Teacher22 Loc: Texas

I’m using an HP 3 in1 for photo editing but not pleased. When using PSE, I still have to increase brightness before printing. What is the best monitor/desktop for better / more accurate photo pix and accurate printing?

Paul Diamond Loc: Atlanta, GA, USA

Getting your system 'calibrated' all the way through the printed image means you have to calibrate the camera to the computer CPU/graphics card/monitor and then the printer. There are a few good systems. Recommend that you look at what can come from one company for calibrating all parts of your "system." It is work. It will cost money. And, if you are doing printing for shows or clients, it is a completely justifiable expense and investment of your time.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Calibrate, calibrate, calibrate, so the colors are matched at all three stages; camera, editing and printing. I have mine calibrated with constant light metering and adjustments of the monitor as the ambient light in the room changes, and I still sometimes have to lighten or darken the preview shot before I print the final.

I am using a high end (2 1/2 years ago) i9 CPU, Windows 11 with 64 GB of DDR4 RAM, photo quality video card and 32 inch BenQ graphic arts/photo monitor.

fredpnm Loc: Corrales, NM

Not often talked about, but it is not uncommon to require the brightness to be turned up some for printing over what you see on the monitor. Even for calibrated monitors. I can't speak for PSE, but the LR print module has those adjustments right handy for just that reason (and perhaps others).

R.G. Loc: Scotland

From what you've said it sounds like the most likely culprit is the brightness of your monitor. Most monitors come with the brightness cranked up higher than it should be. My own mid-range monitor came with the brightness at about 90% and I turned it down to about 50%. Even that is probably a bit on the high side but I got used to the brighter setting before I decided to readjust it. That's the problem - we get used to whatever the monitor is set to. if you're lucky, all you'll need to do is readjust the brightness of your monitor.

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

I fixed that problem by simply lowering the brightness on the monitor.

yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey

When I first started printing images I had no end of problems matching colors on my monitor. The single best purchase and solution is to buy a color calibration device from either Datacolor or X-Rite (new name Calibrate).

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

I have a Mac and have never had a color match problem.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Robert, cool system you have, pricy too. Do you do animation rendering? I don't just mean video from a camera. Isn't a i9 and 64 GB RAM a bit overkill for Photoshop. Other than speed or time what does an i9 do for you that a i7 does not?

I am considering a Ben Q monitor eventually, but I am happy with my older 4-core (8 thread) i7 with 32 GB RAM with Windows 10, MS-Office, and Photoshop.

Dikdik Loc: Winnipeg, Canada

I had always thought that a good gaming rig with a proper photo capable monitor was the best. This is because of the speed for processing large amounts of data. Some people are of the opinion that speed is not necessary and money can be saved using a slower machine. It also depends on how many cores the software is capable of utilising.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

It is a rebuild/upgrade of an iBuyPower gamer I bought back in 2011 (if it can run games in real time it can edit photos/videos just fine) then a few years ago I used the top end build specs from Photography Life https://photographylife.com/the-ultimate-pc-build-for-photography-needs to upgrade most of the components. The updated parts and $250 for a local tech to assemble it came to just about $2000. A couple of the parts were out of stock when I purchased things, so I went to the next one up in quality. I was going on the assumption that in my mid 70's this would probably be the last big update of my desktop I would ever do, so I wanted to "future-proof" it. I could be wrong, both parents and 3 grandparents made it to the late 80s, one great-grandfather into his 90s and one great aunt to one week short of 102. So will my bad habits overcome my genes? (I turned 77 one week ago.) I then upgraded my 27 Asus graphic arts monitor to a 32" BenQ, my wireless Logitech keyboard is just a sort of middle of road unit but I updated the mouse to an MX Master 2S.

I don't do video much at all, my wife loves to do video, then she usually watches them once or twice as shot and they just sit on her hard drive after that. And I am the one who downloads all her video and stills to her computer for her. She just signed up for a basic computer class through the Senior Center and the Adult School.

Dikdik Loc: Winnipeg, Canada

My system is fairly fast; more than I need, but I'm into tekkie stuff. OS and applications are loaded onto separate M.2 drives which are fast. I'm only an amateur and I don't do photo mods.

tcthome Loc: NJ

(brightness turned up/adjusted for the print) to look closer/match the monitor which is brighter because it is back lit.

tcthome Loc: NJ

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1649339-REG/calibrite_ccdis3_colorchecker_display_pro.html

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?q=monitor%20calibrator&sts=ma

Even with this device, you will want to adjust the brightness of the photo ON SOME photo/paper combos up just a little because monitor is back lit. But I find that almost all photos that I print are an extremely close match to my monitor & my monitor is not even a higher end monitor for photographers. I use the i1 Display Pro but a cheaper if need be should work fine & get you really close. The i1 Display Pro does have the feature all ready mentioned that adjust the monitor accordingly to the ambient light that your is in at the time. = probably important.

Good luck & have fun.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I am thoroughly enamored with my 27" iMac. I use a SpyderX Pro for calibrating it once a month.
--Bob