Post processing + Screen Brightness?

[radicalgel]

<p>Hey Guys,</p>

<p>I process most of my photo on my mac book pro and I'm trying to figure out at what brightness I need to keep the screen when I am checking exposure and things. I have been processing all my shots with the screen on max brightness, is this advisable or should I be reducing it a little? Its really tricky cuz an image could look over or underexposed just because of the screen brightness.</p>

[tonmestrom]

<p>I'm guessing you already know the answer. It very much depends on the ambient light your working in. On the go I would never process my photo's in overly bright or dark lighting conditions, if ever. If you're working at home make sure you've got normal lighting conditions that are stable.</p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>and to add to what Ton said, if you want the best result, use a device to calibrate your monitor to a standard.</p>

[neill_farmer2]

<p>Probably get shot down here for my rough methods but I crank out a print and compare it to what's on my screen, by doing this a couple of times and making adjustments to the screen brightness I find that I've had to wind the screen brightness a long way back (Philips LCD) so that what I see is what I print. Colours seem pretty close too. I now know where to set the screen brightness for printing so that for normal viewing I can crank it back up and return to the "print" setting for that.</p>

[ronald_moravec1]

<p>Pretty soon they will be selling neutral density screens to tack on the front for photographers.<br />Set it how you want, make a small print, and adjust the transfer density curve in photoshop, to make the print a constant up or down from what you see on the screen. It may also be just on the Mac print command box, but I do not think so.<br>

I found this in Shutterbug Magazine from July `08 I think. If you go to the on line site, you can find instructions.<br>

Your printer probably also has an adjustment panel to apply constants for color and brightness also. Look for an advanced tab.<br>

<a href="http://www.shutterbug.net/techniques/pro_techniques/1208printing/index1.html">http://www.shutterbug.net/techniques/pro_techniques/1208printing/index1.html</a><br>

You will find a very profesional explanation here including how to set the transfer function.</p>

<p>Page 1 of above<br>

<a href="http://www.shutterbug.net/techniques/pro_techniques/1208printing/index.html">http://www.shutterbug.net/techniques/pro_techniques/1208printing/index.html</a></p>

 

[godfrey]

<p>I use the Eye One Display 2 colorimeter for calibration and profiling on both desktop and laptop systems. Their recommendation for calibration targets on the laptop is 110 cdm^2 Luminance, which is a long way down from maximum brightness. I find their recommendation produces good fidelity from screen to print. The specific target settings I use are 110 luminance, 1.8 gamma and 5500K white point. </p>

<p>At very least, use the System Preferences -> Display module and do a calibration by eye, in advanced mode, using the tools supplied in the Color tab. </p>

<p>Godfrey</p>

[don_e]

<p>The downside to Neill's method is its inflexibility, change your monitor, printer, paper, ink, and you are back to square one; it is also expensive -- the cost of ink and paper in the wastebasket, and wear and tear on the printhead. If you've got an immortal monitor and printer and a free supply of paper and ink, give it a shot, but otherwise 200$ spent on a calibration system is cheaper in time and energy, as well as money over the long run.</p>

 

[frans_waterlander]

<p>Your monitor brightness and brightness of the lighting you use to view your prints should match. You can check this match (or mismatch) by comparing a totally white image (all R, G and B values at 255) in your image editor on screen to a blank piece of printing paper illuminated by your digital darkroom lighting. If they don't match, adjust your monitor and/or your lighting brightness.</p>