Surround Effects (Part 2)

June 23, 2008

One area where surround effects make a big difference is when evaluating the black level on LCD monitors. Almost all LCD monitors cannot reproduce true black and have a raised black level. In a dark room, they will have a “glow in the dark” appearance to them. The image below shows the LCD on a Macbook Pro.

In a brightly lit environment (i.e. the surround is bright), the black level on a LCD appears to be better even though the inherent black level of the display is still the same. Unfortunately this effect cannot be reproduced here, but you can walk into any computer store and see that LCDs do not have a glow in the dark appearance in brightly lit environments. They simply don’t look like the image above. You can still see that the black level on the LCD is raised (e.g. when screen is powered on/off, forcing the backlight off). Nonetheless blacks appear to be richer if the display is in a bright environment.

This effect is something to watch out for when considering displays as the display can be made to look better by placing it in a bright surround. If you need to monitor on a LCD display, then it can be useful to avoid a dark surround as it will make the raised black level on the LCD look even worse.

Filed under: color science, monitoring, visual illusions |