Omg my photos look so different on different screens!

[TheStupidForeigner]

Ever since I first started learning photography I've been editing photos on my laptop, but now I just got an LCD monitor and everything looks TOTALLY different! I think the main difference is the contrast and saturation... On the laptop things look quite dull and whitewashed compared to the LCD where colours are super vibrant and darks are contrasty. And not just a small difference... I'd say about the difference of increasing contrast by 30+ on light room... A huge difference! Which might also explain why when I once tried to print out a few pictures they were totally different also. So basically every photo I've ever edited has been wrong!

So what should I do about this? I mean... most of my images are being seen on computer screens but if everyone has a different screen how should I edit my photos? I am assuming that the laptop screen is lacking contrast, but I do not know if the monitor is set up well or not either and I can't afford that fancy thing meter thing that you can put on your laptop to calibrate it

What should I do?

 

[480sparky]

......
What should I do?

Calibrate them. If you can't afford a calibrator, then live with it.

 

[Ysarex]

Amazon.com X-Rite CMUNSML ColorMunki Smile Computer Mice Camera Photo

If you can't afford that then you can't afford to edit photos.

Joe

 

[snowbear]

Calibrate both, then adjust the brightness and contrast of one to match the other. If you are printing, then match the brightness of the screen(s) to match the print.

 

[KmH]

Even if you calibrate your displays, the average person out there that may be looking at your photos is using an un-calibrated display.
Many use a TN type display that has can only display 6-bit color and has narrow accurate viewing angles.
In other words, displaying your work online will always be way less consistent than displaying prints because of the wide variety of electronic display types.

Plus they may be using a browser that is not color aware, or they may have jacked their computers color management settings way out of whack.

 

[weepete]

Before I got a colorimeter I printed out a couple of photos on my printer and matched my screen to that. It was still out but it was better than nothing. But a calibrated screen is much better.

 

[TheStupidForeigner]

They are not just a little bit off... They are totally off... And I don't even know which is even meant to be "correct"... And especially as someone just said, everyone's screens are slightly different anyway so getting it dead on is not worth $90... I would rather spend that money on other stuff.

There is one other problem... How do you change the contrast on a laptop screen? There is no option in the windows calibration, and no option on the hardware :/

 

[Fox_Racing_Guy]

Unless you are printing your photo's don't sweat it to much. The average person doesn't even own a computer any longer and it's most likely photo's are being viewed on a cell phone or tablet. The only people with calibrated screens are photographers, video producers, and graphic designers.
I assume most people have facebook or instagram, do you see what passes for "photographs" today? If you get your shots in focus and have decent lighting the average person will think you should be shooting magazine covers.

 

[snerd]

.......... I assume most people have facebook or instagram, do you see what passes for "photographs" today? If you get your shots in focus and have decent lighting the average person will think you should be shooting magazine covers.

LOL! Yep, had to laugh out loud at this. It never ceases to amaze me what people put online to the oh's and ah's of all of their family and friends!

 

[Designer]

.. if everyone has a different screen how should I edit my photos?

You calibrate YOUR display, (on a regular basis) and everyone else will have to calibrate theirs or live with a crumby display.

 

[snerd]

......... so getting it dead on is not worth $90... I would rather spend that money on other stuff..........

I think that's a pretty small price to pay for getting your monitor calibrated. How much have you spent on all of your camera gear?!

 

[Ysarex]

They are not just a little bit off... They are totally off... And I don't even know which is even meant to be "correct"... And especially as someone just said, everyone's screens are slightly different anyway so getting it dead on is not worth $90... I would rather spend that money on other stuff.

There is one other problem... How do you change the contrast on a laptop screen? There is no option in the windows calibration, and no option on the hardware :/

Odds are you can't adjust the gamma of your laptop screen. It will still help immensely to get it calibrated. A calibrator will also profile your display and save the profile for use by editing software that (should) require it. You're not only using uncalibrated displays but also unprofiled displays.

Bottom line here is your talking about your tools. You've encountered a situation where the tools you're using aren't working for you because you either have poor tools and/or you're missing tools.

Tools matter. Somewhere on this and every other photo forum out there you'll find posts like "It's not the camera it's the photographer." And then they'll be lots of examples of awesome photos taken by photogs with cheap and/or toy P&S junk cameras. That's why all the pros out there have dumped all their old gear and now only work with iPhones -- right. It's not about the tools it's about the photos but the tools really do matter.

I just now finished listening to a CD of Chris Parkening playing guitar. He plays one of these: Jose Ramirez C664 Special Classic Guitar We could give Chris one of these and ask him to play it: http://www.amazon.com/First-Act-Dis...TF8&qid=1423703953&sr=8-4&keywords=toy+guitar And I'll bet he could make it sound better than you or I could. But do we really want to listen to him play a $35.00 toy guitar? Tools matter.

You don't have to choose between $35.00 and $16,000.00 -- there's a sliding scale. Chris could make an $800.00 Martin or Yamaha sound pretty damn good.

You've discovered you have a tool problem. You solve the problem with the right tool or you live with the problem. We told you what tool you need.

Joe

 

[bratkinson]

As anyone with a laptop already knows, the viewing angle makes all the difference in the world. Although one can still read what's on the laptop screen at, say, 25 degrees up or down from 'square on', the colors shift noticeably, as does the contrast and just about everything else. And, of course, moving the laptop to a different lighting situation or rotating it slightly screws things up even more!

That's the reason a number of experienced posters on this forum and others in prior months/years have always advocated using a 'real' monitor when performing photo editing. Even if it's plugged into a laptop, the colors you see will always be consistent, as long as your lighting doesn't change...such as, sunlight lighting the room vs after dark.

And, as recommended for ALL photo editing, calibrating your monitor cannot be over-emphasized enough! I 'made do' without for over 10 years before I finally bought a Colormunki with an Amazon gift card I received for Christmas a year ago. All I can say is WOW! What a difference! Looking at photos I edited 3-4 years ago versus the my more recent efforts, the difference is very noticeable. And just to be sure, purchase a calibration device that re-evaluates the lighting every few minutes and adjusts the monitor as needed. That way, as the sun lights your room differently, or you have different lights turned on, (or dimmed, in my case), you'll still get the correct colors on your screen. Also, monitor calibration is not a one-time event. It's an ongoing process as, in my situation, over a period of perhaps 3 years, I went from incandescent lighting to twisty florescent lights to LEDs in the chandelier in my computer-room (dining room for prior owners of my house).

 

[photoguy99]

What do you want to do?

If you want to share photos online I'd say to make your content count because you can't control what it's going to look like.

If you want to print or show in an otherwise controlled way, go ahead and calibrate.

I have not noticed that people with calibrated monitors make better photos.

 

[TheStupidForeigner]

I think everyone is forgetting that this is the beginners board... I'm the equivalent of the first tmie guitar player with a $35 guitar from amazon. I simply can't afford $90 for a calibrator, and even if I could improve my kit a lot more spending that money somewhere else. I was just trying to find a way to get as much as I can out of what little I have, without the calibrator.