Laptop Photo Editing Tip - a foam block

During this 9 month sabbatical, I've been away from my big desktop Mac with the huge color corrected screen and have been relying on a small MacBook. This creates challenges as any serious photographer knows! If the screen is tilted just slightly out of square to your eyes the colors and tones all shift. One way I have kept myself sane, my neck in alignment, and my images as correct as possible is by using a small foam block to align my screen to my eyes.

A small piece of insulation foam available from any hardware store. Sticky on one side. Placed on my laptop screen about a third of the way down from the top on the bezel.

The foam is only about 3/16 of an inch thick so it does not interfere with the laptop closing. Thicker foam might keep it from closing. Use a sharpie or other permanent marker to make a line on top with a small speck on the front of the foam.

When you are ready to edit photos;

• seat yourself comfortably
• adjust the screen tilt until you cannot see the sharpie mark on top of the screen. You can just see the small mark on the front. Your screen will be very close to a 90 degree orientation to your line of sight.
• adjust slightly if you change your posture or position. 

Screen adjusted for 90 degrees. Note the color clarity of the desktop picture compared to the first image.

 Click to enlarge images
© Steve Gandy Photography - SteveGandy.com/photography