The consistency of calibrated MacBook Pro screen

Over the years I have been doing photo editing (mostly Lightroom) on desktop. Started on Windows but last 5+ years on Mac mini with a NEC monitor. I use xrite i1 Display Pro with NEC software for screen calibration.

Just recently I bought a Macbook Pro Retina 15in laptop. I plan to also use it to do some photo editing. I have used xrite i1Profilier software to calibrate the MBP screen.

The problem I encountered is regarding the screen consistency. After calibration the screen look great with right brightness. However, the next time I power up/wake up the MBP (at diff time of day), it seems to be dimmer. Color looks ok. I have to manually up the brightness but then I can only judge visually. Not sure how it affects the over screen color accuracy.

I have already disable two setting on system preference:

• Slightly dim the display while on battery power on Energy Saver
• Automatically adjust brightness on Displays

This is irritating. I have already re-calibrated the screen multiple times within the few days that I have the MBP. How do you manage this? Did I miss out something? I know many of you (including the Pro) are using MBP for processing your photos. There must be a way to set it up to be consistent.

Thanks.

Theirs your actual problem? The screen brightness depends on your environment and the default 120 cd/m2 is only a common recommendation and no rule you are not allowed to leave!

Color wise the screens are quite accurate already from factory and color shifts depending on brightness level would be also something new. So no problems in this area.

Take the screen brightness you need for comfortable do your work - bright sun needs much more brightness to be able to see and do something.

On a typical range (around middle of brightness slider) you shouldn't have much problems regarding to bright screen and too dark shadows so your picture looks bad if viewed on a different machine or gets printed.

In my experience MacBook pros display color quite correctly for purposes of editing images. In fact I do not recall ever owning an Apple or Windows laptop on which I used PS that had significantly inaccurate color out of the box, but I may have been lucky. The technology of the specific panels have their issues, e.g. IPS vs TN, and their resolutions/size are what they are.

The only reason I invested in a MBP is because the screen is so good as I am not a fan of OSX for off topic reasons.

I will not elaborate but when I open images processed in PS on my uncalibrated MBP on my highly calibrated desktop monitor with the same color settings I do not see major problems. I think that is the way it is supposed to be.

I personally do not see a reason to calibrate a laptop unless you are doing color managed printing directly from the laptop and can not develop a work flow that yields consistently acceptable prints. You have described well what happens when you turn down the brightness.

There are many ways to resolve printing problems without dimming the screen that you can research if that is an issue for you. Sometimes the best solution is to attach an external monitor that can be accurately calibrated if you can not find another method

If you are having problems with how others see/print your electronically distributed images you may want to review material about Adobe color management settings, the best way to convert from whatever color space you use to sRGB (or the required color space) and how to best preview the images on your laptop before sending them out.

wstam said:

Over the years I have been doing photo editing (mostly Lightroom) on desktop. Started on Windows but last 5+ years on Mac mini with a NEC monitor. I use xrite i1 Display Pro with NEC software for screen calibration.

Just recently I bought a Macbook Pro Retina 15in laptop. I plan to also use it to do some photo editing. I have used xrite i1Profilier software to calibrate the MBP screen.

The problem I encountered is regarding the screen consistency. After calibration the screen look great with right brightness. However, the next time I power up/wake up the MBP (at diff time of day), it seems to be dimmer. Color looks ok. I have to manually up the brightness but then I can only judge visually. Not sure how it affects the over screen color accuracy.

I have already disable two setting on system preference:

• Slightly dim the display while on battery power on Energy Saver
• Automatically adjust brightness on Displays

Click to expand...

Turn BOTH off.

wstam said:

This is irritating. I have already re-calibrated the screen multiple times within the few days that I have the MBP. How do you manage this? Did I miss out something? I know many of you (including the Pro) are using MBP for processing your photos. There must be a way to set it up to be consistent.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

The qualities of this display, in terms of calibration and consistency isn't best in class!

bmoag said:

In my experience MacBook pros display color quite correctly for purposes of editing images. In fact I do not recall ever owning an Apple or Windows laptop on which I used PS that had significantly inaccurate color out of the box, but I may have been lucky.

Click to expand...

Unless you've produced some measured color analysis of what the colors are supposed to be compared to what you get, you can't produce a report on color accuracy. They may appear nice out of the box; that's nothing to do with color accuracy nor is out of the box 'calibration' necessarily idea for the task desired (match a print? Just look out viewing web images?) or tell us anything about color accuracy today or in a year.

bmoag said:

The technology of the specific panels have their issues, e.g. IPS vs TN, and their resolutions/size are what they are.

The only reason I invested in a MBP is because the screen is so good as I am not a fan of OSX for off topic reasons.

I will not elaborate but when I open images processed in PS on my uncalibrated MBP on my highly calibrated desktop monitor with the same color settings I do not see major problems. I think that is the way it is supposed to be.

I personally do not see a reason to calibrate a laptop unless you are doing color managed printing directly from the laptop and can not develop a work flow that yields consistently acceptable prints. You have described well what happens when you turn down the brightness.

There are many ways to resolve printing problems without dimming the screen that you can research if that is an issue for you. Sometimes the best solution is to attach an external monitor that can be accurately calibrated if you can not find another method

If you are having problems with how others see/print your electronically distributed images you may want to review material about Adobe color management settings, the best way to convert from whatever color space you use to sRGB (or the required color space) and how to best preview the images on your laptop before sending them out.

Click to expand...

Thanks to all that have commented.

I have already disable the auto dim and auto adjust brightness setting in System Reference. After doing the i1Profilier calibration, I also did the Quality check function provided by i1Profilier. It passed. However the next time I use the MBP, in almost the same ambient environment, the screen will be dimmer. The shadows in the images become a bit too dark, losing some details. And I did the Quality check again, it failed. On the reference patches, the measured color shown is obviously a shade darker.

The brightness is also affected with and without the power adapter plug in. I already disable the "slightly dim while on battery power".

May be that's norm for working on laptops. I will need to manually adjust the screen brightness to what I am comfortable with, and just trust that the both extreme ends still within limit.

Thanks again.

wstam said:

Thanks to all that have commented.

I have already disable the auto dim and auto adjust brightness setting in System Reference. After doing the i1Profilier calibration, I also did the Quality check function provided by i1Profilier. It passed. However the next time I use the MBP, in almost the same ambient environment, the screen will be dimmer. The shadows in the images become a bit too dark, losing some details. And I did the Quality check again, it failed. On the reference patches, the measured color shown is obviously a shade darker.

The brightness is also affected with and without the power adapter plug in. I already disable the "slightly dim while on battery power".

May be that's norm for working on laptops. I will need to manually adjust the screen brightness to what I am comfortable with, and just trust that the both extreme ends still within limit.

Click to expand...

No! Let the display warm up and don't touch its controls.

DO NOT use the i1P Ambient Light compensation feature, worthless.

--
Andrew Rodney
Author: Color Management for Photographers
The Digital Dog
http://www.digitaldog.net