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05/20/2003 03:10:55 PM · #1 |
Could someone please explain how monitor calibration is accomplished.
Thanks |
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05/20/2003 03:19:47 PM · #2 |
I would be very interested, too. So far the only answers I've gotten pertain to Macintoshes (which, alas, I don't have), or Photoshop (which, alas, I cannot afford), or some handwaving about things that 'ought to' already be in my operating system, that aren't.
Which isn't meant as a slam at those who have answered in the past; their answers just weren't, ultimately, all that helpful to someone with the particular resources and limited experience with the topic that I have.
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05/20/2003 03:26:48 PM · #3 |
Unfortunately the only reliable way to do it is to take the human element out of the equation and use a calibration tool such as OptiCal.
If you want to keep doing things with just your eyeball, this
calibration methods page has some good calibration charts as well as the info required to use them.
Message edited by author 2003-05-20 15:30:18. |
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05/20/2003 03:35:10 PM · #4 |
Hi, Monitor Calibration is a tricky business. Basically it is about calibrating the colour of your monitor by way of setting the red, green and blue gamma output of your monitor so that your graphics and images maintain a standard output colour and contrast across different programs and printers. However, achieving this is not as simple as it sounds. If you have Photoshop, then you can attempt monitor calibration with adobe gamma, if you don't some software packages such as paint shop pro and corel photopaint also provide this type of facility. Problem is, is that these calibrations are all slightly different and when it comes to printer output it gets a whole lot more complicated. Professionals can spend thousands of dollars, pounds, yen, euros or whatever on getting this just right.
Also the colour system you are using such as srgb, adobe 1998 etc can also effect your image, so it's really all about finding a good source either on the web or in a book and learning about it, but be warned even after you think you have calibrated your monitor and printer differences in output will occur from program to program and printer to printer.
No simple solutions here. I am not sure if adobe provide their calibration tool as a freeby over the web, but it might be worth a look on their site. |
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05/20/2003 03:39:44 PM · #5 |
Hrm. That website seems like it would mean something to someone with a better idea what they were doing. What's a 'color temperature setting' for a monitor, and where might one find it? I don't see anything called that in either the hardware menus (buttons on the front) or the right-click-and-go-to-properties thing in Windows. There are some things with Red, Green, and Blue, with weird high numbers there, but nothing called 'color temperature'.
Also, the main thing that makes people dismissively tell me, "Go calibrate your monitor," are not due to color balance, per se, but to dark/light.
Message edited by author 2003-05-20 15:40:28.
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05/20/2003 03:57:17 PM · #6 |
| i guess a quick way would be to view a challenge picture right now with the white to black gradient below the picture. decent calibration means you should be able to differentiate between each box going from white on the left to black on the right. use the contrast and brightness settings on your monitor to accomplish this. if your monitor is old you may just be SOL |
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05/20/2003 03:58:34 PM · #7 |
just bought a new LCD, and CAN'T BELIEVE how out of whack my old one must have been. I thought it was my printer...
Pedro |
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05/20/2003 04:43:29 PM · #8 |
Originally posted by eloise:
Hrm. That website seems like it would mean something to someone with a better idea what they were doing. What's a 'color temperature setting' for a monitor, and where might one find it? I don't see anything called that in either the hardware menus (buttons on the front) or the right-click-and-go-to-properties thing in Windows. There are some things with Red, Green, and Blue, with weird high numbers there, but nothing called 'color temperature'.
Also, the main thing that makes people dismissively tell me, "Go calibrate your monitor," are not due to color balance, per se, but to dark/light. |
and the dark/ light settings are the main thing that are adjusted on that page. |
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05/20/2003 05:11:45 PM · #9 |
achiral: "i guess a quick way would be to view a challenge picture right now with the white to black gradient below the picture. decent calibration means you should be able to differentiate between each box going from white on the left to black on the right. use the contrast and brightness settings on your monitor to accomplish this. if your monitor is old you may just be SOL"
How old is old? Also, what 'white to black gradient' below the picture? Can I download one somewhere?
Gordon: "and the dark/ light settings are the main thing that are adjusted on that page."
I tried what they said, but I'm already at 100% on both 'brightness' and 'contrast' and I can't distinguish either almost-black bar from the black background at 2.2 or 1.8 ... sigh. It's a work machine, and I don't have access to a color printer here, but I don't have time or bandwidth to do my photo-edits primarily at home (where I have a quite old, CRT monitor and a color printer).
I'm not really going for professional quality - I just want to be sure I'm not totally dissing on some people's shots because my screen shows them dark to incoherence or bright to flare-out when that's not how they 'ought' to look.
Message edited by author 2003-05-20 17:20:01.
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05/20/2003 05:20:21 PM · #10 |
You were using a 'white to black' gradient when you were trying to discriminate between the black and dark grey shadowed lines on that calibration page.
If you can't see the lighter grey strips in the middle of the solid black regions, then your monitor is very dark indeed. If at 100% brightness and contrast you still can't see them, then your monitor is the root cause of a lot of problems. |
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05/20/2003 06:01:07 PM · #11 |
| I recently got a copy of Photoshop and set up my screen with adobe gamma... following instructions from a walkthrough....... but there is still a veriation in colour between viewing the photo in photoshop and in windows explorer........ which one is correct or is there a way to match the two |
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05/20/2003 06:08:32 PM · #12 |
They are different because photoshop is using and is aware of colour profiles, and explorer typically ignores it. If you convert your images to sRGB colour space, which is the default for low end / average monitors that windows uses, you'll get the same results. This isn't neccessarily a good thing, depending on what you plan on doing, however.
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05/21/2003 05:46:34 AM · #13 |
I also have an LCD screen. I find that I have to change display color during challenges pre/post checking.
I will probably change my setting so that my computer will reboot with dpchallenge color correction values. That will eliminate me having to correct color everytime I want to check pictures.... |
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