Retina Display screen color question

[Jason Crittenden]

Just bought a new MacBook Pro 15" and was getting things set up for editing. Curious, what profile do you use for the screen? The default is "Color LCD" but you can choose ACES, Abobe RGB 98, Apple RGB, Display P3, Rec. ITU-R BT.2020-1, Rec. ITU-R BT.709-5, Wide Gamut RGB, and others. Do any of you change the default, and if you do, why?

 

[Marc Wielage]

The screens are very bad for color in general and do not hold up well in terms of calibration. You're better off getting an external display that has actual controls you can get to and a way of setting color temperature, blacks, video level, and grayscale to a known standard like Rec709.

Having said that: BT709 would be where I'd start. It's possible you can get something that is arguably not horrible. But all laptops are (in general) not gonna tell you the truth on what you're looking at. They're fine for focus and framing and judging performance and editing and so on. Just not for color and not for sound.

 

[Simon Dunne]

What Mark said. The other issue is when typing the number 1 or 2, you end up hitting the brightness controls button, so if you do manage to get it to a look you like, then remember what brigtness level you've got it on! You can make a .icc profile in software like SpectraCal, but again, best to use this screen as a GUI, and get a proper broadcast monitor to use as your reference screen.