I have a BenQ monitor and really love it. I love the hardware calibration in it. Mine is a 27-inch, 4K...BenQ SW271. If that is too expensive, then take a look at some of the other BenQ monitors. They are great. I am considering one as second monitor. Aside from the color gamut, I also like their eye care technology.

Tablets, Apple or Samsung, will only be able use Lightroom CC or a trimmed down version of Photoshop. This is one of the main reasons I went with a 2-in-1 laptop. My particular model is the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Yoga 3rd Gen which is a bit expensive but it does well and uses the Wacom technology. There are less expensive models by Lenovo and others and I recommend you look into the 2-in-1 laptops as I believe they will meet all of your requirements.

Alan,

I have no problems and would be honored with you using any of my photos that I have posted here as long as you give the appropriate credit if ever asked about a given photo. Additionally, I offer to provide you with the larger file size should you want it for any photo that I have posted here since files here have been downsized. You may make your request via a private message here or through the contact form on my website.

I have yet to open a Facebook account. I have been tempted at times just to keep up with the family activity. For one, I just cannot get into the moment by moment reports of someone's activities. More importantly, is the privacy and security matters as well as the use of one's personal information, preferences, and proclivities. Such has been my concerns that I have moved away from Gmail (now using Protonmail for personal, business, financial, and encrypted emails) and the use of Google (using DuckDuckGo) as much as possible.

The maximum amount of memory that his machine can handle is 16GB. He won't be able tho add more.

This configuration is adequate although I would expect some occasional lagging or hesitation. The memory is sufficient and you have the maximum amount that your laptop can handle. As mentioned by another member here, reduce as many startup programs as possible, eliminate the unnecessary. You may also want to look at removing any bloatware that Acer has preloaded. I suspect that the 1TB hard drive is probably a 5400 rpm drive. You may be able to squeak just a little bit more performance by swapping the hard drive to a 7200 rpm or even an SSD but given the construction of such laptops it may not be worth the hassle. I have seen reports on this laptop stating that the display is lacking in brightness and dull on the reds and greens. Thus, I would recommend any final work be checked with an external monitor with a better color gamut.

Look into an application named, "Process Lasso". I have found this helpful on laptops that are lacking in performance capability and especially when the application of concern; i.e. Lightroom, ON1, etc., are set to high performance. Process Lasso will throttle back other programs not similarly designated and reduce their memory usage giving Lightroom or ON1 the majority of the performance capabilities of your laptop. It may give you an extra boost in that the lags and hesitations will be a bit less but it won't eliminate them all with your laptop.

I use a Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Yoga 3rd Gen but it is not in the economical price range.

I had a Dell Precision Mobile Workstation M6700 which I loved and it handled everything extremely well considering the age. It is still running, with Windows 10 Pro, and would work well for me except I handed it over to my daughter to address her needs. I bought the M6700 on eBay, manufacturer refurbished and sold by Dell with 3-year warranty, for $1.200 as a near bare bones machine in 2013 and upgraded it over the years---RAM, SSD, and video card. It is quite a reliable performance machine. You can get one its decendants, the M6800, on eBay, refurbished by Dell, for about $650 now. I know that a few will share their disdain for eBay but if you are careful and do your research you stand to garner some impressive deals. The M6700 and M6800 have a 17.3-inch screen and if the screen size is not an issue, I would recommend these as options. I tried to paste a link but it took up a good portion of this post. Dells have been rock solid reliable and I think my daughter's M6700 is indicative of this. Over the six and a half years, the only repairs I have made were to replace the GPU fan---it has a dedicated graphics card---and the battery once. The machine is very easy to upgrade the hard drives and memory. The video card takes a bit more effort and a may require a transmogrification of the driver. My daughter's M6700 has 32GB RAM, two 1TB SSDs, and a 4K 8GB nVidia card and it keeps on performing.

If screen size is an issue and you wish to remain economical, then check out the Asus line. I helped a UHH member select an Asus and he has been very pleased with the laptop.

If you wish, too, send me a private message and I will be glad to assist you in your quest.

That was good! Nice way to start the weekend! Thank you.

Personally, I would pay the $50/year as Quicken is as someone else has said, "...the gold standard..." When you break it down, that's roughly only $4.17/month. Overall, it is rather inexpensive when you consider the product improvements that would gained not to mention the assurance that you have a quality product. Keep in mind, too, that as part of the ongoing upgrades and enhancements, Intuit will also be correcting any security issues that may be identified through the life of the product. Well worth the $50/year in my opinion.

Welcome to the forum John. I, too, have and continue to work in IT in a corporate environment. My childhood passion for photography and astronomy was re-ignited with the solar eclipse of 2017. Glad to have you here at UHH and hope to see some of your work. Sounds like you enjoy candid shots of people.

Sincerely,

Charles

Hi Jopo,

This is an interesting image and I can see why it caught your eye. May I recommend perhaps bringing up the exposure a bit overall and using the gradient tool, in whatever editing software you have, applied from the bottom up to boost the shadows, exposure, and some highlights in the foreground? This is just for starters. You have reflections of the clouds in the foreground which would be really nice to bring out in the image.

With stationary targets, press, release, recompose as desired, then shoot.  With moving targets, press and hold as you track with the target and shoot while still holding the BBF button.  You must continue tracking with the target, follow through, or your results will be less than optimal.  Imagine it to be like pinching your camera as you follow through.

Some cameras may allow you to set a BBF button while the shutter release button still retains focus control.  Make sure that you have only the button you designated for BBF to have focus control.  You must also be in any shooting mode other than full Auto as the camera will revert to the shutter button acquiring focus.

If your shutter speed is fast enough to overcome camera shake, I recommend disabling image stabilization.

I like it and nice work on the minor tweaks. I pondered whether more a touch more black or contrast could be added but I will leave that up to you. I, too, am not so sophisticated in working with monochrome and tend to lean on what evokes the feelings I envision for the image. These types of images---old, something of the past, worn, etc.,---lend themselves well to monochrome. Quite often when a color image just doesn't seem to "reach out" to me, I will try it out in monochrome. It's amazing how much removing color can change the mood of an image.

Ahhh, a variant of "It's not my fault!"

Thank you, Trix, for the information and the reference link to a prior post. Somehow I had missed it when you posted it last year or maybe my memory slipped a bit. You have given me a more information to consider before I begin my efforts into lens calibration.