new monitor ?

[learningdigital]

Hello, a newbee here to this site. Seems like some sharp folks here. I'm just learning the ins and outs of digital. I'm a former film guy who will probalbly never go back (never say never huh) to film. Any how, I bought a Nikon D70s a few years back. It's what has got me back into photography. The whole darkroom thing became inpossible for me and it just seems like an ancient art. Not that I dislike the dark room, had many a wonderous hours in there with all those chemicals and such. Digital is now where it is for me and I want to dive in head first. Now I'm just an amature these days but would like to ease into some comercial and art photography (no weddings please). Had some gallery shows years ago but work became more important, but has allowed me to make a little more money to buy toys like digital SLRs. (going to upgrade to D200 eventually). Enough about me though. I was wondering what would be the best monitor in ya'lls opinion. I have about $350 dollar buget for this. I have a crapy (5 years) gateway monitor that pretty much sucks. I just want something better is all.

what resoultion should I be looking for?

How about a calibrator?

As far a printing goes, I'll let the pro photo shop do that with thier expensive machines. Maybe i'll get a nice printer one day, but that will be another asking advice thread.

I appreciate any words of wisdom ya'll can share.

[Medley]

Are you doing any post-processing to your digital images? If so, what software are you using ( or considering )?

Do you, or are you considering shooting raw images? (yeah, kind of obvious, but it's important.)

A calibrated monitor is needed for accurate color reproduction from screen to printed image. How important this software is depends on how particular you are about the colors matching exactly. It also tends to be less important on new monitors than on ones you've been using for awhile. All in all, I liken it to a light meter: handy to have, and important for getting things perfect, but you can get along without it for a little while.

Also, do you have a a particular size screen in mind? Resolution varies directly with screen size. The larger the screen, the more resolution you'll want.

I've given you more questions than answers at this point, but I hope this has helped some.

- Joe U.

[learningdigital]

Thanks Medley. I'm useing Photo Shop CS2 and learning a little here and there. I shoot RAW and load it in Picture Project which seems very limited. I have to export them as jpegs to use in Photo Shop. I can not use NEF files in Photo Shop. I belive what I need is a converter software. I hear Nikon Capture is the one to get. Sorry if I sound totally lost but I sort of am. So yes I plan on doing post processing. I would like to go with a 20 inch monitor. Wide screen or no? How concerned should I be about resolution? Anything has to be better than what I'm working with now.

[Medley]

OK, first things first. CS2 is more than capable of processing D70s raw images. Trouble is, as new cameras came out, Adobe had to update their software to keep up. The following links lead to update downloads that should enable you to open your raw files directly in Photoshop (unless you have an incomplete version or something)

Here's the links for the WINDOWS download:
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloa...jsp?ftpID=3070

And for the MAC download:
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloa...jsp?ftpID=3072

Once you've downloaded the update, simply double-click on it to install (for the Mac version anyway. I'm a Mac user). This should smooth out your workflow some, allowing you to do almost everything in Photoshop. You still might want to look into Nikon Capture though. I shoot Canon personally, but I know a lot of Nikon users swear by Capture. You'll have to get advice about it somewhere else though, lol.

With a 20 inch monitor, I'd recommend a resolution of not less than 1280x1024. My reasons for this will become more clear later if and when we discuss sharpening. However, I don't see resolution being a particular problem. Most of today's monitors will fit the minimum requirements easily.

My last two monitors have been widescreen. While not necessary for photography work, I find that widescreens, and the additional resolutions offered, give me a lot of choices for setting up different apps. You won't me find touting them as the wave of the future or anything, but if you can afford it, why not?

Good luck, and let me know how the raw thing works out.

- Joe U.

[learningdigital]

Thanks Joe, your getting me on track. The RAW plugin works great! I'll have more photo Shop questions in the future for sure.

As for the monitor, I think I might just go wide screen cause I can.


Glenn

[Medley]

Glad to be able to help. I've actually been doing Photoshop much longer than photography, so this is one area of these forums where I can give back a little of the information I've learned.

- Joe U.

[learningdigital]

This is the new monitor I bought

http://www.amazon.com/W2007-Widescre...2494556&sr=1-1

so far so good. I cant use the DVI D cause my computer does'nt have that feature. My computer is about three years old (I know, in computer years thats about fifty years ). It is a 100% beter than my old one.

Glenn