monitor setup

[photokiwi]

hi there,
I have a lcd screen with balance + contrast both set to 50%. Of concern though is when looking at it from different levels/angles eg. moving my chair up or down makes the photos appear noticably darker or lighter. The main source of light in the room comes from one of those environmental light bulbs. Could anyone please tell me what is the right setup for using an LCD screen because i would hate to edit my photos only to discover that they are too dark or bright. thanks.

[Codebreaker]

What you are seeing is a characteristic of some LCD screens. Often more noticeable on Laptops. There is little you can do to compensate for this other than to sit in a central position.

Many modern desktop LCD screens now have a very wide viewing angle - (my own has a viewing angle of 178degs) - and maybe you need to go shopping again...:)

Colin

[budman101]

There's not much you can do if your monitor has a narrow "sweet spot" for viewing angle. You could try to match your chair height to be sure you are sitting dead center on your monitor. As far as color calibration is concerned...may I recommend getting a monitor calibration device. I use the basic Huey 1. It calibrates my monitor and adjusts the monitor brightness for the room lighting.

[photokiwi]

thanks for the reply. i have the spyder 2 calibration device

[dpirhana]

Unfortunately most LCD panels use TN technology, and these panels are not suitable for photo editing. I too had one of these LCD displays and found it frustrating that I could not get a consistent view. I finally broke down and got a NEC2690 display which has an S-IPS panel. Go to http://www.tftcentral.co.uk for all the gory details.