Why Don't Many Monitor Calibrators Adjust Brightness??

This is a semi-reposting of my thread the other day but under a more appropriate heading. I've got a Sony Vaio that I'm trying to calibrate, and when I fire up my Spyder it asks me to manually adjust the brightness to a level that's comfortable for me.

Isn't that the point of calibration? Isn't calibration supposed to auto-adjust the brightness for you to a fixed and consistent brightness output to ensure your photos and prints don't look under or over exposed? I just don't understand why it wouldn't have this included. Though I did notice the Spyder3Elite had it but it costs a LOT more money.

So for those who manually adjust your brightness, how did you know where to adjust it? Because looking at my monitor settings, the difference in brightness on my screen between each "notch" is pretty significant. I'm gonna play it safe and just keep things in the middle I think.

razor123 said:

Isn't that the point of calibration? Isn't calibration supposed to auto-adjust the brightness for you to a fixed and consistent brightness output to ensure your photos and prints don't look under or over exposed? I just don't understand why it wouldn't have this included. Though I did notice the Spyder3Elite had it but it costs a LOT more money.

Click to expand...

No, not really. Calibration is mainly about color. And a color can be right or wrong.

There's no "right answer" for brightness. Even calibration setups that deal with brightness won't tell you what's right or wrong. They let you adjust brightness to a specific level e.g. 100 cd/m2 which is what I use.

I'd suggest that try to find the maximum brightness setting which is comfortable for you and does not cause fatigue after a few hours.

Can't brightness (i.e. exposure) be right or wrong as well? Maybe I'm slow, but I would've thought that brightness would be just as important as color. If your monitor's too dim and you're unaware of it, for example, you'll overcompensate by creating overly exposed images.

Yes brightness is very important, putting the brightness reading option in the more expensive software options is a nasty trick. Wasn't impressed with the spyder2.

Andrew

razor123 said:

Isn't that the point of calibration? Isn't calibration supposed to auto-adjust the brightness for you to a fixed and consistent brightness output to ensure your photos and prints don't look under or over exposed? I just don't understand why it wouldn't have this included. Though I did notice the Spyder3Elite had it but it costs a LOT more money.

Click to expand...

You can go to the dollar store and buy an adjustable wrench - the kind with the screw adjuster under your thumb. Or you can go to an auto supply store and get a socket with a ratchet torque handle. The socket kit will cost you much more $$ but in return you don't wear the edges off the nut, don't bust your knuckles, torque the nut to spec to avoid metal fatigue in the bolt, and get the job done faster.

The hardware calibrator will set your color temp (aka white point), gamma, and adjust your monitor RGB (in advanced mode) and create an ICC profile for use by the color management of the OS. Full featured models will measure the ambient brightness of the room and suggest a white luminance level and color temp to be set.

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razor123 said:

So for those who manually adjust your brightness, how did you know where to adjust it? Because looking at my monitor settings, the difference in brightness on my screen between each "notch" is pretty significant. I'm gonna play it safe and just keep things in the middle I think.

Click to expand...

Safe in the middle is the wrong answer. You have to match the monitor to the ambient lighting of the room you are in. There is no "one" right value for a monitor except if the room you are in has controlled lighting.

Manually.... the following is a rough method to balance the monitor back light against the room lighting.

Eyeball Technique

A rough method of setting brightness is to grab a sheaf of white printer paper (several pages thick) and hold it up next to your monitor while it is displaying a white screen and while the room has its' typical lighting used while you edit. If the paper looks brighter than your monitor, then your monitor is too dark. If the paper is darker, then the monitor is too bright or perhaps you need to increase the ambient lighting of the room. Imho, it is less than ideal to edit in a near pitch black room.

Most LCD monitors have a native color temperature somewhere near 6500K in order to have whites appear like they would in natural sunlight. The paper, in comparison, will appear yellow (about 2800K) under reflective incandescent lighting (per standard "old" style light bulbs) so another trick is to buy some 6000 to 6500K compact fluorescent bulbs for the lighting in your room and use them while attempting this paper method.

With a recent external LCD monitor do not be afraid to lower Brightness to between 0 and 15 (percent usually) to get the correct level. Most current 24" or larger LCD monitors are factory set to about 300 cd/m2 and some can be as high as 400 cd/m2 - much too bright!! Typically, Contrast is left at factory default or adjusted a bit higher.

The "ideal" brightness of a monitor for use in editing an image is subject to the perceptual vagueness of the human eye. The ambient lighting of the room you edit in will determine if your monitor must be less bright or more bright. Your eye struggles to balance the large area of reflective ambient background light with a small area in it's field of view that is your brightly back lit monitor screen. The "ideal" brightness of the screen is a balance between the back light of the screen and the light in your field of vision. As such, your white luminance value can range from 80cd/m2 to 160 cd/m2 but a typical value most people come close to with calibrated settings in their home office/den is about 120 cd/m2. If your monitor is not capable of going any lower, your can always increase the lighting in your work area. Once again, imho, it is not a best practice to edit in a dark room.

If the monitor is too bright in balance against the room lighting, your eye will trick you into reducing the brightness of the image while editing. When you print that edited image, it will likely come out too dark ( the "dark prints" problem).

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Newsy http://newsy.smugmug.com

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razor123 said:

This is a semi-reposting of my thread the other day but under a more appropriate heading. I've got a Sony Vaio that I'm trying to calibrate, and when I fire up my Spyder it asks me to manually adjust the brightness to a level that's comfortable for me.

Isn't that the point of calibration? Isn't calibration supposed to auto-adjust the brightness for you to a fixed and consistent brightness output to ensure your photos and prints don't look under or over exposed? I just don't understand why it wouldn't have this included. Though I did notice the Spyder3Elite had it but it costs a LOT more money.

Click to expand...

That's the point: they charge you more to measure the brightness.

razor123 said:

So for those who manually adjust your brightness, how did you know where to adjust it? Because looking at my monitor settings, the difference in brightness on my screen between each "notch" is pretty significant. I'm gonna play it safe and just keep things in the middle I think.

Click to expand...

You can get alternative software for the Spyder 3 which does measure brightness. E.g. the Argyll software. See http://argyllcms.com/ for the software, but it's command line software and you need also a Windows interface from http://dispcalgui.hoech.net/ . Bit of a pain to set up, but once it's done it's pretty good, and runs with most colorimeters.

Another eyeball way of setting brightness if you want the screen to match prints: with normal lighting in the room, hold a piece of printer paper near the screen. the brightness should be comparable to the screen brightness (when displaying white).

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Simon

Simon Garrett said:

That's the point: they charge you more to measure the brightness.

Another eyeball way of setting brightness if you want the screen to match prints: with normal lighting in the room, hold a piece of printer paper near the screen. the brightness should be comparable to the screen brightness (when displaying white).

Click to expand...

Shouldn't the monitor owner also adjust brightness and contrast so all grey points are distinguishable?

CAcreeks said:

Simon Garrett said:

That's the point: they charge you more to measure the brightness.

Another eyeball way of setting brightness if you want the screen to match prints: with normal lighting in the room, hold a piece of printer paper near the screen. the brightness should be comparable to the screen brightness (when displaying white).

Click to expand...

Shouldn't the monitor owner also adjust brightness and contrast so all grey points are distinguishable?

Click to expand...

Yes, but there wiill usually be a variety of brightness and contrast settings to achieve this. The overall brightness and contrast also affects the look of the colour. If the screen is brighter with higher contrast, the grey scale may show all levels just the same, but also it makes the colour look more vivid. If the screen is too bright it can make prints look dull.

See for example http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/colour_management/prints_too_dark.html

For many purposes it's a good idea not only to be able to see the entire grey scale, but also to have a screen brightness of 100-120 cd/m2.
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Simon

I see the figure of 100-120 cd/m2 posted often for monitor brightness. How the heck do you determine this brightness with standard gear?

Here's an idea: is there a way to use the camera's meter with a normal lens set at infinity (out of focus) but fill the frame with a pure white monitor screen?

For instance, my camera reads this white square where we type as:

EI 400, 1/200, f/5.6

Anyone else? Too bright?

My monitor at ISO 400, f/5.6 gives an exposure of 1/80, so yours is more than a stop brighter than mine. As others have said, the correct value is a little subjective, but that is a LOT brighter than mine. I have a calibrated Dell 2209WA and the brightness is set at 16, and 16 is really the high end of the range where it should be.

George

hotdog321 said:

EI 400, 1/200, f/5.6

Anyone else? Too bright?

Click to expand...

Thank you! That is exactly the kind of information I was looking for! I kind of suspected I had my monitor up too bright.

If we can get a few more posters, this might turn into a very handy "down and dirty" exposure test that can be used by anyone.

hotdog321 said:

Thank you! That is exactly the kind of information I was looking for! I kind of suspected I had my monitor up too bright.

If we can get a few more posters, this might turn into a very handy "down and dirty" exposure test that can be used by anyone.

Click to expand...

Maybe this will help
Guide to determine Lux using your Camera:
1) Set camera to 100 ISO
2) Set lens to f/10
Monitor Brightness: 80 - 100 - 120 cd/m2 shutter speed=1/4; 1/5; 1/6

Ref: http://www.answers.com/topic/lux

Now that is an interesting way.
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ABA DABA

jpegman said:

Maybe this will help
Guide to determine Lux using your Camera:
1) Set camera to 100 ISO
2) Set lens to f/10
Monitor Brightness: 80 - 100 - 120 cd/m2 shutter speed=1/4; 1/5; 1/6

Ref: http://www.answers.com/topic/lux

Click to expand...

That figures. I get ISO100, f/10, 1/4 sec at a measured brightness of 90 cd/m2
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Simon

Wow, lots of great replies to this. Greatly appreciate the help. I bit the bullet and ordered the Spyder 3 Elite from Amazon.

Out of curiosity, why is it not good practice to do photo editing in a dark room? I had always thought that was preferred. I even make it a point to only do Photoshop work after the sun has gone down because my computer is in a room that gets flooded with light during the day.

I could make a few guesses, but they would only be conjecture. But all the photo editors I know use dimly illuminated work spaces.

I do know your workspace should be a neutral color so your eyes don't get fooled by color shifts.

hotdog321 said:

I could make a few guesses, but they would only be conjecture. But all the photo editors I know use dimly illuminated work spaces.

I do know your workspace should be a neutral color so your eyes don't get fooled by color shifts.

Click to expand...

Maybe I'll paint my walls in a 15% gray tone. (Kidding, of course)

NewsyL said:

If the monitor is too bright in balance against the room lighting, your eye will trick you into reducing the brightness of the image while editing. When you print that edited image, it will likely come out too dark ( the "dark prints" problem).

Click to expand...

razor123, NewsyL's mention of the monitor brightness with regard to prints is a very important point to consider.

You'll find many "prints too dark" threads on the Printers & Printing forum. I have the brightness set down to about 85 on my NEC LCD2690WUXi2 monitor and I still need to use a brightness / contrast adjustment for printing - and that's with custom color profiles.

If you check out some of those threads, you'll see that there is much more to this monitor brightness / calibration issue as it relates to printing. You are getting some excellent feedback in this thread regarding this monitor brightness item.

Wayne

on my NEC PA I made calibrations at 120, 110,100,95,85,80 cd/m^2 and chose between as suits me, 80 if in a dark room with barely any lighting and 120 if windows open and sun is out

razor123 said:

This is a semi-reposting of my thread the other day but under a more appropriate heading. I've got a Sony Vaio that I'm trying to calibrate, and when I fire up my Spyder it asks me to manually adjust the brightness to a level that's comfortable for me.

Isn't that the point of calibration? Isn't calibration supposed to auto-adjust the brightness for you to a fixed and consistent brightness output to ensure your photos and prints don't look under or over exposed? I just don't understand why it wouldn't have this included. Though I did notice the Spyder3Elite had it but it costs a LOT more money.

So for those who manually adjust your brightness, how did you know where to adjust it? Because looking at my monitor settings, the difference in brightness on my screen between each "notch" is pretty significant. I'm gonna play it safe and just keep things in the middle I think.

Click to expand...

I just recalibrated my monitor with the suggested, much dimmer, brightness data. I had to turn my monitor's brightness down from "80" to "0"! Dang!

Made a copy of the suggested calibration information and put it in the box with my Spyder puck.

Thanks!