- This video is sponsored by Squarespace. What's up? This is John from John
Branch IV Photography, and recently I switched
from a dual monitor set up to an ultrawide setup. And I can tell you hands down, I absolutely love using an ultrawide. But one thing it made me think about is what are the differences between using a dual monitor
setup and an ultrawide setup? I know for me, when I was
first looking into ultrawides I was kind of worried
that was going to mess up my whole workflow since I was so used to
using dual monitors. But I can tell you, it didn't it, and I want to focus today
on what the differences are between using an ultrawide
setup or a dual monitor setup. So as a photographer and content creator, I've been using BenQ monitors pretty much ever since I
started doing photography. I absolutely love BenQ monitors and definitely make sure
to check out the link below to check out all the monitors they have. They have monitors for designers, photographers and even gamers. Originally I was using the PD3200Q. It's a 32 inch 16:9 1440p monitor. And just as any BenQ monitor it is known for it's color accuracy. I've edited the majority
of my photos on that and you can see the great
results I have here. And recently I just
switched to the PD3420Q. This monitor is in the
same PD line as the 3200Q, but it is an ultrawide monitor. So, 34 inches, 21:9, 1440p. And again, the color accuracy is on point. You definitely want to make
sure to check out this monitor. And if you haven't seen my review on it, make sure to check it out right up above and the link below where you
can grab one for yourself. But let's go ahead and
talk about the differences between the two setups, starting out with a dual monitor setup. The advantage to a dual monitor set up hands down is your screen real estate. With dual monitors, you're getting more screen real estate even than an ultrawide monitor depending on how large your monitors are. For me, using two 32 inch monitors, that's actually much longer of a space than my 21:9 ultrawide. These monitors were absolutely massive, and honestly, it was
almost too much space, but I did love it. Also with all that space, having dual monitor gives
you more space for workflows. What I mean by this is I'm able
to separate different things that I'm currently working on. So if I want to edit photos on one monitor and then watch YouTube on the other, I'm able to do that and
keep things fully separated. This was always great for streaming or anything of that sort as well because I could have all
my stream information on one monitor, and then what I'm streaming
on the other as well. On top of your workflows, you're also able to
switch one of the monitors to vertical or not if you want to. I know for coders this
is actually pretty huge. And honestly, if you work
on portrait photography most of the time, this
would be useful as well. Being able to take one of the monitors and put it in a vertical aspect and have the other in a horizontal opens up a whole new workflow. And obviously this is
something you can't get with an ultrawide monitor. Now there are a few disadvantages to using dual monitors as well, so let's go ahead and talk about those. The biggest one for
photographer and content creator is matching the colors on your monitors. Color matching has to be hands down the hardest thing to do on dual monitors, because no two monitors are ever calibrated exactly the same. Now, you can use things like the SpyderX, which I show how to use
that right up above. But still, they're just two monitors, they're not totally the same. And you can never be 100% sure that both of your monitors are matching. This to me is one of the biggest
issues with dual monitors And one of the main reasons I was looking into an ultrawide monitor. Also, with dual monitors
it takes up a lot of space. For me personally, using
two 32 inch monitors, these things were huge. They blocked my whole window,
took up my whole desk, they were just huge. Also, because they were so big and heavy, I wasn't able to put them on a monitor arm and save myself a desk space. So that's something to keep in mind if you're going to go
the dual monitor route. Make you have a desk that
can support all of that. Also with dual monitors,
there's just more cables. With the PD line of monitors, most of them can be used as USB hubs because they have a USB uplink. This is super awesome because you don't always
have to plug everything right into your computer, you can put it into the monitor itself. But this also means more cables. You have the power cable for each monitor, the USB uplink for each monitor, whatever you plug into
each of the monitors. It's just so much. And last but not least, one
of the biggest disadvantages of using dual monitors is the
bezel in between the screens. Now being able to line up
your monitors the right way was always the hardest thing for me. You could go straight,
but what would happen is you wouldn't be able
to actually see everything because the edges of the
monitors would start getting dark because they're outside
of the viewing range. So then, naturally you'll
have to angle them in but then the angle might not be the same, they might not be the same height. There's just all kinds of things to get them lined up perfectly. It's just such an ordeal
and I cannot stand it. Also when it comes to the bezel
in the middle of the screen, if you want to play any games you're stuck to using just one monitor. I've tried before using both monitors but with most games since
the center of the screen is the main part you need, you can't really do that. And obviously as a photographer,
this isn't my main concern but it is nice to be able
to have a nice wide area to play some games when
I have some time off. Moving right along to ultrawides, let's talk about the advantages
to using an ultrawide setup. Obviously having one nice large screen for all of your content is super awesome. And especially if you're doing
anything with linear editing, hands down ultrawide all the way. So if you're making music or audio editing or if you're a video editor,
ultrawide is for you. Having all that extra space on the screen is just hands down game game-changing. Really, I don't know what I was doing before editing videos on a 16:9 screen. On top of the one monitor, this means you don't have to deal with the color matching anymore. All your photos are in one place now. So if you need to compare anything, you know across the board the monitor is the same color calibrated. Again, like I said before,
this is a big deal. And I absolutely love this about using an ultrawide monitor. As far as the setup, it's much cleaner. Obviously we have one monitor now, so we only have the power
cable and the USB uplink for the one monitor. Also, because we only have one monitor, generally ultra whites tend
to be a little bit lighter than your normal 16:9
monitors on the larger end. Because of this, you can
put it on a monitor arm and also save yourself some desk space. And just to talk about some things that we just talked about, obviously there's no bezel
in the center of the screen. This is nice if you
want to compare photos, or like I was saying before, play a game that can
handle a 21:9 aspect ratio. Also, watching movies or
anything of that sort, it just becomes so much more
immersive on a 21:9 ultrawide. And honestly, in my couple of
weeks of using an ultrawide I honestly hands down love it. Really, I was worried about going from dual monitor to ultrawide and it has been great. As far as workflows, they actually haven't
been disrupted too much on an ultrawide. I can still do things like stream and have a section of my
monitor shown on the stream and another section of it just
for all my stream elements. I was really worried that
I wasn't able to do this but I'm still able to do
it, which is super awesome. Now, if you have a
super complicated setup, dual monitors still may be for you when it comes to streaming
and things of the sort. But ultrawide worked just fine for me while I was live streaming. Now, as far as the disadvantages
for an ultrawide monitor, in my opinion, they're
actually very, very slim. Maybe I'm just biased, but again, I've been using dual monitors longer than I have an ultrawide. And really, I love ultrawide monitors. The first disadvantage is actually that most of
the monitors on the market have a curved screen. Now, the PD3420Q does not because it's specifically
made for designers to make sure that none
of your lines are warped while you're editing
your photos or videos. And this is absolutely huge. Again, this is the only monitor I've seen so far on the
market that has a flat panel. But for some reason, all the ultrawide monitors on the market currently are all curved. And I get they want to
make sure you can see it and it doesn't dim on the edges, but I feel like that's
going to distort my photos and that was one of the
biggest concerns for me. So I'll put that under a disadvantage since most ultrawides have that issue. But again, this specific
BenQ monitor that I'm using has a flat panel and
looks absolutely amazing. Also for disadvantages,
comparative to dual monitors, is you have a little bit
less screen real estate. Now, obviously this is arguable. It depends on the dual
monitors you had before and their size. So if you have a smaller ultrawide versus larger dual monitors, obviously you have more
space on the dual monitors. But for the most part when we're talking the same screen size, you're losing a little
bit of space that you had if you were using dual 16:9 monitors. But honestly, it's really
not that big of a deal. So this is the smallest disadvantage. Also, if you're looking
to have a vertical monitor and also a horizontal monitor, obviously you can't do
that with an ultrawide. And even ultra whites are so huge, putting one vertical, I don't know. I mean, you could do it, but
that just seems crazy to me to have this super long
monitor on the side. So really, ultrawides,
you're not able to do that. So workflows that use vertical monitors, you're going to want to go
with a dual monitor setup. And honestly, I feel like those
are all the disadvantages. There's really not that many. I'm kind of biased, but again, I just switched
to ultrawide myself. No matter what type of
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first website or domain. So those are some of the differences between an ultrawide monitor
and dual monitor setups. Like I said before, I always
used to use dual monitor and recently switched to ultrawide and I absolutely love the work process. I think if you're looking
for a setup that's clean and gives you a good amount of space and you're able to keep
everything color matched, ultrawide is going to be for you. Also, if you game on the side, like I do, it just is hands down, go ahead and get yourself an ultrawide. Again, I'm a huge fan of BenQ monitors and the PD3420Q is my new
monitored I'm currently using. And again, check the description
to check out the monitor, it is absolutely amazing. Let me know what kind of
monitor set up you prefer in the comments below,
dual monitor or ultrawide. I'm kind of curious to see
where everyone sits with this. And again, don't forget to hit that like if you like this information. And thank you for
subscribing to the channel and hanging out for more tech
and photography information. And I will catch you all next time. All right, peace. (upbeat music)
