Post Software for Old G4 laptop

[LeoH]

Hello,

Just joined this forum and am a novice to photographic post production.
Id like some advice on where to start with post production software taking into account my computer limitations.

I have an old Mac Ibook g4 laptop, 1.07 ghz PowerPC Processor with 1.25 gb ram.

Is this sufficiently powerful to run post software and edit raw images? Would I have to add more ram? Buy a new computer? Which would be a good programme to begin with?

Thanks for any advice.

[Donald]

Leo

First of all - Hello and welcome to CiC. Thank you for deciding to join. I hope you'll be an active member for a long time to come.

The second thing is - I'm afraid I'm no computer wizard, so am not the best person to answer you're question in relation to technical requirements. However ...

One relevant set of questions to consider is - How much money do you have? Or, to put it more politely - what sort of budget would you have? Have you got the resources available to think about upgrading so that you could run the latest post-processing (PP) software? Do you want to be at the 'cutting edge' of PP software, or are you wanting what will do a good basic job?

In another words, what are your ambitions?

[LeoH]

Hi Donald.

Thanks for the reply. No I don't need to be at the cutting edge of post processing software but I do want some thing that I can keep learning with for a while. I don't want to find myself limited in 3 weeks. A good basic job would be fine.

I have looked at Lightroom and also the older CS3. Im not sure how my computer will manage with these pieces of software. I have heard some people complain at the speed of LR and worry that on my computer It'll be useless.

Perhaps you know of a specialist shop or retailer that I could phone, or another source of knowledge somewhere?

Cheers

[Hansm]

hi Leo,

I can assure you that LR consumes a lot of CPU power. So I'm afraid your G4 will have a tough job to keep LR running smooth.
The older versions of LR are even worse in that perspective.

About CS3 I cannot tell you.

Also keep in mind that he file sizes of the latest cameras increase and consume lot of memory and CPU power as well.
Even though the G4 was a working horse some time ago, now it will have a hard job to let you your work smooth.

I use a Imac Intel 2.4 G Dual Core and 4 Gig of Ram. Since I upgraded my camera from 5D to 5D MKII I notice it performs remarkably slower then before.
Next investment will probably be a new I-mac.

[LeoH]

Thanks Hans,

Well that's bad news. I do know its an old computer. Is there anything that I could run on my G4? Something simpler? Or is it just a write off?

Thanks mate.

[Hansm]

Don't write it off, it a Mac!

What you can try is to use GIMP and see how it performs.
GIMP is freeware, so no investment, and also based on UNIX as OSX is.

But LR, just forget it.

[LeoH]

OK great Ill try that. Can Gimp deal with RAW files?

Also on a personal note, do you like LR? and do you use it on its own?

Cheers

[Hansm]

I have no experience with GIMP but hear lots of positive comments about it.
Other members here can tell you a lot more.

I really like LR and use more and more of its capabilities.
Most of the time I have LR running only (+ mail, Safari and Itunes)

In fact I do less and less in CS5. Probably PSE would be fine for me now.

[LeoH]

Ok I see.

If anyone here does have anything to say about Gimp as an entry to post processing Id love to hear it.

One thing I don't understand is why do people use multiple software ie LR and PS. Do they do different things? Doesn't CS5 cover all bases?

Leo

[Colin Southern]

One thing I don't understand is why do people use multiple software ie LR and PS. Do they do different things? Doesn't CS5 cover all bases?

Hi Leo,

LR is more geared towards making global changes & managing vast quantities of images (think "wedding shoot with multiple photographers"), whereas PS is (for the most part) only geared up for working with one image at once (but there's nothing it can't do with that one image!). PS also includes a program called Bridge which takes on many of the batch processing / sorting / handling abilities of LR, but not to the same degree.

Basically, if you take a lot of images - pick the best one for each set - and love it to death in post-processing then PS + Bridge is the best weapon of choice out of the two (which is what I use), whereas if you're dealing with many hundreds of images - have to adjust most of them (but only on a global or limited local scale) then LR is probably the best tool.

Ultimately they're different tools, but with a fairly significant overlap in the middle. LR is best at bulk image handling, PS is best at image manipulation.

[LeoH]

Thanks Colin,

Sounds like PS would be a better fit in that case. I have heard say that PS is a much harder to get a grip on compared to LR. Would that ring true to your experience?

[bodi]

Hi leo,
Sounds to me like PS Elements might be just what your looking for.
Good luck, Bob

[LeoH]

Thanks guys for all the advice. I realize one thing I will definitely want to run is Camera Raw. So what ever programme I choose needs to be able to run that.

I have looked at the system requirements for photoshop CS2 & CS3 and my battered old laptop seems to meet them. Except Im not sure how to check what 'video ram' or if I have '1,024x768 monitor resolution with 16-bit video card'. Any help where to look?

* PowerPC® G4 or G5 or multicore Intel processor
* Mac OS X v.10.4.8
* 512MB of RAM
* 64MB of video RAM
* 2GB of available hard-disk space (additional free space required during installation)
* 1,024x768 monitor resolution with 16-bit video card
* DVD-ROM drive
* QuickTime 7 software required for multimedia features

Is it still possible to find this software? Any ideas where to look?

Thanks again.

[Donald]

Leo

You may have already decided to go the Adobe route (Elements or PS), but re your question on the GIMP - GIMP itself doesn't have a RAW Processor built in. But there are Open Source Raw Processors out there. UF Raw joins together seamlessly with the GIMP; i.e. to all intents and purposes it behaves like a plug-in and RAW processed images can be moved directly to the GIMP for further PP work.

RAW Therapee is another one I have used in the past. You have to save the processed RAW file as, say, a TIFF and then open it up in the GIMP for further work. Just a couple of keystrokes worth of effort!

But, I cannot comment on how well the GIMP etc would run on your computer. All that memory-type stuff/dsicussion just passes me by without leaving me any wiser.

[Hansm]

Hi Donald,
Does GIMP Support DNG Format?
In that case Leo could first convert his RAW Files into DNG and then use GIMP.
This Adobe DNG converter is also a free software and very handy to convert and rename in one go.
I use it always to convert to DNG and Rename.

[Hansm]

Hi Leo
Normally under the apple logo, top left, you see someting like "about this Mac"
Click on it and it opens a window. In this window there is also a button called "more info"
This gives you all hardware info installed.

[Donald]

Does GIMP Support DNG Format?

Not yet.

I find the best route is to process the RAW and save a copy of it as a TIFF. Put that into GIMP and then save it in GIMP's native .xcf format. You can then get rid of the TIFF. Then go from there.

So, as a minimum, I end up with a RAW file, a GIMP.xcf and a final JPEG

[bodi]

Leo, with what you've indicated your laptop has you can run either PS or Gimp BUT they will really run slow. You really need at a min. 2 Gig of RAM (memory) to run. Also you need more HD space available. This is why I suggested Ps Elements.

[LeoH]

OK thanks bodi, that's exactly the kind of info I need. CS2 claims you only need 512mb of ram.

Already I've had trouble downloading x11 for gimp. Im running Tiger and I think it needs Leopard. I'd like to get a newer laptop but not possible at the moment.

[LeoH]

Ok Ive got CS3 installed on this ancient piece of hardware. Im getting my head round Camera Raw and I think I'm successfully getting images to look reasonable.

What is the next stage you guys then go to after camera raw?

Here is an image I've shot and edited in camera raw and then saved as a jpeg so you can see what you might do with it next.

Gracias a todos!

***Tried to upload photo but doesn'tsem to have appeared?***