Technology Questions - Should I buy a Mac or a PC?

Every few days I'll see an innocent post to one of the popular Facebook Groups with the same question over and over:

"I need to buy a new computer for photo/video editing. Should I get a Mac or a PC?"

This single question drives me crazy more than anyone asking how to #1 Decrease Depth Of Field in their photos, or even #2 Where to buy V-Flats. (To answer those two, #1 RTFM and #2 Home Depot) What drive me crazy isn't that the Original Poster (OP) is trying to gain knowledge about computers, but the flame war that ensues by the people trying to answer the question. The answers vary from "Buy a Mac, they're awesome" which is acceptable but lacking detail to "Sue Bryce uses a Mac so they must be good"  which is completely useless advice from clueless creatives.

In the past (even 20 minutes before writing this) I have typed out a technical yet easy-to-follow comparison of the two paths in question and try to descend from the IT-Heavens to disseminate knowledge upon the hoards of clueless creatives, only to have my knowledge burned at the stake like the poor souls at the Salem Witch Trials. (I have a flair for the dramatic.) In order to prevent myself from getting carpal tunnel, I'm writing this post to simply drop into these ludicrous flame wars on these forums so that I feel like I'm adding something intelligent to the discussion instead of what everyone else does: Unceasingly Pointless Bickering.

Now I realize that most people closed their browser tab to this post just now... so... Now that the ignorant fanboys have left the conversation, we can safely have an intelligent monologue about this topic. (It's only a dialogue if you post in the comments below or ask additional questions. Anyone commenting with "ur wrong cuase feelz" should feel free to refrain from commenting until they can use English properly. If I passed 8th Grade Journalism so can you.)

The Cliff Notes Version: It doesn't really matter. Stick with what you are comfortable with.

If that's all you needed, you can close your browser now, but if you needed more than that, grab a coffee and strap yourself in.

The Full Version:
First, a little background: Why is Mac even an option? Apple was the bees knees for creatives until Apple's desire outreached their potential. Adobe had first developed many of the creative/GUI tools that Mac users rave about even today for Apple that weren't available to PC users at the time. In addition, the hardware that was used for Macs was top notch and avoided "cheap" parts whenever possible thus making a Mac akin to making a Porsche. However, Apple knew that in order to make a polished operating system with robust features "to sell to the masses" (like adding air-conditioning and leather seats to the Porsche) they abandoned the practice of making their own processor, "The PowerPC," in favor of a long-term commitment with Intel to manufacture the processors instead. This important change in CPU architecture had a lot of effects, including bringing Macs and PCs closer together than most people realize. Since that time (1999-ish) Macs have used the same Intel processors that many PC users had already been using. The architecture of the Mac changed and became more PC-like than most modern Mac users even realize, but without the innovation from Apple, PC users would likely still be using Unix-like text prompts to handle basic tasks. I still find it entertaining when I hear a Mac user say that the "Core i7" in the Mac is designed by Apple simply because of the "i" in "i7." Nope... Sorry buddy, but that's an Intel Chip and most of their lineup uses that nomenclature.

Okay, so why is PC even an option? This question is simple compared to the Mac answer. Americans like stuff that is "good enough" and "cheap enough." After all, the Common Man, as Copland might say, doesn't need a Porsche just to get to work when a Toyota would do the job just as well. In fact, last-year's Toyota would do even better since that hardware has been proven already. For this very reason, most users choose PC over Mac because of cost alone. To them, the difference between a Porsche and a Toyota is meaningless since they just need to get from A to B. With the resulting ubiquity of PCs most software developers and hardware manufacturers, even Adobe and Intel, needed to come to terms with that ubiquity in order to remain profitable. In order to drive down costs and be competitive, decisions were made to use less-expensive parts on some builds so that the Common Man would buy them. Obviously, using less-expensive parts meant that those parts didn't last as long. In the past decade or so, there has been a desire for Power Users and Enthusiasts to have better hardware for their machines without going "all in" with a Mac. In the same way that Toyota has Lexus, Hardware Vendors started to produce better models with better hardware that lasted longer and had nicer features. Even still, some Enthusiasts wanted even better hardware and started building their own machines with hand-picked parts. These machines are similar to the Porsche analogy that we used above. They aren't cheap, but they're incredibly reliable and perform very well.

Note: I find that it might be important to mention here that what most people call PC isn't always "Windows." There are a lot of operating systems that use this type of hardware and Linux-Based OSes are a prime example of that. However, for the simplicity of the argument we're leaving Linux out of this equation until Adobe starts writing software for Linux natively or the Indie Devs can catch up with Adobe which is a good possibility in the next 3-5 years if Adobe keeps treading water insteading of moving forward.


With our brief, and completely abridged history out of the way we can tackle the current arguments at hand:

Mac Fanboys (a Fanboy is someone so blinded by their love for something that they will talk trash about other choices without performing any in-depth analysis) will say the same 3 things every time this argument is presented to them:
1) "Buy a Mac cause it is faster and lasts longer."
2) "Buy a Mac cause *some big-shot photographer* uses it."
3) "Buy a Mac cause it's easier to use."
Two of these arguments are stupid and the remaining argument is personal and doesn't apply to everyone.
1) Mac Users that compare a $1400 Macbook Pro to a $300 PC-based laptop are intentionally misleading you. It's a dick move to say "My Porsche is faster and will outlast your Toyota." For crap's sake, I should hope a $1400 machine beats a $400 machine.
2) Are you Sue Bryce, Jeremy Cowart, or Chase Jarvis? What makes you think that their answer will be your answer? Would you change your religion to be like them? Would you buy the same underwear or live in the same neighborhood just to be like them? Of course not. You're not shooting the same style with the same clients as they are. Trying to "be like Jarvis" will do nothing but frustrate you. Please observe them and emulate them until you figure out who YOU are, then move on to buying your own underwear.
3) Not everyone finds MacOS easy to use. I find it frustrating as hell. I don't particularly like WindowsOS either. Not everyone likes g-strings so trying to convince someone to buy a g-string cause it worked for them might not make sense to you. You find what works "good enough" and you roll with it.

PC Fanboys... I love you guys but your arguments are often just as lame as the Mac User's.
1) "Buy PC because they're cheaper."
2) "Build your own PC cause then it will be better than anything else."
3) "It is easier to find software for PC."
These 3 things have similar issues to those above...
1) Your $400 laptop might be cheaper, but in 3 years you'll have to replace it cause it will have melted a hole in your desk. Cheap Laptops suffer from bad airflow. Stop recommending them.
2) Not everyone is capable (or even interested) in building their own PC. If they were capable, they wouldn't be asking for advice.
3) If you plan on using your content-creation machine for doing other things, this argument *might* make sense, but if it's only for content-creation and that's it, Adobe (and others) already write for both major OSes, so your argument makes no sense here.

So, with those out of the way, let's get down to business and say that Creatives want 3 things:
1) A Machine that is powerful enough to get work done but it must last a long time. We don't like buying the same things twice or replacing parts every few years.
2) A Machine that is going to run the software that we need it to run. A lot of us use Lightroom and Photoshop. Some of us use FinalCut and Premier. We need a machine that can use this software.
3) A Machine that can use our favorite peripherals, like external hard drives, weighted mice, Wacom Tablets, and IPS displays.

So, what is the answer to those 3 questions? Simply put: If you spend the appropriate amount on a machine, it will do all of those things. A $1400 Mac will do those things. A $1400 PC will do those things. Your editing rig is not the place to skimp out and spend only $400 because you blew all your money on a Nikon D4 or a Canon 6D. (If you bought a 6D and are still using a 6 year-old Dell, shame on you.)

 On the Mac side, I recommend the 13" Macbook Pro for $1300 and adding the 27" Thunderbolt Display ($1000) to use for your main screen. The Macbook Pro has an aluminum housing and the IPS (aka Retina) display for sharp lines and accurate colors (once calibrated). Thunderbolt and USB3 are about the same speed (within margin of error) so you aren't missing anything there. This setup will allow you to take just the Macbook when you need to be portable while still having a quality display when you're at your desk to do serious editing. If you opt to put the 27" display off until later however, you'll struggle with using the 13" display on the Macbook as your primary screen.

On the PC side, I recommend the 15.6" Asus N550JK for $1400 and adding the 27" Asus PA279Q Display ($1000) to use for your main screen. This Asus has an aluminum housing like the Macbook Pro above as well as an IPS display for sharp lines and accurate colors (once calibrated). Thunderbolt and USB3 are about the same speed (within margin of error) so you aren't missing anything there. Like the Macbook Pro above, you can take just the laptop with you when you must be portable and still have a 10-bit panel for getting serious editing done. Editing on the 15.6" alone isn't dreadful, but you'll quickly find yourself hunched over your rig as you struggle to smash your face closer to the screen after an hour or so. Get the big screen as an add-on ASAP.

Both of these setups are essentially ready for software to be installed, a color calibrator, and some content to create. Building your own rig can be cheaper, but installing hardware, OSes, and drivers sucks the life out of most mortals, so getting a pre-built Macbook/Laptop is my recommended option. Also note that these rigs only have a single storage device in them: The Macbook only has a 128GB SSD while the Asus only has a 256GB SSD. I consider this a GOOD thing. A single drive in your workstation isn't adequate regardless of it's size. In fact, the only thing that should be on your internal drive aside from the OS itself and Lightroom is your Lightroom catalog. That's it. Without Backups and Archives on external devices, your workflow is on the brink of disaster. I can cover storage solutions in another thread, or maybe I can make a video, but storage is actually more important than the editing rig you own, in my honest opinion.

Ok Jeremy, that's all great, but I don't want to spend $2500 on a computer just to edit photos. Good for you. If you aren't working with the massive RAW files dumped out by the newer cameras you can get away with buying a used rig and just rolling with it. I shoot with older gear and I edit them on an older PC I built 6 years ago because I can get away with it. To edit my 10MP RAW files, I'm using an AMD Triple-Core on a custom PC that I built for the purpose. If I was editing 2000 36MP files from weddings every weekend, I'd be upgrading in a hurry. I shoot editorial headshots and such once or twice a week right now so I have maybe 200 10MP files to go through. My PC doesn't struggle with them, so there is no need to change anything.

So what do you think? Does every content creator need a Porsche or can some get away with the Lexus or even the Toyota? Leave your well-thought and polite comments/criticisms below.

A or B?

So today I'm going to pull a "Chase Jarvis." ((No, I'm not going to jump on a plane and ski backwards while trying to get some great photos of snowboarders flying through the air...))

Chase has these interesting posts where he shows two photos and then asks his audience which one they like better and why. Why is that fun? Well, when going through a crap-ton (yes, that's a technical term) of photos it's hard to decide which photos are going to be THE ones you show. In some cases, there's only ONE that makes it out to the public and only months and months later do the rest surface.

I had a recent photo session that where the sun was hidden behind the clouds and the sky was perfect.... for about 10 minutes. I had several photos that I liked, but these last two..... I just couldn't decide which one I liked better:


A)

B)

These were made only moments apart, but they look very different. Which would you pick and why?

I struggle with telling a story... OR "f8 and be there" ain't working for me.

(Hey! Look at me! I uploaded a vertical shot!)

I'm not sure what's been wrong with me lately. I feel like I can't create anything new. I feel like I'm not taking steps forward with my photography. I feel like I'm actually moving backwards.

Winter is always the slow season. Everything slows down except for retailers. Since don't normally book any clients for when it's Below Zero in Colorado I decided to start a new project this winter just to keep moving things along... to keep shooting... to try to work on my story telling. I'm starting the project later this week when an awesome model, Melissa, sits down in front of my camera... But I'm feeling like I'm lost. I want to tell the story of someone I've never met, and Melissa is giving me that opportunity. I can't help but to feel that I'm disconnected somehow.... That I'm completely missing something right in front of me.

I finished watching (parts of it...missed the beginning) Chase Jarvis Live for his talk about building a portfolio and getting it reviewed. I really felt that I was on the right track to getting some new work done to be able to send to Zack Arias and Chase Jarvis (and possibly others that have no idea it's coming) in order to see if I had taken a step forward since my creativeLIVE experience (you know, the one I'm always talking about because it was life-changing...). Watching the talk today I realized that even now I have further to go than I thought... That is road I'm on won't lead to being an "expert photographer" until 3 months before I die of old age. I'm going to be struggling with this stupid light-tight box until I'm dead... but for some reason I had the delusions of grandeur that I'd be really good right now. My clients are more than happy... but for me that hasn't been enough. I'm not happy yet. I need to push harder.

Other photographers could hold the measuring stick up to me and I'd fall way short in their eyes. I shoot darker sets... I don't light from every possible angle... I don't want "happy" photos.... I don't shoot photos that are perfect... I don't run them through the photoshop mill until they're unrecognizable. What's worse is that newer photographers think that they're good when they're awful. This new society of photographers is a mess. It's awesome, but everyone thinks that they're the next (your favorite photographer here). Am I awful and I just don't know it? Knowing how exposure works and how to get an image from my camera to print is one thing... but telling a story and communicating what I'm talking about.... it's so much harder. It's become apparent to me that I need to tell more stories... I need the practice... I need the depth in my photos.

Shooting Models isn't going to give me depth in my photos. I need to shoot Actors. Models might be able to stand there and look cute, but I need people who can emote... who can cry... who can feel something while I'm shooting them.

What will help me? I need to find regular people with stories to tell... but most people are SO FREAKING HESITANT to tell their stories! I mean, who wants to tell a story about what they had for breakfast? Who wants to tell a story about how they ripped their jeans on the way to work? Who wants to tell a story about the time that their house got broken into and their hard drives and electronics were stolen of their infant daughter... the same infant that was just diagnosed with a terminal disease? Some stories seem to mundane for people to even remember. Other stories are so painful that they might not want to think about them...

I'm lost. I know what I'm doing, but I don't know what I'm doing. Being able to push a shutter button isn't enough. I'm not moving forward from this point until I figure out where I should be headed.... even if where I'm headed isn't where I end up. I need to do something unexpected.

I feel like Cassandra

It occurred to me while chatting with Daphne Chan that I feel like the Greek Mythology figure, Cassandra. If you haven't read Edith Hamilton's Mythology recently I'll save you the pain-staking detail and relate that Cassandra was a mortal that Apollo found to be quite beautiful. Beautiful enough, in fact, that he gave her the gift of prophesy. When she did not return his love he cursed her so that no one would believe her prophesies. She had predicted the Battle of Troy along with the Greek Deception of the Trojan Horse, but no one would believe her as a part of her blessing with a curse.

(Okay Jeremy, get to the point... You're a nerd and you like Mythology.)


My point is this... I read Zack Arias' latest blog post on the rundown of how to build your book and it reminded me that I promised Zack and Chase that I'd make a book and send it their way... Sort of a "Did I take a step forward this year?" type of thing... I might even send one to David E Jackson while I'm at it... I love that guy. Then I realized that it's been nearly 6 months since the class in Seattle....Already! It's crept up on me like creeps like to do.

It feels like I have made some progress but while going through my work I found that I have holes in my work, but more interestingly I've found that I have extra work that doesn't fit in my book. The above photo (a model by the name of Cassie, btw...she fits well withe the Cassandra story...) doesn't fit anywhere right now. I'm seriously considering shooting more work like this. I LOVE this look.... 1)It's moody as hell. 2)This is the look I get when experimenting. 3)It feels like I'm actually working my ass off to try new things. I really think my photos are awful, but when I hit this type of stride it feels like I'm batting .100 instead of striking out. Grounders to Right Field anyone?

The point is: I don't know what to do with work like this. I don't know where it's going to fit.... but I have this insatiable desire to shoot more of it. More stuff you don't see all the time. I hate the Smiley-Cute-CookieCutter shit. Everyone shoots that. If you hire me to shoot it, I'll totally do it for you and work my ass off for great photos to make you happy...but my soul needs more than that. This work is simple to pull off... but it makes me happy... I'm working at being happy.... and that's so freakin hard.

Do you understand?

Create. Share. Sustain. NSFW

One thing that Chase Jarvis has always seem to promoted is this: Create, Share, Sustain. I have an easier time with the "Create" part than the other two. I don't share well with others and I'm barely sustaining. I struggle this all three ideals in some way.

Create: Since I've baby-stepped into photography this past year I've been working on getting a TON of personal work done. I've been shooting the things that I've been wanting to shoot and planning the stuff that I think I want to shoot but haven't worked the details out yet. I have a little notebook that sits at my bedside that I scribble notes into on a regular basis. I sketch out drawings or ideas that I'd like to see done but I haven't figured out how to do them yet. The ideas have problems that stand in the way of completion, but they are still viable. Maybe I'll take a photo of it sometime if someone is interested.

Share: I'm always ALWAYS nervous about sharing. It's not that I don't want people to see it. Quite on the contrary: I want people to see my work, but critique is hard. You know what's worse than critique? Apathy. I would rather someone tell me that my work is worthless and I'm never going to make it as a photographer than have someone look at something I've created and just say "meh" or even worse: Move on without saying a word. It's half the reason I barely show my work to my wife: She says nothing often. I have to coax and goad her into commenting on my work, but often I only hear something about the photos she likes, but she's quick to tell me when something in the photo is distracting. It's helpful since she gives me the perspective of a potential client. I have photo buddies that can tell me what's wrong technically, but the client perspective is just as important to me.

Sustain: This is barely hanging on for me. I'll put together a shoot and I'm getting better at logistics, but only because I'm trying to take bigger and more complicated projects. I used to be able to barely hang on with just me and the subject. Now I've worked up to the occasional Location scouting, booking, MUA+H scheduling, client confirmation, and managing to throw some personal work in the mix of all that while I have everything lined up. But I'll be honest: It's exhausting. I can see why the bigger guys have crews and teams and indentured servants to take care of some of this for them. I exhausted myself so thoroughly leading up to and during a shoot that I made myself sick. Not Cool. It's hard to feel free to create when it feels like someone mixed concrete in your gut. The photos turned out great, but I was definitely in need of some down time when the job was done.

So what should I do about this stuff? If my ideas I want to create are viable I need to plan them out and shoot them. I need to get over my fear of everyone ignoring my work. I need to take better care of myself while I'm ramping the stress from these jobs up.

The first step I can take right now (like... NOW now) is to start sharing some of the work I've created. I'll quit hiding behind the newbie rating and just throw stuff out there. Please, if you like my work: Tell me what you like. If you hate my work: Tell me why. If you simply feel nothing for my work: ....okay. I'm my own worst critic, but hey.... I'm sharing.

Speaking of sharing: More from this shoot (NSFW) is on my site. Oooh look at me! Sharing! <fingers-crossed>

Personal Work

If there is one thing that I've learned from Chase Jarvis (among the billion things I've learned from him, of course) it's the importance of doing work on your own and getting it out there. I've been trying to build this little One-Man-Show of mine since September 2010 and I've been trying to hammer a ton of personal work. (OMG I realized I'm almost to my 1-year anniversary...) Why did I start doing so much personal work? Because Chase and Zack told me to.


At first I questioned using my time to do personal work. "I'm not getting paid, so I'm losing money," I thought. Then I realized that no one can hire me they've seen what I'm capable of. So I started shooting for myself, often taking non-paying gigs but taking creative control over the gig as payment. (Push-Pull). Then I started creating opportunities to start initiating personal work, even collaborating with other creatives... Like Leah D'Andrea (she's awesome, btw).


After being in Zack's creativeLIVE class, I realized I wasn't moving fast enough. My work sucked. Earlier photos in my short career were still on my site, and sucking the life out of me. I decided to put as much distance between me and my old work as I could... by doing new work. Then my new work was still falling into Ira Glass' "Creative Gap" so I decided to make newer work. Finally, I was able to show some of my new work to my good friend Carolina Yocom. She noticed a vast improvement in my work in the past three months. I finally felt that I'm getting enough distance between myself and my old work. So I stopped doing personal work.


Hell no! Are you kidding me!?


I'll never stop doing personal work, much to my lovely wife's dismay. I need to shoot for me as much as I possibly can! I've been told that when my business starts running like a freight train I won't have time to do personal work anymore. What I've decided to do is to schedule personal work on such a regular basis that it'll feel wrong to miss doing it: Like skipping a workout or dinner with my family.


So get out there and shoot what you want to shoot! You never know how long this ride might last, so take advantage of it!