Calibrated monitor

[wazza]

Who here has a calibrated monitor?

What did you use for calibrating?

Cheers
Wazza

[Ian]

Yep, a must for any sort of colour managed workflow or consistancy.

I use a Pantone ColorVision Spyder with the Optical software. I use an iiyama 19\" LCD monitor. Bit fiddly to set up as the instructions are a bit \'thin\' but I also use several great books Color Management (http://www.colorremedies.com/realworldcolor/), Getting Colour Right (http://www.ilex-press.com/publishing/product.php?productid=16159&cat=249&page=1&xid=4f5 3a02f380265f48ea9f916e13d6105) and Mastering Digital PRinting (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1929685653/103-7930733-7631012?v=glance).

I now have totally consistant colour on screen and 98% matched to my Epson R800 printer.

Post edited by: Ian, at: 2005/09/12 02:49

[admin_old]

I have a spider. It is good. I only have a 19\" Sceptre monitor. For the price it was nice. (Its a rhythm). I keep trying to make up my mind if I am going to buy 2 dell 24\" or 1 Apple 30\" monitor. I have the graphic card for the apple..... But I can buy the 2 dells and have $$$ left over. So I haven\'t made up my mind now for about 6 months. The little monitor keeps plugging away.
T

[simon]

I have calibrated my monitor (Eizo L568) with the Optix XR regular version. I\'m very satisfied with the results. After getting hold of a proper profile for my print service and installing good ambient lighting, I get a perfect screen to print match.

For a fairly recent overview of monitor calibration tools, check out this page (http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/monitor_calibration_tools.htm). There\'s loads of other useful colour management info on that site as well.

Cheers,
Simon

[First Light]

A word of caution about monitor calibrators: Many of them do not support dual monitor systems. If you have a dual monitor system then you will need to purchase the more expensive \"pro\" version of these calibration tools to get software that supports separate calibration curves for each display.

[simon]

First Light wrote:
A word of caution about monitor calibrators: Many of them do not support dual monitor systems.

Very true. Unfortunately the support for dual monitor calibration seems not only to be dependent on the software package in use, but also on the OS+hardware. There\'s some detailed iformation on the subject on Rob Galbraith\'s colour management forum (http://forums.robgalbraith.com/postlist.php?Cat=0&Board=UBB3). Just do a search.

Cheers,
Simon

[Den]

One for Mac users...

the free Supercal application... doesn\'t actually calibrate anything to anything else, but it does help get the colours right on your laptop. I get all my prints done through Photobox.co.uk and I\'ve never seen any vast descrepancy...

Does depend on how good your eyes are though... My brother uses the same app and he\'s been known to turn his children green...

[First Light]

simon wrote:
Very true. Unfortunately the support for dual monitor calibration seems not only to be dependent on the software package in use, but also on the OS+hardware. ...
Actually, I believe it is less dependent on the operating system and hardware nowadays and more dependent on the display drivers. My NVidia driver provides full multi display support for Windows XP with separate calibration for each display. It offers manual calibration and it claims to be able to use third-party ICC profiles. Unfortunately, I\'ve yet to find an ICC profile that it can interpret correctly.

You\'ll often find that some computer vendors choose not to support all the possible features with their version of a driver even if the hardware is capable of supporting it. Unfortunately, monitor calibration is viewed by many as a pro niche feature and is often overlooked. I know of one popular vendor who uses exact same NVidia OEM hardware as in my computer but does not provide any calibration support in their version of the display driver.

Regarding the hardware: it is true that the display controller(s) must be able to support separate displays if you want to spread your desktop across multiple displays. But this has nothing to do with calibration. The calibration is handled in software. Virtually all hardware that supports multiple different displays is capable of separate calibration for each display.

Most of the monitor calibration systems on the market seem to install their own software to control calibration at the OS level. They could provide separate calibration for multiple displays if they wanted to. The fact that they don\'t is probably just a marketing ploy to force you to upgrade to a much more expensive system.

Post edited by: First Light, at: 2005/09/12 18:30

[wazza]

Thanks all, guess I have a bit of reading to do now.

Cheers
Wazza

[iROK]

I\'m lazy... i have a Philips 190/s LCD & i just stick it on sRGB mode with the onscreen menu & set the ICM to said monitor Profile. My desk (let alone my room) isn\'t BIG enough for 2 monitors & even then one would be a CRT B)

[barondla]

What do you use 2 monitors for? I can barely use 1 correctly - now I need another one? I will add a \"spider\" in the future when I get a better printer.
thanks
barondla

[Pavel]

No actually it isn\'t yet possible to have XP have two monitors profiled. That is an OS thing first and foremost ... and sorry but a non issue for Macs. It\'s the way the os handles the color management - but I\'ve heard that one manufacturer found a way around it with one card. ( can\'t remember what it was about anymore but I thought it was nVidia) I\'ve got a friend with a eye one that I use every few months.
I\'m very frustrater with color profiling and don\'t bother much. I don\'t print to my own inkjet so I don\'t care for matching that way. I send out to have stuff printed and the color is just a \"cross your fingers\" kind of guess. No one seems to use profiles and the best you can hope for is that sRGB will get it close. My bigger issue is how it will look on the monitors of others. That is where I give up! What\'s the point getting it just so and then have it look completely different on five different monitors? I can deal with color shifts but I\'ve also seen two identical brand pc monitors display my shots with completely different saturation and levels.
We aren\'t there yet with browser supports ( even safari which can read color doesn\'t do a very good job in anything but srgb)
I have just recently started to ignored argb completely and am now converting everything at stage one to srgb. Any jpgs ... srgb. I don\'t care to fuss anymore.

When I tell someone to go look ... I always tell them carefully that the shots may look off on the monitor - but I know that most still don\'t appreciate how much the web display may be mangling the look of my fussed over shots :(. Kinda like \"who cares if I\'m looking at the right color?\" Nobody else is looking at the same thing!
I hope internet exploder 7 makes progress in this area!

[llpoolej]

I use an eye one on both my laptop(which shifts constantly) and my 21\" silicon graphics CRT. I use the desktop/CRT for most of my photoshop use. I refuse to change any colors on the laptop if I use photoshop on it.

[Pavel]

Barondila ... I used to use two 21 crt\'s. One for the picture and one for the pallates. So I like using two but I\'ve never seen a use for both being profiled.
Now I have a 20\" wide screen apple display along side a 17\" regular aspect ration LCD.
I have to confess that the esthetics bother me ... but not enough to run out and spend more on a second display when there are leses to buy :)

The apple 17 is very much less bright than the 20 and the color is a bit different no matter how I adjust it. It is old now and faded. That happens to crt\'s after about two to three years as well and all four of the crt\'s that I still have up in the attic are past the point in their life that they can be brought into spec color wise.

I use the 17 for palletes of course and the 20\" for the display of the picture I\'m working on.
Aperture makes great use of dual displays and so does Photomechanic. It\'s a nicety that is hard to do without after you get used to it.

My only gripe is that the screens are not efficient in use of the image when you look at it at 100, 50 or 25 percent. Keep in mind that for sharpening you must look at the picture in one of these sizes in photoshop if you are to get an idea of what it really looks like. At the default 33 percent it is completely off.

Here are two examples of my setup, one for photoshop and one for Photomechanic.

http://fourthirdsphoto.com/components/com_simpleboard/uploaded/images/dualps.jpg

http://www.invl.com/oly/dualpm.jpg

[iROK]

Heya Pavel,

the Dog foto in the screen above... Is that a PAN shot or some PS magic?

If PAN - What shutter speed was use?
How many Dud shots did you take to get that usable one?

If PS\'ed - What method?
How much time spent to get that effect?

Thanks

B)

[Pavel]

Irok, it was done by dragging the shutter. I wasn\'t much of a success as I was forced to sit too close and had a hard time getting them in the very small window of time that I had them in front of me. I can\'t remember the details but of about six or seven shots - this one was the only one I didn\'t trash and I don\'t like it too much because at full size you can see that I didn\'t come across in an even line so the background has this wavy look to it. Too much blur too if you ask me. I remember it was done at about 100 mm and I\'d guess the shutter was abot 1/60th. I can check when I get back home.

[NrthrnHrse]

One for Mac users...

the free Supercal application... doesn\'t actually calibrate anything to anything else, but it does help get the colours right on your laptop. I get all my prints done through Photobox.co.uk and I\'ve never seen any vast descrepancy...

Does depend on how good your eyes are though... My brother uses the same app and he\'s been known to turn his children green... Link to the Supercal Application please? I'm worried about the colors on my laptop after my last round of posting pictures here... the color appeared to be very "off" on my desktop monitor.

[Julio]

Monitor: Acer 19" LCD

Clor Management: Pantone Huey (~$80)

Results: Just fine. ;)

[marcof]

monitor: 20" iMac screen
tool: Colorvision Spyder

result: good, but I noticed the difference with the default "calibration" is very small..

to be honest I think calibration is pretty overrated. especially if you only upload images to the internet. I think it's very wise to clibrate and profile if you prrint your own stuff, but even for labs, it is not really a must.

[nboyer]

I had the original Spyder, which did a much better job than trying to may adjustment using the 'eyeball' method. I later upgraded to Monaco OPTIX Pro, which I like better. Since I do my own printing, having a calibrated monitor is huge. -Norm

[RFMan]

I use a Colorvision Spyder 2, and it works well. The Spyder Pro software calibrated my 2 monitors without complaining on my ATI X800 video card.

Having the conitor calibrated helps me get more consistant prints out of my printer.

[lkeeney]

I, like Pavel, have two 21 inch monitors. I use Monaco Systems calibration system on the monitor I do all my Photoshop work on. I don't calibrate the second monitor as I just use it for my tools when I am working in Photoshop, and for displaying the web site when I am doing web site design. When doing web site design I use the calibrated monitor for my editing software.

I could easily use 3 monitors if I could figure out how to make them work.

Lawrence

[Julio]

monitor: 20" iMac screen
tool: Colorvision Spyder

result: good, but I noticed the difference with the default "calibration" is very small..

Makes a BIG difference on my setup. ;)

[dmpbyrdwatcher]

monitor: 20" iMac screen
tool: Colorvision Spyder

result: good, but I noticed the difference with the default "calibration" is very small..

to be honest I think calibration is pretty overrated. especially if you only upload images to the internet. I think it's very wise to clibrate and profile if you prrint your own stuff, but even for labs, it is not really a must.


I have imac also and use Monaco Optix SR to calibrate and profile -- I also noticed very little difference in color between default and calibrated monitor....

however, since I calibrate to pc gamma 2.2 instead of standard mac gamma, the monitor brightness is much turned down after calibration (d*&^n pcs!) :)

[source]

Monitor: Apple 23" Cinema Display.

Colour calibration tool: Gretag Macbeth Eye One Display 2.

Diego

[jonr]

I'm a cheapskate, so I used this 'thumbruler':
http://jonr.light.is/tmp/shades.gif
The center rectangle should look the same as the outer rectangle.

Doesn't help you with the correct color, though. I use white paper in daylight to get the monitor 'close' enough.
Oh, and Trinitrons kick TFT ass! Got two used 19" Trinitrons for about $120. That's $800 saved for E-3 ;)

[NrthrnHrse]

I'm seeing the center rectangle... what do I need to adjust on my laptop?

[marcof]

however, since I calibrate to pc gamma 2.2 instead of standard mac gamma, the monitor brightness is much turned down after calibration (d*&^n pcs!) :)

well, contrast is a little higher with 2.2 indeed. I use it as well. Blame Apple, I think 1.8 is outdated for most media.
Regarding brightness, the Spyder2 refused to work with the iMac brightness at 100%. I turned it back to about 60% and now it works (nicer for the eyes as well)..

[jonr]

I'm seeing the center rectangle... what do I need to adjust on my laptop?
Usually, you have to adjust the Gamma on your video card.

[lkeeney]

I'm a cheapskate, so I used this 'thumbruler':
http://jonr.light.is/tmp/shades.gif
The center rectangle should look the same as the outer rectangle.



Doesn't help you with the correct color, though. I use white paper in daylight to get the monitor 'close' enough.
Oh, and Trinitrons kick TFT ass! Got two used 19" Trinitrons for about $120. That's $800 saved for E-3 ;)

I would like to find out more about this image. The center rectangle looks different than the outer one on my monitor that is calibrated. Can you tell me more about this image?

Lawrence

[Julio]

Same here! I tried to start playing around to see if I could get it better and just messed everything up. Had to start over. It's working fine now, thank God.

[jonr]

I would like to find out more about this image. The center rectangle looks different than the outer one on my monitor that is calibrated. Can you tell me more about this image?

Lawrence

Well Lawrence, I can't remember anymore where I found this image or this method, but it seems to give decent results. If you magnify it, you can see how it is made. The center rectangles are made of solid colours while the outer one are made out of pattern of black and color. The theory is that a blending of, say red, rgb(255,0,0) and (0,0,0) should give you equal to (128,0,0). As I said, I can't really justify this method technically, but it helps me to keep constant gamma on my monitors. TFT's seems to have problem with it, they tend to be too bright when I use it, almost impossible to work on. Maybe due to different display technology?

[lkeeney]

Well Lawrence, I can't remember anymore where I found this image or this method, but it seems to give decent results. If you magnify it, you can see how it is made. The center rectangles are made of solid colours while the outer one are made out of pattern of black and color. The theory is that a blending of, say red, rgb(255,0,0) and (0,0,0) should give you equal to (128,0,0). As I said, I can't really justify this method technically, but it helps me to keep constant gamma on my monitors. TFT's seems to have problem with it, they tend to be too bright when I use it, almost impossible to work on. Maybe due to different display technology?

Something I find interesting is that the test looks perfect on my NEC uncalibrated monitor yet I can't get it to look right on my 21" Viewsonic CRT monitor.

Lawrence

[jonr]

Something I find interesting is that the test looks perfect on my NEC uncalibrated monitor yet I can't get it to look right on my 21" Viewsonic CRT monitor.

Lawrence
Have you tried to change the gamma on your card? Worked for me.