Your Monitor: The Keystone of Your Digital Workflow
Take a moment to appreciate your monitor. It sits there quietly on your desk or on your lap, helping you make image corrections, send correspondence with clients and connects you with the world via the Web.
Of all the devices in your digital photography workflow, your monitor is the most important. It’s even more important than a fast computer, a sexy new printer or even the latest, greatest camera body. Your monitor is your window to the world, helping you judge color, exposure, saturation, sharpness and detail. For photographers printing their own work or delivering files to clients in CMYK, your monitor’s accuracy when using Photoshop’s soft proof feature can determine the success or failure of a job.
So do yourself a favor. Replace your monitor every three years. When you purchase a new monitor, buy the best monitor you can afford. Delay purchasing a new computer, if funds are tight, to buy the monitor you need to to deliver accurate files to your clients. And don’t forget to calibrate and profile it regularly!
5 Responses to 'Your Monitor: The Keystone of Your Digital Workflow'
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This is a good article reminding us of the business aspect, but could you write another one explaining the practical aspect of buying a quality monitor and calibrating it? I do both of these myself but it’s always enlightening to hear how others do it.
It’s a good to keep in mind, but what features make a good monitor?
Thanks for your comments. I have several other articles you may find useful for addressing the selection of a new monitor and the practical issues involved with calibrating a monitor.
You can find a discussion on sifting through the specifications involved with monitor selection on my book’s Web site: http://perfectdigitalphotography.com/monitors.php
You can find an article on selecting and calibrating your monitor (part of a 4-part series on color management) on the Photo.net Web site.
http://photo.net/learn/digital-photography-workflow/color-management/monitor-profiling/
If you begin calibrating your monitor to 100-120 cm2 (brightness) a gamma of 2.2 and a white point of 6500K you’ll have a good starting point. There are some workflows needing to deviate from this standard, but this will serve you well as a starting point.
Jay
I’d really suggest two monitors which are also recommended by Will Crockett who has done extensive real world testing:
1) Eizo ColorEdge CG222 which goes for about $1300
2) or the LaCie 324 which is a little less at $999.
Both display almost the entire Adobe RGB color space which is much better than most other monitors can. For Will’s full review check out his thoughts here:
http://www.shootsmarter.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=165&acat=16
I’ve had excellent results with monitors in the Eizo ColorEdge series as well.
Jay