Which laptop for pitch side?

redmonkee

redmonkee

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PHILIP
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Just wondered what laptops you guys use when pitchside and also what software you use to edit your photos. Reason I ask is that I will hopefully be purchasing one through the course of this season as my aim is to gain work for an agency and therefore its kinda ....er necessary:D

Anyway my initial thoughts are a macbook pro. I use Macs at work and also at home so I'd prefer to stay away from a PC. However would the pro be overkill or would I get by with a standard Macbook?

Also what size screen would you recommend. I was thinking the smaller the better due to portability.

Finally I was thinking of using Lightroom 3 for photo editing as I am very familiar with the process and already have predets set up for developing my footy pics.

What do you think?
 
I'd buy myself a waterproof Panasonic Toughbook which I could use in the pouring rain and snow. I think it would enable me to send shots when others can't which means money that others won't get.

The bigger screen the better - don't skimp here. You need the real estate to see what you are doing.

Lightroom I like as you know. There are some annoyances with it but if you are used to using it you'll be fine. PM me if you want more info.
 
Tobers said:
I'd buy myself a waterproof Panasonic Toughbook which I could use in the pouring rain and snow. I think it would enable me to send shots when others can't which means money that others won't get.

The bigger screen the better - don't skimp here. You need the real estate to see what you are doing.

Lightroom I like as you know. There are some annoyances with it but if you are used to using it you'll be fine. PM me if you want more info.
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Wow I've certainly never seen anything like that before:eek:

what do you use and how do you keep it dry?

By the way i've read your blog regarding using Lightroom pitch side (great read(y)) and i can see myself following that way of working. My only problem is the text replacement software you recommend is not available on a mac.
 
Personally id go for a macbook, purely for the quality.
I got my 13" macbook second hand for 400quid and ive not had one problem with it in 1 year. Plus you can always buy a new battery. < this is essential ,a long lasting battery, as you can end up forgetting to charge when you get home etc
Dont know about everyone else, but i want an editing program that loads quickly,and doesnt freeze or crash, so getting the latest version of PS isnt going to be great.
I use a version of PS elements, it does all you will need for sports editing pitch side and costs 1/3 the price (probs can get it free) Then a copy of photomechanic for sorting and captioning, and your ready to rumble!
 
Tobers said:
I'd buy myself a waterproof Panasonic Toughbook which I could use in the pouring rain and snow. I think it would enable me to send shots when others can't which means money that others won't get.
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I have one of these and it's without doubt the greatest load of crap I've ever used. It's well specc'd but for some reason its as slow as a week to do anything compared to a normal laptop.

I use a Dell Inspiron with extended 5 hour battery. It's a little big and cumbersome to be honest and I'd prefer something smaller but it will have to do for now.

PhotoMechanic to caption/sort and Lightroom to edit/process. I used to only use PM but due to a request/complaint! from a client about slightly different exposures and colours throughout a game I now process them to look all the same. It slowed me down a good bit to begin with but now I have to hang of it it only takes a few seconds per pic.

There is no right or wrong way to do this so whatever works for you is good!!
 
Ballyman said:
I have one of these and it's without doubt the greatest load of crap I've ever used. It's well specc'd but for some reason its as slow as a week to do anything compared to a normal laptop.

I use a Dell Inspiron with extended 5 hour battery. It's a little big and cumbersome to be honest and I'd prefer something smaller but it will have to do for now.

PhotoMechanic to caption/sort and Lightroom to edit/process. I used to only use PM but due to a request/complaint! from a client about slightly different exposures and colours throughout a game I now process them to look all the same. It slowed me down a good bit to begin with but now I have to hang of it it only takes a few seconds per pic.

There is no right or wrong way to do this so whatever works for you is good!!
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Hi ballyman

So you use Lightroom to edit then photmechanic to tag is that right? If so do you care to share your procedure?
 
The tough books are dual core intel processors these days so pretty fast. Old ones were pretty cruddy I agree. You don't need to anything to keep it dry - it's waterproof.
 
Tobers said:
The tough books are dual core intel processors these days so pretty fast. Old ones were pretty cruddy I agree. You don't need to anything to keep it dry - it's waterproof.
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The new toughbooks do look pretty impressive. Just wish they ran OSX:shrug:

I'm so used to mac now, I think converting back to PC pitch side would be a bit of a mare for me :LOL:
 
redmonkee said:
Hi ballyman

So you use Lightroom to edit then photmechanic to tag is that right? If so do you care to share your procedure?
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The other way round!

Ingest into PM first with the basic captions already prewritten. Then sort useable shots using rating of 1 and caption them properly with players names. If you use the code replacement feature then this is really quick.
Shove into lightroom for a quick check of exposure and WB and export to a live folder and off they go!
 
Ballyman said:
I use a Dell Inspiron with extended 5 hour battery. It's a little big and cumbersome to be honest and I'd prefer something smaller but it will have to do for now.
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big dell lattitude here.. extended 9 hr battery.. its been dropped. kicked and trampled on with pics to prove it (pne fans at bloomfield rd) I can have it on tethered with full screen picture view for the whole game and it hardly dents the battery

Photomechanic and photoshop but would just use photomechanic if they ever get a proper crop tool with rotate...
 
Avoid even the latest toughbooks, they are not water proof but just like your pro camera they are water resistant and they offer no warranty for water ingress, the performance is woeful, due to all the weather sealing heat dispertion becomes a massive problem so the processors are throttled back to help cooling down.

Me and KIPAX have the same laptops, Dell Latitude E6500 with the 1440x900 res screens, work great, fast enough and magnesium alloy chassis, avoid the brand new E6510 and E6410 as the lids are plastic painted to look like metal, bad boy Dell.
 
KIPAX said:
Photomechanic and photoshop but would just use photomechanic if they ever get a proper crop tool with rotate...
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I had a go with Photomechanic last night and its going to take some time getting used to. Have to say the crop tool sucks. Also I'm not a fan of having to import photos into photomechanic then export to photoshop or lightroom tweak exposures then export to another folder. Seems a lot of work.

Think I like Tober's way of working by using Lightroom with text replacement software for faster tagging(y)
 
redmonkee said:
I had a go with Photomechanic last night and its going to take some time getting used to. Have to say the crop tool sucks. Also I'm not a fan of having to import photos into photomechanic then export to photoshop or lightroom tweak exposures then export to another folder. Seems a lot of work.

Think I like Tober's way of working by using Lightroom with text replacement software for faster tagging(y)
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I tries Photomechanic and couldnt get my head round it, and why the need to open other software to fully edit, whats the point when something like Elements 8 can do it all twice as quickly in the one package, my personal feeling is its a waste of time and effort.
 
I use a DELL XPS Studio 13 (XPS1340), nice laptop when it works! Had no end of problems with it, DELL out 7 times in one year! I got the 9-cell battery so can run it all game with no probs.

I've loving PM and PS workflows now, just switched from Lightroom. Agree with KIPAX if PM had a decent crop and rotate then no need for PS.
 
Gary Coyle said:
I tries Photomechanic and couldnt get my head round it, and why the need to open other software to fully edit, whats the point when something like Elements 8 can do it all twice as quickly in the one package, my personal feeling is its a waste of time and effort.
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What do you use for tagging your photos if you don't use Photomechanic?
 
Photoshop Elements Orgainser can do all the tagging i require, im not saying its brilliant and might not be the most suitable for some folk, all im saying is why pay silly money for Photoshop CS4 (£350) Photomechanic (£100) when you can do much the same for £50 with Elements
 
Gary Coyle said:
Photoshop Elements Orgainser can do all the tagging i require, im not saying its brilliant and might not be the most suitable for some folk, all im saying is why pay silly money for Photoshop CS4 (£350) Photomechanic (£100) when you can do much the same for £50 with Elements
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Never heard of Elements organiser is this part of Photoshop Elements?

I already have a purchased copy of CS3 and Lightroom 3 so I'd prefer to utilise these for my editing needs.
 
Gary Coyle said:
Photoshop Elements Orgainser can do all the tagging i require, im not saying its brilliant and might not be the most suitable for some folk, all im saying is why pay silly money for Photoshop CS4 (£350) Photomechanic (£100) when you can do much the same for £50 with Elements
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I agree with you where CS4 and Lightroom etc are a little bit of an overkill for the basic editing that goes on at pitchside and Elements would probably be fine for that but for captioning and sorting then Photomechanic is an absolute beast for speed and simplicity. For the code replacement feature alone it's outstanding.
If it had a simple exposure/levels editor and decent crop tool then you'd need nothing else.
 
I think there are a few other pluses for Photomechanic. Firstly ingest with stationary pad. This puts all the details into each image as its being taken off the card. Code replacements are very easily created if you have an XL template. Re-sizimg for ftp is also done within PM but agree the cropping is an issue and still has to be done outside of PM but using keyboard short cut "E" is no hassle.
 
Lightroom also applies metadata (base caption, location, photographer details, copyright etc) on ingest using metadata presets. Resizing is done on export, using presets if you wish.

Looks like I wont get a Panasonic Toughbook then :D.
 
Tobers, If you have an xmp file with preset metadata, can you add that to your files during import. I've had a look, but can't find a way. It normally involves me copying and pasting it across. and saving it in Lightroom before a game. That's sort of why I have started playing with Photo Mechanic.

But, I do love the cropping, rotation and basic editing tools in Lightroom.
 
I preset my Lightroom metadata before a game. I usually have a number of metadata files - usually one per club I visit, so I have all the location info already in there and just need to tweak the caption a bit and change a keyword or two to reflect the visiting team. All this is then added to each image as I import so the image just needs the player names & action verbs added once I've selected and tweaked it.

EDIT: In the Lightroom import dialog there's a drop-down to select which metadata to apply on import. Is that what you're looking for?
 
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redmonkee said:
Hi Chris how do you keep it dry in wet weather?
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ive created something called the "double coat effect"
basically i wear a coat with its hood up, and also take another coat with me, preferably a large one, put the hood on you in reverse, as if your wearing the coat the wrong way round, draping it over you and the laptop. seems to work, obviously not during the match
 
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