Computer Monitors

[Weather]

This Xmas my wife gave me a new flat screen, 17 inch computer monitor. I had an old, big, tube monitor before. Now, I really love the new one, but now I can really see all the mistakes I made with processing my older photos. I can't believe the difference a monitor makes. There are so many pics that I thought were pretty good, and now I get the old "What was I thinking?"

With all the monitors out there, I guess we really never know how the original picture really looked like.

[yelvertoft]

Hi Mike,
I think with monitors, there's good ones and bad ones. This is equally applicable to CRT or flat panel stuff. I've known collegues who've walked into a store, looked at all the monitors and then insisted that they want "that one", not another supposed identical one out of the stockroom, but that particular example.

As for what the original picture looked like, you're better judging that from a print. That comment will stir debate, I'm sure!

Regards,

Duncan

[Don Hoey]

Originally Posted by yelvertoft

As for what the original picture looked like, you're better judging that from a print. That comment will stir debate, I'm sure!

Regards,

Duncan

I'd agree with that as long as it is a proper photo printer. I often wonder how pics I post are seen by viewers as I am on a laptop with TFT screen. Not a proper job.

Don

[nirofo]

Be carefull with flat screen LCD monitors, what you see is not always what you get! It is extremely difficult to set up a quality LCD screen, let alone a general run of the mill LCD screen. The old CRT monitor screens still give the best visual output at any price premium. In all cases, there is no excuse for your pictures if your screen is not set up properly, you'll never know how good or how bad your shots are if you don't spend time setting up. There's plenty of info on the web about setting up a computer monitor for displaying photographs, reccommend much time spent reading and trial and error before production.

nirofo.

[Gidders]

I had a 17" CRT monitor and got really hacked off with the fact that my prints rarely looked like what I was seeing on screen. I'd had my printer calibrated but was still wasting a lot of ink and paper.

In the end the chap who was writing profiles for my printer explained that, unless I had a top quality TFT monitor, calibrating that accurately was nigh on impossible. In the end I sold it and bought a second hand Trinitron CRT 21" monitor off ebay for £90 and now what I see is what I get. Although it takes up a lot of desk space and does not look sexy, it was the best thing I've done!

Originally Posted by yelvertoft

As for what the original picture looked like, you're better judging that from a print.

I would agree PROVIDED you've had your printer properly profiled. If you are relying on the drivers that ship with the printer then, in my experience, its a bit of a hit & miss affair. This is particularly the case if you want to use a paper from a different manufacturer - say if you want a fine art or linen finish for example, or want to use a cheaper paper. By having my Epson 1290 profiled I can get excelent results with Jessops own paper which is about 1/2 the price of Epson The contact I use works by post and charges £10.50 for the first paper & £5 thereafter - if anyone want details please contact me (and I'm not on commission LOL).

The alternative is to have your prints done professionally. Web based Proam Imaging do a very good job at a ridiculously low prices (£1 for 18" x 12" + postage). The only downside is that you have to pre prepare you images to their own spec – 402 dpi (why 402??) and convert the document profile to a colour space they provide on their website. That said the results are very good (maybe I should look into commissions!!)

Opps - have I got a bit off topic?

[Weather]

Thanks all...I went to http://epaperpress.com/monitorcal/ that I got from a google search with "Calibrating a monitor." I downloaded WiziWYG which is a free calibrating software. Much better! Everything looked good except the monitor gamma, and the software fixed it!

[Weather]

As a side note. I have several modes programmed into my monitor. By pushing a button I can toggle threw them. There's one named "Pictures." If you have this feature on your monitor, don't be fooled into thinking the people that set it knew what they were doing. I used it with several web sites on calibrating a monitor, and it was always way off!

[Bob Hastie]

I bought a new PC 3 days ago which came with an LCD monitor, by last night I was back to using my old CRT monitor as I was fed-up with constantly trying (and failing) to get a decent picture on the LCD.
Is this really progress?

[Weather]

Originally Posted by Bob Hastie

I bought a new PC 3 days ago which came with an LCD monitor, by last night I was back to using my old CRT monitor as I was fed-up with constantly trying (and failing) to get a decent picture on the LCD.
Is this really progress?

I would try again using some of the suggestions here. Now that I have it right, I love it! I could never go back to CRT.

[Craftysnapper]

Basically the professional consensus for image editing is if you are using a decent £200 17" CRT monitor then you would need to spend £700 plus on a LCD monitor to get the equivalent quality.