How to know if your monitor is too bright/too dark.

[Amnesia180]

Hi There..

I have an Acer Advatange laptop.

When I plug it into the mains, the screen goes really bright, and when I unplug it the screen dims again.

How can I make sure the contrast is set correctly when viewing photos?

Thanks,
Amnesia

[barryj]

laptops do this to save battery power. And to add to the dilemma: a LCD/TFT screen has to warm up to an operating temperature before it is at it optimum viewing (20 minutes I think).

I'm pretty sure you can change the setting for battery mode - although it does do it for a reason so if you up the settings ** battery life will go down.

[DaveW]

Hi Amnesia,

Try this monitor test grey scale to see if your monitor is adjusted properly for pictures. You should also check regularly to see that it has not drifted out of tune, so keep the link in your favourites:-

http://ludens.cl/photo/montest.html

DaveW

[bigNeil]

Hi,

You could try viewing a page like this (http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/) and adjust the brightness so that you get a good balance between light and dark shades? And, as barry says, you can usually override what the laptop does when plugged/unplugged so that the screen stays the same.

[dougdarter]

Hi,

You could try viewing a page like this (http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/) and adjust the brightness so that you get a good balance between light and dark shades? And, as barry says, you can usually override what the laptop does when plugged/unplugged so that the screen stays the same.

Hi Neil,

That's a good test page, I haven't seen it before.
Welcome to TP, and btw, the link to your dolphin gallery doesn't work for me.

[dougdarter]

Hi There..

I have an Acer Advatange laptop.

When I plug it into the mains, the screen goes really bright, and when I unplug it the screen dims again.

How can I make sure the contrast is set correctly when viewing photos?

Thanks,
Amnesia

If you are running windows, and are using any adobe program, go to control panel, and look for a program called Adobe Gamma. Work carefully through the wizard, and your screen gamma settings should end up being correctly set up.

[King_Boru]

If you are having trouble stil then keep an eye on the histogram as this will provide an accurate reading as to how bright/dark the image is. Obviously this only useful during editing and a quick fix.

Alternatively you could invest in the Huey Pentone monitor calibrator. Its quite handy.

King.

[Amnesia180]

Thanks for the feedback all!

[bigNeil]

the link to your dolphin gallery doesn't work for me.

Thanks! I've just changed ISP, need to move the site over, so should be there this evening :)

[Bolerus]

dont forget that with a lap top the monitor section is on hinges, and the viewing angle can make a massive difference to the brightness / contrast of the image