Macbook Pro laptop screen optimal brightness cd/m2

[mvandenbos]

Hi Guys

Just wondering how low (in cd/m2) I can safely calibrate my Macbook Pro screen too. I understand that this laptop screen is far from ideal ... but it's what I'll have for the next year or two due to space issues; it will be profiled with an i1 Display Pro and this allows me to titrate a suitable brightness. I had hoped to achieve about 80cd/m2 to closer match printing papers but noticed online that these screen types are less than stable away from optimal brightness. What target brightness should be practicably set for this screen type?

Details of the screen are: a late 2011 15 inch 1680x1050 matte screen - with codes from the baseline colour profile file as follows:manufacturer 00000610, model 0000A005, manufacture date C91DE380. It's currently set at 100cd/m2 using native white balance.

Many thanks indeed!

Mehdi

[howardm]

I would think that calibrating and then verifying the calibration would mostly tell you how 'stable' the display is at low brightness settings.  My hunch is that 90-100 is where you want to be but that also is a function of ambient light and your knowledge of where the print will be displayed.

[Wayne Fox]

Brightness of the screen to get a good match should be based on where you view the prints.  Brightness would be set so paper white in your viewing setup matches screen white, but if you don't have a standardized place to view the prints, then it's just sort of guess work.

Regardless, I think 80 cd/m2 is sort of dim.  I've been using Macbook Pros for a very long time, and find 110 cd/m2 is pretty good.  About 60% of the brightness setting.  Obviously one problem is using the laptop is various environments, so there is not "standard" brightness.  You will have to vary the brightness  (80 would be almost unusable in many circumstances).

But I don't think there is a real issue with most of them as they get dimmer.  They aren't ideal anyway so nothing too color critical can be done with them but for rough edits and web stuff should be pretty good, but lowering it as far as you mention shouldn't be problematic.

[digitaldog]

I had hoped to achieve about 80cd/m2 to closer match printing papers but noticed online that these screen types are less than stable away from optimal brightness.

Why 80 cd/m2 which is so darn low? There’s nothing special about such a setting, it is really, really hard for any modern LCD to hit such a low backlight. What counts is a match to the print next to the display, otherwise, you can set it any way you wish. Might want to view this:http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/why_are_my_prints_too_dark.shtml

[mvandenbos]

Many thanks guys ... I'll work on a paper/screen luminosity match ... and stay a bit more relaxed about the cd/m2 settings ...

[Czornyj]

Why 80 cd/m2 which is so darn low? There’s nothing special about such a setting, it is really, really hard for any modern LCD to hit such a low backlight. What counts is a match to the print next to the display, otherwise, you can set it any way you wish. Might want to view this:http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/why_are_my_prints_too_dark.shtml

I don't think it's really hard in some cases. My W-LED Macbook Air backlight can be dimmed to ~10cd/m2, and even my 3090WQXi reaches 40cd/m^2 (after a small hack). Considering, that an average home illumination is 60-120lux - isn't it a little bit unrealistic to work at such darn high luminance?

[digitaldog]

I don't think it's really hard in some cases. My W-LED Macbook Air backlight can be dimmed to ~10cd/m2, and even my 3090WQXi reaches 40cd/m^2 (after a small hack).

Natively or is there some LUT or other such adjustment in the loop?

[Czornyj]

Natively or is there some LUT or other such adjustment in the loop?

In MBA with D65 correction, and in 3090WQXi with D65 + Uniformity set to 5.

Native lowest wtpt is 11cd/m^2 for MBA, and 69cd/m^2 for 3090WQXi with uniformity set to "off", gamma selection "no correction", color correction "native"

[digitaldog]

In MBA with D65 correction, and in 3090WQXi with D65 + Uniformity set to 5.

Native lowest wtpt is 11cd/m^2 for MBA, and 69cd/m^2 for 3090WQXi with uniformity set to "off", gamma selection "no correction", color correction "native"

Again, there’s a significant difference in lowering such values natively or via a LUT, the later not being at all beneficial. On the NEC, anything lower than about 120 cd/m2 is a LUT adjustment. You negatively affect the number of levels (introduce banding) and produce issues with the contrast ratio settings.