How to Choose a Photography Monitor

Photography and the creative arts are a huge industry with many different specialisms vital to the success of businesses around the world. Whether you’re a fashion photographer, product photographer or you shoot weddings, from hobbyist level all the way up to professional studios, each discipline is unique, with its own specific workflow, from freelancers working in their own home studio setup, to huge production studios who produce and edit video for TV and cinema. Your monitor needs to match your creative workflow to save you time and energy to produce your best results.

Bigger is better, right? Broadly speaking yes, but this completely depends on your specific workflow. Let us explain. Our monitors range from 19 inches to 38 inches, which is measured diagonally across the screen. If you have a small work environment, there will be a limit to the size of monitor you would want to have in that space, and you may want to consider the type of work you are producing. It is easier to work on a design if you can see it in a realistic frame of reference. If you are working on large scale photo prints or work in cinema production, having a screen with a larger size is a definite advantage. This is useful as well if you are working with large format printers – so that what you see on screen is closer to what you see when you print.

Once you’ve chosen a monitor size, you should choose a resolution – this decision is important when you are working in some design applications because it will enable you to work in certain formats.

Monitor resolution tells you how many lines of pixels horizontally and vertically make up your screen. Images shown on screen are made up of these tiny pixels, so the more pixels there are in an image, the clearer and more detailed the image. Within the world of photography, this is key! Advancements in display technology mean that monitor size and resolution are always increasing with new display models.

HD, Full HD, QHD and Ultra HD are suitable for photographers and designers from all disciplines, but the higher the resolution the more detailed the image you will be able to see on screen – so choose wisely! If you’re working in video, however, you will really need to upgrade to an UHD or 4K DCI monitor, depending on whether you’re in video or cinema production. These monitors are able to produce images at the same resolution as standard TV and film and work with video editing and production programmes that require this resolution.

All ColorEdge monitors feature high-end gamma correction ideal for videography. Browse recommended monitors for your TV production or cinema studio.

A monitor hood shields glare from your screen. Reduce eyestrain and stop squinting at your screen! Your photography deserves better, don’t let yourself be interrupted. Monitor hoods are especially useful to shield glare from nearby windows or bright lighting directly overhead. If you are going to invest in a colour-accurate screen, make sure you can see those colours in detail. EIZO ColorEdge CG Series monitors come with a monitor hood as standard and they can also be purchased separately.