Adobe Photoshop/best laptop for cs3

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Expert: Scott Valentine - 2/27/2009


Question

Charles Vaughn Photo i
I have been working with photoshop since photoshop 7.  I now use cs3 with microsoft widows xp media edition on a desktop and laptop. My primary focus is refurbishing old photos.  I want to be able to work fast as I can with big files that I've scanned, and don't know how much processor speed is really enough without breaking my piggy bank.  I plan on getting 4 Gig Ram.  Also don't know about how PhotoshopCS3 agrees with Vista.  I don't know anything about Vista.  Do I need that to go to CS4? Does CS4 work with windows XP.  I don't want to upgrade my desktop yet.  The speed is 3.2 and does well.  I hope I'm not asking too many questions.  I've been out of the loop for a year or so and am behind on the latest!!!

I have many of my Father's positives taken while he was a photographer/lithographer in the Army in Japan from Sept. of 1945 thru much of 1946.   I have taken classes at Atl. Art Institute, and been to one Photoshop get together in Boston.      My Father has passed, and I want to save these pictures for history.  There are some of Hirshimo taken Nov. of 1945 that are one of a kind.  In fact all,( with maybe a few exceptions of IKE etc.), are one of a kind that my Father took on his own time.  

I'm attaching an old Japanese newspaper clipping of one of his pictures.  I have an 8x10 positive copy of this.  My Father willed all his pictures to me so I own the images now so far as copyright is concerned.  He kept camera with him 24/7 and traveled around as much as he could.  

Paying to have all the photos refurbished was TOO expensive, thus my journey to learn to do it myself.

Any information would be greately appreciated.  Judy Vaughn Bundy

Answer
Hi Judy,

I'll stick to the original question of laptops, but I wanted to say that I'm happy to hear you are taking on such a great task! I work closely with Los Alamos, so have many ties to the nuclear legacy. You may consider talking with the nuclear history museum in Albuquerque or the Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos - it's possible they may pay for some of the restoration, or help you buy equipment to do it yourself. Send me a note in private with your email address if you are interested in talking with these organizations.

As to the laptop, the best thing you can do is find the best performance that is within your budget. I've been using Dell laptops for years, and they've worked well, but they are pricey. CS3 will run under both Vista and XP, though most laptops won't run CS4's latest user-interface features that require OpenGL acceleration.

While it's good to get as much memory as you can, consider also making sure the video card has at least 256M on board, if not 512M. This can be very expensive for a laptop, but you just need the memory, not the speed. I presume you'll be working with very large scans of these photos, so the video memory will help keep things smooth.

So, I can't give you a recommendation for exactly what you need, but think you're on the right track. I'd also recommend you consider getting a Wacom tablet (wacom.com) since a lot of retouching will involve detail work and hand-painting for selection or adjustments. If you haven't used a tablet before, it takes some getting used to, but I won't use Photoshop without one.

For retouching information, check out Katrin Eismann's books (http://www.photoshopdiva.com/).

Please let me know if you have further questions - I hope I've helped!

-Scott

Scott Valentine

Expertise

Author, "Real World Compositing with Photoshop CS4 (Peachpit)". Beginning to expert questions for Photoshop CS5 Extended, including 3D capabilities. I am also an expert here for Digital Photography. Please - NO questions on Lightroom, Elements, Express or versions earlier than CS4. These questions will be discarded.

Experience

Author, "Real World Compositing with Photoshop CS4" (available from Peachpit.com in January, 2009). I have been a professional level user since 1999, and have used Photoshop for photography, fine art, graphic design, web design, and technical image analysis. I have also conducted classes at the college level in both artistic and technical uses. I am currently an Adobe User Group manager.

Organizations
National Association of Photoshop Professionals, Los Alamos Multimedia Users Group.

Publications
CommunityMX.com, Real World Compositing with Photoshop CS4 (Adobe Press).

Education/Credentials
Bachelor's degree, Physics

Awards and Honors
Several awards for digital photography.

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