Greetings. I’m having to replace an 8 bit 1080 monitor for more accurate colour and perhaps have narrowed two choices. One with separate colour spaces (Asus ProArt 5K) and another with only 98% DCI-P3, that encompasses those spaces (LG UltraFine 4K 27UQ850V-W).
Now I am wondering if it’s necessary to have a monitor like ProArt with specific workspace settings of: Adobe RGB, DCI-P3, Rec. 2020, Rec. 709, sRGB. If all I may need is to work within the wide gamut and let the software manage the output. Ensuring monitor and MacBook Air are colour calibrated.
Because, say I am using PhotoLab with DxO wide colour gamut to edit my RAW photo, preserving as much original data as possible. Then when soft proofing to print, PL will help me adjust colour space to the required output; to the type of paper or web. So in this process for soft proofing, there doesn’t seem to be a need for setting the monitor screen to say Adobe RBG, or am I missing something?
I hope to check with you that my understanding of this may be on the mark. I have done a lot of searching to try and get a grasp, to the best of my ability, of what is the way forward with editing and printing and is still not really clear to me. Though it appears that editing in wide gamut is also best for when printing technology advances. Thank you.
Both are excellent monitors and will suit you fine, though the Asus is slightly better.
You don’t need to “switch” between monitor settings: simply set the monitor once and forever to Adobe RGB or DCI-P3 (both are good, with small differences), and use the corresponding profile in the operating system.
Photolab will transparently do all the conversion that is needed: simply, on a better monitor what you will see during soft proofing will match the print better.
Wide Gamut working space allows PL to edit in a large colour space and preserve as much dynamic range as possible. If you have a monitor with a wide gamut you will be able to see more of the colours as you would with something like a sRGB monitor.
If your final output is a large gamut then it would be “nice” to have a monitor that matches, but if your output is less than your monitor then you will need soft proofing to simulate your output on your monitor.
Most amateurs use a sRGB monitor because their output gamut is quite small. Professionals may need a higher gamut monitor.
If your monitor is a high gamut monitor then you need to be aware of your final output gamut and check if you have any out of gamut colours in your image and adjust them appropriately.
I have a P3 monitor and I have only a handful of images with out of gamut colours, so it is not often you will encounter this situation. If I suspect my colours are out of gamut I will check and edit accordingly with soft proofing and gamut warnings enabled.
In short, if you want a monitor with high gamut then go for it but it is not absolutely necessary, but you will need to be aware that the monitor may display colours your final output cannot.
Consider also the BenQ SW272Q / SQ272U / MA270U, they are excellent monitors too, and their factory calibration is usually very accurate. The PD2706U is cheaper but very good too (I use an older version from three years ago, very satisfied).
However, if you’re also sharing digital copies of your images with friends and/or for posting on the interwebs then you’re best advised to set Soft Proofing for sRGB - so that you’re certain to be seeing your images as these consumers will see them.
You might set-up Virtual Copies for this purpose; with one VC set for SP = your printer profile (taking full advantage of your screen capabilities), and another VC set for SP = sRGB (so that PL will “dumb-down” screen rendering accirdingly).
@fairy-wren in my opinion, you are over-complicating things.
You don’t need to change colour spaces on the monitor, buy one that copes with DCI-P3 and use something like the Calibrite calibration device and software to produce an ICC profile. That’s really all you need do.
I run a MacBook Pro M4 with 16" display and an Apple Studio Display, which is P3, as primary. And I use the Wide Gamut colour space in PhotoLab.
If you are planning on distributing your images for on-screen viewing, then export them into the sRGB space. The software will take care of the translation and you shouldn’t normally need to soft proof.
However, if you are planning on printing, the monitor should be set to only 80cd/m² when you create the profile. Otherwise, you will end up with prints that rarely match the white level you see on screen, which is usually, extraordinarily bright from the factory.
@John-M it looks like we agree but I was still writing my reply when you posted yours
Whatever you get, top it off with a calibration too. They come in several editions, compare these and don’t get the lowest cost edition, unless you’re sure that it will do what you need. Check out Datacolor and Calibrite (X-Rite) solutions. Other solutions exist. e.g. hardware calibrated screens (BenQ, ViewSonic, etc.)
Thank you all so much for your helpful replies.!!! I will go through them all as I make a decision. Still thinking of LG 27" or 37" as they are on sale. . But after listening to photographer Ken Cooper, you may know of him?, he suggests being able to calibrate within the monitor hardware and uses mainly BenQ SW series. From reviews I get a sense they are solid and reliable, also expensive for 4K+. At first I thought 2K without HDR may be limiting, but even on my Acer 1080p 250 nits monitor, there’s reasonable blackness and if you are preparing for print you don’t need so much light. Also not wanting to pay so much when dipping my toe back into photos after a decade. Just to know that what is sent out will be the best I can make it. I didn’t really grasp colour management well back then either and the people at the printing shops were generally very helpful. Have finished testing DxO and will be purchasing soon as its raw processing is wonderful. Thanks again, happy photo editing!
@platypus, thanks! I have a Spyder 4 that should be recycled as the software no longer works. Was thinking to buy last year’s Spyder Pro and as you also suggested the BenQ with calibration for the hardware. Will have a look at ViewSonic as well.
stuck
(Canon, PL7+FP7+VP3 on Win 10 + GTX 1050ti)
11
If you can afford a monitor with such capabilities then, yes, do seriously consider it because it will almost certainly also come with software that will allow you to automatically switch from one profile to another depending on the application that is running.
My (old but still good) Dell monitor does that. For everyday use (emails, word processing, browsing, etc), it runs in sRGB mode but when I open any of my photo editing applications, it switches to one of the hardware calibrated profiles, which covers 100% of the Adobe RGB gamut.
Forget about HDR monitors if you intend to print your photos and have them look like they do on the screen. Don’t even THINK about HDR. HDR is the exact opposite of reliable soft proofing: you want LESS nits (80-120), not MORE.
Of course you CAN buy a monitor with HDR features, if you watch movies or like games too. But when photo editing, please dial the backlighting down A LOT.
I’ve been printing for almost 25 years now, and am a Canson Certified Fine Art Printer… I make prints for artists, galleries and museums.
I mention that because in that time I’ve been through proabably a dozen or more monitors. I currently use two: An Eizo (pronounced “yea so”) and an Asus. Both are “10-bit” but the difference is that the Eizo is a “true” or “active” 10-bit, and can directly output 1024 levels at a time. The Asus is a 8-bit + Frame Rate Control (aka FRC) 10-bit emulator. That is, it outputs 256 levels and achieve the other 2 bits by temporal dithering.
A “10-bit” monitor in the $700 range is an 8+FRC , while the Ezio costs approximately twice as much.
If you have a critical eye, and spend the day looking at a monitor, you can tell the difference. Most people would not notice it, but it’s there. The Eizo has Color Navigator software and adjusts the hardware itself. Different settings (brightness, color temp and so on) can be set and selected from the menubar.
The Asus offers HDR but the HDR can be turned on and off, so you can revert the monitor ro ARGB. My Mac Studio offers a software switch to do just that.
If you are coming from an 8-bit sRGB monitor to either of these, the difference will be immediately apparent. OTOH, if you are coming from an 8+FRC to true 10-bit, the difference will be visible, but is much more subtle.
I don’t have any recommendations for you… except: Buy the best monitor with the best calibration you can afford. – If you can’t afford one (yet), save some money and buy one later. This hardware might last longer than your camera, some software, etc.
A really good monitor is your gateway to the digital world.
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one more note:
My primary monitor is a 27-inch model with a native resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels and a pixel pitch of 0.2331 mm. I use it at 125% (Win 10).
I actually switched my laptop from a 4k to a 3k as the scaling in windows had problems with different software and I could not see the difference on my 15" screen.
The cost was heavy…