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Author Topic: Monitor Recommendations for Black-and-White Editing?  (Read 2263 times)

JimAscher

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Monitor Recommendations for Black-and-White Editing?
« on: August 20, 2010, 11:44:47 am »

I so all my work in black-and-white using Photoshop Elements and Silver Efex Pro, and am just starting to dabble in Lightroom.  I've been doing a lot of on-line research (including in this forum, obviously) to determine if there's a good but reasonably priced (if those criteria are not contradictory) monitor sufficient for my black-and-white work.  I've been considering some of the lower-end Eizo monitors.  I don't want to be paying for full-color accuracy when it's only the gray-tone accuracy I'm looking for.  Or am I being naive and/or ignorant to think that gray-scale and color accuracy are different technical matters?  Anyway, any advice would be appreciated.   
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nemophoto

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Re: Monitor Recommendations for Black-and-White Editing?
« Reply #1 on: August 20, 2010, 03:14:24 pm »

Honestly, any better quality, properly calibrated monitor will work well with B&W. As part of the calibration process, a neutral gray is calibrated and created. Almost any Eizo monitor is definitely a good start. For me, I actually have a two year old Benq that is my primary (I have 2 - 24"), and my prints (B&W and color) always match.
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JimAscher

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Re: Monitor Recommendations for Black-and-White Editing?
« Reply #2 on: August 20, 2010, 05:14:02 pm »

Thanks for the quick reply to my query.  I had never heard of Benq before (but then my knowledge of monitor brands isn't that vast).  On the Benq website I can get a smaller refurbished LCD for $85!  And I prefer smaller screens.  What brand of calibration product do you use (or recommend, it it's not the same)?  Regards, Jim
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John R Smith

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Re: Monitor Recommendations for Black-and-White Editing?
« Reply #3 on: August 23, 2010, 04:31:13 am »

Jim

If I were you , I would be a little bit cautious here. You might think that working in B/W would be less demanding on a monitor specification than working in colour, but I can assure you that this is not the case. If you possibly can, do not purchase without testing the monitor first.

There are two main problems which I have encountered. The first is that very few LCD panels are able to display the full luminance range of a B/W image as it will eventually be printed. This means that usually one has to choose between the highlights or the deep shadow areas becoming clipped on the display. The other really serious issue is that many panels these days do not work well at low brightness, as they are intended to be used in bright offices or for gaming etc. For photography, we usually need to run the monitor at quite low brightness levels to match paper white. Even after repeated profiling, several monitors I have trialled exhibit really unpleasant subtle green or magenta hue shifts in the highlight areas of a B/W image once the brightness is lowered to a sensible level.

Finding a reasonably priced panel that will display a pefectly neutral B/W image at low brightness levels is not so easy.

John
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JimAscher

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Re: Monitor Recommendations for Black-and-White Editing?
« Reply #4 on: August 23, 2010, 07:44:38 pm »

John:  As I experiment further the (reluctant) conclusions I come to tend to validate yours.  I have today gone to a two-monitor system, managing to utilize two LCD monitors my wife and I in combination had "laying about".  (She's a computer programmer and runs through equipment at a seemingly horrendous pace.)  My intent is to have one monitor operational for all my usual needs, including utilization of Photoshop Elements, Silver Efex Pro and Lightroom, and the other smaller, older monitor used to view full-screen the digital photo I'm currently working on, with the brightness tuned down as far as it will go, nearing to the extent possible the tones of a test photo I've printed.  As you indicate, this is a pretty hopeless, and unrewarding, task.  I've been getting by for many months by estimating (and trial printing) the photos I'm satisfied with on the monitor, through then further modifying them in accord with my developing sixth sense as to how to get them to come out of the printer somewhat near to what I intend.  I thought that some of the graphic monitors might be better suited to a more viable screen-printer match-up, but I'm supposing that as long as a monitor image is back-lit, there's only so far such a match-up can succeed.  Too bad E-Ink displays (as employed in EBook Readers), aren't (yet) more technically sophisticated.  Anyway, John, thanks for your cautionary advise, which is well taken.  Regards, Jim   
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