Natalie (my wife) has a MacPro book with the glossy screen and didn't have any problems with it. Personally I don't like laptops for color correction or photographic work because I can never decide what is the correct degree of tilt to see the image the way it really is contrast and darkness-wise. But that's an issue with any laptop, no matter what the brand is.
Posted by Scott Fricke on May 21, 2007 at 11:35 PM
Thanks for the article Guy. I'm with Alain, I don't use my MacBook Pro for editing. I have a 12" G4 Powerbook and the new 17", and using the exact same color settings with the two, the colors appear different on the two screens side-by-side, nothing out of normal range, just different. I mostly use mine to download/backup cards in the field and to view images at a larger size if I want to make sure I have the quality I want before leaving the area. I opted for the matte screen as I was told the glossy screen actually adds contrast to the screen and I wanted the more natural look.
I have just upgraded my 15"Powerbook to a 2.33 15"MBPro, the speed increase in CS3 was not as great as I expected. Getting back to the subject I use a prolab and I don't fomally calibrate my monitor. I have found that it doesn't matter that much if the print doesn't quite match what I see on screen. I get to know the discrepencies and compensate. For example I know the green saturation will appear greater in print, while the red will appear less saturated so I make the necessary adjustments.
"Getting back to the subject I use a prolab and I don't fomally calibrate my monitor."
That's interesting, because the several pro labs we use each require that we use monitors calibrated to their specs.
As expressed by Alain, the degree of screen tilt in viewing can have dramatic affects on apparent darkness and contrast. Another issue is ambient light while viewing.
We just returned from 3 months of travel with the MacBook Pro, during which we had a couple of contract shoots. My wife and I teamed for one and she shot the second solo. We had no choice but to prep images for submission using the MBP. Taking turns on it and cross-checking each others work, we couldn't seem to come to agreement on several images. No color correction was attempted, but nonetheless we had problems.
In the end we burned two sets of discs for the clients- one with adjusted images and one without for each shoot- explaining the problem and differences to the clients. Following up to check on results, both ADs reported slight problems with the images we had worked. They resorted to the original unaltered files and did the work themselves. If they had not been generous, we could have been penalized for the work they had to do.
In a nutshell, for our pro needs the MBP is a dandy disc burner that also lets us play cheap DVD movies from Walmart when we lack for entertainment. I love the little machine for lots of reasons, but image editing is not one of them.
Hank, I use the lab's colour profiles but I just use the the system preference calibrating wizard, not a Spyder or similar program. I guess I have just become used to translating what I see on screen to the final print.
That will certainly work once you "calibrate" your adjustments through familiarity.
Our problems are two-fold:
Between us my wife and I have seven computers including three laptops, and we work both from our home office and our studio an hour's drive away, not to mention location work.
We (especially my wife) also work a lot with critical colors, specifically skin tones and product colors for multiple labs and clients.
Pour that all into a big pot and stir liberally, and calibration variables will KILL you- not only through extra time and frustration, but also lost business. We gave up trying to incorporate our laptops fully into the system, principally over CC issues. They are priceless for location work including client previews, but simply don't do the job for us when critical CC work is also required.
I just bought a Santa Rosa 2.2 ghz MacBook Pro and put 4 gigs of ram into it. What a difference from 2 gigs of ram. I have my EIZO CG21 flat panel plugged into the DVI port and it works better than my old desktop (which isnt saying a lot but it was a 4 year old dual Xeon 3.0 ghz HP workstation model).
I am using an Infrant ReadyNAS NV+ network raid unit for my file storage since obviously the 120 GB internal hard drive. Likely I will get an Apple desktop model once they upgrade them and Leopard comes out. I still wonder how lone a laptop will last as a main computer...lots of heat stress on the machine,
I've never had a failure on any of the Mac laptops- going back to the original 16-pound "luggable" that started it all. When I upgrade the older models sit in the closet collecting dust till I find someone that really needs them. My 12" white iBook that I bought in the first year of release still works fine, though the 10G hard drive doesn't seem as big as it did way back when. I still use the thing when I'm going into tough situations, so it's not on the giveaway shelf yet.
I don't know how all that compares to using a laptop as a sole computer, but over the years and abuse I put into a machine before letting it go, it has to say something. I do notice that the MBP runs a lot warmer than any previous machines, so there may be somethnig to your concerns.
Discussion
8 repliesIf you use or are considering a MacBook or MacBook pro for critical color work, consider this:
Apple hit with class-action suit over MacBook, MacBook Pro displays
Guy
That's interesting, because the several pro labs we use each require that we use monitors calibrated to their specs.
As expressed by Alain, the degree of screen tilt in viewing can have dramatic affects on apparent darkness and contrast. Another issue is ambient light while viewing.
We just returned from 3 months of travel with the MacBook Pro, during which we had a couple of contract shoots. My wife and I teamed for one and she shot the second solo. We had no choice but to prep images for submission using the MBP. Taking turns on it and cross-checking each others work, we couldn't seem to come to agreement on several images. No color correction was attempted, but nonetheless we had problems.
In the end we burned two sets of discs for the clients- one with adjusted images and one without for each shoot- explaining the problem and differences to the clients. Following up to check on results, both ADs reported slight problems with the images we had worked. They resorted to the original unaltered files and did the work themselves. If they had not been generous, we could have been penalized for the work they had to do.
In a nutshell, for our pro needs the MBP is a dandy disc burner that also lets us play cheap DVD movies from Walmart when we lack for entertainment. I love the little machine for lots of reasons, but image editing is not one of them.
Our problems are two-fold:
Between us my wife and I have seven computers including three laptops, and we work both from our home office and our studio an hour's drive away, not to mention location work.
We (especially my wife) also work a lot with critical colors, specifically skin tones and product colors for multiple labs and clients.
Pour that all into a big pot and stir liberally, and calibration variables will KILL you- not only through extra time and frustration, but also lost business. We gave up trying to incorporate our laptops fully into the system, principally over CC issues. They are priceless for location work including client previews, but simply don't do the job for us when critical CC work is also required.
I am using an Infrant ReadyNAS NV+ network raid unit for my file storage since obviously the 120 GB internal hard drive. Likely I will get an Apple desktop model once they upgrade them and Leopard comes out. I still wonder how lone a laptop will last as a main computer...lots of heat stress on the machine,
I don't know how all that compares to using a laptop as a sole computer, but over the years and abuse I put into a machine before letting it go, it has to say something. I do notice that the MBP runs a lot warmer than any previous machines, so there may be somethnig to your concerns.