Fotógrafo de arquitectura e impresor de bellas artes/Reino Unido
Keith es un fotógrafo comercial e impresor de bellas artes con sede en Leicester, Reino Unido, que abarca arquitectura, interiores y fotografía industrial. Sus fotos se utilizan a menudo en una amplia gama de publicaciones en todo el mundo.
Keith ha estado probando el último monitor BenQ dirigido a fotógrafos y profesionales de gráficos en busca de una pantalla calibrada por hardware de gama más amplia. El de 24" es más pequeño que su preferencia de 32" o 27" para su uso de escritorio, pero es absolutamente ideal para trabajar en un espacio más limitado o con un portátil como pantalla principal. Más información en BenQ
Es verdad; quizás me he acostumbrado demasiado a los monitores grandes, pero mi primer pensamiento al ver el SW240 fue que era pequeño...
Luego, me di cuenta de que no estaba buscando un reemplazo para mi gran equipo de escritorio, sino un monitor de alta calidad que funcionara en espacios más pequeños o como una pantalla externa para mi portátil.
El nuevo monitor está dirigido al mercado de edición de fotos, complementando el QHD SW2700PT de 27 pulgadas, el UHD SW271 de 27 pulgadas y el UHD SW320 de 32 pulgadas. Los enlaces llevan a mis análisis
I’m looking at the standard version without the hood.
The monitor is well packed, and on opening you get the monitor’s own calibration certificate.
El monitor solo tarda unos minutos en montarse y conectarse.
First up a quick check of the box contents.
You’ll note that I’ve used the bag for the display to protect it and the table from marks.
The stand comes in two parts.
The two slot together.
The screw can easily be tightened by hand.
The panel mounting plate then simply clips into place at the back of the screen.
A good set of leads – even if I have to swap the power lead I’ve got for a UK plug version.
All the connections at the base.
There are two USB-C sockets at the side, along with an SD card reader.
I just need the DisplayPort lead and the USB lead for my MacBook.
Here it is set up and working (in black and white mode).
The whole process would take not a lot more time than it has for you to read this.
(BTW, the room is orange because of the halogen lighting – I’ve white balanced shots to the screen)
The display worked just fine with my oldish MacBook Pro, whether in landscape or portrait mode.
You’ll notice the device to the left – this is an X-rite i1Display Pro calibrator [review] that I used for initial screen calibration and profiling.
Antes de usar cualquier monitor nuevo, me gusta asegurarme de que esté configurado correctamente; y eso significa perfilarlo y calibrarlo.
Remember that profiling is measuring the characteristics of the monitor (how red its deepest red is for example) whilst calibration involves setting it to a known state (its whitepoint or maximum luminance for example). These two terms are often used interchangeably, but remember that they do actually refer to different things.
BenQ ofrece software gratuito que permite configurar la calibración interna del monitor por hardware. La calibración por hardware tiende a ser superior, ya que permite un ajuste mucho más preciso de las características del monitor y puede proporcionar un resultado más uniforme y fluido.
Esta es una característica que solía estar limitada a monitores de muy alta gama, pero se está abriendo camino hacia monitores más económicos (de mejor calidad).
The Palette Master Element software (Mac and PC) supports a number of different measuring devices.
No ColorMunki support I’m afraid – You’ll need to complain to X-rite, not BenQ about that though, since they don’t make drivers available to third parties.
The software has basic and advanced modes. The main difference is that you get more options for the advanced mode.
I’m using the i1Display Pro device – the software will let you check that it’s connected.
There are default groups of settings such as the ‘photographer’ one here.
I can change the white point as I see fit.
I’ll come back to a discussion of my personal choices for settings later.
I can choose how bright I want the screen too.
Once I’ve decided on the settings, I move to measuring the screen characteristics.
I need a name for the ICC profile generated – the suggested one contains the various settings and will do just fine.
I’m actually saving this calibration set to one of the custom ones (I’ll come back to these choices).
Once I’m ready to take the measurements, I just hang the sensor over the monitor.
With the MacBook Pro I need to set the screen brightness manually, but on other systems it’s automatic.
Once the brightness is set, the screen displays various greys and colours, whilst the the i1Display measures them.
After a few minutes, the process is finished.
You can run a validation check – some more measurements are taken and you get this report.
I’ve used the Adobe98 gamut setting of the monitor here.
El proceso de calibración/perfilado funciona de la misma manera con el modo Avanzado, solo hay algunas opciones más y el flujo de trabajo es un poco más largo.
If you’re new to setting up such monitors, don’t get too concerned about all the options.
I’d suggest that if you take the approach that a ‘default setting you don’t understand is one that probably doesn’t need changing’, you won’t go wrong to start with.
Take these ‘photographer’ settings for example…
Nothing too bad about selecting D65 and Adobe98.
Personally, I find 160 cd/m2 a bit bright for my editing choice. I’d prefer ~120 or even 100 if I’m working in a darker room and editing for prints. It does depend on just what sort of environment you’re working in, but remember that having your monitor too bright is one of the most common reasons for dark prints.
You can also set the RGB primaries to the best the display can do (native) or other specific settings.
You can specify a larger set of target colours to measure.
The measurement process is just the same and when completed you get the chance to run the validation step.
Note how I’ve saved this particular configuration to ‘Calibration 2’.
The validation report (info as above) can be saved as well.
Como mencioné anteriormente, la configuración predeterminada “para fotógrafos” del monitor no será un problema para muchas personas que usan uno.
However, my own preferences are to fine tune things a bit for my work.
D65 at 120 is fine for my day to day editing, where I’m often supplying images for web use. I use the panel’s native gamut settings to get the best range of ‘real’ colours it can manage.
I generate the 16 bit LUT versions of profiles since they give a marginal benefit on my Mac.
One of the features of the SW240 is that you can quickly switch between stored calibrations via the on-screen display.
The quick selection button offers three settings to be used.
The standard setup includes a B&W mode for the screen – I do a lot of B&W work, so prefer to do conversions from colour to B&W under my control. That lets me cut out that one.
My own set of three ‘quick select’ options are:
With my Macs, there is one thing to note about swapping calibrations on the monitor. Swapping the calibration does not change the active ICC profile for the screen. The ICC profile is what applications (such as Lightroom/Photoshop) use to ‘know’ what to display.
This means that if I swap from C1 to C2 I need to swap the active profile in my System Preferences – this is why meaningful profile names matter.
For the ‘quick sRGB check’ I don’t bother, since web display colour management still remains an area of unpredictable mystery (made worse by phones).
For video, you might want different settings groups, but the nice thing is that you have all the options.
The matt screen surface is good at handling extraneous light, as you can see from the print frame and glass behind the screen (note a bit of moire on the screen – a camera artefact).
The IPS screen is pretty even, with only a slight falloff along the very bottom of the screen I tested. Even that is much less noticeable if you’re properly square on to the screen.
I use a monitor hood with the main monitors in my office, so did wonder if I’d notice the lack of one with the standard SW240.
Not too much actually – reminding me that I never used one for the first 25 years of my image editing history.
The BenQ hoods fit very easily (see my other reviews) but I’m sure that if you’re really on a tight budget and wanted to use the SW240 in a bright environment, you could make one from black art board ;-)
(Note – At the time of writing, I see the SW240 being offered in the US with a free hood)
In these days of super high resolution screens, I’m going to say that for general working I prefer the lower PPI of this 1920 pixel wide screen. I don’t do 4k or 8k video and have no desire to watch video/TV content on a screen that close to me.
I need glasses for screen use and find that current implementations of content scaling for high DPI screens don’t work well enough. I know that when Karen tested the 4k SW271 (see my SW271 review) on her Mac she found that at 27″ she preferred to set the resolution to 1920 wide (with super fine 4k HDR as and when actually needed).
I suppose I’m saying that you don’t need to jump on the 4k bandwagon just yet – at least not at 24″ width.
It’s difficult to show the real benefits of a wide gamut monitor in a web article, but the image of the cactus flowers in our conservatory made it really clear
The insides of the red flowers show almost no structure when viewed on my laptop screen, or with the SW240 set at sRGB.
Move to A98 (or ‘native’ as I had it set) and there is clear detail in those intense reds.
A different view (slightly different white balance) shows some of the detail, but for both these examples I’ve had to turn down the saturation when processing the images for display here, on the web.
The use of a larger gamut also brings out more detail and depth in those dark background greens/browns.
As you’d expect, printing this image raises all kinds of issues.
Update: I’ve written another article covering the editing and printing of bright colours in photos.
The monitor has a useful range of inputs, with the two USB sockets and SD card reader at the side being helpful, although a little tricky to reach without access to the back of the monitor.
The screen is quite elegantly styled, and it was only when I looked at some older monitors I realised just how thin that edge was.
It’s interesting to see what were once the specifications of really high end monitors making it into the broader market. If you take care with your approach to colour management, stepping up to a monitor like this can make a real difference to your photographic output and print quality.
It’s a monitor I’d be happy to take with me when explaining the benefits of colour management to clients, if just to show the clear difference between the MacBook display and the SW240 for those red flowers.
