Single 30" or Dual 24" Monitors

[Jazzr2]

I need to go to a real calibrated monitor now and have decided to go the Wide Gamut approach.
Now I'm debating whether to get a single Dell U3014 or dual dell U2314.
It's been awhile since I used dual monitors and it was great for video editing.
I'm not sure I'll like it for Lightroom and photoshop, having to bounce my gaze back and forth.
Having no experience using a dual setup for PS and lightroom I'm looking for opinions.
The pixel density is also nice on the 30"
Thoughts?

[Schewe]

Couple of things...a dual display system can be very useful with Photoshop where the main display can show just the image and the second display shows all the panels. Lightroom's dual display situation is a bit different. You can use 2 displays but the second display is limited. You can't tear off Develop panels and put them on the 2nd display. You can have Develop on one display and a grid of images on the second.

In terms of a single 30" or dual 24" displays, that's a tougher question. Are you going to run the dual displays from a single vid card? This will work without issue on Mac but on Windows, dual display gets a bit tougher-it really depends on the video card.

Personally, I really don't know what to tell you...I've used multiple displays for years and can't image not having multiple displays to work on. On the other hand, I can work on a laptop with a single display, but in the field I do very little actual work other than selection editing and rough tone/color adjustments. For production work, I wait till I get home on my multi display system.

[BernardLanguillier]

One 30 and one second hand/cheap 21?

The 30 helps a lot with vertical images.

But I could not live without my second screen for C1 thumbnails selection and PS palettes. My 10 years old Samsung 21inch still works perfect for that.

It will be replaced by my current main 30inh Dell display when 4K displays become mainstream next year.

Cheers,
Bernard

[Sheldon N]

Make your main screen as big as possible, that's where your image will be. Second screen can be either matching or smaller since it's often relegated to photoshop palettes and other general computing things.

I've settled on a 27" + 24" approach and it works nicely. I have a Dell U2711 and an older Dell 2408WFP, both wide gamut.

[Justan]

I use 2 24” monitors and they make for a good workstation. Due to my aging eyes, I’ll replace these with larger ones next time around.

If you have the space you’ll never regret having 2 monitors. After you get them, you’ll probably silently wonder why you didn’t do it long ago.

[Steve Weldon]

I need to go to a real calibrated monitor now and have decided to go the Wide Gamut approach.
Now I'm debating whether to get a single Dell U3014 or dual dell U2314.
It's been awhile since I used dual monitors and it was great for video editing.
I'm not sure I'll like it for Lightroom and photoshop, having to bounce my gaze back and forth.
Having no experience using a dual setup for PS and lightroom I'm looking for opinions.
The pixel density is also nice on the 30"
Thoughts?

I used dual 21's for 7-8 years and have had my dual 26.5's (LCD2690uxi2) for nearly 2 years.  I use them with Photoshop, Lightroom, Capture One, and every piece of software I normally use.  I don't consider two unequal size monitors "dual monitors", instead I call them 2 monitors.   

"Dual Monitors" should ideally be used on a dual monitor stand which angles  them comfortably towards your eyes at such a distance that they virtually eliminate any head movement, they can and should be calibrated so the same whitepoint (profile) is consistent across both, and the cursor should easily move from one to the other without 'steps". 

The entire ideal of dual monitors is to make your viewing experience less fatiguing, more enjoyable, and most of all more productive.  IF they don't, then they're not dual monitors.   They're just multiple monitors. 

They should be hooded.

I've been giving thought to going to a single 30 myself.  Mostly to reclaim some desk space.  Having given it though I probably won't.  Paying attention to my daily workflow across dual monitors made me realize I'd lose a lot of productivity going back to one.