B&W on MacBook Pro LCD

[Darron Fuller]

It's quite clear to most of us that the MacBook Pro LCD is not suitable for serious color image editing. What do people think about editing fine art B&W images on a MacBook Pro LCD?

Darron.

 

[Mitch Alland]

I find that that the MacBook Pro with the 17 inch high-resolution (1200x1900 pixels) screen, after calibration, can be used for editing both B&W and colour photographs. However, I would not do this, either in colour or B&W, with a 15 inch or 17 normal (non-high resolution version) because you don't get enough tonal gradation, but some people d this. Another thing is that, with the 17 inch high resolution version, the matte screen is highly preferable if you want accurate soft-proofing as the glossy ones are just too bright to match screen to paper print. That means the the penultimate version of this PowerBook is preferable to the current, (latest) version , which only has the glossy screen.

—Mitch/Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/

 

[Ken Tanaka]

It's quite clear to most of us that the MacBook Pro LCD is not suitable for serious color image editing. What do people think about editing fine art B&W images on a MacBook Pro LCD?

Darron.

I don't know who "us" is but I've no problem getting accurate color (with regard to both ink jet prints and press work) from my MacBook Pro 17" LED screen.

 

[Andrew Rodney]

These laptop displays are far from ideal, lets put it that way! They range from usable with caution to just don't go there. Unless of course you're just doing on the road, quick and dirty metadata editing. No real time and no data loss. Quick Develop (and underlooked useful feature of Lightroom) is a great example. Update the LR library and previews (DNGs) and refine on the much better display (in my case, the sRGB display is an Artisan, the Wide gamut is the 3090 from NEC.

 

[Jack_Flesher]

I think "usable with caution" is an appropriate edict. I find my late model 15" MacBook Pro with glossy display, when properly *profiled* (meaning really profiled and not just calibrated), does a cautiously adequate job on most images for quick conversions and web posting, B&W or color. For serious work, the fully color managed system with good display is paramount.

 

[Asher Kelman]

I think "usable with caution" is an appropriate edict. I find my late model 15" MacBook Pro with glossy display, when properly *profiled* (meaning really profiled and not just calibrated), does a cautiously adequate job on most images for quick conversions and web posting, B&W or color. For serious work, the fully color managed system with good display is paramount.

Hi Jack,

I agree with the bottom line advise on doing "a cautiously adequate job for quick conversions and web posting", but what do you mean by "calibrating" for an LCD monitor?

Also how does one do things differently with the newer lighting technologies?

Asher