Viewing Digital Photos

How do you view digital photos?

 

Not editing, sorting or otherwise working on them, but just viewing for pleasure, what works best for you?

 

Printing is one option that I've always favoured, as a 'finished' image, but it's not practical for every photo and even less an option where other people's photos are concerned, likewise digital editions of magazines.

 

So what is your preferred option?

Depends...

It was nice to have a 4K screen.

I grew pretty fond of a 10" HD tablet in general but havent set up a dedicated microSD card with photos or copied much to it. I 'd most likely use that tablet for a bragshots presentation.

Laptops and me don't go well together.

This question made me stop and think. Viewing just for pleasure? I think I only ever do this in the first week or two after I've finalised a set of photos. Or when I'm browsing through older photos in search of ones on a specific topic (NW forum or - less often - PhotoCrowd)

 

In general, I think I get more enjoyment from 'the ongoing process" of photography rather than from viewing photos I took years ago for pleasure. But through participating in the NW forum (after criticising it for years:(), I have enjoyed rediscovering older photos that I'd completely forgotten about.

 

I view photos (in Lightroom) on 17" Laptop screen. Or at least I would, if it wasn't broken. Since it broke, I view them on an external 21" screen which someone kindly lent me.

I am still using old Adobe graphics software that I think that I own (an illusion, I guess). At least I don't have to pay anything more to Adobe.

I like the old Bridge program and have my images viewed in that program where you can do slide shows, look at individual images, etc.

 

Viewed on a 27" monitor, images are even better than projected slides in the old days.

I've been creating video slide shows. Some I put on YouTube for convenience. I can show them from any internet-connected device. But these videos and most other personal ones I display and show on my 75" UHD TV by keeping in a memory card connected to the USB jack of the TV. I can play them back on demand from my clicker.

 

Here's the YouTube link. The scuba one was from scanned Ektachrome slides. The others were captured from digital cameras or cellphones. Set them on 1080 if you have the bandwidth.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDzogShfhgCHh2rVvEsFOJQ

Edited March 13, 2021 by AlanKlein

I am still using old Adobe graphics software that I think that I own (an illusion, I guess). At least I don't have to pay anything more to Adobe.

I like the old Bridge program and have my images viewed in that program where you can do slide shows, look at individual images, etc.

[ATTACH=full]1379480[/ATTACH]

 

Viewed on a 27" monitor, images are even better than projected slides in the old days.

If you have Windows, you get a video editing program called Movie Maker for free where you can make video slide shows with music and narration to playback on monitors, TV's, cellphones, etc.

PS: YouTube now allows you to download 4K movie slide shows (3840x2160), not only 2K 1080. So it really looks good on your 4K TV or monitor. You have the YouTube app on your TV or internet connection on your computer or phone using wifi. So it's simple and quick to show it. Looks great.

I don't do Windows

I don't do Windows

How ‘bout floors and ironing?

I don't do Windows

You could buy Adobe Premiere Elements for MAC for around $70. You can try it out for free.

Easy video editing software | Adobe Premiere Elements 2021

You could buy Adobe Premiere Elements for MAC for around $70

 

True enough, and perhaps when I have no choice but to progress to some newer Mac OS, I will do so.

 

But for now I have the full Adobe Creative Suite 5,5 Design Premium in the 64-bit version that does everything I need to do. (I tried PS 6 and went back to PS 5.5 ext).

 

If there had been an upgrade path without the subscription requirement, I would have taken it. But. alas.....

I use a motion activated digital frame in the kitchen, usually with a recent trip (best if you create an edited SDHC) and a slide show of recent photos as screen saver on my computer. Works well.

I remember discussions that slides have more dynamic range than paper prints.

 

I am not so sure about either digital (probably LCD) displays or projectors.

Projectors are commonly DLP, which I believe allows for more contrast ratio

than LCD.

 

Otherwise, I suspect most often, on my MacBook Air screen.

Over the past two years we've moved from just sharing Google albums for events & trips to also using iPhoto and AppleTV at home. The TVs throughout the house use albums as screen savers, and we change up the albums frequently. Today, on this Sunday morning, we're seeing several decades of living & travelling in France, and to make it more interesting we're streaming iTunes French music from my wife's youth. It's partly aide-memoire; partly finding a way to take advantage of 50+ years of photos that are digitally available, and partly because we can I suppose.

I use Lightroom Mobile to organize and display personal photos on an iPhone or iPad. Collections can be created in my desktop Lightroom, and selectively synchronized with the mobile application on each device. I display business related photos and videos on Dropbox or Vimeo, which also have mobile applications in addition to the usual internet connections.

 

You don't have to copy images into Lightroom collections. The images in collections are by reference to their original location. One image can appear in several collections with very little memory overhead. You can upload images to other services for display or downloading. If all you want is to display, Lightroom is much easier to use. The image quality on an iPad is spectacular, and you an peep pixels if you wish.

 

If you want something more permanent, there is no substitute for physical prints. Whether anyone cares about your legacy is another matter. I visited a second-hand shop a few years ago. There I found several boxes of mounted B&W prints of excellent quality and composition. They were probably made for competitions, and all were properly labeled, dated and signed on the reverse. The man's heirs were notably unimpressed.

 

Photos by Ansel Adams and a handful of others will probably survive for centuries. For the rest of us, art will go unnoticed, but children and long lost relatives are likely be treasured. If only I had known then what I know now.

Edited March 15, 2021 by Ed_Ingold

Don't care, as long as it looks good.

 

When at Walmart or Staples I Google myself and bring up a photo search on some of their computers and leave it up.

I have two Asus ProArt PA248Q monitors (in concert with an Asus ASUS VS248H-P for three total) attached to my workstation. The ProArt's are calibrated a bit differently, one for editing, and the other for printer matching.

 

The ones I like the best are printed and matted--finding their way into the rotating gallery that is scattered throughout our home. Some tweaks are made for online stuff, such as my website and here on PN. Although I enjoy some images better on the screen, I rather prefer and enjoy the portfolio books I have put together.

Coming back to this...

 

I've tried a few options:

 

My television is next to useless, noticeable colour cast, red to the left, blue to the right and does something horrible when scaling images to fit the screen, so quickly gave up on that!

 

Desktop computer with colour corrected monitor is great, but not the most comfortable option.

 

So, for me, the best option that I've found is an old 7" tablet with a good screen (what Apple would call 'retina'). Colour is accurate, it's a comfortable size for viewing on the sofa, easy to flip between landscape and portrait and the screen resolution is sufficiently high that you can't see the pixels at normal viewing distances. It's useless as a tablet (Android 4 on an Intel chip, so prehistoric and unsupported), but makes a very nice photo viewer.

 

We also have an old (2nd gen) iPad which is bigger, but the lower pixel density is not so good for photos.

 

So this experiment has convinced me that it might be worth looking for a bigger tablet with a high density screen, maybe a slightly more recent iPad, or something similar.

 

But the little tablet is working well, cost nothing (well, it did cost, but it served it's purpose for a good few years) and has been very useful in allowing me to browse through my photos in comfort in order to select which ones to print.

I favor printing but I almost always view them on the monitor. I can't afford a printer because I print so infrequently that whenever I use it the head probably clogged. My wife wouldn't like it when I send my pictures out to print.

For viewing on a Mac, I use Adobe Lightroom Classic. For sharing, I use an iPad with Lightroom Mobile.

 

It's easy to create collections, and those collections can be selectively shared with a phone or tablet running Lightroom Mobile. Photos from any folder can be added to a collection by reference (without a making physical copy). If you want to lock down a particular sequence, you can make a slide show.

I favor printing but I almost always view them on the monitor. I can't afford a printer because I print so infrequently that whenever I use it the head probably clogged. My wife wouldn't like it when I send my pictures out to print.

 

Yes, I barely print enough to keep it from clogging. But a few years ago, I got a big bag of ink cartridges so I don't worry so much about that.

 

But also, there are many places that do 4x6 prints for a low price.

 

I haven't done it so recently, but Walgreens often has (or had) a sale on them.

For casual looking, whatever device is handy. For things that really matter, I try to print.

 

Re clogging: if you print infrequently and don't need archival prints, the way to avoid almost all risk of clogging is to use a printer that takes dye-based rather than pigment-based inks. I used a series of Canon dye-based printers for years and had zero problems, even when I didn't print for months. The worst that would happen is that the printer would go through a self-cleaning cycle automatically. The prints were as nice as the ones from my more expensive pigment printer, but they fade much sooner if exposed to UV light.

I have a dedicated directory (pardon me - 'folder') with some of my processed images in, and I use Windows Photo Screensaver to display them to anyone who can't escape.

I view most of my photos's on my NEC P221w (no longer manufactured) 24" 'color-corrected screen, although I got tired of color correcting it every week, so I can't remember the last time it was color corrected.

How do you view digital photos?

 

Not editing, sorting or otherwise working on them, but just viewing for pleasure, what works best for you?

 

Printing is one option that I've always favoured, as a 'finished' image, but it's not practical for every photo and even less an option where other people's photos are concerned, likewise digital editions of magazines.

 

So what is your preferred option?

 

A printed image would probably be my ultimate viewing experience. Unfortunately, that can get very expensive and is not always practical. Believe it or not, I think my pictures look the best on the back LCD screen of my camera(s). It might have to do with the back-light those screens have ?

 

After that, my color-corrected NEC MultiSync P221w 22" LCD monitor(no longer made) is my second choice. I got tired of color-correcting it every week and I don't remember the last time I did it though ? Prior to this monitor, I had a 20" CRT monitor that not only matched the colors of the LCD(without any color correction), it had that 3D-look that is missing on my LCD. However, it was big and bulky and weighed about a ton...

 

I can also view pictures on my 15" Dell LCD Lap-top screen, although its not as enjoyable as when viewing on the larger 22" screen. The lap-top also changes contrast depending on the angle of the screen. This can affect your editing choices. The good thing is that the colors do not change depending on the position from where I'm viewing the screen, which can be a problem with some LCD screens.

 

Then there is my 10 inch Tablet with limited storage space. I purchased it after I figured it would be more convenient to show pictures to my Clients, instead of my iPod Classic. The Tablet has a surprisingly nice screen and since it's smaller, the pictures show more contrast. It sort of like looking at a 5X7" print instead of an 11x14". The 5x7 just has more punch to it .

 

I was thinking about getting one of those Digital Projectors some time in the future, but I'm not sure how good they are ? I remember viewing Slides on my old Kodak Carousel Slide Projector and to this day, I have not come across a better experience when it comes to viewing photos.

my pictures look the best on the back LCD screen of my camera(s). It might have to do with the back-light those screens have ?

It's also because they're so small, which means that various issues and flaws will not be as evident. They also tend to have that forced jpg zing to them which can be attention-grabbing at first but often shows a lack of subtlety, finesse, and refinement.