'True Response'

[ZERO]

Whats your preferred practice - do you polish-up your psd's
in the dark or with low-lighting, or do you work in the daylight ?

I worked in a new-media studio where it was like being
on a submarine with a very dark open plan suite illuminated
mostly by the expensive glow of Macs and light-tables.
but the photography we worked with was very properly lit
studio photography of cars and food not outdoor situations
and events.


When I'm out, maybe in the library for example, I like to look at my
pics and other peoples on the net, plus compare industry jpegs (eg
reuters.com) to see how the brightness etc compares. Its amazing (and
vexing) how many monitors out there in this world diplay pictures quite
dark!

I have been habitually working under artificial light and in the semi-dark,
and I think its causing me too make things a little dark - on-screen.
Maybe it's just I shot a lot of Portra 400 most recently and its very punchy
looking.


Another aspect is the purpose of the image. some 'arty' things can look
moody and cool quite dark, whereas promotional things can be
produced to look 'larger than life' (fast-food imagery being an obvious
example).

so do you render and balance in the dark or at night, or during the
daylight ? and 'why ?'

 

[ksmattfish]

Realizing that my monitor and most other folks' monitors are uncalibrated, I just try to make digital images look good on mine and hope that it doesn't look too bad on other people's monitors.

In the darkroom it is necessary to be aware of what light the photo will be displayed in. Obviously, there has to be a happy medium where the image will look good in a variety of situations. But I find that if I print my photos "normal" (for me), that when they are hung on the walls of my family/friends/clients they tend to look just a bit too dark. The same photos hung on the wall of a well lit gallery look just fine. So if I know that the photo is going to be hung in someone's home, I actually try to examine the location and determine if I need to print it just a bit lighter.

 

[ZERO]

I know exactly what you mean Matt.

in PS when i adjust 'lightness' (under hue/saturation)
i imagine the image as if in print . when i adjust 'brightness'
(under brightness contrast) i imagine standing in the photograph
- being there when i took it.

I notice when exporting JPEGS that a small degree of brightness
is lost in the JPEG copy.It good to make them a bit vibrant if they
will end up in a Flash movie later.

no-ones images on this forum look too dark on my monitor
(1999 Dell UltraScan 1024x768-about the size of a small house).
My father's monitor is much newer but its really thick and dark.
No wonder someone gave it to him hehehe. I tried messing with
the monitor settings in windows and on the facia of the thing,
but it doesnt improve the clarity.