Home » PC / Mac / Tablet Hardware » How to Buy an Apple MacBook for Photography. How to Buy an Apple MacBook for Photography. I then imported a 90mb, 9 layer Photoshop file, did some edits in Lightroom, and then did a Photo/Edit In/Photoshop from Lightroom. Microsoft to-do for mac. After it was exported to Photoshop I added a layer, did some edits, and saved.

Before you get any ideas about drafting a posse and coming after me with tar and feathers because of my computer platform preferences, let me explain—please. Because I write about digital photography I must use both PCs and Macs so that I can deliver balanced stories and explain computer functions to our entire audience, not just one group or the other. Like many of you, my first computer was an Apple. While I never went so far as to paste that little white apple-shaped decal on the back of my truck, I was a fairly fervent fan in the early years. Of course, there weren’t many other choices back then.

If it will make you PC advocates feel any better, this article—along with about 95% of everything else I write—is being started on a PC running Windows 8.1, a very reliable platform despite what its distracters say. But I own—and use—not one but three Macs, and I never travel without my MacBook Air. So you might say that I’m whatever the computer equivalent of being bilingual is. I can be happy with my Macs and equally at home with PCs. And for some strange reason I never confuse the keyboard commands, so I can and do move seamlessly from one platform to the other. I delight in asking Mac users—and PC users—why their computer is best for Photoshop, editing video and so forth.

I’ve gathered some pretty interesting answers, although many of the reasons are more emotional than rational. So which is better for digital photography: Mac or PC? It all depends on the following considerations. Impact On Your Budget (i.e. Price) For all of us except the very rich, there is an upper limit to how much we can spend on photographic equipment.

Professionals especially, because even business expenses cannot go unbridled. Pound for pound, inch for inch, Macs cost more than PCs for comparably equipped machines. The impact of this fact can be dismissed via rationalization, e.g., you get what you pay for; nonetheless, if you want to maximize your budget, Macs are probably not the way to go.

ADVANTAGE: PC Software Availability A Mac can be coaxed to run nearly every Windows application but a Win PC cannot run Mac software. End of story.

Well, not quite. While most Win-only photo-related software products run smoothly on a Mac under Parallels, Boot Camp or a similar utility (Corel PaintShop Pro X7 Ultimate comes to mind as an example), in some instances certain features are not fully implemented. But in the final analysis, Macs win this round, even with one mouse tied behind their back. ADVANTAGE: MAC Software Performance Running on identically equipped machines, does the Mac version of an application outperform the Windows version, or is it the other way around? Or are they essentially the same? To find out I asked someone who knows about these things.

Daemion Nelson is the IT Director for a large consumer electronics manufacturer. He gives Macs the edge.

“Software developers have better development tools available to them to build better performing apps on the Apple platform,” he said. “I’ve seen Macs with less resources outperform some really powerful PCs.” Makes sense to me. To speculate, that could also be one reason why Macs seem more stable than PCs.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. ADVANTAGE: MAC Stability Macs crash about as often as the rules of chess change. We’re not talking about hard drive malfunctions—unfortunately, HDD problems are platform agnostic and essentially inevitable. When a computer freezes or otherwise stops working before we do, we lose time and sometimes data. Instability undermines efficient workflow and can even mean lost revenue for a photo pro. ADVANTAGE: MAC Hassle I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard an Apple user ebulliently exclaim how easy it was to set up their Mac, connect to a network or transparently find a printer driver.

Macs are notoriously easy to configure—without sacrificing options. They seem to be more resistant to malware, too, but don’t let their long run of good fortune in the Virus Wars lull you into a sense of false security. We can debate the argument about their immunity another time; for now, accept my warning that Macs can get viruses and take proper precautions.

ADVANTAGE: MAC Roll Your Own Perhaps this is of little or no importance to most photographers, you can DIY a PC from readily available components and create an awesome photo editing machine. Save money and install only the best parts and accessories. Beef up the RAM to the OS limit and install ginormous hard drives.