Apple "True Tone" (Automatically Adjust Brightness on Mac)
Happy New Year! I think I probably know some of the responses I will receive to this question, but I'll probably learn something new by asking, so here goes. What do you think of Apple's 'True Tone' for iPad and iPhone? (I'm not talking about Night Shift, which I don't use.) True Tone dims the brightness of the display as ambient room lighting gets darker. It also changes to a warmer white point in low light (which appears to be too warm to me). It does help preserve the appearance of contrast, brightness and saturation of an image so it doesn't blow out your eyeballs in dark environments. 'Automatically Adjust Brightness' does something similar on my Macbook Pro, but the shift in the white point doesn't seem quite as much (based purely on eyeballing it, not on measurements). I'm using a MB Pro 2017, 15" screen, with Monterey 12.6. My official editing computer (Mac Pro) is in a room with gray everything, constant moderately dim ambient light levels, calibrated monitor luminance and WP, and good balanced viewing lights, so I wouldn't consider any auto brightness controls for that computer or environment, especially for monitor-to-print matching. My MBP laptop and iPad, however, see constantly changing environments, which vary from bright to dark. Images look very different on screen based on different ambient lighting conditions if one does not adjust monitor brightness to compensate. If I edit an image on my studio computer, it looks very different on my iPad or MBP unless I manually adjust brightness of my retina display to match room lighting. Auto brightness helps in this case. Apple switches True Tone on by default on iPhones and iPads, so most users will keep that setting and what they view will shift with light environments. I'm not sure if 'Automatically Adjust Brightness' is turned on by default on current Macs and MBPs. I'd be interested in hearing comments on the pluses (if any) and the minuses of using these auto brightness controls. I hope 2023 is a great year for all my fellow 'color-geeks'. Lou
Some Macs support True Tone, too. On a supported Mac with a supported display running macOS Ventura, you can enable or disable the feature by going to System Settings > Displays > True Tone.
On Jan 1, 2023, at 10:11 AM, Louis Dina via colorsync-users <colorsync-users@lists.apple.com> wrote:
Happy New Year!
I think I probably know some of the responses I will receive to this question, but I'll probably learn something new by asking, so here goes.
What do you think of Apple's 'True Tone' for iPad and iPhone? (I'm not talking about Night Shift, which I don't use.) True Tone dims the brightness of the display as ambient room lighting gets darker. It also changes to a warmer white point in low light (which appears to be too warm to me). It does help preserve the appearance of contrast, brightness and saturation of an image so it doesn't blow out your eyeballs in dark environments.
'Automatically Adjust Brightness' does something similar on my Macbook Pro, but the shift in the white point doesn't seem quite as much (based purely on eyeballing it, not on measurements). I'm using a MB Pro 2017, 15" screen, with Monterey 12.6.
My official editing computer (Mac Pro) is in a room with gray everything, constant moderately dim ambient light levels, calibrated monitor luminance and WP, and good balanced viewing lights, so I wouldn't consider any auto brightness controls for that computer or environment, especially for monitor-to-print matching. My MBP laptop and iPad, however, see constantly changing environments, which vary from bright to dark. Images look very different on screen based on different ambient lighting conditions if one does not adjust monitor brightness to compensate. If I edit an image on my studio computer, it looks very different on my iPad or MBP unless I manually adjust brightness of my retina display to match room lighting. Auto brightness helps in this case.
Apple switches True Tone on by default on iPhones and iPads, so most users will keep that setting and what they view will shift with light environments. I'm not sure if 'Automatically Adjust Brightness' is turned on by default on current Macs and MBPs.
I'd be interested in hearing comments on the pluses (if any) and the minuses of using these auto brightness controls.
I hope 2023 is a great year for all my fellow 'color-geeks'.
Lou _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. colorsync-users mailing list (colorsync-users@lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: https://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/colorsync-users/gjacobycooper%40iclo...
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Hey Lou! Fun question. In the 90s I used to tell clients “Apple should include a sensor and just adjust the white point luminosity and color temp to match the ambient lighting automatically” because that was essentially what I was doing calibrating displays manually back then. Over the last two decades we’ve seen Apple attempt this with poor results and we’ve all gotten in the habit of turning off “auto brightness” and “True Tone”. But with the latest Apple Silicon devices Apple has, IMO, turned a corner. Auto brightness and True Tone are working - and working *really well*. A lot of my clients have great lighting in their work areas and with this lighting I’ve been shocked at how great the latest Apple Studio Displays (for example) look with these two features enabled. I’ve also worked in a few studios that have a lot of natural light in them that changes with the weather and Apple calibrating the displays dynamically with the natural light changes works great which solves a lot of problems with static calibrated devices. I can’t say how well these features are working under poor lighting yet... So let’s introduce “dynamic calibration” and “static calibration” into our vocabulary. Exciting times. And to borrow Job’s “Post PC era” phrase, perhaps were similarly entering a “post display calibration era”. I’ve been calibrating displays for hire since 1994 and am honestly ready to be done with it. Post display calibration era here we come! We've all got better things to do. I’m excited about Apple rounding this corner. I’m surprised more color management things aren’t automated by now. Who would have thought in 1999 that we’d still be calibrating displays and printers in such a similar manner today? Side Note1: I suspect most will be hesitant to recognize what Apple has achieved here, and cling to their old ways for years to come. Side Note2: With auto brightness, True Tone, 5K-6K resolution, nano tech surface option and more, IMO, Apple makes the best monitors in the world today. The likes of Barco, Eizo, etc are a joke in comparison. Weird to say but hey, these are exciting times. Happy new year y’all! Scott Martin www.on-sight.com Imaging Science for Art
On Jan 1, 2023, at 9:11 AM, Louis Dina via colorsync-users <colorsync-users@lists.apple.com> wrote:
Happy New Year!
I think I probably know some of the responses I will receive to this question, but I'll probably learn something new by asking, so here goes.
What do you think of Apple's 'True Tone' for iPad and iPhone? (I'm not talking about Night Shift, which I don't use.) True Tone dims the brightness of the display as ambient room lighting gets darker. It also changes to a warmer white point in low light (which appears to be too warm to me). It does help preserve the appearance of contrast, brightness and saturation of an image so it doesn't blow out your eyeballs in dark environments.
'Automatically Adjust Brightness' does something similar on my Macbook Pro, but the shift in the white point doesn't seem quite as much (based purely on eyeballing it, not on measurements). I'm using a MB Pro 2017, 15" screen, with Monterey 12.6.
My official editing computer (Mac Pro) is in a room with gray everything, constant moderately dim ambient light levels, calibrated monitor luminance and WP, and good balanced viewing lights, so I wouldn't consider any auto brightness controls for that computer or environment, especially for monitor-to-print matching. My MBP laptop and iPad, however, see constantly changing environments, which vary from bright to dark. Images look very different on screen based on different ambient lighting conditions if one does not adjust monitor brightness to compensate. If I edit an image on my studio computer, it looks very different on my iPad or MBP unless I manually adjust brightness of my retina display to match room lighting. Auto brightness helps in this case.
Apple switches True Tone on by default on iPhones and iPads, so most users will keep that setting and what they view will shift with light environments. I'm not sure if 'Automatically Adjust Brightness' is turned on by default on current Macs and MBPs.
I'd be interested in hearing comments on the pluses (if any) and the minuses of using these auto brightness controls.
I hope 2023 is a great year for all my fellow 'color-geeks'.
Lou _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. colorsync-users mailing list (colorsync-users@lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: https://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/colorsync-users/scott%40on-sight.com
This email sent to scott@on-sight.com
participants (3)
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Gabriel Jacoby-Cooper
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Louis Dina
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Scott Martin