Plug in monitor to laptop

[Cand2010]

Hi everyone,
Im still very new to photography been learning for a year now and there is still soooo much to learn so I hope you dont mind me asking a question which may havealready been covered about 1000 times. I have looked around the forum and on the internet and I just cant seem to find the answers.
I have a laptop at the moment a compaq presario. I have two loan monitors that I have plugged in. All three screens are different?? I have the spyder express calibrator which I have ran on all three screens and they are still all different. Also the plug in monitors dont seem to be very sharp. the tool bar down the bottom is blurry. I have set the recommended screen resolutions and they are still off.
Im getting really confused and disheartened because my photos look different on each screen.
I got a test image from the local pro print lab and their printer profile and all three screens still dont match.
I hope this sounds right my appoloies Im not too sure on the technologies of this stuff.
Basically I am going to need to purchase a monitor when i return the loan ones anyway so I am wondering
a. in simple terms what I should look for when purchasing a new montor, and
b. could there be something I am doing incorrectly when I am plugging in the external monitors

I would really appreciate any help, that anyone could give me.

Thankyou
:)

[Dan Gamble]

You'd need to upgrade your Spyder software/hardware to that which will "colour match" all 3 monitors as well. At the moment it's just doing them individually and the profile might be re written for only one monitor each time you calibrate.

I have the Spyder3 Elite which is pretty good and it will allow for color matching (best possible match) of multiple monitors.

EDIT: another option would be to choose the best monitor and set it up so that your image preview windows for your respective applications all appear on that monitor only. ;)

[LJG]

I have just had a similar problem with my work laptop. I brought a 23" widescreen monitor for it and it was terrible. The IT suppler took it back and swapped it, same deal, no good. I then tried my 24" one from home, also no good. They then came out and had a look at my setup and it is the laptop that is the problem. The laptop's runs a shared graphics setup that is not compatible with the new style widescreens. Now I have to trade my current laptop in & buy either a desktop or a better laptop with a dedicated graphics card so I can run a 23" widescreen.

[Wayne]

What Dan said ^^

I'm curious how you are running 2 external monitors from a notebook? What interface, VGA & HDMI or DP? Perhaps the GPU or embedded shared GPU can't drive 3 screens at once.

[Cand2010]

I plugged the two external monitors in one at a time not all together. I used the spyder 3 express on each monitor to see which gave the best results, i dont think they are suitable for editing, I am going to go to a few tech shops tomorrow for advice. I have some learnng to do. Im not sure about interface etc sorry. I tried to display on external monitor only and not on laptop as well and results were no better. I have googled my monitor model and alot of people found they had the same problem so I might be best to save and look into getting better quality monitors. Appreciate everyones advice thanks.

[Wayne]

Without them all being on at once, comparisons will be difficult unless results vary widely. The need to warm up too if they are LCD's. One of the other considerations is were they pics you are using processed on a calibrated display (not laptop) in the first place? Can you post a couple here so we can look, many of us have calibrated workflow and could see what they look like on a high quality, calibrated display.

[Cand2010]

Hi the differences were huge I used the test image from RGB Brisbane and Frontier Digtal and loaded it on laptop and external monitor and bottom left picture is a bright purple on one and dark purple on the other (frontier digital gave me a print sample of the image and Im no where near close to it on any monitor but its not just that the back ground of photoshop is almost a blue grey on one monitor and grey on another. Lightroom is blackish on monitor and greenish on laptop. Monitor is not sharp even with text. I let them run for 15-30 minutes before I calibrated. I definately noticed an improvement after calibrating but I still dont get why they are so different, I think Im going to take monitor and laptop and print sample to a computer shop tomorrow and see if I can get some advice. It may just be something Im not doing correctly. It would be good if I can hold off for a little longer before jumping into buying a new set up when I dont really understand what to buy yet. I was reading this website today to get a better understanding...
http://www.imagescience.com.au/kb/questions/120/Monitors+For+High+Quality+Imaging+Work
I dont think anyone really realises how much is involved in learning photography unless they are doing it themselves. I guess you never stop learning though.
Does anyone have any recommendations on where to go in brisbane to get this sort of advice? Ive been told RGB calibrate your monitor for$165.00 but I kind of want some advice on the actual monitor and laptop set up to. I might find it easier to show them in person.

[Dan Gamble]

There are some great monitor threads here in the AP Forums that discuss the types of LCDs that are available and the relative costs and benefits etc.

At $165 a pop then perhaps you could get your calibrate done, get your advice and then upgrade your Spyder to elite so you can continue to do it yourself afterwards. Monitors should be calibrated monthly at the least to keep them consistent and more if you use them often enough so the costs benefits would be enormous in the long term.