External monitor for iMac G5 17" rev A?

[Willy S]

I´m just wondering whether I would benefit anything by buying an external monitor for my Imac for photo editing?

My thought is not just getting a bigger working space but also more color and brightness accuracy.

Also, can anybody tell me how much brightness on the iMac´s screen is the "correct" one? Currently I have the brightness at around 25% but I don´t know if it is correct or not.

 

[Macky-Mac]

well, my opinion......put your time and effort into adjusting the display that you have.....calibrating your monitor AND your printer will increase your chances for satisfactory results

LCD displays have improved substantially over the years so you shouldn't expect to automatically get better color and brightness with a CRT....especially with an "affordable" CRT, some of which are pretty poor quality....it's true that it used to be a common recommendation to use a CRT for graphics but you'll find that these days graphics designers are split in their preferences when it comes to what display they like to use

 

[Plastic Avatar]

Calibrate.

I´m just wondering whether I would benefit anything by buying an external monitor for my Imac for photo editing?

My thought is not just getting a bigger working space but also more color and brightness accuracy.

Also, can anybody tell me how much brightness on the iMac´s screen is the "correct" one? Currently I have the brightness at around 25% but I don´t know if it is correct or not.

You may benefit, if you're a PS junkie and need a screen for palettes and a screen for your image

As far as image reproduction accuracy, I think the 17" iMac's screen is pretty good. I'll be using mine for photo and video editing/production when it gets here on Tuesday

I suggest you do the 'eyeball' calibration under the Monitors preference pane. Don't adjust based only on Brightness and Contrast. Go through the calibration wizard and get your screen set up as close to right as you can without spending hundreds of dollars on a calibration peripheral.

A dedicated calibration tool is best, but the manual calibrator the OS sports ain't too shabby for 95% of users.

 

[tuartboy]

I´m just wondering whether I would benefit anything by buying an external monitor for my Imac for photo editing?

My thought is not just getting a bigger working space but also more color and brightness accuracy.

Also, can anybody tell me how much brightness on the iMac´s screen is the "correct" one? Currently I have the brightness at around 25% but I don´t know if it is correct or not.

Generally it is best to use lcds in well lit rooms with the brightness 80-90% up. The lower the brightness, the more color casting the screen takes on, particularly in the reds.

If you truly care, get your self a nice color calibration device and set up custom color profiles within your workflow to match screen to print. Also, you can help by making sure your camera is set to the same profile as your system.

Also, I am not totally sure how color profiles are handled in OS X as I am fairly new to the OS. I believe OS X has it's own color profile settings and photoshop has it's own as well. Just make sure everything is the same.

In the end I doubt you will even notice many problems without any of these fancy setups. I say, if you aren't going to professional print shops where profiles are a big deal, keep it simple and just stick with what you got. Yuo won't be unhappy.

 

[tuartboy]

OS X profiles are in the display > color section of system properties.