This is why your photos look bad!

How do you see my images? Too light? Too dark? Too saturated? Poorly exposed maybe? If you feel any of these describe my photos, it may not be me. Instead, it may be you!

I'm Craig Roberts and e6 vlogs is my channel. For more videos and content check out e6, the the subscription service I run from my website. e6 offers videos, eGuides, eBooks, podcasts and more.

[cats-]

Some phones do have different colours modes choices, often something like vivid or natural. You can even often set the resolution, brightness and frequency.
Another question would be what color space to use when shooting/editing. For online display, sRGB is all that's needed as it is the minimum value and anything beyond might not be displayed or could even harm some devices (displaying an image in ProPhoto RGB seems to freeze smartphones).

Unless printing, there's no way to be certain of how our images will be seen. Actually, even with prints, we have no control over people's eyes. Calibrating a screen is a good thing to do but it's not the one thing that makes a photo look bad when it hasn't been done. It's like saying your photos are bad unless properly exposed by using an external light meter.

[zardosspinosa]

My own personal measure was how good the image turns out printed off my Canon Pro, and I was always stoked that the print matches what I see on screen

[oneeyedphotographer]

Interesting.

A fellow of the (defunct) AIPP was browsing my Facebook page a few days ago, and she found a few to like/love/comment on.

I showed some of my most recent work to a lecturer in photography at TAFE last week. He said I should hold an exhibition. There is an "Exhibition" unit at TAFE, I've not done it. We discussed entering the Orloff Awards, the top competition for professional photography in Western Australia. He suggested I enter the "Fine Art" category. I've long wondered what Fine Art Photography is.

I sat in on the judging this year, there was no photography like mine, none. I thought I could hope for a silver or two.

None of my monitors has been calibrated. The last monitor I tried to calibrate is a BenQ and the BenQ software crashed and burned. Probably I should calibrate, I sometimes run two monitors on my notebook, and the colours are different. But then again, for a while my eyes saw colours differently. From then I have wondered whether colour accuracy really does matter, for what I do.

[toddgrinonneau]

Good informational video on the importance of calibrating your monitor.
How images are displayed on phones are not only affected by brightness but also color temperature.
For example, I enable eye comfort shield on my Samsung S22+ and this makes the display more warm.

[harjeetsingh]

I use a BenQ photography monitor with an x-rite calibration device, and it works well. I'm no pro, but I enjoy getting natural looking images the way they were seen, ok with a touch of processing. Personally, HD is good for movies and nature/sports stuff on TV. The resolving power of the human eye, in my view, does not see naturally in HD, 4k, 8k, etc, and with age, eyesight weakens. Too much in front of electronic displays is not good for eye health anyway. Keep it all natural as possible with some extra boost is fine. Your images look great on my phone or even PC/TV to me.

[hanahoeo]

Watch on my Sony TV. I do calibrate my monitors on a regular basis using a newer Spyder. Works for me. Stunning pics as always.

[johnhoey]

My laptop is calibrated with a Spyder every two weeks; I have an alarm set as reminder to do it. I’m borderline insane about color management; monitor calibration is one piece of it.

[JanneRanta]

I have a calibrated monitor and I've come up with my own standard. Also, using tools like histogram and highlight / shadow warning is usefull for double checking that things are like I want.

[robertjones]

Hi Craig, the part that really struck a chord with me was when you mentioned about the difference the angle of your laptop screen can make to your image. I've always edited my photos on a laptop and would sometimes be so disappointed when i put "the best shot in the world" on Facebook for it to look too dark or just drab.I really should calibrate my screen but for the time being just post my images privately on Facebook so only i can see them, check they are ok and then either re-edit where necessary or put to share.Thanks Craig and great album in the background(how about some Redd Kross in the future?).

[bunny]

I for one, view your content on my phone, which seems to be the go to device. It's always interesting to hear a view, a couple of weeks ago, watched a post where the producer said no need to calibrate his modern screen?🤔 Always look forward to your videos and images, always informative!😀

[andymiles]

My laptop is calibrated, but I usually view social media on a phone or tablet. Those can be set to auto adjust brightness as a further variable.

[paulplus]

I calibrated mine years ago, probably more than a decade. So it might have drifted.

[tomcurtis]

Another useful video with lots of tips. Can I ask was the landscape video shot in South Yorkshire. I have been living in Cudworth for 20 years and only just discovered Howell Wood. What a fantastic place capture some good shots.

[davidwalsh]

Your images look great on my Samsung Galaxy tablet. Good pictures transcend the device they are seen on. For me, it's more about the emotion a photo invokes than the subtleties of resolution, colour grading and white balance. However, I can see that this subject is important for a pro.

[michaelj.]

Very ! relevant thoughts and advice. So often overlooked.
After using 2 cheap monitor years and sometimes getting crap results on self created prints of Christmas cards - yes, stupid me
= I invested in a new toy, called MacBook. That helped.
And understanding how different screens are helped a lot.
You mentioned TVs: another topic is viewing size. A mediocre image (I thought) accidentally seen on 50”, blew me away. That’s perhaps worth another of you greatly excellent videos?

[davidletz]

A very easy album cover/sleeve to recognize this time. 😄

[aztec]

I tried using a data colour spider but couldn't get the hang of it. It wouldn't work on an automatic setting or didn't have one and it was asking me to stop when it looked right 😮. It's sitting on the shelf behind me.

[RFranks]

They look normal to me, I use a Spyder calibrator 2 or 3 times a year.

[yarontaub]

But those calibrators are ridiculously expensive, for non pros

[robertleeimages]

Your images look fine to me but i do have my tablet brightness turned down to replicate my pc monitor that all my images are edited on so that they look close enough to the same on both screens. I have often wondered whether my social media followers don't click the like button because to them my images(mostly nightscape) may look blown out, because the majority would view on a phone or tablet with brightness at its maximum. My editing pc monitor isn't calibrated by a device but i have done it through its own settings and found for printing the brightness level(1-100) needed to be set to only 15 and since then I've never had a print issue