Rethink on use of second monitor required by Adobe

[dreed]

I'm finding that the more I use LR with two screens, the more that I find that the second screen seems to work in a very secondary fashion and that this devalues LR.

The way in which a screen can be used is very restricted.

For example, I can't use the second screen as part of "before/after" compares.
As another example, I can't use "grid mode" for develop on the first screen.

When you are working with two screens of different size (presumably for economic but possibly also workspace issues), I believe it is best to be able to use the largest of the two screens for all things that relate to image review (compare, before/after, edit) and for the smaller screen to be where all of the controls go. But that's just me, others might differ.

Thus what I'd like to see is greater freedom in how and with what the second screen can be used.

In saying this, I appreciate that the current trend in at least laptop screen towards 16:9 layouts means that it is going to be a rare occasion when a photograph will not easily fit into a box on the main screen because its aspect ratio is 3:2 or smaller. But when using desktops with high quality monitors, the aspect ratio is often either 4:3 or 16:10. On large enough 16:10 screens, it almost seems possible to fit a 3:2 picture plus either the left or right panes - if only the image wasn't centered.

[Farmer]

I agree.  Both LR and PS require better multi-monitor support (and not just limiting to 2).  It should be fully customisable - anyhting that can be displayed you should be able to choose where to display it and to save those settings (and to jump from one setting to the next).  Bridge as well, for that matter.

All of them have some degree of multi-monitor support, but all of them fail to really deliver 100% (or even 75%, imho) on fully using this functionality.

There are various studies that show multi-monitor usage (as opposed to just one large one) can increase productivity from 7% to 50% depending on the person, the task and the monitors.  More flexibility would mean more advantage.

[Peter McLennan]

+1

[Pete_G]

Totally agree too, especially for the new soft proofing, I'd like to be able to have the main "before and after" display on my more colour accurate monitor, which for various reasons is my secondary display.

[Wills]

Tear off or floating panels would be a worthwhile addition to the use of LR on dual monitor systems.

[VeloDramatic]

From an earlier post on the Adobe Forums

Lightroom's support for a second display has definitely helped my workflow. I hope the team will consider adding more flexible multiple monitor support in version 45. Here's why.

I've recently  experimented with running one of my three screens in portrait mode. When  this screen hosts Lightroom's secondary display window in Loupe view,  my verticals finally get equal real estate for editing. While I've not  done hard statistics on my library, I know more than 50% of my imagery  is in portrait orientation.

I'd like to see LR5 support multiple screens so I could set up as follow:

Screen 1 - main lightroom interface, would not need to be calibrated, for controls and navigation
Screen  2 - Portrait orientation, loupe view - this would be a calibrated  display, all develop changes to verticals would be judged on this screen
Screen  3 - Landscape orientation, loupe view - another calibrated display, all  develop changes to horizontals would be judged on this screen

If  Adobe could make the app intelligent enough to route the image to the  correct screen based on orientation (recognizing and respecting cropping  that could change orientation) my edit sessions would certainly speed  up and I could maximize the productivity of multiple screens.

I'd  be happy with this, but I'm also stymied by the need to switch back to  Library mode to tag images when my primary workflow has me in develop.  Ultimately everything depends on the quality of the image. Before I  invest in image-specific meta data, I have to process or at least  "test-process" an image. IMO the Quick Develop panel is useless, once  you become accustomed to the granular control of the develop sliders, it  just doesn't cut it.

In the three monitor setup I described  above I'd love to be able to configure screen 1, with a combination of  panels from Library and Develop, so I could stay "develop centric" with  immediate access to keywording and meta. The two additional screens  would intelligently handle image display.

I think this might  speed my workflow by 33% and having just returned from a Tour de France  project that generated 23,000 images I need all the productivity help I can  get.

[terryco]

On my setup, both screens seem to take their profile from the left hand monitor.  This makes the left hand monitor unsuitable for any colour critical viewing. 

Terry

[terryco]

Oops - make that right hand monitor unsuitable for critical colour.

Terry

[dreed]

On my setup, both screens seem to take their profile from the left hand monitor.  This makes the left hand monitor unsuitable for any colour critical viewing. 

That would explain a lot as I've got two different monitors as well.

If LR doesn't treat each monitor separately with its own colour profile, that's a huge flaw.

[Jeremy Roussak]

Oops - make that right hand monitor unsuitable for critical colour.

Whew! I'm glad you cleared that up 

I don't see this problem, though. Both my monitors look reasonable (given their limitations). I'm using a Mac Pro, 10.6, LR3. What's your system?

Jeremy