2nd Lightroom Monitor

[FMCAJON]

I am a beginner to lightroom and just finished Steve's video course.
Can anyone recommend a good 2nd monitor to use with lightroom that will interface with my MacBook Pro? Thanks

 

[Replytoken]

How much do you want to spend, and what color space do you want to be able to see? There are hundreds of choices. What size monitor and what resolution do you want to display? Do you need ports in the monitor? Answering these questions, especially the budget questions, will help folks give you some possible recommendations.

--Ken

 

[FMCAJON]

I guess I would like to keep the price under $500. My problem is that I am using a MacBook Pro and I simply can not see the image large enough. In Steve's video he was showing how helpful it is to have the second monitor and how one can use it in the develop mode to better judge the images

 

[Replytoken]

At $500, you can get a very good sRGB monitor. Finding a monitor that can fully display Adobe RGB at that price may be challenging. Do you have a size, resolution or aspect ratio preference? Getting a 1080 monitor in the 23 - 27" size is not an issue. You can probably get a 4k monitor, but you may trade off overall IQ for resolution. Are you going to also buy calibration software and a puck? If so, that will probably run you another $100-$200. I am partial to NEC monitors, as they are built well and supported with good customer service. But they are not typically considered strong on value. Dell offers good value, but you do have some trade-offs. I typically see BenQ and LG mentioned as good value monitors. In any event, I would strongly suggest getting a monitor with some type of IPS panel. These are generally the standard for photo editing, but there are exceptions. If I was to recommend a NEC monitor in that range, I would recommend this: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1286872-REG/nec_ea245wmi_bk_24_16_10_ultra_narrow.html . I'm hoping others will chime in with specific recommendations for your consideration.

Good luck,

--Ken

 

[FMCAJON]

Thank you, Ken. I will check that out. Thank you very much for your help. As I said, I am 74 yrs old and I am trying to organize my 30,000 plus photos that have accumulated over the years in LrC. I have been really impressed when trying to learn how to use LrC as oppossed to the iPhotos program that I have been using for years. LrC seems light years in advanced to the iphotos!

 

[FMCAJON]

My next challenge is to start learning how to improve my raw images in the develop module

 

[Replytoken]

I would recommend a couple of things. First The Lightroom Queen is a great forum and resource - https://www.lightroomqueen.com/. It is a friendly group like here, and you can ask questions at any level of experience. In fact, most of the questions are from new users, so don't feel shy about joining. Second, there are a lot of good videos about using Lightroom that are free. Julieanne Kost is a great teacher and I generally recommend starting with her videos - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh5bKKSi_bGJh717hVlEbRg. Anthony Morganti also has some helpful videos. Matt Kloskowski helped put on a paid summit earlier this year, and I would look at the instructor list and see what they offer for free. This will also help you get going with respect to the develop module - https://www.lightroomsummit.com/?r_done=1.

Regarding the monitor, I might suggest to keep it simple and get a monitor that does a good job displaying sRGB (unless you want/need a wide gamut monitor). Wide gamut opens a whole other box of things that you need to understand, and if the goal is web output, the standard is sRGB. If printing is your ultimate goal, then a wide gamut monitor would be helpful, but not essential. The NEC I recommended is a decent monitor. If you are near a Best Buy, you could see what they offer. Otherwise, you will probably be buying on the web. Then again, Costco is offering this from HP - https://www.costco.com/hp-27"-class-4k-freesync-ips-monitor.product.100664726.html . I do not know anything specific about this monitor, but it is 99% sRGB, 27" and 4k. I've used HP monitors at work (uncalibrated) and have been happy with them, but that is not for anything related to photography.

--Ken