Hi,

 

I asserted that especially black and white photographies, for example here on 1x, are missing details in dark shadow areas when shown on a high resolution Notebook-Display (like the Macbook Pro 15" Retina or a ThinkPad X1 Carbon 14" with a resolution of 2560x1440). The same picture presented on a "normal" resolution Screen, for example 1600x900 for 14") are showing much more shadow details.

 

Here is one example of one of my pictures:

 

1x.com/photo/623168/

 

Interesting is the left down part of the woman's jacket. This zone normally shows a lot of details (jacket structure), when i developed it in LR4 and on all normal resolution screens, it's quite fine. When i look this zone on a high resolution Macbook Pro Retina, it's quite completely black. All structures and shades in this dark part are lost.

 

Is this a problem because of the web-specifical presentation from 1x.com or a general problem of small high resolution screens?

 

Do you have any idea?

 

My best

 

Mycle

I use above mentioned equipment and the corner is without any texture!

 

I thought this. On my 3 different low resolution screens (one of them a Samsung SyncMaster 933HD), i see texture.

I bet, that you will see all fine textures on a Eizo Photo Monitor .... and on my 4 years old Acer Notebook 15,6", 1366x768 ..... . Of course it has a big lack of presenting really black (Value 0). That's another problem.

 

But interesting to me is the fact, that all new high res screens are not able to present texture, while normal res screens can.

Which browser are you using? Safari has the problem of blurring images on retina screens whereas Chrome is fine. But Safari has better color management than Chrome though. Or it could be that the display calibration on your notebook is off.

But i never faced the problem you described.

 

In my camera settings before the photo i do adjust already for the scene. Sometimes textures in shadows or darks are not needed if the story conveys. At the beginning i also was disturbed by such but now a days not anymore. A good lens and the right camera settings will help you a lot!

I just looked at your image on a MacbookPro 15" Retina. In Chrome the blacks have little texture exactly as you describe however in Safari the shadow detail is almost as good as I see on an external NEC PA271 monitor which is not an Eizo but still a pretty good display. All of these displays are calibrated. So your problem is probably due to browser.

I am using Firefox. But i'm not still sure that this problem is due to different browser types. Yesterday, i looked my photo with Safari on a new MacBook Pro 15 Retina and the blacks didn't show any texture.

 

Today i will test, how the original file will be presented on the same device.

 

I assume, that the problem is due to the fact, that i worked on this file on a scrren with general low contrast (Notebook-TN-Panel). So it looks fine on exactely this panel. Another, more contrasty panel (like the Retina) is interpreting my picture in another way: it will be presented overcontrasted. And this make sense to me.

 

If i would work on the original RAW on a MacBook Pro Retina, i think i need to adjust a lower contrast by using the contrast slider. And this picture would look the same way on the Retina as it looks with more contrast settings on a normal TN-Panel.

 

Sounds to me like your MacBook display has not been calibrated. On my screen if I switch to default settings the black details get lost in Safari too but with the calibration turned on it is fine. Ideally you should always work on a calibrated display but what you say regarding keeping contrast lower also makes sense. That way the details can be seen on most types of screens.

Meanwhile i tested a grey scale on a Retina 15" and dark greys were pure black, whether white tones looked pretty accurated.

 

You can see the greyscale here:

 

http://www.achimbartel.de/cms/images/stories/ab_Graukeil.jpg

 

And i found out, that it was not due to the browser because the original file looked equally bad.

 

Hey Mycle, nice topic anyway. Today i was shooting outside on the streets. It was nice as i took only a very small camera. I shoot 10 rolls today and developing now. Great deal of fun i tell you. The most important was that all of the technical display issues i could forget. Now already start scanning with my retina display and the first slides are promissing equally if texture or not:-)

 

Robert

I don't know, if this Retina 15" was calibrated or not - it's a new one in an apple store.

 

But if calibrated or not, i found out, that 4 different high resolution screens have a lack of dark grey presentation (even my ThinkPad T440s FHD IPS, which is definetely calibrated with a Spyder4Elite).

 

My personal resumption: people need to take care before buying a high resolution display (even when it's calibrated). Eizo professional photographer screens don't have (and need) high resolutions, because each pixel is a native one. It's just a question of panel quality.

 

Many people like to have Retina, because of the extrem sharp and colourful display. But they often forget, that such a panel is not even the first choice, if working with greyscales is requested.

 

Sounds interesting, Robert. I stay tuned for the results.