Question regarding screen resolution

The picture looks amazing and the room definitely looks bigger than 14.5ft. As for the screen resolution, could it possibly be the limitation of the PC monitor vs. the MAC, maybe the MAC monitor has a higher level of contrast etc.

 

Nice photo.  Really nice.  The one thing about having some extra flashes is that you could knock each down and you'd have more even lighting.  The hot spot on the ceiling shows how the flash was bouncing off the nearby surfaces.  But you did a fine job.  I like how the fan lights cast the shadow on the ceiling, so you weren't overpowered on the flash.  Also, if you throw the flashes behind an umbrella, you'll get less reflectance like the hot spot on the far wall to the left, and possibly less shadow like the one under the table.  What I like to do is to really pop a LOT of umbrella light, but drag the shutter so its effect is softened by the environmental light and you get warm lamp glows (you got some of that on the ceiling over the fan). 

Minor suggestion: Next time, turn on the far lamps in both corners; the extra light will help give warmth and extra definition to the room.  Might make it look even cozier than it is (and it's pretty cozy).

As for editing on different machines...If you are using LCD panels, you need to calibrate them or they will drive you crazy.  (It was a real issue with my Viewsonic panel.)  CRTs seem to manage color and brightness better and have more contrast than the panels.  Are you using different screens for each machine? If you haven't calibrated the PC monitor, then do that; it may make a world of difference.

Margaret

Randy, so what lens are you using?  I detect a hint of barrel distortion at the left edge, which is expected at this focal length.

At 10mm (15mm equivalent) that's not much barrel distortion.  A friend of mine has a Sima 10-22mm for his 20D.  He got the Canon 10-22mm and he says the barrel distortion is less than the Sigma.

Randy - this is probably a really obvious suggestion but I was having the same problem with my photos.  I do them on my Macbook then view them on a PC, they are always darker and duller than they looked on my Mac.  My problem was that I had the brightness turned up really high on my Macbook without even realizing it.  I turned the brightness down by clicking on the little sun - F1 key and it helped a lot - now I keep the brightness right in the middle.  OK I said it was pretty obvious but worth checking out.  :)

I hope I don't make someone's head explode with this comment. I used to work in the photofinishing industry and color calibration for early digital printers was always a pain. Macs and PCs have historically had a difficult time playing nice with each other regarding colorspace. There are several ways to calibrate both machines to get consistent results. I would recommend this to anyone going back and forth between MACs and PCs with photos, otherwise madness will ensue!

Easiest: Use the Adobe Gamma control panel on your PC to launch the wizard that will allow you to create an ICC profile for your particular monitor and environment. Do the same for your Mac. After eyeballing through the set-up you will likely realize that the gamma settings for your PC and MAC are slightly different but the monitor results are the same.

 To test your settings, print the same photo on the same printer using both machines. Your prints should match.

Yes, it gets installed with Photoshop. So if PS is missing on your PC it probably won't be there, BUT you can download the file and install it (Adobe Gamma Loader.exe).