Monitor Sizing Guide
photo by gorodenkoff via iStock
What size of monitor for photo editing does a photographer or videographer need?
Let’s make our own monitor sizing guide so we can choose the optimal size range for our particular needs and style.
How Much Editing Do We Do?
photo by jacoblund via iStock
When considering the size of monitor for photography editing we might want, one of the questions to answer for ourselves is how often do we do any editing and how long are our usual editing sessions.
If we don’t do a lot of editing in general, then the advantages of using larger external monitors may not matter too much to us. Even if we don’t do a lot of editing, though, using an external monitor still has many advantages that we can benefit from such as being able to see better what we’re editing and to eliminate any eye strain.
If we engage in any sort of editing on a regular basis or if our editing sessions are pretty full, then we can benefit a great deal from using a larger external monitor.
How Big Is Our Work Area?
If you’re reading a monitor sizing article, then you probably already have a nice desk or table set up for doing your editing, so you know how much room you have on or around your work area.
A good rule of thumb is that the larger the work area, the larger the monitor you could use. Or you might want to think of multiple monitors. Truth is, your work desk doesn’t need to be huge for you to be able to gain the benefits of a widescreen monitor.
The image above shows my editing studio upgrade with two large widescreen curved monitors. As you can see, my desk area is not huge, but by stacking monitors on a post mount, I was able to design the area to work for my most pressing needs, since I do a lot of very detailed photo work and also engage in a lot of videography.
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Try a Curved Screen Monitor
In my upgrade, I made use of the fine ViewSonic ultra wide, high resolution, curved screen monitors. I have the ViewSonic VP3481 34 inch monitor mounted above the ViewSonic VP3881 38 inch monitor in order to be able to tile multiple programs at once.
You can use whatever brand you like, but the advantage of having two monitors is that you can see everything you’re working on at once. Many of the video editing programs available today can have a lot going on at once with adding text, music overlays, or having multiple streams to edit in such as B-roll or supplemental audio.
The benefits of a widescreen monitor are also advantageous for our photography editing sessions with benefits including the lessening of eye strain thanks to the curved design of the monitor. Likewise, mounting them at eye level as I have done means I’m able to have better posture when seated, and the immersiveness of a wide curved screen really gets me into my work.
How Big Should You Go?
photo by RossHelen via iStock
When considering monitor sizing, an interesting couple of things to look at besides the actual size is also how sharp the resolution is and how well it handles colors.
Color gamut is an easy aspect to be overlooked by first time shoppers for large external monitors, but it’s every bit as important as the other considerations. For example, some monitors have an incredible color gamut, being able to resolve trillions of colors.
High resolution and being able to calibrate for color profile are some other things to consider besides only thinking of monitor sizing. The size of a large monitor by itself may not be helpful for our needs if it isn’t sharp enough to support our still and video camera files.
There really isn’t any rule discussing optimum monitor sizing, so I like to equate watching TV in our den with our editing work. How many times do you wish you had a larger TV? Or do you sometimes think you should move your chair back a little because it seems too big?
Well, translate that into our workspace. The distances will be different so the actual monitor sizing won’t exactly equate, but you can get a pretty good idea of what will or won’t be optimal for your own space.
Hopefully we offered you enough helpful information for you to choose the monitor sizing that works best in your specific situation.
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