I enjoyed perusing this old thread and was hoping someone might be able to relay some advice
I only have a laptop and work remote two weeks at a time so an external monitor is out of the question. What is the best calibration program?
I recently ordered an aluminum print that came back terribly dark in comparison to what I could see on my Lenovo Ideapaf Y510. Upon speaking with the folks at Bay Photo, they asked if my monitor was calibrated. I have had issues where ordered prints come back a fair bit darker than what I see on my laptop . I'm a technological idiot so a hardware program really makes the most sense.
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Like a good ginger with a camera, chasing the souls of moments.
Hello Trout Bum
I was part of this discussion at the beginning of this thread and didn't understand about monitors, colors and didn’t even realize what people saw when they looked at my photos.
I too was using a laptop, but always thought the colors were drab. I do remember what I see when I take photos and they always disappointed when I got home to the laptop. So I used to edit them, “up’ a bit the saturation, tweak this and that, etc.
One day, I wanted to show some pics to a couple of friends and hooked up the laptop to our "good" TV so we could all see them. What a shock!
All my photos were oversaturated and unnatural looking! Turned out, my photos were mostly fine out of the camera but on the laptop they looked totally drab.
I finally understood some of what I was reading here and elsewhere, the quality of the monitor do matter, but naturally we can’t control what ‘other’ people use for viewing our images, but I wanted to at least know that my original images were as good as possible from the start.
At the time I needed to change pc anyways so the timing was good, I got a desktop instead of laptop and a pro/artist monitor for about $400CAD and what a difference. When i travel I wait to get home to review the pics.
Another point about laptop monitors is side views, just move 1 cm to the left or right, or up or down and the screen image change, it drove me crazy I didn’t know where I should hold my head to have the ideal position to see my images. The monitor I have now is IPS when I move around the image doesn’t change.
I’m no expert, only know what I went through and what I did to make me happy. Since then, I’ve had feedback from other photographers whereas I think they didn't bother before
I mostly use for web so I don’t worry much about color management for printing, I’m not a pro, I just enjoy photography as an amateur. When I do use my photos for printed calendars etc. they are more than acceptable to “my” eyes.
I know I’m not helping much since you have to use a laptop, but unless you have a good monitor or a calibrating device for laptops (do they exist?), I don't know you can be sure what your photos are truly like.
I now know it’s not a "black and white" issue
there are factors that affect how we see our photos, how others see our photos, and/or how well they will come out from a printer. I hope you will find a good solution for you.
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Mireille
PS Sorry for the long text....
www.cambridgeincolour.com
