Buy a display to work with a lap top: I am looking for recommendations for an external monitor for photo editing. I use a laptop with a 12″ internal monitor. Thinking about a 27″ or...

cyclespeed Loc: Calgary, Alberta Canada

I am looking for recommendations for an external monitor for photo editing. I use a laptop with a 12″ internal monitor. Thinking about a 27″ or 32″ monitor.
I use Photoshop Elements for editing
Budget around $500.
Is it better to look for sRGB colour support and calibration or screen resolution?

letmedance Loc: Walnut, Ca.

Visit Best Buy or one of the other dealers and actually view the monitors in operation.

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

Make sure the monitor and computer have HDMI ports.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

cyclespeed wrote:

I am looking for recommendations for an external monitor for photo editing. I use a laptop with a 12″ internal monitor. Thinking about a 27″ or 32″ monitor.
I use Photoshop Elements for editing
Budget around $500.
Is it better to look for sRGB colour support and calibration or screen resolution?

I use a pair of 24" 10 bit displays - you couldn't get me to use a larger, higher resolution if you paid me to do that. Font scaling is still inconsistent among applications and I really hate looking at tiny, high resolution text. Nothing like having a pair of displays (or three if I want to use the laptop's display) to have a truly expansive desktop editing experience.

Adobe RGB is what you "should" be looking for, 10 bit preferably, but 8 bit+FRC is fine. For resolution, 1920x1200 is good enough for a 24", 2560 × 1440 is fine for a 27" - I don't care for editing on 32" displays.

You should budget another $260 or so for a profiling tool - like the Calibrite Color Checker Display Pro (replaces the Xrite i1 Display Pro).

NickGee Loc: Pacific Northwest

Gene51 wrote:

I use a pair of 24" 10 bit displays - you couldn't get me to use a larger, higher resolution if you paid me to do that. Font scaling is still inconsistent among applications and I really hate looking at tiny, high resolution text. Nothing like having a pair of displays (or three if I want to use the laptop's display) to have a truly expansive desktop editing experience.

I considered doing just this when I updated monitors a few months back but opted not to because of difficulty matching calibration on two monitors. Instead, I kept my one ageing Dell 24" as secondary monitor and sprung for a BenQ 27" 1440p (QHD) for primary, where I do post (side by side with the Dell). Calibration on the BenQ is a breeze. You're right, however, about resolution hampering general reading (especially with my tired old eyes) but bumping text size is just a click-and-roll away. This setup works for me pretty well, but of course there's lots of ways to set up your environment. Cheers for new year!

Canisdirus

https://g15tools.com/how-to-check-graphics-card-and-monitor-compatibility/

NormanTheGr8 Loc: Racine, Wisconsin

If you go to the Benq site they have referbished at a better price I went with 2, 27in 2k not 4k and love them. 2k QHD is closer to the resolution of your raw files.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

cyclespeed wrote:

I am looking for recommendations for an external monitor for photo editing. I use a laptop with a 12″ internal monitor. Thinking about a 27″ or 32″ monitor.
I use Photoshop Elements for editing
Budget around $500.
Is it better to look for sRGB colour support and calibration or screen resolution?

LG 27UP850-W 27” UHD (3840 x 2160) IPS Monitor with P3 color costs around $550 list. I use one.

Ideally, monitors would have 10 bit color, 100% Adobe RGB color gamut capability, and feature downloadable LUTs. In the real world, monitors like that are not priced within your budget (or mine)

My LG is calibrated and profiled to the same specs as my Late 2020 M1 MacBook Air, and my prints match my screens quite well. I use a SpyderXElite for calibration and profiling.

Steve DeMott Loc: St. Louis, Missouri (Oakville area)

cyclespeed wrote:

I am looking for recommendations for an external monitor for photo editing. I use a laptop with a 12″ internal monitor. Thinking about a 27″ or 32″ monitor.
I use Photoshop Elements for editing
Budget around $500.
Is it better to look for sRGB colour support and calibration or screen resolution?

Here's an article on monitor & TV color gamuts.
https://www.lifewire.com/lcd-monitors-and-color-gamuts-833038

photoman43

Gene51 wrote:

I use a pair of 24" 10 bit displays - you cou... (show quote)

What Gene recommends. And check the ports on your laptop (and its manual) to see what port is available or can be used for a second monitor.

Nicholas J DeSciose

Best Buy is the best they have more than 50 monitors and you can judge their quality for yourself staff is very knowledgeable Spend a little extra and get the best

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

I haven't seen mentioned - make sure your laptop has a connector compatible with whatever you buy (HDMI, VGA or whatever) or you may need an adapter.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

PHRubin wrote:

I haven't seen mentioned - make sure your laptop has a connector compatible with whatever you buy (HDMI, VGA or whatever) or you may need an adapter.

Good point, Paul. There are many monitor connection schemes. VGA and its variants, and DVI and its variants, are ancient. But they can be used with various adapters and cables.

My monitor uses DisplayPort, HDMI, and USB-C. I connect it to my M1 MacBook Air via USB-C, which uses the monitor power supply to charge the laptop at maximum speed, and provides a two-port USB 3.0 hub (on the back of the monitor) for my keyboard and a backup drive. USB-C also feeds audio to the monitor's built-in speakers, but I connect my external speakers to the Mac via its headphone jack.

goldenyears Loc: Lake Osewgo

Another consideration... curved monitor or not. I got a large curved monitor as a replacement for a smaller monitor and it helps me focus my 80 year-old eyes on the extreme edges.

MJPerini

You do not mention which Laptop you are using or native screen resolution.
You also need to know what kind of graphics card you have and what it will support in terms of resolution and bit depth. That governs what display you should buy.
Many laptops skimp on graphics cards, so while I completely agree that Ideally a 10 bit IPS panel capable of displaying the Adobe RGB Gamut is something to shoot for, if your Graphics card does not support those specs don't pay for them. If you intend to use the laptop display as a second display, be aware that you may have to choose which display you want to display naturally ( the other may be large text or small text)
Higher end graphics cards do better with this. My wife has an older MBP 15" and a 27" Mac Thunderbolt display, and had to choose between "Best for external, or Best for internal" (apple speak) She chose to use the nice thunderbolt 27" in closed cover mode on the laptop and use one nice screen.
Thats why figuring out what you have and what your graphics card can 'Drive' is the first step.