Monitor Calibration

[PaulW]

Hi
Great annual dinner my wife and I thoughly enjoyed the evening.

I am trying to gather more information on the best way to calibrate my monitor, so that the colours of my DPI's images are more realistic.
Paul

[Mike Farley]

Paul

Computer monitors in general do not show colours that are sufficiently accurate for photographic use, so they need to be calibrated first. A device known as a colorimeter is placed in front of the screen while the supplied software gets it to display a variety of different colours, which the colorimeter measures. The software then works out the difference between the colours which should have been shown and what was actually displayed. This allows the software to build a profile which is loaded into the graphics hardware which adjusts the colours so that they are shown correctly.

Since computer monitors change over the course of their lives, they have to be calibrated regularly at least every two to four weeks. The older CRT ones are particularly prone to change significantly over short periods, but the modern LCD/LED types are much better in that regard. I do recommend running a calibration before undertaking any work where colour accuracy is important. The monitor should always first be fully warmed up for 30 minutes to an hour to ensure the accuracy of the calibration. A similar period should also be allowed before commencing any photo editing if using a pre-existing profile.

Another factor which can affect colour accuracy of the display is the brightness setting. The factory default is often 100% which is usually far too bright and can lead to the final image being printed or projected too light. Some calibration software can adjust the brightness software automatically, while others display a series of patches ranging from absolute black through to pure white to allow the user to set the brightness manually.

It is likely that the software will provide options for easy or advanced calibration. Opting for advanced will require a number of different parameters to be set, most of which will be meaningless to many people. If you have got this far in my explanation, you are probably not an expert who understands all the terms, but the easy setting will give a perfectly good result. At the end of the process you will only be required to specify the name of the profile and the interval between reminders to recalibrate the display, after which you are done.

The quality of the monitor is also significant. Most laptop screens are cheap components that cannot display colours well enough for photographic work, even when calibrated, so it is usually better to connect to an external monitor for this purpose. Most standalone monitors will be OK, but as with anything, paying more for the right equipment provides the best results.

There are several brands of monitor calibration equipment, with those from Pantone, Color Munki, Eye One and Datacolor being the most well known. The first three are in fact owned by X-Rite, which has bought a number of companies in the past few years. Some of those which are worth looking at are:

• Pantone Huey - http://www.amazon.co.uk/PANTONE-huey-PRO/dp/B00163HQK2/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1353946030&sr=1-1
• ColorMunki Display -http://www.amazon.co.uk/X-Rite-Pantone-Products-CMUNDIS-ColorMunki/dp/B0055MBQOM/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1353946241&sr=1-1-catcorr
• Eye One Display 2 - http://www.amazon.co.uk/X-Rite-EODIS2-Eye-One-Display/dp/B000JLO31M/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1353949822&sr=1-1
• Datacolor Spyder4Pro -http://www.amazon.co.uk/ColorVision-S4P100-Spyder4Pro-PC-Mac/dp/B006TF37H8/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1353949289&sr=1-1

All should do a good job, but I note from the reviews on Amazon that some people have experienced problems running the X-Rite products on Apple Macs. That's not something on which I can comment, being outside of my experience.

Finally, you will see that some systems have the facility to monitor the ambient light so that the display can be modified to take account of the viewing conditions which can affect human colour perception. This function is provided since most people will not have the facilities to set up a dedicated area illuminated only by daylight balanced lighting and the walls painted a neutral grey. My recommendation is to set the screen away from the window in a room where there are no strong colours and work only by natural light. As a further step, fit a monitor hood which will help isolate the display from the surroundings. With these precautions, it will often not be necessary to take account of what is happening with the lighting.

For what it is worth, I use a ColorMunki Photo (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pantone-CMUNPH-X-Rite-ColorMunki-Photo/dp/B00169N0BK/ref=sr_1_2?s=software&ie=UTF8&qid=1353950099&sr=1-2) and the club's projector is calibrated with a Datacolor Spyder 2, which has long been superseded, but nevertheless still works well.

[Mike Farley]

Whilst I have not seen this particular video tutorial from Luminous Landscape about colour management, others in the series have been very informative and easy to comprehend. Even better, at present it is on 25% discount and will only cost around £8-50 at current exchange rates.

http://store.luminous-landscape.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=283

See also this post:

http://forums.croydoncameraclub.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=129#p612

Also posted on the Printer Profiling thread.

[PaulW]

Hi
Thanks Mike, I will look into your suggestions, and will look to purchasing one of the calibrators.
Paul

[davidc]

I've got the spyder 4 version, about £100 if memory serves, and it works well on both my laptop and desktop screens. Thing is, as Mike says, though the screens can slowly lose calibration, modern ones don't lose it THAT quickly and the fortnightly announcement that my monitor might not be 100% accurate is a bit annoying!

I usually recalibrate as I prepare for a competition but can't tell the difference between the photos after first calibration and more recently.

However the difference between UNcalibrated and now is very clear indeed.

[Mike Farley]

Hi
Thanks Mike, I will look into your suggestions, and will look to purchasing one of the calibrators.
Paul

I look forward to seeing how you get on.

[PaulW]

Hi Mike
I have received my DataColor Spyder4Pro. Followed the instruction to calibrate my TFT monitor, once finished there is a slight improvement in that there is a slight increase of green tones, but I was required to increase the brightness and contrast from 50/50 to 73/75, this has forced me to increase the brightness in Lightroom4 print adjustments when printing, to get the print to match the image on my screen, but it has made the greens and blues in my images more realistic.
Paul

[Mike Farley]

Hi Paul

Thanks for the update. It's good to know that your colours are more accurate, but it sounds as though something is still not right if you are having to brighten the image when printing in LR4. Did you make sure that the monitor had been on continuously for at least 30 minutes without going into sleep mode before calibrating it? It would be worthwhile recalibrating it again just in case something went adrift first time around.

[PaulW]

Hi
Yes, I was a bit concerned when the calibration software requested that I increased the monitors brightness and contrast, so I ran the recalibation twice more and the setting required were 73/75 each time. This is ok, because I know to increase by 25% on my own prints, but the problem comes when I send them out to have even larger prints made, they always come back to dark. This may be a translation problem between a backlit image and a print which is lit from the front. This may be an issue that other photographers have, but compensate for by increasing brightness and contrast when producing a print.
Paul

[Mike Farley]

Hi Paul

The whole point of having a fully calibrated process with both monitor and printer/paper combo colour managed is to ensure that prints are as close to what appears on the screen as possible. Yes, there are differences in the way that the colours are created and images viewed, one backlit and the other by reflected light, so it will never be perfect, but 25% is way too much. Did you have to apply any compensation when making prints previously? Also, what is the make and model of your monitor?