 BetterPhoto Member |
Computer For Digital Darkroom I'm a part-time pro and I have outgrown my digital darkroom (with an HPphoto scanner and printer). I want to get a new computer but I don't know what I need to run a digital darkroom. I know I want one of the Nikon Coolscan scanners and an Epson Stylus 2000 printer but what stuff do I need in the computer? Thanks so much and best regards, Stephen Long Shasta Global Images
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Leo Loomie |
I would suggest any current generation computer (Dell, Gateway or Compaq) with lots of memory - 256MB, if possible for your budget. For software, nothing beats Photoshop. The Epson 1270 might be an alternative to the 2000 for you to consider - if Epson can solve the ozone magenta fade issue with new papers; check the threads on metamerism issues with pigment printers. Any slide scanner with Digital ICE is good for removing surface artifacts such as scratches.
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BetterPhoto Member |
You need Photoshop, no doubt. If you want to "knock out" backgrounds to white, use Corel Knockout 1.5. There is a comparison of PShop and Corel at digitalcustom.com If you do product shots and want to get really sophisticated, try shooting against a Rosco blue/green background and use Equilibrium Debabelizer to remove the backgrounds in bulk quickly (be sure lighting is even!). Debabelizer probably is optional for you, but helpful if you really get into digital post-production on a volume basis.
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Ken Pang |
In addition to what every said above, this is my suggestion: 1) Get dual processor - rendering takes a very long time, and you do not want to lose the use of your computer while you print or apply complex masks 2) Get at least 256Mb of RAM, if not 512MB. If you want the highest quality prints, you will be dealing with files 100Mb on file, and over 200Mb in memory 3) Get a RAIDed IDE or a SCSI drive. Photoshop uses large amounts of scratch disk, as well as loading the images themselves, not to mention page faulting if you do not have enough RAM. Hope this helps. Ken
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Ted Austin |
Rather than buy a store bought system, my suggestion is to have an independent shop build & configure your system. After having bought a store bought system and worked and studied it for about a year I came up with a Full mid tower ATX case, 32 Mb video ATI card, 512mb of PC 133 ram, pent III 733 CPU, 2 case fans and 300 watt power supply. I installed a CD burner(HP) took the zip and CD rom from the old system, a new PCI 56k modem (replaced the ISA modem) put an SCSI card in the PCI slot for my Scanmaker 5, upgraded to Photoshop 6 from 5.5. Win 98SE and put in a new 30GB EIDE Hard drive with 4 partitions (c for operating system, D for graphic applications, E has my wifes Microsoft Office and F holds my graphic files plus I use for scratch disk. I was lucky to become good friends with the owner of the Local Computer store and got lots of instructions in hardware repair and troubleshooting software (wins 98). You will get more value for your money than a proprietary system and better hardware. If you have any problems understanding I will be happy to respond and explain further. Ted Austin
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Donald |
All of the above suggestions are great, except for the Compaq computer, but we won't go there. Minimum of 256mb of memory, large harddrive (at least 2), HP9300 CD-Writer are just a few of my recommendations. But the most important to have is a large megabyte video card. This way when you are working with large files over 50mb you won't have to go get a cup of coffee while you wait. I have no patience, so remember your computer is as fast as your video card. For home printers I suggest an Epson Pro 5000 or Pro 9000 with a Fiery RIP. Best color reproduction and pricing ranging from $7,000 to $14,000 depending where you buy it and if you can find them. If you are serious about it, then spend as much as you can on video card, memory and printer. Good luck,
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BetterPhoto Member |
Hi Stephen. Now for the minority opinion. I have been in high-end publishing (slick magazines) for over 20 years and have been publishing on the web for over 5 years. I have 65 employees and have tried almost every system known to man, PC's, Sun Workstations, etc. Most everything these fine people have told you is good, thoughtful advice. However, before you commit to any system, try a high end Mac, like one of the new twin processor G4's. They are amazingly fast - 5.4 gigaflops per second (5.4 BILLION calculations) and run PhotoShop almost twice as fast as a Pentium 4. Files from PhotoShop, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and many others are perfectly interchangable with Windows systems. Macs will also run most versions of Windows, if needed, as well as read DOS, UNIX and OS2 data. Macs were created for image manipulation and there is a bounty of software available for that purpose. Their operating system is optimized for the task. Graphic accelerators are standard. Resolution of 1920 x 1200 at 32bits/pixel is standard. The dual processor machines start under $2000, and single processor machines at $1200. Both are easily upgraded and expanded. You will hear dissenting opinions. Go look for yourself and, if possible, compare the machines side by side running PhotoShop or whatever you plan to use for image processing. PC or Mac, buy the machine that works best for you. In our offices, PC's are fantastic for administrative and accounting purposes, but my designers and artists would fight me if I tried to replace their Macs.
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Bill Popejoy |
Wait until the 3 new Nikon scanners come out in March(?). They are vastly superior to the existing ones. Bill
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