Brian

Just make sure you do not use the standard 15-pin VGA (Blue) connector for the best results. Hopefully your computer has a DVI port (White) or a HDMI port. The monitor comes with a DVI cable and you can get a HDMI to DisplayPort cable from Amazon.

Yep. That one will work.

I receive no commission or kick-backs of any kind. So when I really recommend something, I would personally purchase it myself. i hate-hate-hate wasting money on this sh*t.

Here are some of Damien's thoughts: http://www.damiensymonds.net/art_monitor.html

Gaming computers are great for photo editing. Gaming monitors/displays? Notsomuch. You want color consistentcy and a IPS based display panel will give you the best chance of that happening. Also, you want a Matte screen or one that has a Matte coating at the very least. Glossy screens aren't the best for photo editing.

Re-sellers like B&H do ship to Australia, so you might want to do some investigating. I'm not sure what the final cost would be, but it might give you a few more choices. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/ http://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/HelpCenter/int-shippingRulesPolicies.jsp Check out this thread, the "Henry Posner" is the "H" in B & H. Things from B&H take about 8 days or so for shipment and to get through customs. http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/2224514

Yep. That's Australia for you. The bulk of the members in Ask Damien, from either this website or FB, are based in the US. Now that doesn't mean we have forgotten everyone else, it's just the way things are. Honestly, I've created a few threads over the years about stuff to buy in Australia and who/where to purchase it. Everything from printing companies to computer hardware companies, it just seems harder to find on your side of the world. Maybe it's because of that huge area of desert that really splits the country. Who knows....

Australia? Umm...yeah, let's double the price on everything. I love the U2412m display. I've seen one in person. It's what I'd buy if I was buying one. A photographer friend of mine who I work with, I got her to purchase one and that thing is the closet thing to a matte screen without being a matte screen. The damn thing is beautiful. It has a matte coating that works REALLY well. The only downside is that Dell has discontinued that model. So if you see a good deal on one, BUY IT!! It has a DVI-D port and a DisplayPort for you to use. So you could either use a DVI cable or get a HDMI to (full size...not mini size) DisplayPort cable.

Check this out: Dual Display setup: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017MXNWLG/ref=twister_B016V3S1SM?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 How's that for real-estate?

$500 for a display is a healthy budget. You have many models to choose from, especially in the 24" range. Take a look at this: http://www.damiensymonds.net/art_monitor.html

You buy a 27" screen that is either 4K (or 5K with iMacs) and the same thing will happen. Things get reduced. 100% sRGB is over-rated. In fact, all those monitors promising 99% or 100% is nice, but is a little misleading. For example, say you are a photographer and sell digital files only. You have a screen that's calibrated and is 100% sRGB. Fantastic!! Good for you!! However, your client's are viewing them on a crappy screen that is nowhere near accurate. Those beautiful creamy pink skin photos turn in to pumpkin toned on the customer's display. Same thing with prints. While it's very important to be calibrated and have your prints match your screen (98% - 100% matching,) each printing company yields different results, because their printers are different or possibly need maintenance/repair. So that 100% sRGB, it's good to shoot for, but it is relative. That's why when you find a printing company that gives you the closest match, you tend to stick with them.

Actually, THANK YOU for asking a question that wasn't the typical "What computer should I buy?" post. Something different for a change.

The higher the resolution and more ppi you go, the more things will look smaller, especially if things are utilizing the same physical area. So you are correct, your icons and menus and overall appearance...things will be smaller than what you currently see. If you really want to keep things the same, then look for a screen that is 1920x1080 or 1200, or get a 27" screen that is not 4K. In fact, 2560x1440 is a "typical" native resolution for 27" displays. So that BenQ is cramming 27" of display area into 24", so yes, things are gonna be smaller. For today's current displays, it's a good idea to use HDMI, DVI-D or DisplayPort for best results. AVOID using the classing (blue) 15-Pin VGA port / aka D-Sub port. That BenQ BL 2420 PT is "Discontinued," Amazon doesn't have it, so what is your price-range? Maybe we can find an alternative.

I guess. You don't have a choice...LOL!! I don't use Bridge. Hopefully it will work, but I'm not thinking it will. I'm thinking you will have to un-install and re-install Bridge. If that doesn't work, give Adobe a call.

From another thread: I'm really not digging Best Buy's selection. I found a PC that caught my eye. Why? Because it has Windows 7 installed. So ignore the reviews with people boo-hooing that it didn't come with Win 10 pre-installed. Having Windows 7 Pro edition is a good thing! What happened is that Dell sold you a license for Windows 10, but installed a previous verison of the OS. I do this ALL THE TIME when it comes to my servers that I build for clients. The reason is sometimes the customer's software may not be compatible with a version of the OS. So the older version is installed, is completely legit, and when it comes time to install the newer OS, you can get it free. I'd get this computer: Dell XPS 8900 ...and this monitor: Dell U2713HM That combo is a good starting point. $1969.98. Plus Tax. I'm not impressed with the other models. In either the "Performance Desktops" or "Gaming Desktops." It's a bit of a "Yawn" for me. You do not want a "All-in-One" Windows computer and you wanted to stick with a Windows system, so a 27" iMac is out of the equation. That Dell combo is what I would personally purchase. In fact, I bought a lower-end computer for my GF for this past Christmas.

From the "What Specs to Look For" thread: What you are looking for is: i5 or i7 CPU 8GB RAM at a Minimum / 16GB RAM or more Preferred 1TB HD at a Minimum / 2TB or larger Preferred Dedicated Video Card with its own Video Memory. 2GB or 4GB of Video Memory is fine. Windows 7 64-bit Pro Edition OR Windows 10

Mac computers aren't better, they are just different. If you do switch to a iMac, please SKIP THE 21.5" MODELS!!!! For a basic model that will get the job done, the stock $1799 27" iMac is a good place to start and is within your budget. As for what to look for, have you checked out the other posts asking this same exact question? LOL!! Poke around in the Ask Brian section, I'm tired of repeating myself. If you have any further questions feel free to ask them in this thread.

You NEED to add a HD to that $1849 model.

Sorry. I posted things backwards. Press and hold Command + Option + Shift Keep holding them. Open the Applications Folder and Migrate to the Adobe Bridge folder. When it bugs out and takes you back to the finder, keep holding the Command + Option + Shift keys and click the Adobe Bridge CC. Then the following box will appear. Click all three checkboxes and click OK.

You really should be putting your images in folders by folder year and then project name folder or folder that has the year and then individual date. Makes things easier to find when it goes horribly wrong. Hopefully, you have some sort of file organization / method to your madness, letting software make all the decisions is not a good way to do things. Imagine if you had a complete crash? Just think how frustrating it would be? I learned this the hard way. I deleted the wrong folder and lost years 2009-2011 of photos of my kids. Like the game winning hit that my son made during the championship baseball game. *Poof* All because I had a mess of a HD filing system.

You are stuck with your update. No take-backsies. No known fix. This is one of the many reasons that I tell people to stay on Mavericks if they can. Yosemite & El Capitan seem to not play nicely with Adobe's products. It's also random. There are lots of people who have no issues. The majority of people have quirky problems, like your problem, and others just hate life. You might have to uninstall and re-install Bridge. Or try resetting Bridge's preferences first: Start Adobe Bridge and immediately press Command+Option+Shift until the Reset Settings dialog box appears. Select all three options--Reset Preferences, Reset Standard Workspaces, and Purge Entire Thumbnail Cache--and then click OK. Hopefully one of those two things will work, otherwise a phone call to Adobe is in your future, or you will have to live with the problem. I really don't have a magic bullet for you. These quirky problems SUCK. Apple blames Adobe and Adobe Blames Apple. Unfortunately, the end-user is stuck in the middle. Each OS update doesn't seem to fix anything, it just introduces other weird problems and it's not getting better. I'm actually thinking of switching back to Windows for my next computer and I thought I'd never say that.

One more thing! Picking the right time of day makes all the difference. Shooting a house between 11AM & 1 PM, may not be ideal. Usually shots during the early morning/evening will have the most even light.

Here is a video describing what I'm talking about: http://wearesophoto.com/natural-looking-hdr-interior-photography/

You could try things with off camera flash, but that can get expensive. What I recommend is setting your camera to manual, set the ISO to its base ISO (usually 100 or 200). Set the Aperture to f/8 and then mount the camera on a tripod. Adjust your Shutter Speed so that the exposure is correct. Your SS could be as low as 1/10th of a second, give or take. Since the SS will be that low, I'd use a wireless trigger to initiate exposure or use the 10 second self timer to help eliminate camera shake. Then adjust your SS so that you are 1-1/2 stops overexposed and take a photo, then go back to the original SS and then make it to where it's 1-1/2 stops underexposed. You could get away with 1-1/3rd or even a stop above / below. It really depends on the camera. Then take the images into the current version of LR or ACR and blend them together as a HDR. Now before you go and say you don't like the look of HDR, we aren't going for the nuclear look, but a "natural" looking HDR photo. In LR, you select the three images and then hit CMD/Ctrl - Shift - H and it will merge them. Then you play with the merged file, use grad filters and tweak it until it looks good. Oh, bring a gray card so that your WB can be consistent in each of the shots. Photograph the gray card before each bracketed set. You will want to make sure the WB is the same for each photo before merging them as a HDR.

Seems fine. I wish they would list the motherboard Make/Model, but on the surface I don't see any red flags.