learning curves

we needed to update my laptop. my husband {Kristian} is the tech guy in our home. discussions lately have gone like this...

me: i need something that is portable in the house. 
ko: laptop for web browsing and desktop for photos?
me: ok. but i'm not sure i want to be stuck in one place to edit the photos. is it possible to have some kind of portable drive so it can be done in another room if i want?

and off he goes shopping. he actually likes this kind of shopping.

ko: lots of techy-talk. (but he found a portable laptop and decided on a desktop that was on sale that could hold the million photos we have.) plus it is on sale!!
me: that is awesome.
ko: can i show you?!

enroute to the store we continued the conversation. me with the "is it possible" kind of talk....and Kristian with the "here are your options" replies.

i should add that although my laptop has been handy and very useful, it was a huge disappointment in terms of power to Kristian. it was a Christmas gift one year. it took him several days to load the software and have it work. it has also been in for service once. he has had to reload a ton of stuff on it. for some strange reason it has always had issues connecting to the internet, and took him a very long day with several support people to get it to work. it also happened to collide during the busiest work schedule he has ever had. Kristian is a smart and educated man, so really it should not have been that difficult. all that to say that he was not wanting to repeat that scene.

sooooo....we are at 'the store'. he shows me some of the options he looked at. we have also discussed a change to Apple. however that dream has always ended as soon as we've seen the price tag! until now.

the crazy part?

we were looking at the new Apple computers and all 4 of us were impressed. photobooth had Aidan and Kiara quite occupied! we asked where the "tower" is. because all we could see was the monitor....wireless keyboard and mouse. the Apple genius' have combined the screen and tower. then we checked the price again...they had to be hiding something. nope!

score!

less money than a new PC desktop and notebook. of course we could also subtract the cost of another desk (less shopping!)

the screen is too big to have on my lap to edit photos or surf the net. but it is big enough to do both at the same time at a desk or table. yay!! it is not everyday that my "hopes" and bank account can agree.



the big decision for me now lies with Adobe Photoshop.

i have PSE7 on my laptop. Kristian wanted to get me PSE8 when it was released...but i requested we wait and perhaps purchase CS4 later.

for free, i could update PSE8 to MAC. if i had it. unfortunately i can't do that with PSE7. bummer! now i am faced with an earlier decision between PSE8 and CS4.

for free i can trial CS4 for 30 days. and here i am.





the original photo. now stored in i-photo. which in itself is totally cool and gives me a lot to learn.

i really want to get my photos tagged with faces, and events or places. this is not working as quickly as i want though. is it me or the mac?



i am in shock over the amount of post-processing a person can do in CS4. black and white is not just black and white anymore. this is black and white. cropped.



this is black and white with a blue filter.



black and white with a red filter.

this is not the photo for that process. however i thought it demonstrated the difference very well.

now the  question is if i can understand photography well enough to be able to use this program. you can tweak the most minor changes. that is a huge learning curve. especially added in to learning Apple and i-photo.



this was adjusted just using one point on my curves. can't remember which one now! way more flexibility than PSE.



this one had a vignette added.

i will definitely need some help learning CS. at least i have 30 days to decide!

for the record, i have only spent 30 minutes on it with just the one photo.

i suppose i should think about organizing something so that the house gets cleaned, laundry done and meals cooked while i learn? so far the kids have not complained about being ignored or allowed to play games on the laptop. okay....actually a certain 5 year old boy has requested his own time on the Apple. he thinks the games are cooler. i am now off to check to see if there are any equally cool PC games available.

joys!