So here more a question on post-processing than monitors, but I wanted the opions of the group.

I have a laptop which I use for post-processing and the images I get are pretty good, but a couple of days ago I connected a second monitor to try something out but looked at some of my images. The difference in the colour was noticeable, and after a bit of tweaking the monitor settings I managed to get rid of most of the differences.

Which got me thinking. When i do my post processing I take note of the histogram to make the course adjustments (spreading the colour across the full histogram, toning down the washed out colours etc) and then fine tune the changes by looking at the image itself.

So here's the question, if you didn't have a monitor that had been calibrated could you achieve a reasonable image using the histrogram alone? How critical is the calibration of your monitor, and how important is that visual check of the colours in the grand scheme of things?

Looking forward to your thoughts