How to Position Your Computer Screen for Good Ergonomics

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How to Position Your Computer Screen for Good Ergonomics image

How much time do you spend looking at a computer monitor? As a serious photographer or videographer, the number of hours per week or day at your computer workstation is likely fairly high, even if you’re not a professional.

A lot can be said about good ergonomics in our work space in general, how it can add comfort and enjoyment to our workflow. Computer monitor positioning is a large part of good ergonomics. The type of computer monitor is also an important factor.

Here are some practical photography tips I’ve learned that help with good ergonomics, setting up a better processing workflow, even how to reduce eye strain and improve back and neck comfort while working on our computers.

Use a Seperate Monitor

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^{photo by hsyncoban via iStock}

The first thing to do to promote good ergonomics in our computer workflow is to use a separate monitor besides the one that is built into our laptop.

Almost every photographer I know is using a laptop, Mac or PC, as their primary computer because of the amazing features and capabilities of modern laptops. A laptop computer is such a common piece of photography gear that many camera bags have dedicated space for one.

As good and capable as our laptops are, the screen size is small compared to a desktop. Plus, being attached to the computer limits how we can position it for optimal viewing. A very common set up is to have a computer workstation with a larger monitor and either a space for a laptop or a dock for it.

Immediately this does two things for good ergonomics in a processing workstation. It gives us a bigger view of our work and it raises the monitor up, keeping us from having to look down at our computer.

Widescreen Monitors

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^{photo by Corvalol via iStock}

Since we are not limited to any specific configuration, we can change to a wider aspect ratio for our monitor. Widescreen monitors are excellent choices for both photography and videography editing since you can tile programs side by side, easing up the processing workflow.

Another factor in why a widescreen monitor is preferred for video editing is that we can clearly see all that is going on in our video feed even if we’re shooting in a wider aspect ratio than the standard Full Frame or APS-C or the MFT standard ratio.

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Raise It Up

Raising the monitor up to eye level is one of the best methods of how to reduce eye strain and also provides good ergonomics for reducing back and neck discomfort as well.

Many of the widescreen monitors come with some sort of stand that lets you put it on the desk, but that computer monitor positioning doesn’t completely fix the issue with looking down at a monitor.

A monitor mount of some sort is one method of raising the monitor to a proper height. Since most of these mounts are adjustable, they can be set at precisely the optimal height for our needs. This also frees up a lot of space on our desk or work table.

Curved Screens

While large, widescreen monitors are much better for our processing work than the laptop monitors, they add in one possible negative factor. The edges of the screen are viewed at a steeper angle which reduces apparent sharpness and may be seen as somewhat dimmer, too.

It's simply the physics of the angles involved. A clever solution has been implemented by makers of high end TVs and computer monitors, to curve the screen.

This reduces the viewing angle, thus preserving the sharpness and brightness of the image or video footage. It’s good ergonomics as well since we don’t need to move our head back and forth a lot to take in the whole screen.

A fantastic computer monitor solution I’ve upgraded to in my own processing studio is the ViewSonic VP3881 38 inch curved screen wide aspect ratio computer monitor.

Besides the obvious benefits of using a widescreen curved monitor, the ViewSonic VP3881 and its slightly smaller alternative model, the 34 inch VP3441, also have outstanding resolution, making them perfect tools for displaying your 50MB image files and 4K or 6K in all their glory.

One of my favorite features of these ViewSonic monitors is the color fidelity and depth. They are actually capable of reproducing 4.39 trillion colors. You read that right, trillion. When the monitors are properly calibrated, this gives you unprecedented control over your final images or videos.

Dual Monitors

As you can see in my pics, one of the best upgrades I made to my own processing studio is setting it up for dual monitors.

I chose a stacked arrangement with slightly different sizes while others may opt for side by side with same size monitors. I’ve seen some A/V editing studios with three monitors in various configurations.

Dual monitors provide good ergonomics and allow for running multiple programs through the ViewSonic tiling function. I tend to keep the primary image or footage on the lower, larger screen while running other programs on the upper monitor.

Using a large, widescreen computer monitor mounted at eye level allows computer monitor positioning that reduces eye strain and provides good ergonomics for our important and enjoyable image and video processing.