TV as Monitor no Good for Editing Raw?

[William Baroo]

I have been using TV's as computer monitors since 2007, and I would like to continue with it. I have been editing raw and JPG photos on a 2019 65" TCL, which is not a high-end television. Everything has seemed fine to me, but I just heard an expert say no TV will be adequate for editing raw files well. Is that really true?

I'm not making 6-foot-wide prints for galleries, but I do like blowing photos up and putting them on my walls.

I have been advised that if I move to a mid-tier OLED TV, I should be able to get image quality about like a good monitor. Does that sound correct? Is it really necessary?

 

[TJMcG121 4]

I have been using TV's as computer monitors since 2007, and I would like to continue with it. I have been editing raw and JPG photos on a 2019 65" TCL, which is not a high-end television. Everything has seemed fine to me, but I just heard an expert say no TV will be adequate for editing raw files well. Is that really true?

I'm not making 6-foot-wide prints for galleries, but I do like blowing photos up and putting them on my walls.

I have been advised that if I move to a mid-tier OLED TV, I should be able to get image quality about like a good monitor. Does that sound correct? Is it really necessary?

If you want a real color-managed editing process, you need a monitor that you can calibrate to ICC standards. If eyeballing is all you do, then pretty much anything is good enough.

 

[smoke665]

As mentioned above if you only view the images on one device then you wont have significant issues. If you send your files to a lab that does color correction then you won't necessarily have a problem, but it's highly likely that your prints won't look like those on the TV screen.

All display devices use a color profile (set of instructions) to tell it how the colors should look. When you edit an image on a calibrated monitor using the sRGB v4 profile, you're not only assuring yourself that the profile is compatible with other devices, but that "your monitor" is calibrated to the same standards. That way what you see on your monitor is what others will see on their devices.

 

[VidThreeNorth]

Also, the response of any monitor or TV can "drift". It can change over time. Color response can decrease and each color can change independently from the other colors. I expect OLEDs to be worst in this regard, but I have not researched it lately, so I could be wrong.

 

[William Baroo]

Web sources seem to think that if I get some kind of $200 device, I can calibrate the display on my current TV or just about any LED TV.

I have been studying, and my understanding is that the point of all this is to standardize colors so photos look similar on all devices and in prints.

I don't know how much I should be concerned about this, since I have blown up and printed a lot of photos, including phone photos, and I never marvel at the inaccurate colors. Maybe it's something I should think about addressing in the future.

 

[smoke665]

don't know how much I should be concerned about this, since I have blown up and printed a lot of photos, including phone photos, and I never marvel at the inaccurate colors.

See my earlier comments. Most labs apply color correction, so you may not notice inaccuracies. What you will likely notice is the prints won't match your digital display.

Also while its possible to calibrate a wide gamut tv display for Web or general use, it isn't great for more precise work.

 

[Rickbb73 13]

All depends on what your end product is for.

If you are doing super critical work and want everything to be color perfect, then yeah you need a calibrated fairly new, quality monitor.

If you are like most people and just want good looking prints, either on paper or on screen(s), and not compare them to each other under lab conditions, then what you are doing is fine.

However, a 2019 TV is nearing the end of its useful life, and you may not have noticed but it will have lost some color fidelity by now. May even have developed some dead pixels or white spots here and there. If you send out your print work and you start noticing a difference in color from your monitor and the print, you definitely need a new one that you can choose a standard profile for.

Time for a Christmas gift to yourself?

 

[William Baroo]

See my earlier comments. Most labs apply color correction, so you may not notice inaccuracies. What you will likely notice is the prints won't match your digital display.

Also while its possible to calibrate a wide gamut tv display for Web or general use, it isn't great for more precise work.

I did read your post, but then I had to read up at Cambridge in Colour to get a grip on this stuff, and it seemed best to try to write a post that stood more or less on its own.

 

[William Baroo]

All depends on what your end product is for.

If you are doing super critical work and want everything to be color perfect, then yeah you need a calibrated fairly new, quality monitor.

If you are like most people and just want good looking prints, either on paper or on screen(s), and not compare them to each other under lab conditions, then what you are doing is fine.

However, a 2019 TV is nearing the end of its useful life, and you may not have noticed but it will have lost some color fidelity by now. May even have developed some dead pixels or white spots here and there. If you send out your print work and you start noticing a difference in color from your monitor and the print, you definitely need a new one that you can choose a standard profile for.

Time for a Christmas gift to yourself?

I'm thinking I will hang onto this until I see a good deal. I have a new camera, a couple of new lenses, and some other recent expenditures, so I haven't been exactly stingy with myself. Maybe retailers will be trying to unload stuff next month.

 

[wfooshee]

Another issue with TVs is that they have selectable color profiles in the menus, and many times those are even selectable per input. If you calibrate, don't change those selections for the input used by your computer.

Calibrating the color output with something like a Datacolor Spyder is perfectly feasible, but it calibrates the output of your device, not the TV or monitor, in an effort to make the TV or monitor present accurate colors. If your display is weak in a certain range of greens, the Spyder will build a profile for your display that accentuates those shades, and similarly, a color range the display exaggerates will be reduced in the output profile the Spyder generates. The Spyder is easy to use, but keep in mind that room lighting affects it. You want to calibrate with the room at the condition you use it most. A brightly sunlit room will give as completely different calibration from a room lit by artificial light at night.

 

[KJ_North]

I couldnt get my monitor close to what my printer was printing out until I borrowed a Datacolor SpyderPro Monitor Calibration from someone at work. Took about 2 minutes and now what i see is what i print virtually dead on. My monitor for the most part was ridiculously too bright, in fact it turned it down as low as it could go.

Monitors are set up like a TV for the most part to show vibrance and saturation levels far above normal. Once calibrated it is like a whole new world especially if you plan on printing.

​

 

[tinytmp2]

I have been using TV's as computer monitors since 2007, and I would like to continue with it. I have been editing raw and JPG photos on a 2019 65" TCL, which is not a high-end television. Everything has seemed fine to me, but I just heard an expert say no TV will be adequate for editing raw files well. Is that really true?

I'm not making 6-foot-wide prints for galleries, but I do like blowing photos up and putting them on my walls.

I have been advised that if I move to a mid-tier OLED TV, I should be able to get image quality about like a good monitor, similar to how Minecraft Gratis can deliver a full experience without premium features. Does that sound correct? Is it really necessary?

It’s not true that TVs are unusable for RAW photo editing, but they do have limitations. Most TVs are built for video, not color accuracy, so they can apply processing and lack proper calibration support. A mid-tier OLED TV can get much closer to a good monitor in terms of contrast and color, especially if set to PC mode and calibrated, and it can be perfectly fine for personal work and large wall prints. A dedicated photo monitor is only really necessary if you need consistent, print-accurate color for professional results.

 

[AlanKlein90 6]

It’s not true that TVs are unusable for RAW photo editing, but they do have limitations. Most TVs are built for video, not color accuracy, so they can apply processing and lack proper calibration support. A mid-tier OLED TV can get much closer to a good monitor in terms of contrast and color, especially if set to PC mode and calibrated, and it can be perfectly fine for personal work and large wall prints. A dedicated photo monitor is only really necessary if you need consistent, print-accurate color for professional results.

How are those TVs that also act as a art painting display unit with frames? Are the color setups different? Other differences?

We put the best art frame TVs from Samsung, Hisense, and TCL to the test — here's how they compare

Art frame TVs are designed to blend in like a piece of framed art hanging on your wall. They use matte screens, flush mounts, and swappable bezels.

www.businessinsider.com

 

[KJ_North]

I guess the question becomes for example why would you try and configure a TV down to what you need for correcting monitoring and editing photos? By a monitor for what it is meant to be used for and calibrate it. I use the below monitor and if you dont calibrate it the colors are so vibrant etc it is not even close to what actually prints. But calibrate it and it virtually dead on.

KOORUI 27 Inch QHD (2560x1440) 4K IPS Ultra-Thin Computer Monitor​

 

[davev80 2]

I've been using a 4k Tv for about 3 years now.
What I read back then was to process your photo, send it to your phone, hold the phone with that photo next to the tv and adjust the tv to match the phone.
Is it perfect, probably not.
Is it close enough for what I'm doing, yes, it sure is.