Monitor Calibration Question

[chad_goldman]

<p>I'm trying to calibrate my monitor but getting mediocre results. Buying a calibration program, at the moment is out of the question. I've been trying to use <a href="http://www.photofriday.com/calibrate.php">http://www.photofriday.com/calibrate.php</a> as a template. My color temp choices for my monitor is 9300 k (too blue) 6500 k (default) and sRGB. since the color space on my camera is sRGB i figured this may be the best choice. I wanted 5, or 5.5 k for daylight balanced but no go. <br>

According to <a href="http://www.photofriday.com/calibrate.php">http://www.photofriday.com/calibrate.php</a> I should see a whole range of tones. I do see tone B as a dark grey, but Tones XYZ all show as pure white. No matter how I change brightness and contrast I do not get color in XY.<br>

Any thoughts, clues, better calibration tools that are in my price range?<br>

Thanks<br>

cg</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>HOw are you changing the contrast and brightness of the display ... using the physical controls on the display hardware, or through software settings on your computer?</p>

[digitaldog]

<blockquote>

<p>Buying a calibration program, at the moment is out of the question</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Then forget it, visual calibration doesn’t work. Save yourself some time and move on. See: http://www.takegreatpictures.com/software-tips-and-techniques/9785</p>

[Mattman944]

<p><em>Then forget it, visual calibration doesn’t work.</em></p>

<p>Visual calibration (of brightness levels) is better than nothing and good enough for many people. All the monitors I have ever used (mid price range) have easily been able to properly display the grayscale tones on the website that C.G. referenced. If you have a $99 monitor, maybe it can't display the levels, but try adjusting the brighness/contrast on the monitor before you give up.</p>

<p>Color calibration is another story, you need calibration hardware.</p>

 

[chad_goldman]

I was working with the physical controls of the monitor. I thought that would give me my best results, did I think wrong?

[digitaldog]

<p>Good enough for most people? Good enough for those that don’t require consistency or a good ICC profile that reflects those conditions (which change, this is an unstable output device) for ICC aware apps. For web browsing, its probably OK. If you output your images and pay for the output, expect some decent print to screen match, its not useful and a hardware device that builds ICC profiles for the current condition (and proper use of soft proofing) will likely pay for itself in saved time and output. </p>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>I have a $300 Dell 2209WA LCD display that I can actually visually make all those gray tones look correct and provide a separation between 000RGB black and 12,12,12RGB gray and 255RGB white and 250RGB gray, but it requires I adjust the gain and offset settings in the factory set submenu. Basically I have to hack the factory set look up tables. It's not an easy task. This is the problem you're running into because not all displays render all gray tones with the same rate of gradualness in shadows and highlights.</p>

<p>But even if you nailed this like I did, this won't fix the hue/saturation portion of the calibration that color managed apps rely and derive from the saved profile's math described colorants for RGB and color temp. The only profile available that color managed apps reference in the system is the canned one from the factory or sRGB and those colorants and color temp were written according to unknown default brightness and contrast settings which affect hue/saturation.</p>

<p>This may cause skin tones to look either slightly dull, greenish, reddish or orangish, sky blue with too much green or magenta, lavender look purplish, cobalt blue look dull or reddish, etc, etc.</p>

<p>Pay the $100 for a Huey or find a used one online and skip all this hassle and inaccuracies. </p>

[chad_goldman]

<p>Thanks everyone for the advice. Looks like I'm going to have to start scrounging up a few pennies then. I apprecaite everyone chiming in. I feel I have a better understanding of what I need to do now.<br>

Thanks<br>

cg</p>

[nealcurrie]

<p>I have an old 19" LG 1952TX-BF that wasn't particularly expensive. I calibrated it visually using online images and it currently matches the printed output, but I only do black & white.<br>

I can distinguish (barely) every tone in the whites and blacks in the following link:<br>

<a href="http://www.imaging-resource.com/ARTS/MONCAL/CALIBRATE.HTM">http://www.imaging-resource.com/ARTS/MONCAL/CALIBRATE.HTM</a></p>

[chad_goldman]

So after I've given visual calibration a shot, then decide I need software assistance, what do I go with? Knowing you

often get what you pay for but not being able to break the bank, what's the best choices out there? In other words,

what kind of luck have you had?

[digitaldog]

<p>Get an EyeOne Display-2 package from X-Rite.</p>

[chad_goldman]

Going back to visual adjustments, I found this. Seems the most comprehensive online version I found.

Just an FYI for those looking.

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

[tom_thumbnail]

<p>I think the X-Rite i1Display 2, although still available from some sources including Amazon.com, is obsolete. There are several recent reviews for it on amazon.com that say so.<br>

http://www.amazon.com/X-Rite-i1Display-Calibrator-Laptop-Displays/product-reviews/B000JLO31M/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_helpful?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending</p>