Is this a calibration problem?

[kristen riley]

Hello. I am still fairly new to photography. I own a 20D and have

been uploading my images to Mpix.com. I am noticing that all of my

prints have more of a red cast than appears on my monitor. I have

calibrated the monitor using the simple "by eye" method that my PC

recommends. The only adjustments suggested were to brightness and

contrast. It doesen't seem to me that this will solve my problem.

What adjustment should I make so that my prints look like my

monitor? We just bought a new computer but opted to keep our old

monitor. It is a Compaq MV720--probably close to 8 years old. Any

suggestions will be appreciated.

[beauh44]

Hi Kristen, Be sure to send Mpix the file in the sRGB color space. If you're shooting in Adobe RGB and sending that along to them, then this could explain it. I convert to sRGB and make sure the colors look good before sending mpix the file(s) - so far the colors have been right on the money when I do it that way. I think they could do a better job of explaining this. Good luck!

[ellis_vener_photography]

<I> I have calibrated the monitor using the simple "by eye" method that my PC

recommends.</I><P>And your PC, monitor or OS manufacturer is just dead wrong. You

can't calibrate and profile a monitor "by eye". <P>Secondly; Any monitor that is 8 years

old and that has been used regualrly probably can no longer be accurately calibrated or

profiled.

[steven_clark]

PraxiSoft WiziWYG (you'll have to google it yourself I'm short on time) will at least give you the ability to get yout gama reasonably accurate in and out of editors which is exactly what you want.

[beauh44]

Yikes! I didn't catch that - Ellis is right Kristen. If you want your prints to match your monitor you can't calibrate it "by eye". Look into a colorimeter like a Spyder or Gretag-Macbeth Eye One Display. You'll keep getting weird prints 'til you do.

[wedding-photography-denver]

By the age of your monitor, I would say that is a first stop. Probably need to get either an LCD since the clolrs don't shift that much. Or a good LaCie CRT and calibrate it every month or so.

 

The Spyder gives adequate results, unsless you shoot high end edvertising and such.

 

Mpix do a great job on all my stuff.

[kristen riley]

Thanks a lot to all of you. This gives me an idea of what direction I need to take from here. I really appreciate it. Kristen

[david_f._stein]

Don't discount the eye. Try this test. Put an image into grayscale, then RGB. Verify it by the INFO/COLOR DROPPER in your image editor. Does it look grayscale. Bring something grayscale from the real world alongside and view in varying light levels. NEXT. Have the service do a small print and see if it comes back neutral. In the past, when I've used Ofoto, they were able to achieve a real B&W image on color photo paper from an RGB file. Also, the latest version of Mac OS X has a very sophisticated "eye-directed" color calibration control panel. Many of the low to mid-sized color calibration systems still rely on eyeballing brightness and contrast and leave tonal separation to user experience-i.e, being able to distinguish on your screen between 98 black and 100 black. GOOD LUCK.