several factors to consider. You have to buy an expensive filter for every size lens you wish to use, you have to compose then put on the filter so you no longer can see what you are doing or if anything moved. You also have to focus on a different point for IR. A standard lens focusing on a point is not the same point of focus with IR Light, I am assuming you knew that right? There is an IR mark on your lens to show where it needs to be slightly moved to once normally focused, in order that the IR image will be correctly focused. Then there is a very long exposure time of many seconds and finally a long camera processing time before you can use it again.

In the end I bought a converted camera which allows me to use it like a normal camera, see the shots immediately, even freeze someone jumping in the air in IR or photograph a horse trotting by, none of which I could do with my standard Nikon and a dark filter.

As for live view, I don't know how you can see anything, since it still goes through the filter and lens anyway, if shooting with a standard camera and IR filter on the lens. Go with a converted camera, you will be much happier and use it far more often, trust me, I've been through it. I bought a converted camera from a company that did conversions, I had the choice of using my own camera to convert or they had a selection of used cameras that they had already converted. I went that route and bought one for just a little more than it would have cost me to convert my own.

That was years ago, it was the Panasonic DMC-LZ10 Lumix which has a Leica lens with a 5X optical zoom and was only 10MGPXL but it did what I needed and I'm still using it today.

I have been reading up on the use of histograms and find one issue missing - motion.

Most articles end with something like: "Never use your LCD for exposure again!" or something to that effect but, can you expose your image using the histogram when your subject is moving? Sounds pretty obvious but, for beginning photographers, this glaring omission could frustrate the daylights out of the newbie.

Do you use your histogram in your photography or is it a tool that is overlooked and left alone in the Menu section of your camera?

After it has served admirably (albeit a bit slowly) for 7 or so years, I would like to replace my MacBookPro. I had pretty much decided to go with an iMac desktop and keep the laptop for odds and ends.
HOWEVER, read the other day that Apple is going to start phasing in their own processor chips and phase out Intel, and they’re going to start with MacBooks and tablets, picking up desktops later.
For all you knowledgeable Mac wonks out there, and I’m not being sarcastic*, should I stick with Plan A and get the iMac or wait until the new chips are out and go with another MacBook? I think the article said things should start happening in 2021.

Thanks

*The IT folks at the HS where I taught said I knew enough about the school’s computers to be dangerous. Only crashed one of the labs once - better than some of my colleagues. ;-)

Thanks again.

--> "I will move on to LRCC. My photos are on an external drive."

No. Don't do that. Take the subscription and use "Lightroom Classic". It will have the workflow you are used to and will automatically update your catalog without destroying your old one.


---> " any editing becomes saved in the new catalog which can only be interpreted by LRCC."

Lightroom CC is a new more "mobile" editing program. You will get it with the subscription but it will be a major change to your workflow. As you move forward with the subscription you will find good ways to use Lightroom CC with Lightroom Classic.


--> Can I install LRCC on a second computer? How do save a second copy of the original catalog? CC is the non cloud version

Lightroom CC keeps your images on Adobe Servers. Therefore you can work with them from as many devices you can find that are connected to the internet. Lightroom Classic (like the one you are used to) can be used on two computers. There is NOTHING purposefully built into Lightroom Classic to make it a multi user system. All efforts at that are user invented tricks. One such trick is to put the catalog on an external drive with the photo files but that normally slows it down a lot.

--> "I have never used PS before "

With the upgrade to the current Lightroom Classic you will find less need for Photoshop. But, since it is included in the subscription, it has several things it can do better than Lightroom. My favorite is the removal of ugly tourists in my travel photos.