Monitor Qualities

So we have got an understanding of the technologies behind the panels, let’s examine at some qualities of monitors and how they are relevant to the best monitors for photography

colour Gamut

Put simply, the colour gamut of a panel is the range of colors|colors} it is able to displaying. A good monitor for photography will have a wide color gamut, often measured against the Adobe RGB spectrum. Ideally, a monitor for photography will cover at least the sRGB spectrum and beyond if possible.

A monitor with a wide color gamut will reproduce greener greens and redder reds, for example. This is often called color saturation and is obviously a good thing in a photographer’s monitor. The graph below shows how colour gamuts are generally represented.

Color Depth

Having a wide color gamut alone is not sufficient to make a monitor good for photography. Color gamut tells you nothing about the amount of colors a monitor for photography can display. The number of colors is generally called the colour depth. It is theoretically possible to have a very wide color gamut but only a small colour depth. This would mean the panel could display a few very saturated colors but there would be few, if any, intermediate colours between them.

A good colour depth will result in smoother transitions between colours and less banding on the screen. It will also allow colors to be displayed more accurately, all qualities of panel desirable to photographers.

Color depth is often represented by a number of bits; the higher the number of bits the more colors the monitor is capable of producing. Twisted Nematic (TN) displays are able to produce 6-bit color, or 18-bit colour depth (6 pixels of green, 6 pixels of blue and 6 pixels of red equals 18 bits). These monitors can produce 262, 144 colors. TN displays use a color simulation technique known as dithering to increase the perceived number of colors. If you are looking for a good monitor for photography you want more colors available to you than this and a screen that doesn’t use color simulation. IPS and PVA panels are capable for producing 8-bit color (24-bit colour depth) and can display 16.7million colors. This is known as “true color” and is the minimum color depth you should look for in a monitor for photography.

monitor for photography

Modern IPS and PVA monitors can even produce 10-bit color (30-bit colour depth) allowing the monitor to display over a billion colours. However, in order to display the full colour depth the software and hardware must be compatible with 10-bit colour. If you have the right kit then 10-bit monitors are the best monitors for photographers.

Colour Calibration

Color calibration is an essential element of getting your screen to display accurate colors. Many of the best monitors for photography are self-calibrating, but for the mid to low end monitors you will need to use a color calibrator (colorimeter) and suitable software. If you plan on printing your photos yourself you will also need to calibrate your printer. These also range in price and quality.

Colour accuracy is measured in delta-E; the smaller the delta-E, the more accurate the colour representation. A delta-E of below 1 is imperceptible to the human eye. Delta-E’s of 2 to 4 are considered good and require a sensitive eye to spot the difference. A delta-E of above 5 should be avoided if you are looking for a monitor for photography.

best monitor for photographers

Contrast Ratio

Contrast ratios are the measurement of the whitest white vs the deepest black a monitor is able to produce. High contrast ratios are desirable in a photographer’s monitor because they help to ensure that bright colours look brighter and deep colours look deeper. There are two common ways of measuring contrast ratio; static and dynamic. Static contrast ratios are measured with a consistent backlight level but dynamic contrast ratios are measured with a variable black light level. In dynamic contrast ratios the white has been measured with the backlight at full and the black with the backlight virtually off. This is why dynamic contrast ratios are much higher than static contrast ratios.

Response Times

Response times of screens are usually how long it takes for one pixel to change from one shade of gray to another and is measure in milliseconds (ms). IPS panels sacrifice response rate for a bigger range, depth and accuracy of color. TN monitors, on the other hand, have poor color reproduction but fast response times. Response times are more important for gaming and entertainment than for a photographer’s monitor but you may be looking for an all-round monitor capable of both accurate color work and playing games and watching movies. Some modern IPS and PVA panel have reduced their response times to 6ms, which is still quite a way off the super quick speeds of TN monitors (2ms), but is good enough to handle all but the most intense gaming.