Screen Brightness

-markie-

-markie-

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I was having a look around the threads and couldn't really find a definitive answer.

I guilty of having my screen brightness on 80-100% on my macbook retina when editing, however trying to get out of this habit as i'm concerned my images are coming out darker for other people.

I appreciate this can vary on what device you are using and the devices brightness can vary on how bright the image is. So i'm looking for some consistences for viewing online and prints (last thing i want is people using the images for prints and them being under/over exposed).

Does anyone have a rough guide of what brightness they usual work too on macbooks? 50% a touch over 50%?

I appreciate there are tools out there for this side of things, but don't think these take into account screen brightness (jut colours etc)
 
Visually brightness is subjective depending on ambient illumination. Subjectivity when it comes to screen brightness is far from ideal as the perception and usage will vary from person to person.

That is why a calibrator is needed to set a level, in my case of 100cd/M2......this is way lower than out of the box!
 
Yes Calibration and profiling will take into account the white point (luminance) of your screen. Asking what level to set it at is like asking how long is a piece of string. My main editing iMac which has a screen hood fitted is set to 80cd/M2, my Macbook Pro which is used in varying ambient light levels is set to 110cd/M2.

If going to print the screen luminance should roughly equal your print when viewing in good light (or even the ambient light where the image will be displayed). Of course with a properly calibrated and profiled screen you can then soft-proof your printer and output space profile/ colour spaces.
 
Screen brightness should be set relative to the ambient room brightness. A good visual guide is that whites on screen should be approximately as bright (or slightly brighter) than a piece of bright white paper in the same environment.

But if your monitor is calibrated, then you can use tools available in most editing programs to set the true white point in an image independent of how it is appears.
 
markgodley said:
I was having a look around the threads and couldn't really find a definitive answer.

I guilty of having my screen brightness on 80-100% on my macbook retina when editing, however trying to get out of this habit as i'm concerned my images are coming out darker for other people.

I appreciate this can vary on what device you are using and the devices brightness can vary on how bright the image is. So i'm looking for some consistences for viewing online and prints (last thing i want is people using the images for prints and them being under/over exposed).

Does anyone have a rough guide of what brightness they usual work too on macbooks? 50% a touch over 50%?

I appreciate there are tools out there for this side of things, but don't think these take into account screen brightness (jut colours etc)
Click to expand...

Taking into account all the great points listed prior to my comment... I have dropped my MBP (pre retina) screen down to one bar under 50% brightness and am finding through not particularly scientific testing that prints are coming back much closer to their screen representation. I have also been through the built in advanced calibration process.
 
I use a 2011 vintage 21" iMac and have the screen brightness at 4/16 with 16 being maximum. This seems to work well for me during day and at night but I have not recently held a print next to it. Will give it a try sometime soon.
 
Thanks for all the comments

antonroland said:
I use a 2011 vintage 21" iMac and have the screen brightness at 4/16 with 16 being maximum. This seems to work well for me during day and at night but I have not recently held a print next to it. Will give it a try sometime soon.
Click to expand...
Seem's logical. I'll do some quick prints externally and compare next to my screen too
 
antonroland said:
I use a 2011 vintage 21" iMac and have the screen brightness at 4/16 with 16 being maximum. This seems to work well for me during day and at night but I have not recently held a print next to it. Will give it a try sometime soon.
Click to expand...
Unless the ambient light level in the room is consistent, the same brightness setting cannot work for day and night...
 
sk66 said:
Unless the ambient light level in the room is consistent, the same brightness setting cannot work for day and night...
Click to expand...

Agreed, this does make sense but I am simply too scatter-brained to adjust brightness for daytime and evening ambient respectively...it has worked well for me so far...
 
antonroland said:
Agreed, this does make sense but I am simply too scatter-brained to adjust brightness for daytime and evening ambient respectively...it has worked well for me so far...
Click to expand...
I use a test image (brightness) embedded into the LR interface ("identity plate")... the last one in this article I wrote. If you have good control over the ambient levels where you edit, I would use the first test image (gamma).

http://photographic-academy.com/tips-and-tricks/99-tips-and-tricks/162-lr-identity-plate-test-image
 
ashtennisguru said:
Taking into account all the great points listed prior to my comment... I have dropped my MBP (pre retina) screen down to one bar under 50% brightness and am finding through not particularly scientific testing that prints are coming back much closer to their screen representation. I have also been through the built in advanced calibration process.
Click to expand...
The penny just dropped as to why the last batch of photos I ordered all looked very dark once I put them in an album! Could it really be this simple...? [emoji15]
 
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