PP on a laptop screen?

Until fairly recently, I had never done much more with PS than removing red eye, healing obvious blemishes, etc. from family snapshots. I am now working much more extensively with it (PSE 9), like finally shooting in RAW, using PS's Camera Raw before PS, etc.

The only computer in our house currently is a recently purchased Toshiba Satellite laptop. I worry about doing extensive photo editing on it, however, because when you view the screen from different elevations (i.e., you raise or lower your point of view relative to the screen), it gets darker or lighter. Do many people do extensive editing relying just on a laptop screen, or is it just a given that I am eventually going to need to get a monitor to plug the laptop into when I am doing extensive PP?

Well, I only use my laptop for editing when I can't get to my desktop. But my laptop display is "OK" as far as the colors, and I've toned down the Brightness. But I only view it at a 90-degree angle to avoid the shifts in contrast and such.

However, if you can get a good monitor to plug in, of course that would be an advantage, it could make all the difference as long as the performance of the laptop is good. You could actually calibrate even an inexpensive laptop using the external monitor, which can give you some confidence in your colors. Then, the "acid test" would be in getting some prints made...

I used to use an external monitor with my laptop until my VGA-out went haywire (I think it got overheated at some point :confused. Now I have to PP relying only on my laptop screen, and I've noticed that the colors are somewhat off at times. While the screen has rather good viewing angles, it seems a little colder than normal. Gotta calibrate..

plawren53202 wrote in post #14393739
Until fairly recently, I had never done much more with PS than removing red eye, healing obvious blemishes, etc. from family snapshots. I am now working much more extensively with it (PSE 9), like finally shooting in RAW, using PS's Camera Raw before PS, etc.

The only computer in our house currently is a recently purchased Toshiba Satellite laptop. I worry about doing extensive photo editing on it, however, because when you view the screen from different elevations (i.e., you raise or lower your point of view relative to the screen), it gets darker or lighter. Do many people do extensive editing relying just on a laptop screen, or is it just a given that I am eventually going to need to get a monitor to plug the laptop into when I am doing extensive PP?

Get a decend IPS monitor for it.