Editing photos and monitor brightness

<p>Hi! I'm a slight newbie to 'really' getting into editing photos/printing.</p>

<p>I've read a bunch of the calibration posts but I still feel that my question is unanswered:<br>

<br />Where should I have my brightness adjusted to on my monitor? I'm on a 17" Macbook and I adjust my brightness frequently depending on lighting. But when I'm editing photos I keep it at just above 50% and then adjust exposure and such by eye (but I've been using the histogram a lot as well).</p>

<p>Does a calibration program work for this? Is the monitor calibration on OS 10.6.8 legit enough? </p>

<p>Thanks for humoring and learning me. :-)</p>

<p>I don't think that I can answer your question completely, but until someone does here are a couple of tips. The monitor calibration programs on the mac are extremely basic, if you have nothing else then use it. But as for the brightness of your monitor, keep it low rather than higher. If you are editing images regularly and are taking up photography then you need to at least get a cheap monitor calibrator. This saves money in the long run by sparing you disappointing print outs and reams of testing each image before it comes out of the printer. All that a calibrator does is optimizes your viewing screen for a correct gamma that you want, and does something (I do not understand) to the colour space, and most importantly establishes consistency so that you always have a pretty good idea how the print will look compared to your screen. 50% unfortunately does not mean anything to me, but constantly changing your screen brightness level for lighting around you is not really a good idea since the amount of light reflected back to you from your screen at different times of the day is not as important as the way the colours look, which will be different. Keep the brightness levels constant and try somehow to at least have consistent room lighting. even in areas where the surrounding light changes, (so long as it is not dramatic) will not have too much effect on the reflected light back from your monitor, but does have a noticeable effect on colour The best thing to do in what I understand as your present situation, is to do a test print with a grayscale step wedge and a colourful photo, Do not use colour charts or any colour step wedges for this because they incorrectly lead you to believe that everything is awful, problem being that the human eye never perceives colour like this so they are misleading in every way. They are only good for proofing that is all. But a grayscale stepwedge is very good. Here is a link to something you may find extremely useful.<br /> http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/Calibration/monitor_gradient.htm<br /> He has more on screen tests, but this is a good starting point. In general I have found that dry creek photo a brilliant site for colour management, easy to navigate and information laid out very thoughtfully, there are many sites out there, don't get bogged down with information overload - stick to one or two good sites but don't go all over the place, you will get lost and confused and here too many opinions, later on maybe but not as a beginner - very bad. Hope something here helps you on your way.</p>

<p>The thing with a laptop is that the angle of your monitor can trick you .. so you are better to get a external monitor if you are serious about color correction. A Dell U2410 is a perfect start (550$) and the P221 from NEC is one of the best price / quality.</p>

<p>In both case, you will need a device that will set your temperature, gamma and luminosity to knowed standard and you should BLOCK it to that standard.. dont touch any button after that. your eyes CANT do that. A device such as the ColorMunki display is a excellent choice.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I echo what the others said, but here's some very basic information that's a little more at an amateur level, take it or leave it:<br>

1. Print out a photo and let it cure for 24 hours. Then view it next to your monitor under your editing lighting conditions. Adjust the brightness so that what you see on the screen matches what you see on the print next to it. This is an imperfect method because the screen is organically lit; but you can get a close approximation and this is what the Spyder Elite program advises with LCD monitors anyway.<br>

2. I have a 17-in MacBook Pro that I do not use for editing, but I have calibrated with a Spyder Pro Elite just because I could do it. Using that program I have the brightness turned on "7 ticks" from zero (completely black). If you have a MBP, you know what I mean. This does not necessarily mean you should, as print matching, as the name implies, depends heavily on what printer you're using (I use an Epson Stylus Pro 3880).<br>

Good luck.<br>

And buy a Spyder or other calibration tool.</p>

<p>We use a darkened room with a Spyder for calibration ... and the following IPS monitor http://www.viewsonic.com/products/desktop-monitors/vp2365wb.htm Printing is not done in the studio ..all outsource /upload .</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Where should I have my brightness adjusted to on my monitor?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Where it produces a match!<br>

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/why_are_my_prints_too_dark.shtml</p>