Sharp Photos: Viewing Photoshop in "LowRes" for a Retina Display Screen

[Marianne]

So glad I discovered this. I've been told by many in the forum to check my photos for sharpness at 200% on a Retina Display screen and have been doing so for some years now on my MacBook Pro when I am out and not able to use my iMac which has a regular screen, since the Retina Display screen makes everything appear so sharp. No more!

 

I was toodling around on Adobe's site and came across this method for making the display on your Retina Screen emulate a regular screen in Photoshop, which means I get a better sense of how sharp an image really is, whether I may want to downsize slightly, and what any noise may actually look like. It also makes me more comfortable that I haven't oversharpeded my RAW photos when I view them this way. I thought this might be helpful for others who rely on their laptops while traveling. I still use 200% to check for dust. 

 

http://blogs.adobe.com/jkost/2013/01/viewing-photoshop-cs6-in-low-resolution-on-a-retina-display.html

 

Read the first paragraph - the rest tells you how to download the correct version, etc if you have problems. 

 

I'm sure most of you are familiar with Julianne Kost, but for any photo newbies or those who just want to keep up with what's new in Photoshop and Lightroom and keep improving their skills, I highly recommend Julianne Kost's blogs and tutorials. I've taken classes with her at PhotoExpo and read her stuff/watch her videos a lot. Great way to learn & keep my skills sharp. There is so much you can do in Photoshop and Lightroom, that there is always something new to learn.

 

If you have other tips for checking sharpness, feel free to add them to this discussion. 

[sb photos]

Although the article you have quoted relates to CS6, the open in low resolution option is also present for Photoshop CC 2019. Certainly as far as sharpness, to me, viewing at 200% appears the same as 100% in low resolution mode on my MPRr. I have always checked at the resolution below that in which the image pixelates, which equates to 200% when used normally. When using my non retina MBA 100% is the norm for checking.

 

I often wonder what Alamy uses to QC images, and what percentage of clients use retina displays or at the other extreme clapped out displays when making purchases. I remember long ago a G***y contributor I knew used a 20 or 21" CRT display with a horrible purple tint for editing. He then colour corrected visually on a PowerBook G4 Titanium. Obviously long ago, but it still surprised me.

[MizBrown]

The same directions apply to Lightroom, also, which is what I use for almost all my processing.  I also had been using 200% magnification to check for focus before this.  Thanks for the information.

[Chuck Nacke]

Marianne,

 

I'm sure I am the last person you would like advice from but.....

 

I am currently working on a DELL Ultra-Sharp 24' and I hate it.

Before I had a NEC monitor that I loved.  I hardly ever view images

at 200%.  For digital I work with NIKON D800's and shoot RAW or NEF,

My camera tells me, via a window, what face is sharp and I know looking

at the image at 7360 X if it is.  There are many times when I am photographing

on the fly and the image is not 100% sharp so I just downsize it to 4200 X at

300PPI and 99% of the time it is "Sharp enough"

 

200% can be deceptive, I work on PC's and I would not recommend to do that,

but I am not working on a Retina display? Keep in mind that in over ten years of

contributing to Alamy, I have only had one image fail QC and that was because

I cropped it so that it fell below the 36.5 MP size.

 

Best,

 

Chuck

[MDM]

3 hours ago, Chuck Nacke said:

Marianne,

 

I'm sure I am the last person you would like advice from but.....

 

I am currently working on a DELL Ultra-Sharp 24' and I hate it.

Before I had a NEC monitor that I loved.  I hardly ever view images

at 200%.  For digital I work with NIKON D800's and shoot RAW or NEF,

My camera tells me, via a window, what face is sharp and I know looking

at the image at 7360 X if it is.  There are many times when I am photographing

on the fly and the image is not 100% sharp so I just downsize it to 4200 X at

300PPI and 99% of the time it is "Sharp enough"

 

200% can be deceptive, I work on PC's and I would not recommend to do that,

but I am not working on a Retina display? Keep in mind that in over ten years of

contributing to Alamy, I have only had one image fail QC and that was because

I cropped it so that it fell below the 36.5 MP size.

 

Best,

 

Chuck

 

 

You need to be using a retina screen or similar to appreciate the problem with them. They are very high resolution so it becomes very difficult to impossible to tell if an image or part of an image is actually sharp or not. Images look great on these screens but they are not ideal at all for image editing as they are also highly reflective. It is not just laptops that have these retina screens, it is also the 4K and 5K iMacs and presumably there are similar reflective, high resolution screens in the WIndows world. The effect is similar to downsizing a file as it makes everything look sharp.

 

A matte screen at normal resolution is much better for image editing (e.g. 27 inch monitor with screen resolution around 2560x1440 pixels).

[NYCat]

Thank you for this. I'm planning to get a new MacBook this year and have rather dreaded the screen. Anything to be done about the reflection problem?

 

Paulette

[MDM]

17 minutes ago, NYCat said:

Thank you for this. I'm planning to get a new MacBook this year and have rather dreaded the screen. Anything to be done about the reflection problem?

 

Paulette

 

An external monitor is really the only option. I have a 13" Retina screen on my 2014 MacBookPro and I can't use it without an external monitor for any length of time. That said, I know Ed uses a 13" retina and does not seem to be bothered by it.

 

EDIT: Just realised you asked about the reflection problem so I guess using it in a dark room is better than having bright lights shining into it. A laptop is never going to be ideal for serious image editing anyway though so a matte external monitor is the best solution if not moving about.

[Ed Rooney]

Am I the Ed you're referring to, Michael? (As Edo I can only be confused with a historic period in Japan or a restaurant chain.)

 

Crazy as it seems, I now have two 13" MacBooks, a Pro and an Air. I bought the newer Air in a panic when Apple recalled my Pro and told me that the fix would take 6 to 7 weeks.

 

I've never had any problems adjusting to the Retina screen. It's been a year now. Yes, I did have a rare QC fail a few weeks ago, the first one with a MacBook. That had to do with the fur on a Spanish Water Dog, a sperate, special issue. I look at images at 100%. If I feel that I must look at 200%, the image gets deleted. 

 

The next Spanish Water Dog I snap will be in cross lighting. 

 

Edo

[MDM]

19 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

Am I the Ed you're referring to, Michael? (As Edo I can only be confused with a historic period in Japan or a restaurant chain.)

 

Crazy as it seems, I now have two 13" MacBooks, a Pro and an Air. I bought the newer Air in a panic when Apple recalled my Pro and told me that the fix would take 6 to 7 weeks.

 

I've never had any problems adjusting to the Retina screen. It's been a year now. Yes, I did have a rare QC fail a few weeks ago, the first one with a MacBook. That had to do with the fur on a Spanish Water Dog, a sperate, special issue. I look at images at 100%. If I feel that I must look at 200%, the image gets deleted. 

 

The next Spanish Water Dog I snap will be in cross lighting. 

 

Edo

 

Yes the very Ed. I will make sure it is Edo from now on 😎

[MizBrown]

7 hours ago, NYCat said:

Thank you for this. I'm planning to get a new MacBook this year and have rather dreaded the screen. Anything to be done about the reflection problem?

 

Paulette

 

No lights facing the screen.  I've got an overhead light with an LED bulb off to the left of the screen, and clerestory windows at the top behind the screen that are indirectly lit from a double skylight (roof and ceiling levels) in a hall).  Other light is from an open door left through a second room.   My hand at three inches away doesn't cast a shadow on the screen which per indoor gardening articles means quite low light.   I also have a Retina screen on a iPad Mini.  Love how the screen looks, but have heeded the warnings about editing on Retina screens.

 

They are very good for watching Netflix.  Just make sure there's no light behind you.

[Marianne]

17 hours ago, MizBrown said:

The same directions apply to Lightroom, also, which is what I use for almost all my processing.  I also had been using 200% magnification to check for focus before this.  Thanks for the information.

 

Thanks! I had checked LR before and didn't see the option. After reading your response, I realized I had clicked "get Info" on the outer folder which looks just like the icon. So, glad to see the option is available in both programs. 

 

 

[Marianne]

14 hours ago, Chuck Nacke said:

Marianne,

 

I'm sure I am the last person you would like advice from but.....

 

I am currently working on a DELL Ultra-Sharp 24' and I hate it.

Before I had a NEC monitor that I loved.  I hardly ever view images

at 200%.  For digital I work with NIKON D800's and shoot RAW or NEF,

My camera tells me, via a window, what face is sharp and I know looking

at the image at 7360 X if it is.  There are many times when I am photographing

on the fly and the image is not 100% sharp so I just downsize it to 4200 X at

300PPI and 99% of the time it is "Sharp enough"

 

200% can be deceptive, I work on PC's and I would not recommend to do that,

but I am not working on a Retina display? Keep in mind that in over ten years of

contributing to Alamy, I have only had one image fail QC and that was because

I cropped it so that it fell below the 36.5 MP size.

 

Best,

 

Chuck

 

Chuck, I'm always willing to listen to your advice. You've been at this a long time. We may not always see eye to eye, but I'm an open minded person and I am always eager to learn. As Michael says, the retina screens are unique. I'm quite used to them as my current 2018 MacBook Pro is my second one. I had a 13" MackBook Pro before this one, great for travel but definitely very small for checking image sharpness even at 200%, though I often used it on the road and never a fail here as a result. 

 

I mostly use my old 27" iMac to check sharpness and for detailed editing, but using the laptop is easier on my back and with the smaller screen, checking at 100% instead of 200% is definitely a help, since I can see more of the photo. Also, at 200% I'm never sure if any noise I see or CA, etc. is really as bad as I think it is. I had a bunch of beautiful blue hour photos of lighthouses with all sorts of junk in the sky which was filled with beautiful colorful clouds - at first I thought there was awful dust and specks on my lens or in the camera, but it was only on some photos. I finally realized that shooting hand held at 1/20th of a second had made swarms of tiny bugs show up as lines, which were in different positions in different photos. I spent three hours cleaning up one photo at 200% and still wasn't sure if it was okay, but at 100% at "low res" the issue is barely even noticeable and can be resolved by downsizing the 42MP files, a shame but I can't devote three hours to each one. I love my new Sony but sometimes all that super high definition is more than I want!  Imagine bugs 100+ yards away high up in the sky showing up in a photograph!