Pixelation

General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Doppleganger on August 08, 2007, 04:20:24 pm

Title: Buying a new monitor
Post by: Doppleganger on August 08, 2007, 04:20:24 pm
I'm going to die from all of these

"lacks contrast"

crits so- I'm going to buy a new monitor. It's either that or a spectrometer and I'd rather not buy a spectrometer for a crappy monitor. Since it's rather vital for work I should probably get one that has the ability to calibrate my colors correctly. My current monitor is a stock Dell LCD and isn't really cutting it for me.

My plan is to spend somewhere between $250 and $325 for a new monitor.

With that being said, does anyone have any suggestions on what type of monitor I should get. Right now I don't have anything in specific in mind. So long as it displays colors reliably I'll be happy.
Title: Re: Buying a new monitor
Post by: 9_6 on August 08, 2007, 04:25:16 pm
From what I have heard, Crt monitors should be able to display colours more correctly than lcd displays.
Title: Re: Buying a new monitor
Post by: Dusty on August 08, 2007, 04:37:52 pm
There are programs that can adjust the contrast/brightness and such of your monitor, even if the controls on it don't work. Photoshop comes with one, ATI has it with its drivers and such.
Anyways, ya, CRT are best for colors from what I've heard, but they seem to be something of the past. I don't think you'd have any worrying here if you get an LCD, as I believe a lot of the members here use them as well. Also, the budget you give is more than enough for any type of monitor <20" so I don't really think you'll be worrying about affording the 'right one.'
Title: Re: Buying a new monitor
Post by: Doppleganger on August 09, 2007, 01:54:53 am
Situation taken care of. :)

I got a Samsung SyncMaster 906bw

It was the flashiest looking monitor I could find at best buy. It was also below the budget I had set for a monitor.  :y: :y:
Title: Re: Buying a new monitor
Post by: miascugh on August 09, 2007, 09:34:31 am
I got a Samsung SyncMaster 906bw

I hope the bw doesn't stand for black and white...


 :crazy:
Title: Re: Buying a new monitor
Post by: Doppleganger on August 09, 2007, 02:09:50 pm
Oh but it does.

I find that I can pixel in the most extravagant of colors when I have none to use. What better way to get contrast then to draw in color in grayscale?

Actually, I don't know what the bw stands for. I wondered, for a short second at the store, if bw did stand for black and white.
Title: Re: Buying a new monitor
Post by: robotacon on August 09, 2007, 02:38:00 pm
Then I think you've got tilt adjustment.
Turn your screen 90 degrees and browse the Internets in style.
Title: Re: Buying a new monitor
Post by: miascugh on August 09, 2007, 02:51:34 pm
Yeah, over at my grandma's house they still have black & white flatscreens. But I don't think they still produce them, most of the black & white actors have died by now.
Title: Re: Buying a new monitor
Post by: Doppleganger on August 09, 2007, 03:16:10 pm
Hmmm...

It might actually be an interesting challenge to try and pixel something in color in grayscale. It'd really test your knowledge on what colors make what.
Title: Re: Buying a new monitor
Post by: Helm on August 09, 2007, 03:19:20 pm
Actually wouldn't be that hard if you keep saturation down. As long as they're close to gray, subtle tints can very easily be guessed and will hardly clash. Super-saturated effects would require a lot of color understanding though.

edit: I also was thinking about making a piece of art without using the lightness slider. Just hue and saturation variable, this would be a great excercise for people to learn the effects of cold and warm colors and how saturations makes them look darker or lighter.
Title: Re: Buying a new monitor
Post by: Doppleganger on August 09, 2007, 03:30:20 pm
Quote
Actually wouldn't be that hard if you keep saturation down. As long as they're close to gray, subtle tints can very easily be guessed and will hardly clash. Super-saturated effects would require a lot of color understanding though.

That's very true.

Quote
I also was thinking about making a piece of art without using the lightness slider. Just hue and saturation variable, this would be a great excercise for people to learn the effects of cold and warm colors and how saturations makes them look darker or lighter.

That too is true. Would the lightness slider just stay at 50% or something? It'd make for a very complicated exercise for me as I solely use RGB sliders. Actually, it's all that the program I use offers.
I guess if the exercise came to be; I'd just download a promotion demo or, god forbid, use photoshop.
Title: Re: Buying a new monitor
Post by: Helm on August 09, 2007, 03:33:47 pm
Yeah lightness in the middle of the slider. And if you're not using HSL to pick colors, I think you should. Really helps the brain interpret colors like that instead of additive red, green, blue channels. A pixel artist of your caliber not using PM is a problem too, but easy to rectify.
Title: Re: Buying a new monitor
Post by: Doppleganger on August 09, 2007, 03:52:26 pm
I had PM for a while. Some company I was doing a job for supplied it to me. For some reason it didn't really click with me. I've been meaning to get it and force myself to get comfortable with it for some time. I guess that I've been using my current program, idraw3, for so long that it's hard to dethrone it. Even if it's inferior in most every way.
Title: Re: Buying a new monitor
Post by: Helm on August 09, 2007, 03:59:43 pm
Once you get used to PM you'll look back at idraw or whatever else and laugh.
Title: Re: Buying a new monitor
Post by: Doppleganger on August 09, 2007, 04:40:01 pm
I'm sure I would. :)

I'll probably pick up PM soon and mess around with it when I can.
Title: Re: Buying a new monitor
Post by: ndchristie on August 09, 2007, 05:49:30 pm
Mh, i've been using PM a lot recently because one of my computers doesn't have IDraw, and i've come to the conclusion that it is not simply nostalgia that keeps me using it.  Even now that I'm used to PM, Idraw is just so much more comfortable.  Mostly comes back to the fact that snapping and selections are clumsy in PM and intuitive in IDraw, and I never use the additional file formats offered by PM.  Everything else (palette, drawing) is pretty much the same.

The saturation exercise would seem interesting.  CMY get the big brightness boosts I should think, they have the most color for what's produced.  Dunno what would happen to the others.