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altering-perspectives · 5 years

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Human

As I sit in the quiet of my empty home, two children enjoying their day at school, my husband at work, the animals napping around the house, I remember. There are so many different things to remember that I can only handle a little bit at a time. I play music to reflect and let my memories pour out of me through my tears and words on this page. The haunting melodies tear at my soul and remind me that I am human and my experiences are my own, I have fought many battles (sometimes I wonder how I have done so) with so many more to come. In times like this I can let go, I can reflect, and remember how far I’ve come.

I can start with the “what used to be” mentality and rage against the world for taking so much from me. What good would it do? I had energy, memory, optimism, hope, health, family, and so much more. Now I sit here years later looking at the aftermath of the battles fought and I find myself eerily content with some of the carnage because it brought me silence, peace, and a break from the dramatic machinations of others. I used to mourn friendships lost and feel even though there were many chances to redeem the friendship before it went sour that I still could have done more. I’ve learned. Sometimes it just isn’t worth it. The peace is calming as is the silence though there are times when I remember that some of these battles have left massive scars in my heart, soul, and on my body.

I’ve lost a lot. My energy, health, career, optimism, some family, a baby, friendships, and at times hope. I’ve mourned more times in my 36 years than anyone ever should. I’ve done my best with my “lemon” of a body (or rather “Lyme”), tried to do my best for my family, friends, and humanity. My battle has always been two steps forward and one backwards. It is a never-ending dance that leaves me broken, hopeless, and shattered at times. Today is one of those times.

As I clean my hardwood floors, I pick up the photo canvases that I have collected to display in a gallery wall in our foyer. I’m reminded that something is missing. Well actually it isn’t only as I clean my floors and look at pictures, its daily. You see my body is a reminder of one of my most recent and more tragic battles.

Despite the odds I found myself pregnant earlier this year (did you know in your 30s your odds of pregnancy are 20% at any given month?). I got pregnant with basically no progesterone in my body. I can notice all the small changes in my body so I noticed right away that something was weird. It was odd because my cycle had been irregular the previous month. This started the process of ultrasounds. I think I had five of my little one before 12 weeks. There were concerns about the low progesterone so I supplemented. My hyperemesis gravidarium (extreme nausea and vomiting) came back with a vengeance – I was on separate medicines to deal with the condition (the goal was to stay out of the hospital and off a PICC line). There were times I really wanted to crawl out of my body and thought to myself I wish I could make it stop. I was desperate, couldn’t sleep, was in constant pain and completely tired. I couldn’t enjoy much because of this sinister condition robbing me of the fun of pregnancy. After my 8-week ultrasound and we finally had a great ultrasound with the baby (yes he/she has a name) and saw that beautiful heartbeat I started to try to focus my energy on planning the fun things about having a baby, a gender reveal, my children having a sibling, how to tell family, a little baby in my arms, I’d give anything to have that back.

There are portions of my phone with photographs I cannot look at. It’s a section I just haven’t been able to bring myself to deal with yet. The plans for a nursery, colors, things we’d need, planning a fun gender reveal right before my birthday, and so much more. I had a list of names. Things to take my mind off that horrific condition and put myself in a positive frame of mind so I could endure and embrace the joy instead of the horror of hyperemesis. I was so excited for my 1sttrimester screen but also petrified. We had the announcement photo ready with the kids and my son came with me to the appointment. Unfortunately, my husband was busy and couldn’t come but I was going to video tape it for him. Who knew the horror that would lie ahead? I was joking with the sonographer when I noticed her concern, my 9-year-old was next to me so I asked him quickly to hop out into the waiting room to play on his iPad. It was then my world crashed. 12 weeks 5 days and I learned my baby had passed away. The chaos began. Calls to my doctor, my mother, my husband, explaining to my son what had happened. I kept my composure and let my son sit in the waiting room while I dealt with the specialist as he did another ultrasound and they informed me that my baby was gone, my body just had not recognized the loss. Walking out I had to explain things to my son, he had questions and I tried to answer everything in a kid friendly way so that he wouldn’t be scarred for life. I kept my tears hidden.

I was greeted at home by my mom. My daughter bounced home from camp excited and we had to break the news to her before heading to my OB. The decisions we had to make that day were unthinkable. I saw my baby’s form, head, body, limbs, but that screen didn’t have a flicker. I had two options: wait for my body to realize the loss (it had already been a couple weeks) or two have surgery. Coming from somewhat of a medical family I knew what this surgery was and I couldn’t contemplate this happening to my baby. I would have loved to be able to bury my little one or at least scatter ashes instead of the cold sterile way that it was dealt with in the hospital. We asked for this option but were denied because it was before 20 weeks it counted as a miscarriage. Two days later, I went into surgery. Those days of waiting were the most horrific, as I should have been waiting for those little kicks and flutters of first movement, instead I was sitting in bed knowing that I was carrying a baby who had passed away. Think about the absolute turmoil that would play on your emotions. I was wishing against all odds that it was a mistake but the ultrasound tech let me know how they knew against all odds the baby had passed (I’ll spare you the details).

The day of the surgery I was checked in to the hospital. I walked in and was completely unable to contemplate how or why this had happened. Could I have done something wrong? Was it something I ate? Did a missed dose of medicine do it? Did I eat something wrong? The questions cycled through my mind. I asked for the catholic representative of the hospital to come and pray over our baby. I knew that he/she would never get baptized and I wanted to be sure that this baby had been blessed. I was given a beautiful rosary and as hesitant as I was to have the surgery I did it. I don’t think I could have waited for two weeks to have things naturally happen (labor and all). It was that day my baby was no longer nestled safely inside of me. I know that my baby left days before and I was sure my baby was in heaven but I left that hospital feeling empty. I didn’t have the baby with ten fingers and ten toes that I was supposed to have.

The following weeks were hard. Tears and lots of them. Fights because it’s harder for some to understand the loss. I just wanted to be alone and grieve. I bought one of my favorite plants (a bleeding heart) and planted it. I had a memory stone with a quote created. I bought a garnet ring (it would have been the baby’s birthstone) to remind me of him/her. I went through so much to get to the point where I could semi re-enter society. Yet that wasn’t the end.

Did you know that your body may never act the same after you have this procedure? Periods, cycles, everything can be completely different. Did you know you could get thrown into perimenopause from this? Did you know that just because you were pregnant for however long it takes your body quite a while to readjust to life without that baby in there? Did you know that you could lactate after you lose your baby? So many things that smack you right in the face after such an utter loss. Platitudes and things such as maybe this was Gods way of saving the heartache of having a baby that had severe disabilities were not easy to hear. I understand them all logically but when we learned we were pregnant we decided we would do everything in our power to take care of this baby and make sure the pregnancy was healthy. Platitudes just don’t help when you are left empty handed.

It’s been a few months now, I adopted a kitten because I needed light and laughter in my house. His crazy kitten antics have had me laughing and yelling (claws and sharp teeth – ow), but it has brought a light into my life when I needed it. A pleasant distraction but never a substitute. While he has 10 claws and 8 claws on his teeny little feet it isn’t the same. Although, the laughter of his antics definitely helps break the mood. Life has to go on and while it does, I will still remember the day I was supposed to have the gender reveal ultrasound, I know I should be around six months pregnant now. I should have a nice round belly with kicks and hopefully feeling a bit better from the hyperemesis, but I’m not. Instead as I’m cleaning those floors I know that this child will never have a picture on my wall, a handprint canvas, a birthday party, a first day of school photo, and so much more. My body still has not recovered from this loss and is acting wonky so I’m sicker than I have been in a long time, I’m aching and screaming inside some days, and other days I’m happy and able to enjoy life.

I’ve promised to “Never let go” of the ones I love, here or in heaven and I’ll hold onto that each day as I continue to fight and battle through the barriers in front of me. I won’t let things hold me back and I won’t let my life be spoiled by things that aren’t important. I’ll hold onto the good, release the bad, and move on. I’ll never forget, I’ll never let go, and I promise that I’ll never stop remembering. I’ll remind myself that I’m human and its ok sometimes to stop and remember, to fall down and need help up, to lay your troubles down for a little while. So today I’ve let my troubles rest on this page, my tears fall down my face, and my emotions pour out of me so that I may begin again fresh tomorrow’.

“Our hearts still ache in sadness, and secret tears still flow, what it means to lose you, no one will ever know.”

All my love to my angel baby

#miscarriage #loss #missedmiscarriage #mom #angel #lyme #lateloss

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featheredbeardog · 7 years

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World Building stuff.

CoCC is a weird fantasy/urban realism story, full of both mundane and fantasy critters where werewolves are often treated as either annoying stray dogs or cryptids that need to be found. The Mundane Realm is where the urban is, while the Fantasy Realm is where the weird shit happens. The technology level is roughly late 90′s/early 2000′s. Cellphones are a thing, but are probably tiny bricks or even flip-cover phones. Laptops exist, landlines are still used, and payphones still dot the world. The weird wonky fantasy world is just a bit more timeless with weirder technology, some more advanced than others. Some technology is primitive, while others are Atlantis-leveled (watch Altantis: the lost empire if you’re confused). No vehicles in the usual sense, or lawnmowers, or ipads or tablets, but definitely weird technology and magic co-existing.

Moonscale Prophecy is a six-book series set solely in a timeless fantasy setting, with villages and castles and fortresses and weird animal gods and celestial entities. Giant beasts that can be tamed and bonded with, talking animals, diverse sapient humanoid races, and a world domination conquest! The difference between animals and beasts vary. Animals are often just simple-minded creatures, while beasts are sapient to even having their own cultures and traditions. Technology is... magical but kind of primitive.

Whispering Timberwood is weird and massive, the world of Haven filled with anthropomorphic animals one typically finds on FA (though with less books and human junk and stuff), Vildmark having a bunch of wild beasts that look nothing like modern critters, The Gray Zone being the source of every silent film’s nightmares, and the titular location just being a weird dreamworld. Vildmark is technicolored in environment a giant wild ‘after man’ kind of world, Haven has some occasional odd colors but is mostly natural in color for a giant city that looks like it was built by humans, Gray Zone is... grayscale and unsettling, and Whispering Timberwood is black and white but defies all logic.

Title Pending/Untitled/The Movement/Recovery is an alternate future/scifi/recovering humanity story. Same basic world we live in, but a catastrophic event happened on 2000, which lead to something happened which resulted in a near mass extinction. It was originally technology getting confused about the resetting clock and somehow causing a massive global power-outage that lasted for like, twenty years or something, but something else happened that caused known countries to become divided (literally), so it’s kind of like a post-apocalyptic story but somehow enough people survived the world’s changes to make a decent recovery. There was some genetic alternation experiment going on which was disrupted by supposed alien sightings, which resulted in several subjects escaping, two of these subjects becoming the future founders of a large territory that would grow into Metropolis, a highly advanced city that looks like something out of a futuristic scifi movie with a huge budget. Next to Metropolis is Camelot, a territory just as large as Metropolis but is seemingly stuck in some kind of medieval bubble, guarded by a large lake with only access being a heavily guarded bridge. However, like Metropolis, the ideals and technology in Camelot adjusted to keep up with the times Metropolis was founded by two stragglers, Alhreiks Temple and Aquilina Altaira, both young teenagers who had just escaped from a laboratory. Using their new found abilities, they worked together to turn a seemingly abandoned wasteland into a thriving community, and later into Metropolis. Unfortunately a scuffle occurred, and Camelot’s ruler King Arthur III arrived to break up the conflict. The king decided to pick the future ruler of Metropolis, and after some measuring, gave control of Metropolis to the Temple clan, leaving the Altaira clan and their supporters furious. The Altaira Clan and most of their supporters disappeared the next day, nowhere to be found, leaving Metropolis to suffer from a crippled economy since Aquilina was the one who started the trading business that got Metropolis where it was.

The Pale Lady started as a short story written for my Creative Writing class, about a fourteen year old teenager named Hunter who seeks out her dad Arcadius/Orion after her mom Artemis is supposedly killed in an unknown occurrence. The biggest issue is she hasn’t seen her dad in a decade, and her dad isn’t exactly thrilled to take care of his daughter, who he supposedly used to have a strong bond with. Things get weird when a stranger trespasses and Arcadius repetitively chases it away, and when Arcadius’s best friend Angel shows up to visit, she tells Hunter all these different stories about mythical creatures, from the crafty fox that stole the sun to the silver-eyed deer that restored the drying river, the story of the Pale Lady and even sang the song of the Scarred Bear. She had just started telling the story about the mythical Dream Walker tribe, but didn’t get to cause Arcadius is kind of skeptical. Hunter ends up running off into the woods and gets attacked by a huge black grizzly bear covered with scars, leaving her with a nasty scratch on her chest and arm, but she’s just barely saved by a white bear, and brought back to the cabin by Arcadius, who treats the wound and heads back out to find the beast to ‘take care of it’. He ends up shooting the wrong beast and is turned into a bear as punishment.

“Oh great not another Brother Bear/Brave thing.”

*shrugs* Yeah, Arcadius is turned into a bear for some reason, his body is rapidly dying of old age now, and Hunter is after him under false assumptions.

So the world that The Pale Lady is kind of modern with a hidden touch of fairy tale mixed in. Things seem normal at first, but then weird shit happens, like a skinny pale lady who’s story has been told for hundreds of years, a huge black grizzly bear appears in an area where supposedly no bears have been sighted in for years, and bear!Arcadius is very rapidly dying of old age, like he could literally watch his fur turn white slowly and his body slowly deteriorating by the hour. The world is basic. Somewhere up in the northern cascade area by Monroe in Washington, but the base mythology in the story was heavily inspired by me flipping the middle finger to some awful movies that inspired me to want to try and make something just a little bit better, but also because why not. Most of the myths and tales in this story are inspired by my various visits to Blake Island as well as one assignment we had to do in ninth grade about Native American mythology under the guise of reading Touching Spirit Bear, where at one point we had to create our own ‘totem pole’ with animal spirits we associated with ourselves. Those two things are the reason why I enjoy Native American mythologies so much, especially since there are so many variants of one story. The Pale Lady myth and all associated beings and critters were inspired by the various stories I read up on, sometimes enough inspiration where people get inspired to look it up and find the original source of inspiration for themselves. The Pale Lady was a powerful shapeshifting entity who forced Arcadius to wear one of the skins she had been wearing as a punishment for his rash action. The only other mythical beast to appear in the story is the Scarred Bear, a massive beast covered with scars and back marred with spears and arrows who seems unusually hellbent on hunting... well... Hunter. The Ash Raven, a being bent on destruction and death, ALMOST made an appearance in Part 2 of the Pale Lady short story, but was cut from the story to save on word count. The Ash Raven was basically the grim reaper of this fictional mythology and was following Hunter because her wound was infected and slowly killing her. ...I think that covers the Pale Lady for worldbuilding June.

#worldbuilding month

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kayroseoldblog · 7 years

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iPad Pro w/ Apple Pencil vs. Wacom Cintiq Companion

Hello everyone!For Christmas this year, I received an iPad Pro 12.9in and an Apple Pencil!

As someone who has been practicing digital art for almost 10 years now, I thought it made sense to throw my two cents into the internet about this tool. I also included a few other people's thoughts on each device to try and make the review as well rounded as possible!

Keeping in mine that my Cintiq Companion 1 is three years old now, and my iPad is the latest 2016 edition, you can take this review with a grain of salt if you like.

Let me first start by listing the tools I have used to draw with...

Drawing Tablets I've used:

Wacom Bamboo Tablet (No longer available)

Wacom Intuous 4 Tablet (No longer available?)

Wacom Cintiq Companion (First gen, 2013, Windows 8)

and now:iPad Pro 12.9 w/ Apple PencilDrawing

Programs I've used:

Photoshop Elements

Corel Painter

Sketchbook Express

Paint Tool Sai

Fire Alpaca

Photoshop CC

Procreate App

Medibang Paint App

The Cintiq

I've had a Wacom Cintiq Companion v1 since 2012-2013 ish, and I have always loved it. I took to drawing directly on the screen pretty fast, and since beginning to use it, I've always had a slight disconnect when returning to regular drawing tablets. I'm just not as used to it anymore, but I do use them in a pinch.

The Cintiq has an amazing Tempered Glass screen which gives the texture of the drawing a really nice feel, though it seems to make its accuracy suffer, it's very easy to tell that you are drawing on a SCREEN and theres a bit of glass between you and your drawing, but you hardly notice it when drawing usually.

However, Wacom recently, in my opinion, has been going down hill with its portable tablets...I haven't tried out/seen anyone usng the Mobile Studio, but maybe that one is better! Sure looks promising!

My cintiq's charger has been broken for some time now, and after doing some research I found out that any tablet manufactured before July 2014 has a really bad charging problem...and Wacom will fix it for free, but it's been known to just be a band-aid fix. Many friends have said this about their external drawing tablets from Wacom in recent years as well. It makes me miss my old Intuos 4!

My Cintiq has a battery life right out of the box of between 8-10 hours. I use photoshop extensively to draw, and sometimes switch between that and other programs, making 8 hours about the max I can get out of it. After a year or so, that went down to 5-8. So I wouldnt use this more at home than on the go.

Pros:

OS is up to you (Mac or PC available)

Desktop Applications (Creative Cloud, etc)

Pen w/ eraser on back- Comes with Stand/Case/Pen in one cost

Sort of Portable

Custom Brushes/Downloadable Brushes

Can use on its own w/ no external monitor

Pressure Sensitive

Cons:

Heavy heavy heavy!

Very thick

Fan gets loud

Included stand is pretty bad

Calibration is off near the edges (Granted, not many people draw near the edges)- Wacom usually has problems

Horrible Battery life

Takes a long time to charge

Screen resolution is odd

Colors are always slightly off

While my review is of the Cintiq Companion 1, I've noticed not much difference in my friend's Cintiq 2, aside from the battery charge lasting a little longer, and it being a bit lighter in weight, but they had this to say:

"Haven't used the iPad so i'm biased - t's the industry standard, I like having the touch keys while drawing, i like the texture of the surface, and it's powerful enough to run Adobe programs without lag, I also like that it's fairly portable if you don't mind the weight. The color on screen I think is sliiiiightly off bc whenever I transfer it from there to my phone or elsewhere something is just... off with the colors. Cintiq is powerful. Use it if you're like professional, because Adobe programs and other stuff. Plus it's a laptop. But if you're just looking for something to do digital art on, the iPad is cheaper and will do it for you from what I hear. I enjoy [my cintiq companion 2], it does what I need it to and that's all I asked for."

The iPad Pro 12.9in w/ Apple Pencil

Now to be fair, I've only had my iPad for a week and a half, but I think that's even more impressive, because I love it WAY more than my cintiq

The battery life of the iPad is already way longer than my cintiq ever had. I've charged my iPad once since unboxing it. (it was unboxed at about 70%) and thats with extensive drawing every day. Apple says it gets between 10-18 hours of life depending on what you're doing, and boy is that true The downside is that this thing takes FOREVER to charge again, but for how long it lasts, I suppose it's a small price to pay.

The Apple Pencil has an amazing battery life and charges incredibly fast. I've topped it off once since getting it, and it charges fast. Charging it for 15 seconds supposedly gets you another 30 minutes of life. I haven't tested that out, but I wouldn't doubt it honestly. I was able to charge it from 12% to 100% in just 20 minutes, and that's the only time I've had to charge it!

The Apple Pencil feels great on the iPad, and glides really nicely and naturally. It didn't take me long to get used to it at all, it's very much like drawing on the cintiq screen which I liked. However the pressure sensitivity is even more accurate, and the ability of the pencil to draw exactly where you put down your tip is INCREDIBLE. It's very much like drawing on paper.

The size is also great, as it's like drawing on any A4 paper if you draw portrait, and the real-estate of the screen drawing landscape is even nicer. The resolution is much more comfortable than the cintiq's, and I don't feel like I'm drawing in a super cramped area. (Though this all depends on the App you use, I'm not a fan of Medibang Paint as I feel like everything is so squished!)

The Apple Pencil also has the ability to draw tilted. The cintiq's stylus has this too, but it's not as accurate or helpful. This is what makes the Apple Pencil a PENCIL and not a stylus.

However, the Pencil and iPad, which are sold separately, don't come with anything to hold the Apple Pencil in, so I had to buy a sling for it, which was only 6$, but still. It's an expensive item and you're going to want to keep it, not lose! Before buying the sling, I was constantly worried about misplacing my pencil. I don't mind not having a stand as the iPad Pro is so comfortable to draw with it in your lap, sitting anywhere you like. If you're looking for a stand for it, they're pretty cheap on Amazon

Pros:

Better Pressure Sensitivity/Accuracy

Amazing Battery Life

Extremely Portable

Cheap or free Apps W/ Great Quality. Bridging the gap for Photoshop.

Pencil feels great to draw with

iOS Updates

Custom Brushes/Downloadable Brushes

Feels more natural to draw on

No Lag

Cons

Pencil/Tablet sold separately

Slow to charge

Case/Accessories all sold separately (I'm told Mobile Studio Cintiq will also have everything sold separate)

No Desktop Apps (Photoshop, Creative Cloud, etc)

No cursor to show how big your brush is (in Procreate at least)

ONLY compatible with iOS for iPad

Not a full computer

I was lucky enough to have professional Comic Artist, K. Lynn Smith of "Plume" give me her thoughts on the iPad Pro as well!

"Pros, extremely fun to draw on, it replicates pencil and paper perfectly and it's portability is amazing. You can draw anywhere. Cons: not a lot of storage space on the iPad, sometimes the airdrop goes wonky, and though the programs available are amazing, there are some options not available...like assistance in drawing a perfect circle or stamp/clone tool. "

You can read Plume here!

The Final Word

In all Honesty, I think I'll be using my iPad Pro for most of my digital work from now on. Between all the apps and features, especially with ProCreate, this tablet is really bridging the gap between a Ciintiq and an iPad. Procreate specificaly is missing a few things such as a crop tool, and a text tool. It also doesn't have quite as many ways to edit as Photoshop does, but it's got most of them and enough that it doesn't bother me. You can also save your files from this app as JPEGS, PNGs, PSDs, and GIFs, to name a few.

My Cintiq is currently on it's way out and wheezing its way through life , but I don't think I'll be totally getting rid of it in case I need to bring something from my iPad over for photoshop, but honestly, I do that with my traditional work already so that really isn't an issue to me.

If you're looking to get into digital work, I recommend the iPad Pro 12.9 and Apple Pencil over the current Cintiq Companions. When adding in all the things you'll need, it comes out to the same price as a Cintiq Companion.

While the Cintiq and Wacom ARE the "Industry Standard", you really cannot tell the difference any longer, and I know of many professionals who use strictly the iPad Pro 12.9! Most studios/Art Directors care about what the work looks like, not what you made it on. (unless you're animating!)

#review #jasereview #ipad pro #apple pencil #procreate #art supplies #art supplies review

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mykiiliu · 7 years

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My colleagues at Photofocus have heard me and seen me say some very choice words during a time, not so long ago, when I had a monitor that wouldn’t or couldn’t calibrate! At first, I couldn’t tell if it was the calibration tool I was using, or the monitor itself!

Monitor Calibration

Now color calibration is super important– it makes it simple for you to edit your images on your machine and basically have it be seen on other color calibrated devices they way that you intended it to. There’s a standard called sRGB that was developed to help a bunch of different displays, printers, devices, cameras and so forth, all see, print, and otherwise display the same color.

I’m sure you’ve seen the differences in colors for a picture that you’ve edited and displayed on a TV, laptop, or another machine. I see it all the time– try hooking up an iPhone to a Samsung TV. The colors are all sorts of wonky. And basically, that’s what I was dealing with.

For that very long and frustrating time, I had a 29″ LG Ultrawide monitor 21:9 — which is great for the horizontal space and interesting resolution for gaming (if you’re into that sort of thing.) When I first bought it, I noticed that it was exceptionally darker than my other monitor– an Apple Thunderbolt Display (a now discontinued display which calibrated really well.) I calibrated it with my Spyder Elite and went on my way. After my first gig with it. I decided to finalize everything and export images from my computer to my iPad Pro (which is relatively close to what I see on my calibrated machine.) That’s when I realized that all the time that I had put into the edits was a complete waste.

The images were nothing close to what I saw on my iPad, or even on another calibrated MacBook (that’s the joy of having calibrated machines, you can tell when something is off because they all look the same). I was furious. I spent hours trying to recalibrate the monitor with the Spyder Elite.. then tried all the different viewing modes on the LG followed by a calibration. Then I tried manually tweaking the color to hopefully make it look closer to a calibrated screen (I used the MacBook I had as a reference and iPad Pro as a second reference). I tried another calibration system– and it didn’t help either.

ViewSonic to the rescue!

My new pair of displays. The ViewSonic VP2468 is pictured on the left.

Did you know that ViewSonic has a professional line of monitors for photographers and videographers?? And they’re pretty dang affordable and packed with a bunch of features!

I found a 24″ professional 1080p IPS display (IPS technology helps a screen be more consistently viewable from different angles), called the VP2468 at $250 from B&H… and boy is it pretty!!

A ViewSonic VP2468 ended up arriving on my doorstep shortly after I boxed up my LG to sell. This little VP2468 is fascinating for a couple of reasons, and those reasons are why this is one of my favorites.

Nearly Frameless Design

I’m a sucker for sleek aesthetics — so this is top on my list. Would any customer trust someone who is using a really clunky and out-of-date looking piece of technology? It really makes all of my technology look out of date now that I think of it…

This thing is nearly frameless! It really is just so pretty. I can see myself getting another one or two of these displays and having a super stunning setup on my desk. I think the bezel is about 3mm or so thick– or that’s what it feels like.

Image of the monitor shot with one light, just to give you a feel of the beauty of it

Sometimes the bezel can distract from the image displayed on the screen (especially if it is super thick, all black or even worse, silver). Since colors are perceived to be to be brighter or darker than the surrounding colors, it is relatively important.

When I asked around, some people were more affected by things like that than others. If you don’t believe me and you have Lightroom, try changing the background color from gray to white or black, and tell me that the perceived brightness of don’t colors change because of background.

Color Calibration

The most important thing for a monitor (besides awesome looks) for a photographer, videographer or digital artist, is color rendition! These monitors come pre-calibrated out of the box. A print-out of values from when the factory calibrates it comes with the monitor. The pre-calibration is pretty dang nice and it matches my other monitor that I bought at the same time– which also happens to be another ViewSonic.

Image provided by ViewSonic – color.viewsonic.com

This monitor displays 99% of sRGB according to ViewSonic, but my calibration kit says 100%, so… believe what you will. Having a screen that shows all the colors that I expect it to sure makes my editing headaches go away. Since every display will have a color shift over time, it is important to have a way to recalibrate the screen. Thankfully this monitor provides a method of hardware calibration via their Colorbration Kit — which is developed with their partner for this series of monitors, X-Rite– a company that is known for their tools that help devices display consistent color across all sorts of devices. You can also use X-Rite’s CS-XRi1, I1 Display pro, and I1 Pro2 calibrators instead of the Colorbration Kit.

One specification that is really neat to know about this display is the Delta E value, which is the measure of change in visual perception of two given colors. It basically is a term for how the human eye perceives the difference in two colors. The Delta E value is less than 2 for this display. Basically, that just means this display is really awesome. For comparison, EIZO displays, for instance, ship a Delta E value of less than 3. So yeah… that reinforces that just means that this display is really really awesome for the price point.

Connectivity

Lots of monitors in the price range of this ViewSonic, support HDMI– and only HDMI (like the happily sold LG I had). Kind of a bummer if you have other methods of connectivity from different computers. So to me, it was a surprise when I saw all these ports:

4 USB-A 3.0 ports that stem from an upstream USB-B port to the computer– So that’s a 4 port USB hub! A Headphone jack (I guess if you were getting audio from HDMI) DisplayPort out as well as Mini DisplayPort and a regular Display Port, which support daisy-chaining! HDMI of course, just in case you want it to– but not just one! Look! There’s two!

Ports for days… or lots of wires… or whatever you need!

I’m seriously not used to having a 4 port hub built into the display at this price point! I feel that every monitor should include those extra USB ports– I HATE bending under my desk to plug in a USB flash drive, calibration kit, mouse, keyboard or even Apple’s Lightning cable to charge my phone.

Screen Rotation

This monitor is able to rotate from a horizontal position to a vertical position, both in clockwise and counter-clockwise rotations. If you like shooting portraits, like me, having the portrait orientation image displayed full screen on a 24″ monitor is ever so helpful. I use this as a second display for Lightroom and having the secondary display available to show quick previews of whatever I’ve selected in my Library makes me so much more efficient.

90º or 270º– you pick!

Besides having it work in Lightroom, having the vertical position makes it easy for me to keep my distractions isolated on the side. When I’m working in Photoshop, the VP2468 holds my Facebook page open allowing for endless scrolling when I need a break. While this isn’t something super new, it is nice to see on a sub $400 monitor.

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Convenient handle– it’s pretty light weight as well. This is the column that raises and lowers depending on what you need.

A solid and pretty base plate anchors the display and provides the ability to swivel.

Suggested Uses

If you’re looking for a stand-alone display, by all means, this absolutely works well! Where I think this display really shines is in the role of a secondary display to a laptop or even a desktop. Because of its weight and size, I’d probably use it in the studio when I want to shoot tethered. The IPS panel provides great and clear imagery from ridiculous angles so that you and your subject can see what is going on.

Currently, I’m using it as a secondary display. It fits so well when I work with apps like Lightroom (when it doesn’t blank a screen out– more on that sometime else). I’ll tend to have a grid view on one of my screens, and either the Develop panel or the Library panel open depending on if I’m culling, editing or searching through images.

Using that Secondary Display in Portrait Orientation, providing a larger view of all those portraits I shoot.

I’m happy with this display– like SUPER happy!

It may seem that I would be super happy with any display after the horrible LG display I had, but the VP2468 really surprised me with all basics I cared about as well as a bunch of ridiculous advanced stuff I could change if I ever needed to. It is more advanced than I ever need it to be.

The display looks super crisp the frameless design is pretty dang sweet. The stand is pretty nice as well since it can rotate to be vertical, tilt, swivel, and the display can change height– so if you don’t need a vertical display, you can at least adjust the display to be an optimal height!

This is the column that raises and lowers depending on what you need.I know that some people would argue that I opted for a smaller display as a replacement. Well, yeah, they’re right, I did. But I’d rather have a display that I know I could rely on to display colors correctly and has a boat-load of inputs than a super wide and ultimately strange display that only had inputs for 2 HDMI, for $230.

At a price point of $250, this is almost a no-brainer. 24″ is adequately large enough for most people out there, but if you’re itching for something bigger, you can get the 27″ bigger brother that includes a whole bunch of other features that I haven’t had a chance to play with! Perhaps in the future, when I find the need, I’ll pick up one of those too!

Check for the lowest price here.

Finally! A Monitor that Displays Colors Correctly! My colleagues at Photofocus have heard me and seen me say some very choice words during a time, not so long ago, when I had a monitor that wouldn't or couldn't calibrate!

#color calibration #I-1 #monitors #user experience #viewsonic #X-Rite

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