donaldstarrett6's Journal

Monitor Qualities
Monitor Qualities
Now we’ve got an understanding about the technologies behind the monitors, let’s examine at some qualities of screens and how they‘re relevant to the

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<a [...] “>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

Monitor Qualities Now we’ve got an understanding about the technologies behind the monitors, let’s examine at some qualities of screens and how they‘re relevant to the <a href=”http://monitorsforphotography.com/info/best-monitor-for-photography “>best monitors for photography</a> color Gamut Put simply, the colour gamut of a monitor is the range of colours|colors} it’s able to displaying. A good monitor for photography will have a wide color gamut, often measured against the Adobe RGB spectrum. Ideally, a photographic monitor will cover at least the sRGB spectrum and further if possible. A screen with a wide colour gamut will reproduce greener greens and redder reds, for example. This is often referred to as colour saturation and is obviously a good thing in a monitor for photography. The graph below shows how colour gamuts are generally represented. Color Depth Having a wide color gamut alone is not sufficient to make a monitor good for photography. Colour gamut tells you nothing about the amount of colors a <a href=”http://monitorsforphotography.com”>monitor for photography</a> can display. The number of colours is generally called the color depth. It’s possible to have a very wide colour gamut but only a tiny color depth. This would mean the monitor could display a few very saturated colours but there would be few, if any, intermediate colours between them. A good colour depth will result in smoother transitions between colours and less banding on the screen. It will also allow colours to be displayed more accurately, all qualities of panel wanted by photographers. Colour depth is often represented by a number of bits; the higher the number of bits the more colors the screen is capable of displaying. Twisted Nematic (TN) displays are able to produce 6-bit colour, or 18-bit colour depth (6 pixels of green, 6 pixels of blue and 6 pixels of red equals 18 bits). These screens can produce 262, 144 colours. TN displays use a colour simulation technique known as dithering to increase the perceived number of colours. If you are looking for a good monitor for photography you want more colours available to you than this and a monitor that doesn’t use dithering. IPS and PVA panels are capable for producing 8-bit colour (24-bit color depth) and can display 16.7million colours. This is known as “true colour” and is the minimum color depth you should look for in a monitor for photographic use. <a href="http://monitorsforphotography.com/best-buy-monitors/asus-pa238q-vs-dell-u2312-the-best-monitors-for-photography-under-300-go-head-to-head">best monitors for photography</a> Modern IPS and PVA panels can even produce 10-bit colour (30-bit color depth) allowing the monitor to display over a billion colours. However, in order to display the full color depth the software and hardware must be compatible with 10-bit colour. If you have the right kit then 10-bit monitors are the best monitors for photography. Colour Calibration Colour calibration is an essential element of getting your monitor to display accurate colours. Many of the best monitors for photography are self-calibrating, but for the mid to low end monitors you will need to use a color calibrator (colorimeter) and suitable software. If you plan on printing your photos yourself you will also need to calibrate your printer. These also range in price and quality. Color accuracy is measured in delta-E; the lower the delta-E, the more accurate the colour representation. A delta-E of below 1 is imperceptible to the human eye. Delta-E’s of 2 to 4 are considered good and require a sensitive eye to spot the difference. A delta-E of above 5 should be avoided if you are looking for a monitor for photographic use. <a href="http://monitorsforphotography.com/budget-monitors-for-photography/aoc-i2353fh-23%E2%80%9D-monitor-review">best monitor for photographers</a> Contrast Ratio Contrast ratios are the measurement of the brightest white against the darkest black a panel is able to display. High contrast ratios are desirable in a photographer’s monitor because they help to ensure that bright colors look brighter and deep colors look darker. There are two common types of contrast ratio; static and dynamic. Static contrast ratios are measured with a uniform backlight level whereas dynamic contrast ratios are measured with different backlight levels. In dynamic contrast ratios the white has been measured with the backlight at full and the black with the backlight virtually off. This is why dynamic contrast ratios are much higher than static contrast ratios. Response Times Response times of panels are generally how long it takes for one pixel to change from one shade of grey to another and is measure in milliseconds (ms). IPS monitors sacrifice response rate for a larger range, depth and accuracy of colour. TN monitors, on the other hand, have poor color reproduction but fast response times. Response times are more relevant to gaming and entertainment than for a photographer’s monitor but you may be looking for an all-round monitor capable of both accurate colour work and gaming and watching movies. Some modern IPS and PVA monitor have reduced their response times to 6ms, which is still quite a way off the super quick speeds of TN monitors (2ms), but is good enough to handle all but the most intense games.