MacBook Pro & Monitor Calibration

[LenRothman]

My digital specialist is planning to work from home, rather than commute daily to my studio to save on gas.
Our files are from the 1DsMk2, and with layers are often 100Mb+ before we send them to the client.
We are now working on a MacPro 2.66Ghz with 7Gb RAM, using a LaCie 321, calibrated with the ColorEyes software and their X-rite puck and have had excellent results for what we do (Advertising photography).
We are considering a new or recently refurbished MacBook Pro or a new iMac and a good monitor, perhaps an NEC Spectravision II mentioned in another thread.
Will that be able to be calibrated from the MacBook Pro or iMac and can the MacBook or iMac handle the files we need for Photoshop work?
If not, would someone consider another configuration. Essentially, will we need a MacPro, like the one we have, or can most Photoshop work be done on the lesser models? We do not do a lot of intensive Photoshop work, mainly cleanup, sharpening, silhouetting, color correction, profiling, some retouching, background repair, etc. We are not into showing a 747 and 300 people landing on a wedding cake underwater…yet.
The software we would be using are Capture One Pro, Lightroom and Photoshop CS3
Thanks.
Len

[larry_angier]

No problem to profile and work remotely. You will need to bump-up the ram to 4GB and best bet is to run some external drives for back-up and to run the caches file from Photoshop.

You can profile most any monitor, but to calibrate, may need a higher end calibration package or better monitor or both. One of the best resources for this aspect is the info at Shootsmarter.com. Will has some pretty good info there.

I just ran a class last week where I profiled my Powerbook G4, ran CS-3 and ACR and was able to work pretty well, but it wasn't color-critical advertising work. Workable, but not optimal. I occasionally will work a full-res file in 16bit with lots of layers, but usually will finish it on my G5 with dual display and lots of screen real estate.

Dual monitors are a must for efficient Photoshop editing, IMO.

The MacBook Pro should have enough horse power for what you are doing, but be aware things change quickly in these horse and buggy days of digital...

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