So anyway - How do you view your images ?

Richkaz

Regular
I would be interested to know how you usually store and view your files / images ?
On your TV screen , prints, tablet or what ?
I have been shooting with relatively modest machinery ( Kodak P880 and Samsung EX1 recently ) and have always viewed them on a 22" computer monitor.
These are smallish sensor camera's yet the EX1 in particular, is capable of very high quality images. Viewing on full screen, contrast, colour saturation and sharpness
are excellent right into the corners of the screen.
Using Picasa 3's Pan and Zoom slide show can produce amazingly realistic, convincing and occasionally startling results even with 25 year old scanned images from my old Contax.
Just wondered what other members use.
Richard
 
I'm ashamed to say that for the most part I view them on my 15 inch MacBook Pro - which is very good...but I do think printing them is ideal...or perhaps that's slowly but surely becoming an anachronism? I have printed some via MPIX and now - thanks to you, Luke - via Blurb and have been very pleased with the results. As I'm writing this I have realized that I've yet to print any from my X100 which has by far the best image quality of any digital camera that I've owned.:redface:

(Note to self - get on the Blurb book wagon...and upgrade to the latest Lightroom that has a Blurb interface.)
 
I view them on my laptop's screen. Used to be a 10" netbook, now a 17" Toshiba C670, which totally transformed the image viewing experience, really bringing photos to life (wonderful screen for the price!). Want to print but have no decent printer and no place to hang prints... Can't wait to get a grown up's job ;)
 
Up until now I have used my old iMac (24" screen I think) or iPad when shooting away from home. I have recently gone back to film and bought a $10 printer so will view on the iMac and print if I feel the urge.
 
Most of the time on my MacBook Pro (with matte screen) and sometimes on the iPad retina. I've been printing again and that is the most pleasurable. I've been trying out different papers and processing, seeing what I like best.
 
I've been using my Macbook pro lately but the screen is less than stellar for image viewing. Lets just say its OK. I'm about to pull the trigger on a Dell U2410 because I finally have a buyer for my old iMac, and after that, I'll be editing by pairing the MBP with that. I also view on my iPad and TV screen at times, but I dont spend a lot of time just looking at my shots, only when determined to edit. I look at other people's stuff mostly on the iPad... its very flattering to almost all of them. LOVE it for that.
 
I almost always view my images on the old iPad 1, nice almost-calibrated screen.
I also use it as a proofing second display when editing in Lightroom via AirDisplay, much better than any monitorin the houser (and the prints confirm).
 
Thanks for the interesting replies.
I must be the last one standing without an Apple ( apart from the crumble with cream in the fridge ):redface:
Because most monitors have a landscape format, images in portrait format obviously don't fill the screen and often make less visual impact than they would with a large print .
For some reason a 10 X 8 " black & white print from a film camera looks great ( as long as the image was great to start with ).
I do generally prefer the evenly back lit full screen image when viewed on the monitor. This is just as well as the prohibitive cost of printing 10 X 8" colour prints of all my images
would, to quote Blackadder put me in " the stickiest situation since Sticky the stick insect got stuck on a sickly sticky bun'.
However, generally I prefer the evenly back lit full screen image when viewed on a monitor. In the same way that kodachrome slides viewed in a slidebox seemed to give an extra dimension over a print.
The print invariably dilutes the image seen on the screen. A bit too light, too dark , loss of detail or contrast . Maybe I just need a better printer :rolleyes:
Richard
 
...
The print invariably dilutes the image seen on the screen. A bit too light, too dark , loss of detail or contrast . Maybe I just need a better printer :rolleyes:
Richard

Or perhaps a well calibrated monitor? I've found the same issues when printing... usually too dark, looks horrible on screen when I get something that prints well. All down to my 2007 iMac with the secondrate screen. That (hopefully, unless its a no-show) will be going to a new home on Sunday, and with the funds from that I plan to buy a Dell screen, the U2410 when its next on sale, and then I will ensure the calibration is correct by borrowing a Spyder from a friend.

I've no idea how bad the MBP screen is, I havent ever printed from it.

[edit] of course a better printer helps. Based on this I just did a print to my new Epson (a cheapie all in one) and actually the colours are fine... surprisingly... but the print quality ARGHHHHHHHHHH. Back to the Canon for the moment. Might see if the purchaser of my iMac also wants a cheap wifi printer too.
 
It's important to remember that you can't reproduce what you see on screen on paper - or vice versa.

The way the surfaces are illuminated are utterly different just for a start ...


You may be able to get a reasonable approximation by soft-proofing using printer/paper profiles of course.

Oh and I'm someone who won't have an apple product in the house so richkaz is not alone
 
Or perhaps a well calibrated monitor? I've found the same issues when printing... usually too dark, looks horrible on screen when I get something that prints well. All down to my 2007 iMac with the secondrate screen. That (hopefully, unless its a no-show) will be going to a new home on Sunday, and with the funds from that I plan to buy a Dell screen, the U2410 when its next on sale, and then I will ensure the calibration is correct by borrowing a Spyder from a friend.

I've no idea how bad the MBP screen is, I havent ever printed from it.

[edit] of course a better printer helps. Based on this I just did a print to my new Epson (a cheapie all in one) and actually the colours are fine... surprisingly... but the print quality ARGHHHHHHHHHH. Back to the Canon for the moment. Might see if the purchaser of my iMac also wants a cheap wifi printer too.

Assuming you are using the correct printer and paper profiles for your printer, the most likely reason why your prints come out too dark is that your monitor is set too bright. You need a monitor calibrator that allows you to set the white and black points of the monitor; not all calibrator software allows you to do this. The white point should be set as close as possible to 90.0cd/m2. The black point at 0.20 cd/m2. This is darker than the usual factory settings for flat screen monitors, but will most closely match colors on paper viewed under reasonably bright light. It is my understanding that on the first generation of silver iMacs, it was not possible to dim the monitor enough to reach the above parameters, which would make it impossible to match screen to printer output. More recent iMacs do not have that problem. My iMac monitor is calibrated to the above parameters, and my print output matches my monitor quite closely.

Of course, your workflow must be fully color managed, which means using the correct printer and paper profiles, and letting the PP software determine printer colors rather than the printer driver.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Antonio
 
iPad for fun and quick processing/posting. 27" iMac for real processing with LR/PS/Nik.

Same for me as far as processing and posting (almost - I don't use PS and I'm sort of in the netherworld between Aperture and LR at the moment), but for viewing I'm all over the place. I always have a few landscape format shots cycling through as the screen saver and desktop, which look pretty good on the 27" iMac. I always have a few prints up but just don't have that much real estate on my walls, so it's not a lot - I usually print 4-5 a couple times per year and usually have 5-6 up at any given time. I'll often browse through shots on the iPad because it's about my most used device overall and it's what I'll often use to show stuff to other people. And I also put books together periodically - at least once per year with my best shots from the year, and occasionally one from a big shooting event like my month in New York recently and a long European trip a couple of years ago. These are essentially like modern day photo albums with the advantage that it's easy to get additional copies made for my family and close friends. I have a few different ones around the house and occasionally I'll pick one up and leaf through it. So I have any number of ways to view photos.

-Ray
 
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