3 Replies Latest reply: Jan 6, 2014 9:05 AM by JJMack RSS

    My photos look significantly better on a Mac

    Heirloom Bob Community Member

      I took some wedding photos recently and had the opportunity to see them on a Mac, after doing all my post processing on my PC, with what I thought was decently calibrated monitors (Huey Pro), Color Space ProPhoto RGB and 16 bits for Lightroom 5. For Photoshop CS6 I have sRGB for a Working Space (this was a surprise because I thought it was set to ProPhoto RGB). The edits I did on the wedding photos however were all done in Lightroom.

       

      I am not wanting this to become a PC versus Mac arguement but wonder if it's possible to replicate the image quality one sees on a Mac versus a PC? The difference was so great, I was a walking advertisment to go out and buy a Mac!

       

      I did not print a copy of the shot but I would be very interested in printing off a copy from my PC and then printing the same on the Mac, fully realizing that the printers are different but again, I have a Canon Pixma Pro 9000 on my PC the printer on the Mac is an HP all in one but I am interested if there is any difference. I would hope the output on my Canon would be better than on the HP.

       

      I will also post this question in the Lighroom Forum as well.

       

      Any comments?

        • 1. Re: My photos look significantly better on a Mac
          Curt Y Community Member

          Were you viewing on a hi-rez retina display?

          • 2. Re: My photos look significantly better on a Mac
            Kelloggj

            There are so many factors that could explain this. Depending on the type of Mac it could definitely have better graphic capabilities than your PC. This could make the pictures seem more crisp and clearer than a computer that is older and less cpable of showing these hi resolution pictures.

             

            It could also be the type of monitor you are using. If you have a plasma, which is unlikely for a computer monitor but still possible, it could be a bit more hazy than an lcd monitor. The main thing is unless we have model numbers and are able to take a side to side comparison between the two computers we can't make a decent selection or even come up with a "solution" for your problem. Your pictures aren't magically getting more pixels and a higher resolution on a different machine, they are just displaying slightly differnetly due to the machine. Your pictures just look better on a different machine, and that's that.

            • 3. Re: My photos look significantly better on a Mac
              JJMack Community Member

              One of the thing you might be seeing is Mac desktop are set to a different Gamma then PC.  The most important thing you want is for your images to print well. You need a large number of high quality pixels for good prints. 

               

              You need to understand the your images colors will be somewhat different on all displays for displays have different color capabilities there are at least three different technologies use manufacturing LCD some version of TN, PVA and IPS. Your Images will also be scaled down to fit on displayed either by an imager viewer or by you providing both print size images and display sized images.

               

              In all cases the image displayed on screen will have less pixels and colors then your print image. Displays these day have different DPI resolutions that range from low resolution Desktop displays that are in a range  84 DPI to 140DPI.  There are two desktop displays with slightly higher resolution the old IBM 4k Display the 22.2" has a 204 DPI and new 4k Displays like Dell 24" display has a 180DPI.  Larger 4k displays are still low resolution in the 100 DPI.  Tablets and Laptops can have a DPI resolution up to 300DPI. Mobile Phone can have even higher resolution. I believe there is one that has a 500 DPI resolution. When your image are displayed on screen it size will vary. For they will be displayed at the displays DPI resolution not the resolution specified in the file.

               

              How your images will look on a display screen  depends on many factors the display's DPI resolution the gamma its  color temperature the room it in etc.  You have little to no control how your images will display for others or how they may print you images. Process your images for your environment and devices for print.  If you make image public on the web for now  create low pixel count images from your print size images like 1280x720 pixels and converted to sRGB color space.

               

              Your images will display on a 100DPI Display 9 times larger then they display on a 300DPI display  the pixel density on a 300 is a factor of 3 width and 3 in height.  This is why you seeing all the everything is displaying too small on my high resolution display. Its wht application not have to scale the user interfaces to be readable.