Monitor calibration

[jaideepl]

How do you calibrate your monitor for editing photos? I use Aperture for processing; generally shoot RAW. Although the images look fine on my monitor, when printing photobooks (even using printers that are optimized for RGB), they come out somewhat darker and the colours are flat. I'm wondering if its because my monitor is not properly calibrated. Appreciate all your advise and suggestions.

Thanks

Jaideep

--
The path to learning begins with the first step

 

[Geedorama]

That's a common problem when monitors aren't callibrated properly. Usually lcd monitors have way too high luminance levels out of factory. There are some things you could try, like adjusting the brightness (down) and try to visually match the monitor output with prints. But that's usually not good enough.

Best thing to do is to buy a callibrator and let the device handle things. Dependant on the monitor you have (wide gamut or not, the panel type: tn or pva or ips) you will get better results than any other visual trials.
Good callibrators are I1 display 2 (X-Rite) and spyder 3 elite.

good luck with it!
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/guido_2007/

Ideally, the lens captures what the eye had in mind...but the damn thing won't listen.

 

[Nordstjernen]

I think hardware calibration is what you should go for. No matter if you choose Eye One, Huey or Spyder. They all do what they are expected to do.

The hard part is not calibrating the monitor. Just follow the on-screen instructions, which is straightforward. The real challenge is adjusting colors. It takes time and effort to be aware of the fine shades and nuances. With a calibrated monitor you do at least have a neutral check point.

Pictures does appear a bit different on paper than on screen, since density is much lower on paper. Expect a bit flatter apperarance and less saturated colors.

If you use Adobe RGB for devices that are calibrated for sRGB the colors will look much flatter and less saturated than expected.

Also, do not increase saturation too much, since oversaturated colors will look flat on a print. To check the gamut you can use Photoshop: Wiew -> Gamut Warning

 

[agorabasta]

I think hardware calibration is what you should go for. No matter if you choose Eye One, Huey or Spyder. They all do what they are expected to do.

Actually, none of them screen-sticking jokes work with wide-gamut monitors that have their backilight colour modulated over the frame duration. That would include Dell 2709W and U2410, HP LP2475W and many other recent wide-gamut screens with CCFL backlight.

I still have no hands-on experience with recent LED backlight screens, so can't comment on that. Still I'd expect the LED backlit panels to do reasonably well with the cheap stick-on 'calibrators'.

The kind of screens that may get more or less adequate 'calibration' with those thingies you mentioned are the non-wide-gamut VA&IPS (especially the older ones) and the simple TN screens (if they deserve a calibration at all).

 

[dennismullen]

I recently got an NEC 2490WUXi2 monitor which came with it's own calibration hardware. It has memory to store the generated color profile in the monitor itself instead of the video card LUT.

This means non color managed programs look almost as accurate as color managed programs do. It is an sRGB monitor. Wide gamut monitors can not show sRGB as accurately.

I found my old Del laptop even though calibrated was not giving me an accurate idea of what I was presenting on the web. The blacks lacked variation and it had a band of magenta tint making editing inaccurate.

Cheers,
--

“Those who would sacrifice liberty for safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” - Ben Franklin.
You can see larger versions of my pictures at http://www.dennismullen.com .

 

[agorabasta]

Dell U2410, though being a wide-gamut machine, still comes with pretty accurate factory-calibrated sRGB AND aRGB modes. They even attach an individual calibration datasheet with every monitor.

Still, the colour temperature is badly wrong in both those modes. I think it happens due to the backlight colour modulation that's not accounted for with a too fast measurement procedure at factory.

The U2410 also has an extensive set of manual adjustments - black point separate per RGB channels, gain separate per RGB channels, also saturation and hue separate per RGBCMY channels. So one could literally dial-in LUT adjustments with one's self finger, skills provided

I think it's currently the best machine to avoid all the quirks of OS colour management and cheap 'calibrators' altogether.

 

[Graham Best]

How do you calibrate your monitor for editing photos? I use Aperture for processing; generally shoot RAW. Although the images look fine on my monitor, when printing photobooks (even using printers that are optimized for RGB), they come out somewhat darker and the colours are flat. I'm wondering if its because my monitor is not properly calibrated. Appreciate all your advise and suggestions.

First, I'd recommend you do far more research on the subject than the few replies a forum thread will generate. Google "Monitor Profiling and Calibration ", and wade through the results.

As far as monitor calibration, I'm most interested in print output, and used coefficients similar to those listed in this review ( http://www.anandtech.com/displays/showdoc.aspx?i=2950&p=10 ) to calibrate with an "eye one display 2". As you can see from the review results, although a monitor may display a wide color gamut, that's no guarantee of good print results. If interested, I can recommend the HP L3605.

--
Regards,
Graham

'I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed.' -Garry Winogrand

 

[cabinet guy]

I just got the Coloredge CG222w as recomended by , shoot smarter .

Just google "shoot smarter" and once there search "monitors" to get their reviews and recomendations.
While back lit monitors are different than reflected light prints the
Coloredge CG222W has made life easier.

 

[Renato1]

Some years back I bought Spyder 2 to calibrate my extended family's monitors. Until then it had been silly - we had four computers and several laptops, and pictures didn't look exactly alike on any of them. Spyder 2 applied to all of them resulted in pictures looking the same on all. And I've since used it on the computers of several friends.

BUT - that's no guarantee that pictures will print right. Spyder 2 also came with a Printfix program where you print their images out on a corner of photo paper, compare to the monitor, adjust, print out another corner on the original bit of photo paper, etc until you are happy that what is on your calibrated monitor is what is getting printed out - and save that setting.

What happens when one goes to automatic machines in stores is anyone's guess (the few times I tried it, images were darker and magnified by 3%). I would instead take my jpegs to a store that charged more, and manually adjusted settings.
Renato

 

[digititus]

Like "dennismullen", I have a color calibrated NEC 2490wuxi. It is a terrific monitor and I'm confident that my displayed colors are accurate.

I don't do a lot of printing, but when I do I use Costco (don't laugh). Their store is close by and their printers are calibrated and profiled every six months by professionals. The profiles are available on-line for each store location that offers this level of service. The profiles can be dowloaded for use with Photoshop (and I presume other photo editors as well).

When I send my files to Costco for printing, I convert the images to their profile. Then when the files are uploaded for printing, I choose "no color correction" in the instructions. The profile then insures that the colors are corrected specifically for their printer. The result is I get prints that look exactly like what I see on my NEC monitor.

So, it does no good to have a color calibrated monitor if you are going to have your files printed by someone whose hardware may or may not be calibrated. Even if it is calibrated, the file needs to contain the profile data specific to that piece of hardware or you may still get something different than you expected.

No two pieces of hardware, whether it be a printer or monitor, see color data exactly the same. Each one must be corrected via calibration and a stored profile. "dennismullen" and I have the same monitor, but I can assure you the profiles created during the calibration process are different for our two monitors.

The worst thing you can do is send your files to a printer whose hardware is set up to do automatic color and contrast correction by default. Most printing services do this, and it is a guaranteed receipe for color casts and images that are either flat or overly contrasty.

 

[NewsyL]

Dell U2410, though being a wide-gamut machine, still comes with pretty accurate factory-calibrated sRGB AND aRGB modes. They even attach an individual calibration datasheet with every monitor.

Still, the colour temperature is badly wrong in both those modes. I think it happens due to the backlight colour modulation that's not accounted for with a too fast measurement procedure at factory.

The U2410 also has an extensive set of manual adjustments - black point separate per RGB channels, gain separate per RGB channels, also saturation and hue separate per RGBCMY channels. So one could literally dial-in LUT adjustments with one's self finger, skills provided

I think it's currently the best machine to avoid all the quirks of OS colour management and cheap 'calibrators' altogether.

In general, I'd be very very careful with acquiring a U2410. There are many buyers who have found issues with screen tints. The initial AOO firmware version also had a faulty sRGB mode - a dithering issue. Dell will not accept returns for screen tints calling it "normal operating condition" or something similar.

Dell, this past week had discounted the monitor in Canada down to $419 CAD which is an unheard of level; normally it retails for $799 in Canada. IMHO they are trying to clear inventory. Even though I'm casually looking for a good 24" monitor I walked away from this deal.

Read the DELL forums and HardOCP monitor forums on this issue.

.

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Newsy http://newsy.smugmug.com

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[NewsyL]

How do you calibrate your monitor for editing photos? I use Aperture for processing; generally shoot RAW. Although the images look fine on my monitor, when printing photobooks (even using printers that are optimized for RGB), they come out somewhat darker and the colours are flat. I'm wondering if its because my monitor is not properly calibrated. Appreciate all your advise and suggestions.

Could be monitor calibration. Is it only edited images with levels adjusted that come out dark? Do correctly exposed images straight from the camera print dark?

Could be an AdobeRGB vs sRGB issue - usually more a "flat" appearance issue.

Could also be that you are using the the wrong printer paper ICC/ICM profile.

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Newsy http://newsy.smugmug.com

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[creative]

You may want to look into buy this X-Rite ColorMunki Photo Color Management Solution http://www.bhphotovideo.com .

 

[agorabasta]

The initial AOO firmware version also had a faulty sRGB mode - a dithering issue.

That A00 should be a distant past. But that depends of turnover...

You need to travel to some big city when shopping for nice monitors (Sorry couldn't hold...)

 

[digititus]

It should be obvious from the replies that you've received that a properly calibrated monitor is the #1 priority if you are particular about your printed photos.

However, as I said in my previous post, a calibrated monitor is not all that is required. The printer needs to be calibrated and you will need to use the profile specific to that printer to insure that "what you see is what you get".

You might find the following link interesting reading:

http://www.drycreekphoto.com/icc/using_printer_profiles.htm