Buying a new iMac- Need help

I have no info on iMacs as I use Windows but I can tell you that Adobe for has a photographers package that many of us have. It is $9.99/month and comes with PS CC and LR ... I am not much of a LR user only occaisionally but there are quite a few here that can help you with the LR aspect. I have been using this for photographers plan (PSCC + LR) for at least 3 1/2 years now (since it came out) and have not regretted it!

https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography.html?promoid=GMCWYDH2&mv=other

 

I'm another PC girl here, but I can answer the question about SSD drives... the thing that makes them completely worth the extra money is how fast they are. Traditional hard drives have a spinning mechanism that limits how fast the computer can read and write to them... SSDs have no moving parts and are SO much faster. As far as space, you decided which size you want for storage space. I just upgraded my own computer from a 256 GB SSD boot drive to a 1TB one this weekend. Now I have tons of storage for programs and stuff. I store all of my pictures, scrapbook supplies and documents on an EHD, so I really don't keep anything on my computer except for programs and music/audiobooks.

I also use PSCS5 still and my computer has and i7 processor with 16GB of RAM and I have a dedicated graphics cards with 6GB of onboard memory. I've never had any trouble with speed using those specs. My computer is about 3.5 years old now and still runs lickety split!

 

I'm still using my 2014 MacBook Pro and it keeps me happy. It has 16 GB RAM, a dedicated graphics card with 2GB RAM, a 500GB SSD, the i7 quad-core processor. It was pricey at the time, and my first Mac, but it has served me well. I would go for at least 16GB of RAM in a new model; if you are used to using an EHD to store your files, you could save by going with a smaller SSD.

I also use the 9.99 photography plan for PS and LR (I use the classic Lightroom option, which I really love how it syncs the photos from my phone to my MacBook).

 

Calling some of the MAC users I know:
@michelepixels @cookingmylife @elseepe

I do know to run Photoshop and Lightroom, the minimum requirements are listed here: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/system-requirements.html I will add, I know 8GB of RAM is the minimum, but in another thread, we had talked about it, and most of us feel Adobe runs smoother on 16GB of RAM especially with more than one program opened. And definitely more than 4GB of Hard drive space!

One big caveat for you to consider: Adobe does not recommend customers using old versions of PS upgrade to Catalina. I think Catalina is the most recent macOS? You may have to upgrade your PSC5 because of that.

Solid State Drives (SSD) are faster than regular HD. For my computer (I don't know if it's possible on an iMac) I have a small SSD that I install programs to, and a larger hard drive that holds my photos, documents, supplies, etc. This helps balance speed and price for me.

Cloud Lightroom will read png files. And, with the package Christa mentioned above, you can choose to use desktop Lightroom (Classic Lightroom) and it will read png also.

 

I agree with Christa: the photography plan with Adobe is the way to go! I've been using Lightroom since 2011 and even though I'm no longer aiming to go pro with my photography, I love the organizational power of Lightroom. That's why I switched to the Adobe's photographer subscription plan, when I first heard that Lightroom no longer be upgraded as a standalone. Having full Photoshop was a bonus. But even though PSE was sufficient for me before, and probably would be still, I've gotten used to some of the things I can do in full Photoshop that I would miss if I switched back.

As for the computer, one of my husband's friends gifted us with a new powerful iMac this year. It has much more than the minimum requirements to run Photoshop and a huge SSD that holds all my stuff, so I don't know what to recommend other than get as much RAM and storage as you can. But I can say that iMacs last a long time. My previous iMac was a 2011, filled with as much RAM as it would accept, and I kept the internal hard drive as empty as possible (stored data in an EHD) and while it was sluggish for the last few years I used it, it was still managing pretty well at 9 years old. I just had to be patient. I'd click to open something then scroll on Facebook on my phone while I waited for it to open. We still have it. My kids play games and watch videos on it. I never had a PC that lasted for even half a decade.

Correction to Courtney's post: The newest macOS is High Sierra, as of last autumn. I'm sure the point stands. Better to use newer versions of PS/LR.

 

I'm running version 10.15.7 of Catalina -- I haven't upgraded to High Sierra. About 2 upgrades ago or so I lost support for my old Wacom Bamboo tablet, but I was forced to upgrade for some other software. I'm not sure about old versions of PSCS since I'm running the Adobe CC version from the photography plan. I don't have any issues with running PS and LR at the same time.

 

Classic is the original Lightroom. Cloud is a simplified version. I had been using LR since 2011 and I'm a creature of habit. I tried the Cloud version when it came out but was not impressed and didn't see any reason to switch. I could still synch with the Adobe cloud even with Classic, so there's nothing the cloud version has that the original doesn't. Oh! Also, I can't remember, because it has been a couple of years since I looked at it, but I think the Cloud version doesn't have the organizational component of Classic.

 

I would recommend the 27”. I bought the 21” about a month ago and returned it the next day and bought the 27” instead. There is just no comparison with the 4K Retina display on the 27”. I mostly scrap on an iPad Pro and even the screen resolution on the 21” couldn’t compare with my iPad. Plus, the older I get the less my eyes want to cooperate so that large screen is very nice. I went with a SSD after reading about it being better but I’m not tech savvy so don’t have a clue about that. I did only buy 8 GB but I can upgrade to 16 and plan to do that at some point. I run the cloud based PS and LR and have had zero problems with it so far. I store all my stuff in the cloud or EHD’s though.
Happy shopping! New scrappy toys are always so fun!

ETA: I just saw that they have a 21” with the 4K Retina display. I had just bought the cheapest 21” without the Retina display so the one with it may be much better. I still vote the 27” though. There is just nothing to compare with the beauty of that thing!

 

Personally, I don't use the cloud features, and I like the Classic organization. I go back and forth with Lightroom app downloaded on my phone for picture taking. I don't use Adobe's cloud backup as I pay for that separately with a computer backup service (BackBlaze). When Cloud first came out, the backup amount was too small for my photos, so I never switched (just checked and looks like it is still 20 GB?).
Also, I prefer to edit photos on my desktop, not mobile, so I keep my originals on my hard drive. I also want to use my manual keywords, and when I tried it, Lightroom Cloud doesn't let you add your own.

 

Good to know! Honestly, I hadn't kept track, I just knew there was a lot of issues when Catalina came out of older Photoshop versions not working.

 

is the newest macOS not Big Sur? I just upgraded to Big Sur today and that shows on apples website as being the latest. I had Catalina before that and High Sierra looks like it was the OS before Mojave. I don’t know if the the old versions of CS work with Big Sur or not.
I do know that it runs well with the CC PS and Lr version because that was the first thing I did when I updated today. Opened PS and LR to make sure they worked lol. I think I have read to many horror stories on here about downloading new OS and it not playing nice with PS

 

Oops! I should have said Big Sur. I must have been tired! I double checked; my computer is running Big Sur.

 

The 27" screen is also fabulous for speed scrapping and other multitasking. I often have multiple windows open to do various things.

 

I had been avoiding upgrading from Catalina to Big Sur until I got my order of more RAM. I ordered 32GB from B&H in NYC which has been my choice for all previous upgrades on prior iMacs. My order was place on Jan 4th but sadly it's still on back order. I may end up having to bite the bullet with Big Sur as I'm kinda sick of getting the reminders each day. lol Now to find another source of the RAM that is not much more costly than B&H. But this is sure an upscale problem!