Monitor color temperature

I realise the ambient light at my computer should be low and at the same temperature as

my my monitor white point so that I can get a better comparison of my image on the

monitor and the printed version.

 

Which monitor colour temperature should I use. Should it be the same as the that of the

colour temperature of the rooms my prints are viewed in ie NOT daylight colour

temperature!?

 

Thanks

Louis

Usually you balance it to daylight (6500K), but an argument can be made for balancing it to the target color temperature, e.g., if you intend to make prints for exhibition under lighting conditions you have no influence over, you could balance for that.

With a CRT it's best to set it at 6500K - although 5000k is closer to actual daylight and for matching to printed output. The 6500 setting requires less alteration to the basic colour response curve of the monitor and colours are cleaner, smoother and more vibrant as a result.

..............if you are NOT changing the colour. What I mean is the Monitor colour

temperature doesn't actually change the file just how it looks on the monitor.

Not by itself, but since it changes how you perceive color, it will cause you to edit the files differently, and thus change the file.

if I have my monitor at 5500 and I view my print in 5500 ambient light it should it pretty

close to the monitor image and if my lab has their monitor at 6500 and view the print in

6500 they should see as close a relationship between the prin and monitor in their lab.

 

That is both of us should be equally capable of judging how close the print is to the

monitor image.

 

Does that make sense.

 

Thanks for the help.

 

Louis

 

PS I think I recall Andrew once told me to use 5500 but I'm hazy what the exact

circumstances of his advice was.

I prefer 9300K because white is whiter than 6500K and the color is more close to real life color.

Use a color temperature that makes white look white to you, in the light you intend to show your print in.

Copy/Paste on white point from my book:

 

White Point. The white point target for a display is should be specified with a chromaticity

coordinate (the xy component of CIEXYY see Chapter 1 Side Bar: White Point and

Chromaticity values.) While it is possible to adjust color for various white points it is

preferable for all displays in the pipeline to use the same white point. The white point

targets which should be most commonly used are the graphic arts standard D50 and the

sRGB white point of D65. Many packages offer user too many (often confusing) choices.

One package may offer a choice of 5000K and D50. Another may offer only 5000K. Under

the hood, this package might be treating 5000K as D50; we don?t know. The D illuminant

and the CCT on the black body curve are very close. The color science used by the ICC is

based on D illuminants. When offered the choice, you should choose the D illuminant. The

default white point of many CRT is close to a CCT of 9300K. Generally LCDs are closer to

6500K.

 

Logic would dictate that since we are going to view our prints under controlled lighting of

D50, we should also set our displays white point to D50. If our display luminance level was

as bright as our viewing environment and our paper color were perfectly neutral this would

be the case. However, reality is not this perfect world. It is common for photographers

who calibrated their displays to D50 to find their image previews appear dim, and a bit too

yellow. There are a number of explanations as to why this happens. For one, the white of

most photographic paper is very blue when viewed under a D50 illuminant. On most

displays it is harder to achieve high luminance levels at D50. It is for these reasons that

when working with photographic paper, calibrating to D65 may produce a better screen to

print match. We want the white of the monitor to look the same as the white of our light

box. My suggestion is to calibrate a D65 white point. For those working with commercial

jobs, where the ultimate destination will be offset printing, you find calibrating to a D50

white point produces a better match. If you are collaborating with a commercial supplier

such as a color printer it is important use the same white point.

Is D50 = 5000 and D65 = 6500. Or are they 2 totally different measures.

 

Is the D65 what we set the monitor for and 6500 the temp we aim for for the lighting in

which to view the print in our digital darkroom (when we are producing photographic

prints)?

Thanks Andrew.

-->Is D50 = 5000 and D65 = 6500. Or are they 2 totally different measures.

 

Different. It's somewhat dangerous to use color temperature to define what you want

because the reality is if all light sources were true blackbodies a particular color

temperature would produce the same color of light. Because natural materials are not

theoretical blackbodies, heating them to a specific temperature creates deviates from the

theoretical color from magenta to green. It's really much safer to use the term correlated

color temperature (CCT) because many colors of white may correlate to the same

blackbody color temperature. Different illuminants can have the same correlated color

temperature.

 

This is one reason why the CIE defined the Standard Illuminants.These illuminants are

defined spectrally meaning a certain amount of energy at each wavelength across the

spectrum. This is an exact and non ambiguous description of color. D65 is an exact color,

it is not a range of colors. If you have a color meter that reports color temperature of a

light source many light sources that appear different could read the same, that's kind of a

problem!

 

The standard for viewing prints in this country is a D50 lightbox. Neither the display nor

the lightbox can actually produce this D illuminant but that?s the aim point.<div></div>

is there a layperson way of interpreting this. I have not read your book and can set my monitor to color temps but how do i set a d value? is this something set in the calibration device? and does this interpret (as an answer to the main quetion posted) as set your monitor to a setting and then leave it, only to vary it according to your print intentions in the end (given you use mostly one method of print)?

 

also if a monitor off the store shelf is set to color temp xx00K does that mean they aimed for a particular d value white point?

 

and what are black bodies?

-->is there a layperson way of interpreting this. I have not read your book and can set my

monitor to color temps but how do i set a d value?

 

This is something software would aim for. So products sometimes ask you for the aim

point in Kelvin but don?t tell you it?s a Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) or a D

Illuminant. when asked, pick the later.

 

-->and what are black bodies?

 

It?s a theoretical object used in physics. The closest object we know of that acts like (but

not exactly like) a Black Body is our sun. The blackbody reflects no light and emits energy

in shorter wavelengths as it is being heated.