Pro Editing on a Shoestring Budget

Whether you're trying to recreate the state-of-the-art multi-screen workstation in your glass topped open plan office inside your bedroom at home or simply trying to create an effective workflow system you will need a minimum of equipment for professional editing. 
While you can work with considerably slower equipment than that of a professional studio you will find it hard to justify the additional time required for image processing created by your inferior processing power. 
The successful blend of 'cheap' and 'efficient' is the key to a fast workflow that won't infuriate you and keep your clients waiting unncessarily.

First we have to decide what sort of editing we will be doing. There's no point in purchasing the latest NVIDIA Quadro GPU if your workflow doesn't demand that level of power. At the same time you want to be sure you can process 1GB files without worrying about waiting 20 minutes for a filter to render. 
Make a list of the processing you NEED to do. As an example this is my own specifications for work.
Transfer pics from camera to computer
Manage up to 800 JPGs per shoot
Choose up to 20 key images for post production
Post production on multiple images at once
Print images
Photo restoration
Creative post production - very large file sizes, upward of 1GB per image
HDR blending
Manage RAW images
32bit post production
Large image printing (file sizes upward of 1GB per image)
Green/blue screen editing

I would also LIKE to be able to add in some 3D editing using CS5 Extended but I don't have a commercial need for it right now so I will make a list of future upgrades:
CS5 extended
3D graphics processing

3D image rendering
Video animation
Video special effects


Using the profits from my home image editing I will expand my equipment to accommodate the additional capabilities I would like to be able to offer. In this way I won't over extend my equipment or offer the client a service I can't complete in an economical time scale.


Now we know what sort of editing we're going to concentrate on we can choose our equipment. We'll look at the professional equipment then find the cheap equivalent that will do what we need.

First stop, monitors.
Professional monitors cost thousands of pounds and you will need at least two. One for the main screen and one for your toolbars and additional working space.
One of the best professional monitor manufacturers is Eizo. Their monitors are 'colour calibrated' which simply means the colours you see on screen are the true colours as captured in the image. Their colour, contrast, brightness etc can be very finely tuned as well giving you full control over how the colours are represented onscreen. This is particularly important for the home setup where your ceiling or desk lights are not going to be daylight simulation or a specially chosen bulb with a specific kelvin.

What we need is the cheap version of Eizo, or at the very least a monitor with good colour calibration options. There's no point in spending hundreds of pounds on a screen calibrator (this is a device that attaches to the front of the monitor and reads the light output) if your monitor can't be adjusted sufficiently to make the changes recommended by the screen calibrator.


At the lower end of the pro spectrum from Eizo is their more affordable FlexScan EV2333W. At £299 plus VAT it's a great price for a 22" monitor with high quality colours and plenty of controls. It also has an Eco option which saves power therefore costing you less but be sure and turn it off if you're editing images as the loss in colour quality is noticable.
Your second monitor can be anything you like. Amazon sells basic monitors from £80. This is for toolbars, your music player etc while you're working on the main monitor so it can be as cheap you like. I chose a 19" monitor and rotated it on it's side to give me an upright view for lots of layers and a long history box.
When it comes to VGA, DVI or HDMI connections choose DVI or HDMI. DVI is more common at the moment in monitors and provides a faster higher quality connection than VGA. You will normally get both cables with a monitor that has both connections. Just be sure you get a graphics card that matches the connections on both monitors. (Many modern graphics cards come with 2 connection ports, alternatively you can buy a splitter).


Next you need a computer. 

I've gone into bench marking in another post available here so I won't bore you with the technicalities all over again but the main points to keep in mind are processing power, RAM and hard disk size.
3Ghz is a good speed PC.
3GB or more RAM is essential (don't accept less, Windows alone requires 2GB).
300GB hard drives or bigger are required. Preferably get a machine with two hard drives. One to install software on and one to use as a scratch disk (working space for Photoshop).
An external hard drive is a good start of backing up images as well but don't be over charged by getting it with the computer. A massive external hard drive from a good brand name shouldn't cost you much more than £60.
A personally chosen mouse is also a good addition although most of your home-pro editing will be done with a graphics tablet but a comfy mouse will save you lots of pain in the long run. Pick a mouse that moves easily and feels comfortable. Try the mice available in the shops rather than online (even if you buy online later) and make sure you sit down to use it. Your wrist and arm will be in a completely different position when seated versus standing. If like me you have a mouse attached to your arm for around 12 hours a day you will want to be sure it's very very comfortable! Rechargable batteries are also a must or they will cost you a fortune. Avoid really cheap mice, they don't last. Equally avoid the £100 mice, I've worn out two top of the range mice from Logitech and Microsoft and my £100 keyboard only lasted a year as well. I now have a mid range wired keyboard for £30 from Microsoft and a mid range wireless mouse for £30 also from Microsoft. 


Essential Toys
People without graphics tablets will tell you they are not essential.
People with graphics tablets will tell you they are.
I have a graphics tablet now but I didn't for years until my brother kindly bought me one as a Christmas present. At around £300 for an A5 sized tablet they are incredibly expensive and initially you will think completely hateful to use. After a week however you will quite like it. After a month you will love it and your clients will be very impressed with your state-of-the-art equipment. Two monitors and a graphics tablet with some vibrant wallpapers will always impress a client. (Other designers will be more interested in your movie character collection underneath your monitor).
High end graphics tablets are of course spectacularly expensive.
Click here to drool over spectacularly expensive.
In my office I have the (now very old) Intuos 3 with standard pen and tablet mouse. Additional pens and nibs are available but at around £50 each even the pens are expensive. It works well for me however and until I'm fabulously wealthy I'll be sticking with it.
I did use the Cintiq (see link above) and the latest version of my own tablet at the Wacom stand at Focus 2010, the photography show in Birmingham, England this year and the differences are incredible. The new pens are superbly responsive and give massive control over your touch. It is this level of control that gives you fast and easy artistic results, especially when painting. The latest equivalent of my own tablet is the new Intuos 4 A5 model. Around £300 it's still a considerable expense for the home user. 
The new Bamboo models bridge the price gap nicely giving you an entry level price (and a cool toy to impress clients) but with good functionality. The basic 'pad' of the tablet can be configured to match your screen size so if you place the pen at the left edge of your tablet, your cursor on screen will be at the left edge of your screen. The bigger the ratio between tablet size and screen size and the more delicate you will have to be with your movements but even with my A5 pad and 22" screen it's easy to use. The new Bamboo models also include touch technology so you can simply use your finger, much like an iPhone. This model at only 10.5x7" is slightly smaller than A5 but at under £70 it's a no-brainer for pen touch editing and just plain coolness.