Laptop Editing in Lightroom

[orcas]

Hello. I was wondering if I could edit photos on the road using my laptop, using the histogram as a guide in Lightroom instead of relying on "screen" of laptop since it can be inconsistent from one session to the next? I hope this makes sense. But when I am home, definitely use my PC calibrated monitor for my main editing. Otherwise, I have always been afraid to do any kind of editing on my laptop.

Thanks!

Michele

 

[Replytoken]

Hi Michele,

Your answer will depend on your expectations and the type of editing that you wish to do. As you have indicated, laptop screens, calibrated or otherwise, are not nearly as good as a quality, calibrated monitor. But, if your work, or needs, are not especially color critical, a reasonable quality laptop screen should suffice. Regarding the histogram, I use mine for certain functions, but usually in conjunction with what I am seeing on screen. So, I am not certain how much you wish to rely on the histogram vs. the screen image. FWIW, I often am working on my laptop, and my new T4'' Thinkpad has a much better screen than my previous model. Its still not up to the standards of an IPS panel, but that has not stopped me when I need to do some "quick and dirty" edits. YMMV.

--Ken

 

[Victoria Bampton]

If you're comfortable with working from the histogram, there's nothing wrong with working from that. Histograms and eyedroppers used to be the way to go, back in the days of green and white screens!

 

[RikkFlohr]

As all Lightroom editing is non-destructive, where's the harm-no matter how good or bad your laptop screen may be? When you integrate your travel catalog back into your master, you can double check and reverse, if need be, any edits that were ill-advised as a result of your laptop's fluctuations.