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What type of screen do you view other Astrphotographers' work on Astrobin?

Processing
Ashraf AbuSaraMau_Bard
•29 replies•787 views
What type of screen do you view other Astrphotographers' work on Astrobin?
Single choice poll 112 votes
56% (63 votes)
3% (3 votes)
12% (13 votes)
7% (8 votes)
22% (25 votes)
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Ashraf AbuSara avatar
Ashraf AbuSara avatar
I always wondered how everyone views other people's work on astrobin. I often process my image on a 77 inch OLED TV while laying back on my recliner, but when it comes to actually viewing others, sometimes I view and browse astrobin from my PC, but often I do it from my small cellphone. Also perspective on a cellphone of a portrait image is much better than a landscape image.  

We spend a lot of time trying to present our images in the best way possible, but often that does not take into consideration how others view it. For example I used to post large FOV of galaxies where everything looks quite small and hard to discern on a phone, so now I am trying to present closer crops of the main target in the image to help viewing on smaller screen. 

Would how others view your images affect the way you present yours? 

I put a few options in the poll but if anyone has additional options they may think of that does not fall into the categories below let me know and I will add them.
Engaging
Arun H avatar
Arun H avatar
Cursory glances are mostly on my cell phone. If I am using an image as a reference for my own work, it is on a 24" or usually 27" monitor.
Well Written
Robert Sahari avatar
Robert Sahari avatar
Colour calibrated computer screen as I need it for work in graphics design. It's calibrated to Pantone colours however.
John Hayes avatar
John Hayes avatar
My MacBook M2 Pro.  It’s what I process on and what I most often use to look at images.  Less often (like right now), I use my old iPad, and even less often (like when I’m sitting in an airport, I might use my Galaxy S24 phone.

John
Kyle Goodwin avatar
Kyle Goodwin avatar
John Hayes:
My MacBook M2 Pro.  It’s what I process on and what I most often use to look at images.  Less often (like right now), I use my old iPad, and even less often (like when I’m sitting in an airport, I might use my Galaxy S24 phone.

John

I'm interested to hear that you process on the MacBook.  I've sometimes wondered if that would be an option for me, but I've continued to use my desktop to process out of habit.  I use PixInsight and Photoshop, so certainly tools I have available on the Mac just as well as the PC, but I wonder if you've run into any challenges?  How is the performance of the RCAstro tools on the MacBook GPU?
Well Written Respectful Engaging
Tommy Nikiforov avatar
Tommy Nikiforov avatar
16" DCI P3 screen , or bog standard 40" 4k tv
Ian Dixon avatar
Ian Dixon avatar
I do most of my processing and viewing on my M1 Macbook pro. 

Sometimes its slaved to a couple of 42" Dell monitors, one at work and one at home. 

Works well, I like the Mac for PI, PS etc…

Ian

EDIT - after reading John's note below, I should add that my rig runs Pixinsight without crashes.. I have never lost any data or project while working on this.
John Hayes avatar
John Hayes avatar
Kyle Goodwin:
John Hayes:
My MacBook M2 Pro.  It’s what I process on and what I most often use to look at images.  Less often (like right now), I use my old iPad, and even less often (like when I’m sitting in an airport, I might use my Galaxy S24 phone.

John

I'm interested to hear that you process on the MacBook.  I've sometimes wondered if that would be an option for me, but I've continued to use my desktop to process out of habit.  I use PixInsight and Photoshop, so certainly tools I have available on the Mac just as well as the PC, but I wonder if you've run into any challenges?  How is the performance of the RCAstro tools on the MacBook GPU?

The MacBook M2 Pro (now a generation old) works really well for processing.  Russ's tool are reasonably fast on the Mac.  A full frame IMX455 image takes 30s in BXT (I just timed it).   However, there is one fatal flaw.  PI is not stable on the Mac.  It randomly crashes and after following Juan's responses to others with this same problem, I've concluded that it is related to some problem in the Mac ARM translation software.  So, I have to save everything all the time.  It might run for a week, day after day with no problem or it might run for an hour and <blink>...everything is gone.  It looks to me like a memory protection fault.  I can use it so I'm not driven to switch PCs but it is hard to recommend it.

John
Helpful Insightful Respectful Concise
Kevin Mace avatar
Kevin Mace avatar
I use a MacBook Pro (16-inch) M3 Pro and an external and calibrated Samsung 27" 4k monitor.  I don't (yet) use PI, so I can't comment on its stability on my Mac.  I use APP for stacking and GraXpert and Photoshop for most of my processing, and I don't typically have issues with speed or stability on those apps.

-Kevin
Well Written Concise
Kyle Goodwin avatar
Kyle Goodwin avatar
John Hayes:
Kyle Goodwin:
John Hayes:
My MacBook M2 Pro.  It’s what I process on and what I most often use to look at images.  Less often (like right now), I use my old iPad, and even less often (like when I’m sitting in an airport, I might use my Galaxy S24 phone.

John

I'm interested to hear that you process on the MacBook.  I've sometimes wondered if that would be an option for me, but I've continued to use my desktop to process out of habit.  I use PixInsight and Photoshop, so certainly tools I have available on the Mac just as well as the PC, but I wonder if you've run into any challenges?  How is the performance of the RCAstro tools on the MacBook GPU?

The MacBook M2 Pro (now a generation old) works really well for processing.  Russ's tool are reasonably fast on the Mac.  A full frame IMX455 image takes 30s in BXT (I just timed it).   However, there is one fatal flaw.  PI is not stable on the Mac.  It randomly crashes and after following Juan's responses to others with this same problem, I've concluded that it is related to some problem in the Mac ARM translation software.  So, I have to save everything all the time.  It might run for a week, day after day with no problem or it might run for an hour and <blink>...everything is gone.  It looks to me like a memory protection fault.  I can use it so I'm not driven to switch PCs but it is hard to recommend it.

John

Thanks John, I'll stick with what I'm doing for now.  I know Juan said as part of the upcoming replacement of the JavaScript runtime they would be eventually switching to run natively on ARM for MacOS (finally).  I'll re-evaluate it when that happens.
Well Written
Bill McLaughlin avatar
Bill McLaughlin avatar
I am not surprised the folks on this site view mostly on calibrated monitors but I would expect that the public, sadly, mostly views on phones since they either do not have a decent monitor or do not want to bother to use it.

I always warn folks that I send to Astrobin to NOT go there on a phone. Even the best phone is too tiny and does injustice to hard won images.

Of course even most monitors owned by non-photo people are uncalibrated and often set to a factory default and/or garish setting. I have seen some awful examples in neighbor's homes.
Helpful Insightful
wsg avatar
wsg avatar
M1 Mac Book Pro, the same computer I use to process my images.
Oscar avatar
Oscar avatar
my old Vivobook 17, which I do all the processing and viewing on
Josh avatar
Josh avatar
I process and browse on a Colour calibrated photography monitor (99% AdobeRGB, 100% sRGB) at home. Though i do a lot of viewing on a Generic widescreen LCD at work.

It's a bit of a tricky question, because AFAIK, web browsers output to the sRGB space, so all shared images should (ideally) be exported and uploaded in that colour space. But don;t trust me on that, my knowledge of colour profiles is shakey at best.
Charles avatar
Charles avatar
For me typically it's on an LG 49" Ultrawide oled monitor.
Ashraf AbuSara avatar
Ashraf AbuSara avatar
This has been so far very interesting and unexpected. I am actually surprised majority view other people's work on their color calibrated monitors. While I process my images on my large TV, I still view majority of other images on my phone unless I really am looking for a reference image that I want to study in detail. 

Really interesting results so far.
churmey avatar
churmey avatar
Alienware M16 16” for my own processing and general AB detailed review. iPad for lounge reviewing.
Jung avatar
Jung avatar
I think the poll is missing an important option…the uncalibrated PC monitor.  I imagine that or a phone screen would be the most popular option.
Well Written
Arun H avatar
Arun H avatar
Ashraf AbuSara:
While I process my images on my large TV, I still view majority of other images on my phone unless I really am looking for a reference image that I want to study in detail.


This is what I do as well  (though mine is 27" monitor). It really I think comes down to how much time I spend on my phone versus computer, a lot more non processing time on the former than the latter.

Bill McLaughlin:
I always warn folks that I send to Astrobin to NOT go there on a phone. Even the best phone is too tiny and does injustice to hard won images.


This was a struggle I had as well when I would send my DSLR taken and carefully processed family and landscape photos to my friends and family. I'd literally beg them to view them on large screens, but few would. Eventually I gave up and accepted the fact that in today's times, the phone is the default device and there is nothing I can do about it.
Ashraf AbuSara avatar
Ashraf AbuSara avatar
Jung:
I think the poll is missing an important option...the uncalibrated PC monitor.  I imagine that or a phone screen would be the most popular option.

I added it to the poll. Thanks.
Alex Nicholas avatar
Alex Nicholas avatar
My option isn't there..

I have a 43" 8K fully calibrated monitor… 

I sometimes use my 14.6" tablet, and very rarely my phone… but most of my image editing and viewing is done on the 43"
Peter avatar
Peter avatar
BenQ PD2700Q monitors calibrated and a 5000k ( kelvin ) light source
Benny Colyn avatar
Benny Colyn avatar
Missing option: uncalibrated laptop screen (15")

Browsing AB is about 50/50 between my desktop (34", color calibrated) and my laptop on the couch (plain IPS panel, 1920x1080).
Antonio Parisi avatar
Antonio Parisi avatar
hi, mainly my s23 ultra "without" eyes protection or my hp 27" color pro calibrated monitor.
cheers,
Antonio
Mau_Bard avatar
Mau_Bard avatar
John Hayes:
Kyle Goodwin:
John Hayes:
My MacBook M2 Pro.  It’s what I process on and what I most often use to look at images.  Less often (like right now), I use my old iPad, and even less often (like when I’m sitting in an airport, I might use my Galaxy S24 phone.

John

I'm interested to hear that you process on the MacBook.  I've sometimes wondered if that would be an option for me, but I've continued to use my desktop to process out of habit.  I use PixInsight and Photoshop, so certainly tools I have available on the Mac just as well as the PC, but I wonder if you've run into any challenges?  How is the performance of the RCAstro tools on the MacBook GPU?

The MacBook M2 Pro (now a generation old) works really well for processing.  Russ's tool are reasonably fast on the Mac.  A full frame IMX455 image takes 30s in BXT (I just timed it).   However, there is one fatal flaw.  PI is not stable on the Mac.  It randomly crashes and after following Juan's responses to others with this same problem, I've concluded that it is related to some problem in the Mac ARM translation software.  So, I have to save everything all the time.  It might run for a week, day after day with no problem or it might run for an hour and <blink>...everything is gone.  It looks to me like a memory protection fault.  I can use it so I'm not driven to switch PCs but it is hard to recommend it.

John

Thank you John for sharing your experience. I was caressing the idea to get a Macbook, in order to have portability together with the GPU working with RC Xterminator software, and that on windows laptops is impossible.
This means that the only solution is a windows tower with a Nvidia GPU card. Suggestions are welcome.

*

To answer the original thread question: I mostly look at images on a calibrated EIZO monitor, and (but I hate it) on my smartphone when traveling.