Apple vs PC...?

[John27]

On a mac pro i am using a Samsung 24' monitor and it is spot on.... set it up once and have not made any other adjustments

I have a Samsung 24" that I now use as my 2nd monitor, and it is a great monitor (non IPS though) ! The new TN stuff.. yuck!

My second monitor is a crappy 15" HP display that came with a computer years ago. Yuck! Works for what I use it for though. Some applications it's handy, I display the 'grid' in lightroom on it (one of the places you can see a night and day difference, select an image on the left, totally different image pops up on the right! But I don't do any actual adjustments on the 15") and I always put my tools and toolbars and stuff in photoshop on the left monitor to give me more screen real estate for the actual image.

But soon my second monitor will be a 23" IPS display, my mouth is watering already!

SOME TN displays can be good, but most of them are trying so hard to push 'numbers'. Synthetically high contrast ratios, 2ms response times, claiming to display millions more colors than they actually do. And, they want it to be the brightest, most vivid display on the shelf (under fluorescent lighting). The best looking TN displays you see on the shelf are often the worst for photo editing. They are being pushed for these bright vivid colors but they aren't close to accurate. The result is, an exposure that looks spot on but a print that looks underxposed, or colors that look vivid and really 'pop' but all the C&C you get on TPF is "Looks really washed out" or "Did you set your white balance?"

 

[sactown024]

I am interested to see someone edit 2 of the same photos, one on a standard macbook monitor or hp or whatever and another on a calibrated $1500 IPS monitor and see the difference. I am not saying there wont be a difference, I genuinely want to see the difference.

 

[John27]

I am interested to see someone edit 2 of the same photos, one on a standard macbook monitor or hp or whatever and another on a calibrated $1500 IPS monitor and see the difference. I am not saying there wont be a difference, I genuinely want to see the difference.

I tell ya what I'll do. Once this monitor comes in, I'll set it up and calibrate it, and then I'll set my laptop up right next to it. I will adjust the same photo so that they look identical on each display (or as close as they can, anyway) and then post the results.

 

[sactown024]

I am interested to see someone edit 2 of the same photos, one on a standard macbook monitor or hp or whatever and another on a calibrated $1500 IPS monitor and see the difference. I am not saying there wont be a difference, I genuinely want to see the difference.

I tell ya what I'll do. Once this monitor comes in, I'll set it up and calibrate it, and then I'll set my laptop up right next to it. I will adjust the same photo so that they look identical on each display (or as close as they can, anyway) and then post the results.

yeah. def interested!

 

[John27]

I am interested to see someone edit 2 of the same photos, one on a standard macbook monitor or hp or whatever and another on a calibrated $1500 IPS monitor and see the difference. I am not saying there wont be a difference, I genuinely want to see the difference.

I tell ya what I'll do. Once this monitor comes in, I'll set it up and calibrate it, and then I'll set my laptop up right next to it. I will adjust the same photo so that they look identical on each display (or as close as they can, anyway) and then post the results.

yeah. def interested!

Well Luckily it shipped from somewhere close and it is due in tomorrow. If I get a chance (and so far, I think I will have some time) I'll do that tomorrow evening.

 

[John27]

Here's a teaser shot.

What I did was, I found a scan of a gray card (card used for metering and setting white balance). This is the exact same image, pulled up inside a web browser (google chrome) on each display, running off of the same computer, and the same video card (Radeon HD5870). The monitor on the right I 'de-calibrated' by returning it to factory settings and setting windows to the default color profile. Previously it was calibrated, it is not now, the one on the left is 'as is'.

Not that they are both inaccurate in the image because this was shot with my iPhone, the white balance is obviously off just looking at the walls, but, this is to demonstrate the difference, not to compare accuracy. Accuracy we can compare later, but what is crucial to understand is the DIFFERENCE between the two display types, which should be amplified even more with a higher grade IPS. Furthermore, it demonstrates the need to calibrate a monitor because this is a substantial difference.

I will do the test I talked about before, on a calibrated Apple Cinema Display, and again on a laptop. I'll lay them out just like these two displays are, and make sure the image looks the same in each, to demonstrate how this difference can appear in photographs. Using Windows' built in calibration tools, and a little trial and error, I could easily 'match' the two monitors, so they show the exact same shade of gray. But that wouldn't necessarily be accurate!

 

[Garbz]

yeah. def interested!

This is par for the course for us. My girlfriend cranks out photos from her laptop and then comes to me to check what they look like. The end result is usually "Awww crap" and she walks away.

Anyway you want to see a side by side comparison:

NEC Spectraview next to a laptop.

This is a top to bottom colour balance issue on a non IPS monitor. Note the text at the top and bottom is the same colour yet looks completely different:

That kind of really is an issue when you're judging colour, like this red screen here on the left with the crappy monitor and the right with the spectraview:

Oh then there's also inconsistencies with viewing angles. The first picture is taken straight on, the second from an elevated position:

A screen CAN look ok, but how do you know? The bigger the screen the worse the effect is too as the angles between the top and bottom of the diverge from your eye.
That's why we get expensive screens, and we calibrate because displays drift over time.

 

[sactown024]

wow I guess there is a huge difference, thats amazing. What monitor did you end up buying anyways?

 

[cgipson1]

yeah. def interested!

This is par for the course for us. My girlfriend cranks out photos from her laptop and then comes to me to check what they look like. The end result is usually "Awww crap" and she walks away.

Anyway you want to see a side by side comparison:

NEC Spectraview next to a laptop.

This is a top to bottom colour balance issue on a non IPS monitor. Note the text at the top and bottom is the same colour yet looks completely different:

That kind of really is an issue when you're judging colour, like this red screen here on the left with the crappy monitor and the right with the spectraview:

Oh then there's also inconsistencies with viewing angles. The first picture is taken straight on, the second from an elevated position:

A screen CAN look ok, but how do you know? The bigger the screen the worse the effect is too as the angles between the top and bottom of the diverge from your eye.
That's why we get expensive screens, and we calibrate because displays drift over time.

Great post, Garbz!!

 

[John27]

wow I guess there is a huge difference, thats amazing. What monitor did you end up buying anyways?

Apple Cinema Display, should be here today.

I'll still do the edit thing, because it sounds like fun to see the consequences of using a cheap display vs a good IPS. But Garbz really did an excellent job!

 

[sactown024]

wow I guess there is a huge difference, thats amazing. What monitor did you end up buying anyways?

Apple Cinema Display, should be here today.

I'll still do the edit thing, because it sounds like fun to see the consequences of using a cheap display vs a good IPS. But Garbz really did an excellent job!

Now you got me wanting a Apple Cinema Display, ugh

 

[John27]

wow I guess there is a huge difference, thats amazing. What monitor did you end up buying anyways?

Apple Cinema Display, should be here today.

I'll still do the edit thing, because it sounds like fun to see the consequences of using a cheap display vs a good IPS. But Garbz really did an excellent job!

Now you got me wanting a Apple Cinema Display, ugh

I got it about an hour ago. It's delicious. The built in magsafe connector is nice too if you have a macbook, the display will charge it. The thunderbolt display does this too and is essentially the same thing for the same price, but it doesn't work with anything other than a mac. However, if all you have is thunderbolt equipped macs that you wish to use, it adds a whole lot of functionality through rear firewire, USB, Ethernet, etc. ports. Kind of like a docking station.