Making laptop screen most visible outdoors on a bright day.

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m holding an outdoor event in a couple of days. I want to put my laptop out with a looping slide show.

I’ve never used a laptop outdoors, but I suspect there might be visibility issues with this arrangement. Am I right to be worried? If so, are there tips that might help the situation? I’ve thought about putting the laptop inside a cardboard box turned on its side; that would keep direct sunlight off the screen. But would that really help? Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

2

Keeping direct sunlight off will certainly make a difference, and will help prevent overheating to boot. And yes, you are right to be worried about visibility issues; very few laptop screens can really be used in very bright outdoor light. What sort of things are you planning to show?

3

A quick and dirty solution. Put the laptop in a large cardboard box, on its side, with the tops cut off, preferably in the shade, but if not, facing away from the sun.

(Anybody want to parse that last sentence?)

4

Just full screen-sized images, with maybe simple captions – essentially a looping slide show of pictures.

5

Oops. Klondike slipped in there. This reply was in answer to Dervorin’s question.

6

I don’t suppose this would work?

7

If the screen is clean, it doesn’t so much matter how much light hits it, but the angle between this light and the viewer matters a lot:

Consider the screen a mirror, and think about having the darkest possible thing reflected in that mirror. A bright blue sky is bad, bright white clouds are worse, and a stright shot at the sun is worst of all… If you can arrainge to have a dark tarp behind the viewer that is ideal. A brick wall, or a large dense hedge or bush would be OK. The side of a large white truck, not so good.

Next, consider your viewer’s eyes. If they are in a bright environ, thier pupils will be stopped down, making it hard to see your screen. This is a tough one to deal with, absent a real tent, but putting a large, dark background behind the laptop will help a lot, as will a shade canopy to prevent direct sunlight on the ground between them and the laptop.

One excellent (optically, maybe not for your needs, though) solution would be to make a cardboard shroud with a face-fitting peep slot in it…think of those old nickleodions, or the eye test machines at the DMV…you could probably provide two slots so two people could watch at once.