2 part question from a total beginner

[Dave442]

Although I use a Mac now, I've always felt my Windows machines give very good performance at a much better price point. If I was starting out then I would go for a decent Windows machine and then plan to review again in a couple years.

I suggest looking for a photography course and of course, take a lot of pictures.

 

[JonTinkler]

Hi there, if you're going to start editing in any sort of volume you'll just want to get as much RAM as you can afford, and Lightroom. What kind of budget do you have?

If you're thinking down the lens path, the Nikon 50mm f1.8 is a brilliant little lens for not a lot of $$$ - it is tons sharper than the ones you have right now, and great for low light. But again, it really depends on what you're shooting!

 

[Distractionator]

That's a very good point I could go with a pc for a lot cheaper now and always upgrade in the future for sure. My budget is around 1500. As far as what I'm shooting, I've been shooting anything and everything I can

 

[robbins.photo]

That's a very good point I could go with a pc for a lot cheaper now and always upgrade in the future for sure. My budget is around 1500. As far as what I'm shooting, I've been shooting anything and everything I can

I wouldn't spend anywhere near that 1500 if ?I were you, A refurbished I3 with 8gig of ram or maybe a bit more would be more than enough to get the job done. Put the rest in the bank and use it to pay for a subscription to photoshop and lightroom, and maybe future lens or camera upgrades down the road.

Not a big fan of the subscription thing myself mind you, but sadly it's just the way it goes. Not really much else out there that will do what photoshop does for me so I end up spending 10 bucks a month on it and lightroom. Would rather buy it outright but they really don't do that anymore, so cest la vie.

 

[TheLibrarian]

Not to hijack the thread but do some people enjoy using tablets with touch screen and perhaps some stylus for much cheaper and still apple? I realized recently I think I have 1000 GB on my PC even though its not that great, its officey. and you can probably get touch screens on desktops if you want them.

 

[fredd80]

If we are talking about photo editing, Mac books are nice but be aware that parts are soldered to the board. There are far more equally good Windows laptops like the Dell XPS 15/13 that have as good or better resolution and vastly better audio. The Lenovo Yoga series is also excellent. There are also laptops from Dell, Acer, Asus, Lenovo that are very good for less money AND you can replace parts. I always look for different reviews online that are up to date. Check Technemag as I know they got articles on video, photo and graphic design laptops. Also, think about narrowing your focus on what you plan on working with and I'm sure you'll be able to find more specific answers.

 

[Big Red Dobie]

I would suggest finding a computer store, one of the small ones, NOT a Best Buy or chain store. They generally accept trade-ins from those that want to upgrade then sell what was traded in. I bought an I7 Lenovo with 8gig ram - had it upgraded to 16 and still was under 400 for a laptop. That would leave about 1100 to put towards a couple of lens, software to edit the pics with and a lot of other things.

Jim

 

[donny1963]

Should I invest in a computer to do photo editing, or should I invest in more lenses? If I should go with the computer first should I go desktop or laptop? Any suggestions?

Depends, do you need lenses for what you want to do, you can always get your lenses you want,, they are places in some areas that you can rent work stations on site, prices vary but are affordable, so you can edit your stuff there, and some of these places use both windows systems and mac , so if you want you can test out both and see what you like best.
both windows and mac work great, it's all a matter of preference..
I would advise to stay away from laptops to do editing, they are not as good for display and laptops tend to cost more money, for what you would pay

for a laptop you could get a better desktop system.
I'm a windows guy always have always will, being that i use to work for Microsoft for years.
Years ago windows and DOS platform was buggy and had problems, but all that has been taken care of today's windows works great.

Now you don't have to go this way, but what i tend to advise people when they ask is, to get the best widows desktop system you can afford, try to go with SSD drives because they work faster.
What i use to edit my images and i shoot RAW because this is the best way to go more flexible and you can recover images better when you shoot raw.
I use Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop for my post-production work.

Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop are awesome, and you can get them cheap, you can lease both lightroom and photoshop as a package for only $9.99 a month, they have a few packages you can join up with,

the one i use to get both lightroom and photoshop is the photography package.
years ago you use to have to buy each one of them for a high price and when they came out with the newer version you had to upgrade spending money almost every year, this got quite expensive, with this deal you never own them but you lease them for only $9.99 a month and get all the updates and newer versions automatically, so you always have the newest version of both software.

you can even pay less by leasing them by the year, for a bit less then $9.99 a month, the only catch is you pay for the entire year up front.
but you end up paying less.

you can check out all the plans they have available to you. here Adobe Creative Cloud
you can even check out some of there other software you might have interest as well and get deals on leasing.
now you can get another package that has most of there software in it, for $49.99 a month, and that is a deal .
I don't because i only use 3 of the adobe software, Lightroom photoshop and Premiere Pro, i pay $19.99 on top of the $9.99 for the photography package for the Premiere Pro..

Bur for right now for photography, Lightroom and photoshop is all your going to ever need for now until you start doing more advance stuff like video editing and rendering 3d in video's , for that i use Premiere Pro.
Now for a monitor,you want a good monitor because when you do your post editing you want the colors and settings to be accurate as possible.

i use a QHD monitor. benQ sw2700PT 27" .
and you also want to calibrate it each time you do your editing, i use the X-Rite Colormunki, cost like $400.00 but it will do all the work for you when you calibrate your monitor.

If you chose not to use that you might end up with incorrect settings and when you go to get your work printed they will look differently then what you expected and saw on your monitor..
Calibrating it will ensure everything is correct when you edit your pictures..
Even Highlights and contrast will be effected as well as color..

Now this is if you are trying to be serious about your images and want them to be as perfect as they can be, if your just taking pictures to share on Facebook then you don't really need to do any of that..

If you get serious and or start to do weddings or something then you definitely want to do that, because chances are your customers would be getting different looking images then you intended especially when it comes to having prints made..

Hope this helps..