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08/14/2006 08:02:42 PM · #1
can anyone give advice on what color profile is best for setting my monitor to?

i've noticed that photos appear one way to me at home, but differently on other people's computers, especially PCs.

i'm on a G5 iMac and the current Display Profile is set to: iMac

would i be better off setting it to: sRGB IEC61966-2.1 ?

that's what my photoshop color setting is set to.

most of this is foreign to me, so any advice would be appreciated.
08/14/2006 08:16:08 PM · #2
anybody?

where's all those technical gurus when i need them? LOL
08/14/2006 08:18:39 PM · #3
adobe gamma is kinda hard to caliberate with as it depends on what you see. You actually have to move back & forth in distance from the monitor in order the adjust it properly.

You can always drop some dollars & get spyder.

the setting you mentioned in your post is what I use on my pc.

What are you using to calibrate your monitor?
08/14/2006 08:23:43 PM · #4
Originally posted by Rooster:

adobe gamma is kinda hard to caliberate with as it depends on what you see. You actually have to move back & forth in distance from the monitor in order the adjust it properly.

You can always drop some dollars & get spyder.

the setting you mentioned in your post is what I use on my pc.

What are you using to calibrate your monitor?


well i'm not actually calibrating it, just checking out the different display profiles. the sRGB i mentioned seems to make everything sort of blue and seems odd to me.
08/15/2006 05:03:04 PM · #5
Originally posted by esdarby:

can anyone give advice on what color profile is best for setting my monitor to?

i've noticed that photos appear one way to me at home, but differently on other people's computers, especially PCs.

i'm on a G5 iMac and the current Display Profile is set to: iMac

would i be better off setting it to: sRGB IEC61966-2.1 ?

that's what my photoshop color setting is set to.

most of this is foreign to me, so any advice would be appreciated.


Mac's default gamma is 1.8, whereas Windows is 2.2 - this is probably the difference you are seeing ... you can set your monitor's gamma setting in your display properties - I would go with 2.2 -

As far as your monitor's color profile I would go with Adobe RGB(1998) - which is much more brilliant and supports many more colors than the drab sRGB (standard RGB) - sRGB is like a lowest common denominator color profile, it was originally intended to be used for complete compatibility on the web (ie, anyone, no matter how crappy their monitor, could see standard RGB colors properly. Kind of like how 640x480 was supposed to be the lowest common denominator for HTML programmers - but who in the hell still uses 640x480?

We should be saying, who in the hell still uses sRGB? Well, since people often don't understand color profiles, and since (i believe) it was HP who co-developed sRGB - they practically push the crap on everyone and demand that everything defaults to this micro-gamut of colors - especially all the Point and shoot cameras, and even some Pro-sumer cameras.

Bottom line - go into your Photoshop color settings and change your default working space to Adobe RGB (aRGB). Change your gamma to 2.2 (Windows default). Now go into your display properties - not sure where they are in a Mac (its been awhile), and change your monitor's color profile to Adobe RGB as well (in Windows it's an .icc file, (International Color something-or-other). Somewhere around your display settings (brightness, contrast, etc) should be a gamma setting. Try 2.2. Also, don't forget to change your digital camera's settings.

Lastly, whenever you save an image in PS, BE SURE to check the little box that says "embed color profile". That way, no matter where you take it, the image will always force Photoshop to use Adobe RGB (or at the very least it will ask you if you want to use this profile if you try to open it on a machine with different color settings).

Try getting a good Photoshop book that explains things like this in laymans terms (stay away from the "Photoshop Bible" and "PS for Dummies" crap - those are simply recipe books that say 'do this, do that' without explaining why nor how to 'do this, do that' on your OWN images.

I highly recommend these books (try Amazon.com): Photoshop CS2 Studio Techniques by Ben Willmore

or

Adobe Photoshop for Photographers by Martin Evening

If you can, get both - they are THE best PS books I've ever read and they do an excellent job of explaining WHY and HOW PS works without being overly technical about it. After both of those books you will be using things like the Curves Adjustment and actually understanding HOW it works - something that, until those books, I never fully understood. (Curves is probably the most powerful color/toning/contrast tool PS has).

08/15/2006 05:20:51 PM · #6
aRGB surely looks nice on an aRGB monitor, but as you mentioned nobody uses it. If you are editing all your photos to fit aRGB and then share them on the web they will likely look different in sRGB.

If I'm wrong tell me, but I'm pretty sure thats how it works. Meaning, unless you only share photos with aRGB users, your pictures will look even more off from what you intended when viewed on other monitors.
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