Need help...

Bo4key · Feb 7, 2012

Does this image appear really dark to everyone else?

I edited it at home on my two month old laptop (all I have) and it appears about two stops lighter than it does on my work computer. There really was a lot more range and detail when I was editing it. Neither monitor is calibrated.

Darkened Street by Boaketography, on Flickr

Which also bring up another question, is it even worth it to get a calibrator for the laptop or should I just save my money to buy a desktop to do my editing? I'm strictly a hobbyist but I also don't want to be producing sub par images. This is the first time I've noticed a real difference in my images when viewing on different mediums.

thanks

CCericola · Feb 7, 2012

Instead of buying a desktop you can just buy a good monitor and hook it up to your laptop.

redessa · Feb 7, 2012

Calibrating a laptop isn't ideal, but you should still do it if that's your main editing monitor. Or like CC said, hook up another monitor to your laptop - then calibrate that.

As for your question, I am on a calibrated monitor and all I see is a sea of black with a few lights. Looks there's some grey under the light in the front. If I had to guess, I'd say it was a road but yes, it's really, really dark.

Bo4key · Feb 7, 2012

CCericola said:
Instead of buying a desktop you can just buy a good monitor and hook it up to your laptop.

That's a great idea....I can't believe I didn't think of that. I have a monitor for an old desktop. Would it work if I calibrated it?

jowensphoto · Feb 7, 2012

Bo4key said:
CCericola said:

Instead of buying a desktop you can just buy a good monitor and hook it up to your laptop.

Click to expand...

That's a great idea....I can't believe I didn't think of that. I have a monitor for an old desktop. Would it work if I calibrated it?

Yep. Keep in mind though that your run-of-the-mill monitor is most likely not ideal for graphic design/image editing, but will be better than a laptop screen.

redessa · Feb 7, 2012

Depends on how old it is. When I first tried to calibrate, I was using a really old, kind of cheap monitor and I was not able to do some of the things the calibrating software was asking of me. For example, it wanted me to set my color temperature to 6500K. That monitor had no way for me to do that. Eventually, I was able to get a new monitor (an IPS one at that) and have been able to calibrate it quite nicely and am much more confident that what I see on my screen is now accurate.