Help - Becaming mad calibrating monitor vs. picture

[pablomatsumoto]

<p>Hi. I have a Samsung SynMaster 940 NW in PC running Windows Vista with NVIDIA GrForce 7000.<br>

My problem is that I am mad trying to match what I see in the screen with some print samples. My main problem is that the prints are much less saturated than the screen, but I just cannot find a way to reduce it. I change gamma values but this reduce the overall brightness but not saturation.<br>

The difference is specially visible in red.. For e.g., women lips with make up apeear "red furious" in the screen but normal in prints.<br>

I will appreciate your comments. Please not that buying a hardware callibrating system is not possible (they are not sold in the country where I live).</p>

<p> </p>

[dbcooper]

<p>What kind of printer are you using, and what software are you printing with? Also, is it possible to purchase a calibration tool online and have it shipped to your country?</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>nVidia cards have long been popular among gamers and folks wanting vivid colors. They usually include software to make rough adjustments to color saturation and other settings. While this won't calibrate your monitor you should be able to adjust the saturation. Mine includes various settings to save presets for different applications and to use more than one monitor.</p>

<p>Without a calibration system, tho', you'll still be guessing at accuracy between what you see on screen and what you get in prints.</p>

[pablomatsumoto]

<p>Hi. When I mean prints I am talking about priting in photo paper at a professional lab, not made by me. The lab gives me a sample picture with a sample print to make the adjustment.<br>

Could you please tell me how do I change saturation values? I change the settings under /Control Panel/Screen Properties/Advanced Configuration, then GeForce 7000 tab and I start NVidia Control Panel.<br>

There under "Screen"/Desktop Color I have Brighteness, Digital Vibrance, Contrast, Sharpness and Gamma.</p>

 

[mallav]

<p>

<p >Hi, The best way and the only way (as i see it ) to calibrate your monitor is to invest in a monitor calibrator. No matter how hard you try to calibrate it with your eyes you will never get it right. As you said above there are so many parameters that needs to be adjusted to calibrate a monitor its just hard to do it right manually. Even after calibrating the monitor with one of those sensors you are not guaranteed to get a match between your prints and your monitor (but it will definitely be close). This is because the printers and your monitor has a different color gamut. </p>

<p >So basically it comes down to this:</p>

<p >1. Buy a monitor calibrator system (Spyder2express is the cheapest). </p>

<p >2. Read a lot about color profiles and how to use them. </p>

<p >Good luck.</p>

</p>

[pablomatsumoto]

<p>Hi.. I being investigating and it is clear from your comments that I need a hardware callibrator. My doubt now is that with something like Spyder 3, for example, I can make my monitor to match the information of the file from the camera. That's right and I guess it is a great first step.<br>

But I cannot clearly understand the second step, which is matching the screen with the prints. I've seen a product called Spyder3 Print which scans a print sample and generates a ICC profile. but from the documentation this type of product seems to work when you do your own prints.<br>

I do not print myself, I take my .jpeg files to a photo lab to be "printed" in photo paper. They do not "print" with ink, they generate a "digital negative" and burn the paper in the old fashion way.<br>

How to you manage this? I try to contact Spyder support but haven't received any answer if SpyderPrint works with lab printing.</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>Labs making prints on light sensitive color paper (such as, for example, a Fuji Frontier machine using Fuji Crystal Archive paper) use standard ICC profiles. Ask the lab which profile they use. They might be able to tell you where to access it online from their corporate website. You can use this along with the other techniques described.</p>

<p>While it's complicated and frustrating, one of the challenges of the digital photography era is that it has shifted the burden of making even ordinary corrections onto the shoulders of the photographers. If you wish to avoid this chore and prefer to spend your time taking photographs, check around for a lab that will offer custom services such as photo editing to provide the output you want.</p>

<p>But if you'd rather do it yourself, plan on spending a lot of time studying the techniques. There are online illustrated tutorials and videos, printed tutorials and even workshops you can attend to study digital photo editing and printing. Some of the best photographers I'm acquainted with still attend these workshops occasionally, despite having decades of experience in photography. There are some things you can teach yourself using online information or reading books, but other things can be learned more easily in person with a qualified instructor and the necessary computers and software or other materials.</p>