Monitor Calibration

<p>I had been using adobe gamma with pretty good results as far as wysiwyg, monitor screen to printing.<br>

I recently upgraded to CS5 and adobe gamma is longer supplied. I thought i have put off buying a monitor calibration system, so maybe nows a good time. well i invested in the Datacolor Spyder 3 pro system.<br>

so i run the calibration and my screen now looks like crap.....overly orange and warm...when looking at the comparison, before / after cal...i much prefer the uncalibrated.<br>

while following the on screen prompts, it asked me to position the contrast/brightness slider half way and update. what slider? the monitors contrast and brightness adjustments are already set at 50% (halfway).<br>

what am i missing?</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Usually you start with contrast at 100% and then reduce brightness. Try to rest your monitor's controls to defaults before starting the calibration process.</p>

<p>I recently got the spyder 3 pro system aswell.</p>

<p>It took me a few times to get the callibration working OK. Make sure the colour temp on the monitor is set correctly (the first time I accidently changed it - or rather assumed it was correct without checking).</p>

<p>I also had better results when callibrating under dim natural light than with light on (which is an energy eff. bulb - bit of a problem apparently).</p>

<p>I ended up running about 5 separate callibrations - the first couple seemed 'out' for reasons above. The last 3 (all saved to different profiles) seem pretty consistent. I guess my system was quite 'out' to begin with, because the new profiles seemed strange. But the next day coming to the newly callibrated system afresh - it seems fine, and switching back to the old one looks odd. Your eyes/brain take a while to settle with the new setup.</p>

<p>Martin</p>

<p>I have been using various models of the Spyder for years and have had no problems. The ambient light will affect the calibration. The older models required a dark room. The current models will calibrate with the light on. However I make it a point to calibrate under the most likely light conditions when I edit my photos. So I draw all the shades in the windows and turn on the room lights as I mostly edit my photos at night after a day's shooting.</p>

<p>I also make sure that all the monitor controls are at factory default and let the monitor warm up for at least an hour so its color temperature is stable.</p>

<p>Danny</p>

 

<p>What brand and model of monitor do you have ? Have you disabled adome gamma (take it out of the startup folder)?<br>

<br /> Go to the site of a photographer with reliable color fidelity - Art Wolfe, Steve McCurry, Franz Lanting, Steve Bloom, etc. Do their images look warm and orange on your screen?</p>

<p>Doug,<br>

Since you were previously happy with the monitor -> print results, are you still happy with the print results now?<br>

I would suspect that this has to do with color memory of your brain, that you are used to seeing your monitor with different color and you are easily noticing it.<br>

This is something your mind will adjust too; and if you are happy with the print results, it's worth continuing.<br>

If the prints don't look good to you now (eg. they now look too cold because you are adjusting the files more so they look right on screen, resulting in cooler looking prints), then one solution would be to go back to your old approach, as it worked. That wouldn't be my approach because a hardware based profiling tool is going to give you more accurate and precise results than using a software based approach.<br>

Regards,<br>

Peter</p>

<p>i realized that the software was targeting 5000K and casting the screen with an orange tint.<br>

by changing the target to 6500K, the cast has gone and the printed images now match what i am seeing on the screen.</p>

<p>thank you for all your suggestions.</p>

<p>There is some incorrect information here. When calibrating with a meter, you want to have all ambient light set to zero (0), pitch black room lighting. If you can't get there (due to a window nearby) drape a shroud over the screen and sensor.<br>

Contrast is rarely set to max, and black level or brightness is typically well below the factory default of 50, or middle setting. You need to adjust these properly FIRST before taking the meter out, and this setting IS properly determined by ambient lighting. Set up your room lighting in the normal viewing conditions, and use some Pluge patterns to dial in the Brightness & Contrast. <br>

A simple, free program of patterns can be found here:<br>

<a href="http://spectracal.com/download_HTPC.html">http://spectracal.com/download_HTPC.html</a><br>

After you're done with that, then complete the CMS gammut (if applicable), then the white balance / RGB greyscale adjustments, then you go back to Brightness & Contrast to make sure they weren't affected.<br>

Good Luck! :)</p>

<p>Lou Erhardt, if by"meter" you mean a calibration puck, then you cannot make such blanket statements. With NEC Spectraview for example what you are saying is not true.</p>

<p>It is definitely a blanket statement, and I stand by it as an accurate one. The NEC Spectraview system OEM's the X-rite EyeOne Display 2 as its meter. In and of itself, this is a fairly simple meter. Just like all tristimulus colorimeters, the sensor has no way of distinguishing ambient light vs. light from the screen. However, thanks to peripheral vision, our eyes can! This is called "chromatic adaptation" and it is the reason why someone's white shirt will appear white to us - just the same in daylight, incandescent light, and florescent light, etc. Essentialy, in order for the meter to properly see the screen (as our eyes do), we need to either separately measure and eliminate the ambient light ...or simply eliminate it.<br>

I looked up NEC's site for the system you reference. Apparently they also sell a hood to block ambient light from leaking in the sides of the meter, just for that purpose:<br>

http://www.necdisplay.com/supportcenter/monitors/spectraview2/purchase/</p>

<p>It is definitely a blanket statement, and I stand by it as an accurate one. The NEC Spectraview system OEM's the X-rite EyeOne Display 2 as its meter. In and of itself, this is a fairly simple meter. Just like all tristimulus colorimeters, the sensor has no way of distinguishing ambient light vs. light from the screen. However, thanks to peripheral vision, our eyes can! This is called "chromatic adaptation" and it is the reason why someone's white shirt will appear white to us - just the same in daylight, incandescent light, and florescent light, etc. Essentialy, in order for the meter to properly see the screen (as our eyes do), we need to either separately measure and eliminate the ambient light ...or simply eliminate it.<br>

I looked up NEC's site for the system you reference. Apparently they also sell a hood to block ambient light from leaking in the sides of the meter, just for that purpose:<br>

http://www.necdisplay.com/supportcenter/monitors/spectraview2/purchase/</p>