Whats the ideal screen size?

scottishguy

scottishguy

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Whats the ideal screen size for all photography stuff, viewing editing and the like?

I use my 42inch hd tv through hdmi from the pc. Is there an ideal size of screen to use?

Been thinking about this the last few days after using my dads pc, who has a 19inch widescreen and it just dont look right.
 
daugirdas said:
The bigger the better. The screen quality also matters, always pick IPS type.

I only got 20" myself but it does get the job for now. I have my eyes set on Dell 27".
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My dell u2711 arived last week... its a nice size. Colour across the screen is not perfect, its better once you turn the brightness down.
 
I use an Apple 27inch widescreen monitor. It's amazing, but pricey and obviously better for me as a mac user.

I also hear that the Dell U2711 Ultrasharp 27 inch Premier is a good buy.
 
Give me a dual 21-23 inch setup any day over a single 27 - 30 inch. To be honest I find anything above 24 inch simply too big to be comfortable to work on.

For me bigger is certainly not better.
 
I would have though it's more about the effective screen size, i.e. if you sit 4 feet away you probably need a much larger monitor then if you sit 2 feet away!

I usually go as large as I can before I have to start moving my head to actually pan around the screen!.. for me that's a 28" at home, 24" in work..

My brother had a 42" LCD on his desk, sat at around 2-3 feet it was just uncomfortable, moving your head constantly to look around the sceeen!

On the how many monitors front, well I would never compromise on the editing monitor, that would be as large as possible and good quality.. if I had the workflow where I had say LR and PS open at the same time, then 2 decent monitors would be nice, but I'd not go smaller just to double up myself..
(I do however do this for coding (software engineer!), two slightly smaller monitors as it suits the tools better).
 
2 x 24" Dell IPS monitors here. If I had the space, I'd probably have 2 x 27" monitors. I prefer 2 smaller vs 1 larger (unless the same screen real estate).

You need to be careful with TVs as monitors. The primary problem is that broadcast colour levels are between 16..235 whereas PCs output 0..255. Some TVs cope OK with this, some you have to turn into PC mode. Unless you know what you are doing (or are lucky), you can end up with a monitor which crushes blacks below value 16 and blows whites above 235. I have a high end Pioneer screen here and wehen I hooked up my HTPC, it crushed the blacks. I had to set it in a particular mode to get back black level detail.
 
Jackwow said:
How do you use 2 screens at the same time? How do you connect both to your PC and are they showing different images? :thinking::shrug:
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With two monitors people pretty much always run an extended desktop. That means you can have your main working stuff on one screen and other stuff such as email, web etc on the other (or you can arrange it however you like). You don't have to switch from one screen to the other, you just move your mouse onto the other screen. It's like having one big wide monitor.

Most modern video cards support two to three monitors, so there's 3 plugs on the video card which into each you can plug a monitor.

With older systems it's possible but you need a video card for each screen you want to use.
 
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I just added a second monitor to the 21.5" iMac. Same size & Resolution but a samsung one. Don't think I could go back to one now. Use the iMac for editing and have web browser/itunes/SkyGo on the other one.
 
Jackwow said:
How do you use 2 screens at the same time? How do you connect both to your PC and are they showing different images? :thinking::shrug:
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Wot Slaphead said.... :)
 
To me it is about the resolution rather than the size. My main screen on the mac is a 30" 2560x1600 and then I also have a 22" running in portrait this at 1050x1600.
 
dejongj said:
To me it is about the resolution rather than the size.
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Do you mean resolution (i.e. pixels per inch) or screen real estate (your desktop is effectively 3610x1600)? My two monitors are each 1920x1200 so I have 3840x1200 screen real estate.
 
dejongj said:
I mean resolution as in the common meaning of display resolution :rules:
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_resolution said:
Note that the use of the word resolution here is a misnomer, though common. The term “display resolution” is usually used to mean pixel dimensions, the number of pixels in each dimension (e.g., 1920×1080), which does not tell anything about the resolution of the display on which the image is actually formed: resolution properly refers to the pixel density, the number of pixels per unit distance or area, not total number of pixels. In digital measurement, the display resolution would be given in pixels per inch.
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Your use was ambiguous, which was why I questioned it :rules: yourself ;) :lol:
 
Come on guys, no need to pick arguments. I think we can all agree that the actual physical size of a monitor doesn't mean much on its own: what counts is the number of pixels. A 42" monitor that only displays 1368 x 768 pixels isn't as useful as a 22" monitor that displays 1920 x 1080 pixels. (The resolution of the first monitor is about 40 ppi and the resolution of he second is about 100 ppi, but those numbers aren't particularly important in themselves.)


For the person who wondered what a dual-monitor setup looks like, here's mine. I have two 23" Samsung monitors which can each display 2048 x 1152 pixels, so my total desktop is 4096 x 1152.

395925_367311463294105_100000457633989_1349194_1240898568_n.jpg


I got help from TP forum members - especially Andy/arad85 - when I set it up. The thread for that is here: [click].
 
Jayst84 said:
Does a giant TV screen not look completely terrible? Photos have always looked awful on any TV I've seen them displayed on.
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I don't use mine to edit but photo's on my 46" Sony LCD via the HTPC (@1080p) look stunning.
 
scottishguy said:
Whats the ideal screen size for all photography stuff, viewing editing and the like?
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A minimum of 2" larger screen and 20% more pixels than whatever you own - and when you upgrade, it still applies :lol::bang:
 
Slaphead said:
Jackwow said:
How do you use 2 screens at the same time? How do you connect both to your PC and are they showing different images? :thinking::shrug:
Click to expand...
With two monitors people pretty much always run an extended desktop. That means you can have your main working stuff on one screen and other stuff such as email, web etc on the other (or you can arrange it however you like). You don't have to switch from one screen to the other, you just move your mouse onto the other screen. It's like having one big wide monitor.

Most modern video cards support two to three monitors, so there's 3 plugs on the video card which into each you can plug a monitor.

With older systems it's possible but you need a video card for each screen you want to use.
Click to expand...

For picture editing, having your image window on one screen and all your other windows such as layer dialogue, toolbox, brush/pallette windows on the other screen, or if you're cloning from another image, having an image on either screen, can make life a lot easier (especially if you don't have a widescreen).
 
GeordieStew said:
Bit surprised that people are using televisions. Even 1080p.

Dell 30" here. Although just starting to learn about PP. :) 2560x1600. Plus 2x24 LED 1920x1200 but I find myself never using the right one. No idea why.
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The main reason I use my tv as a monitor is mine died and tv is much better than no monitor too :bonk::thumbs:
 
Do you guys find it useful to quote the total desktop estate? I mean, do you really spread a photo for example across two screens? Each to their own of-course but I never spread a single window across multiple screens, tools on one and a photo in the full resolution (yes arad the common meaning) on the other.
 
dejongj said:
Do you guys find it useful to quote the total desktop estate? I mean, do you really spread a photo for example across two screens? Each to their own of-course but I never spread a single window across multiple screens, tools on one and a photo in the full resolution (yes arad the common meaning) on the other.
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No, never spread a photo across two screens, but you can always use two screens effectively. In LR, it is designed for 2 screens, PS has a duplicate window mode and you can have tools on the second screen. The only time I have spread a single window across two screens is with (I think) Powerpoint. As the windows aren't separate, to get 2 presentations side by side you can drag the window to cover 2 screens and then arrange the windows within that larger window.

Even down to day to day use - I often have two things open to copy/paste between or one window open doing something and another with a web page explaining how to use the software open too.

I work from home a lot and also use dual; monitors there. Going from 4k x 1.2k dual monitor setup to a 1366x768 laptop screen is just too painful - especially when the machine only has a cheap processor and 2G of memory and an encrypted disk!
 
LOL Yes the same here. I normally have console logs up and running on my portrait screen and tend to do the most on my 30" 2560x1600. But with photos and stuff I have the tools/library on one screen and photo full screen on the other.

I now don't tend to touch my mba at my desk, I just use remote control on it, it is only for when I'm out an about.

And yes, that is a good Powerpoint trick, shame it has to be that way but it does work.
 
Like a few others here, I use a Dell U2711 which I find works well. Photos can look good on TVs but I don't find the colour accurate for editing work.

John
 
Dell u3011 (2560x1600) as my main screen for displaying the photo I work on. Iiyama 24" 1080p in portrait for displaying photoshop tools and extras.
 
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