Help with calibrating on Macbook Pro

[brian_m2]

<p>I feel very stupid. I'm new to Mac and would like to calibrate my Macbook Pro's monitor using the Spyder3Pro. The problem is, I can't figure out how to do it. The Datacolor software asks me to confirm what settings I have - brightness, contrast, and backlight. I am having trouble figuring out how to adjust these and for some reason I cannot find the answers in the online sources. And when I go into the monitor color profiling menu for the Mac, there is no option for using 3d-party devices to calibrate (it only gives me the procedure for using ColorSync).<br>

Can anyone give me the steps to get off of square one with profiling the Macbook Pro using the Spyder3? Thanks.</p>

[gintautas_rugienius]

<p>The only think you will be able to adjust is the Brightness fo the screen. Either adjust it manually to something that looks comfortable to you or you can use the device to measure the luminance to around 120. Opening up the display preferences the brightness has a slider you can adjust more precicely than just using the keyboard.<br>

Be ready for your screen to look very redish if you calibrate to 6500K. I had a MBP and its native white point was 7500K.</p>

[Larry_G1664882113]

<p>The MacBook Pro is a backlit monitor, so click on backlight and adjust the brightness to where it was when you got the computer in the display preferences window in system preferences. If you have never touched it, leave it alone. If you don't know then set the brightness at maximum and Spyder3 will calibrate and let you know if the brightness needs manual adjusting. I shoot in Adobe RBG and set luminance at 125. Luminance is directly linked to the brightness setting you have set in the display preferences window. Remember to print letting Phjotoshop set all of the color settings with no color adjustments by the printer. Happy printing.</p>

[brian_m2]

<p>Thanks, this is very helpful. Why does the laptop not have controls for adjusting RGB gain? Can you really color calibrate without being able to adjust the gain? On my old CRT, in PreCal I adjusted the gain not only to achieve the desired luminance but also to ensure that each channel was within the specified parameter, and this eliminated color cast. How does the Spyder3 eliminate color cast without user adjustment of gain? Does it simply measure the color cast that the monitor brings to the party and then adjust the visual interpretation of the image accordingly to account for it?</p>