photo quality issues on my pc

[Seventen]

I used the wifes laptop recently to view some photos i have taken of our son and noticed they look so much better on her laptop than on my pc. I get the feeling i am editing images that might not have needed editing and the white balance exposure was already correct to begin with.
Is this possible my pc is showing images poorly or could it be something wrong with my screen or even is it some settings problem i have?

Thank you.

 

[vimwiz]

Either. Is your screeen calibrated? Which colour profile do you have loaded?

 

[KmH]

What kind of display (make and model) do you use with your desktop, and what kind of display does the laptop have.

Many desktops come with Twisted Nematic (TN) displays that can only display 6-bits of color. TN displays have limited color accurate viewing angles.

If the laptop is one of the better ones it may have an In-Plane Switching (IPS) display that can display 8-bits of color and has much broader color accurate viewing angles.

Another factor that can affect color accuracy is display age. For critical image editing a display needs to be re-calibrated on a regular basis. Many re-calibrate their editing display(s) monthly to ensure they are color accurate.

• How to Calibrate Your Monitor for Photography

X-Rite CMUNDIS ColorMunki Display

 

[71M]

Is this possible my pc is showing images poorly or could it be something wrong with my screen or even is it some settings problem i have?

Thank you.

Yes, absolutely. If you have no real way of knowing, I'd assume a fairly new laptop set up default, out-of-the-box, will be somewhat more reliable for casual editing, than an unknown PC and monitor combination; but there's no real way of telling, unless you can either visually calibrate, or even better with a hardware device.

Try this website, to at least check your screen(s):

LCD monitor test images

 

[table1349]

Even if you are not printing a lot of photos this is a great read. Making fine prints in your digital darkroom: Getting started

 

[Seventen]

Thanks all for your help and links will be taking this all in and getting settings done correct. I have calibrated the screen now and wow text actually is much better but a little dark but everything i have edited over the past 9 months now look bad and quite annoyed about that. Is it possible I still have done something wrong with settings or is it just things are normal now and pictures were just edited bad? Should the screen really be so dark looking when calibrated correct? I really dont get on well with settings in pcs.

 

[Seventen]

Windows color system dafaults.
Device profile / system default srgb iec61966-2.1
viewing conditions / system default wcs profile for srgb viewing conditions.

 

[Seventen]

After spending a good part of the day reading through these links and playing with settings I think I have done it thanks to you all. Thank you very much in helping me here.

 

[Ysarex]

Thanks all for your help and links will be taking this all in and getting settings done correct. I have calibrated the screen now and wow text actually is much better but a little dark but everything i have edited over the past 9 months now look bad and quite annoyed about that. Is it possible I still have done something wrong with settings or is it just things are normal now and pictures were just edited bad? Should the screen really be so dark looking when calibrated correct? I really dont get on well with settings in pcs.

Did you calibrate the display using a hardware device? For example a colorimeter like this: Amazon.com: X-Rite CMUNSML ColorMunki Smile: Electronics

If the answer is no then you have not really calibrated your display and down the road sometime in the future when you eventually do get it right you'll have not only the past 9 months of badly edited photos annoying you, you'll also have whatever you edit between now and then further annoying you.

You need to do more than just calibrate your display which you can't really do by eye. You also need to profile your display and that requires and hardware device. The one I linked is inexpensive and does an adequate job. Get it and use it or your just wasting your time.

Joe