Correct viewing position of a laptop screen

swag72

swag72

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Sara
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This sounds really dumb, but here goes anyway!! I've had a laptop for years and never had a similar experience to the situation I am in now.

As you know depending on the angle of the screen, either the screen is lighter or darker. I can not get to grips with this new screen about what position to have it in to view the correct brightness. I think it is causing me to over exposure in pp as the shot looks too dark. It looks blown out, so move the screen and it's fine :bang::bang:

I know I sound a total idiot :) What kind of angle would you recommend viewing the screen at from where you are sitting? Does that make sense?

I feel really :bonk: now!! There will be lots of :lol: I am sure.
 
Think of your face and the screen as straight lines, get them both parrallel as in a square or oblong box and that is the correct angle. How you do this I cant tell you, mostly trial and error. That is how i had it explained to me anyhow. Looking at mine now I would say it is set at around 115 degrees or 15 degrees past right angle. It also depends hoe high you desk/workstation/lap is in relation to your head/face/eyes.



I have a photographic memory that was never developed
 
I set the screen angle before switching the lappy on. It's easiest (IMO) to do this by sitting in front of it as comfortably as possible then setting the screen angle so you and your reflection are staring each other directly in the eye. When you get that effect, you are looking at the screen at 90* in both orientations so should be getting the angle correct. HTH.
 
Nod said:
I set the screen angle before switching the lappy on. It's easiest (IMO) to do this by sitting in front of it as comfortably as possible then setting the screen angle so you and your reflection are staring each other directly in the eye. When you get that effect, you are looking at the screen at 90* in both orientations so should be getting the angle correct. HTH.
Click to expand...

That's a very nice way to explain it. Much better than mine.
 
AlexW said:
It should be perpendicular to your line of sight I would have thought. Although some times I find mine reveals more detail if it is tilted slightly towards me (maybe there is less glare?).
Click to expand...

Must be different for different screens as I often tilt my screen further away from me when I want to see more detail.

Go figure
 
swag72 said:
This sounds really dumb, but here goes anyway!! I've had a laptop for years and never had a similar experience to the situation I am in now.

As you know depending on the angle of the screen, either the screen is lighter or darker. I can not get to grips with this new screen about what position to have it in to view the correct brightness. I think it is causing me to over exposure in pp as the shot looks too dark. It looks blown out, so move the screen and it's fine :bang::bang:

I know I sound a total idiot :) What kind of angle would you recommend viewing the screen at from where you are sitting? Does that make sense?

I feel really :bonk: now!! There will be lots of :lol: I am sure.
Click to expand...

Been struggling with this myself and like you, not had this problem with previous laptops. I've found that the angle is so sensitive that if one bit of the screen is flat on, the angle further down is enough to make the colours all wrong. For example, when flat on a pure blue image looks purple at the bottom of the screen. Unfortunately, calibration doesn't seem to help as the calibrator can be flat on to the whole thing. :bang:

I've not found a good solution either. Best I've come up with is to have a calibration image as my desktop background so when critical I check I can see all the whites and blacks, and the colours don't look too wrong, but it's not great. And still there are various angles where I can see the full range of whites and blacks, but the brightness is variable.

Hoping to hear a magic solution for us both!
 
Image editing on a laptop is always going to be fraught with difficulties unless you have a very high spec model. Most of the cheaper laptops (and some of the dearer ones) use 6 bit TN screens and they leave a lot to be desired.

Quote from TFT Central
'TN film (Twisted Nematic + Film) panels where the first panels to be used and are still widely implemented in many TFT’s today, especially mid to low end screens. This is due to the low manufacturing costs of TN panels. Traditionally they were not always very good at displaying blacks, but modern TN Film panels are actually very good in this regard. In fact many can compete with even VA matrices. There is also a problem with pixels dying and becoming a bright colour rather than just completely going out (black). The main issue with TN Film panels is that they have restrictive viewing angles of up to a realistic range of about 140 horizontally. Vertical viewing angles are very poor generally and suffer from a characteristic blackening of the image as you look from below. TN film panel traditionally offer the fastest pixel response times, and with the implementation of RTC / overdrive technologies, the grey to grey transitions have become even faster. Today, TN Film panels are used in the majority of gamer-orientated screens and are often used to break into new screen sizes, offering a cost effective way to provide larger screens without increasing the price too much.'

To make matters worse many laptops now have glossy screens and this causes complications with issues such as reflections.

If you really have to edit with a laptop then you should bookmark as favourite a site that has calibrated images such as http://www.displaycalibration.com/ Scroll the screen about to cover different parts of your monitor and move your monitor back and forth about until you are happy. Also where it is critical you should proof print before final editing. Its not ideal I know but it should help.

I have a white macbook and while I love it the screen suffers from both of these drawbacks but I do not have to edit my photos on my macbook.

Steve
 
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