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DPChallenge Forums >> Hardware and Software >> Calibration courtesy
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02/04/2015 10:53:20 AM · #1
I'm receiving some comments that lead me to conclude some monitors are not well calibrated. Perhaps there are some laptops turned up to 100% brightness to cope with daylight use. And, then the laptop owner forgets to readjust for voting in challenges in the dark.

On every DPC voting page, there is a useful tonality guide. One is supposed to see differences in every segment from white to black. If your monitor is out-of-whack, you will not see all the gradations. The guide should be a touchstone for viewing and voting fairly and objectively.

As a courtesy to other members, please calibrate your monitor in an environment of balanced ambient light. (Don't calibrate in the bright sunlight or the black of night.)

Monitors of all kinds drift over time and with age. It's a good idea to calibrate about once a month.

edited to repair typos

Message edited by author 2015-02-04 10:55:10.
02/04/2015 11:44:39 AM · #2
The good images seem to rise above the calibration issues.
Just another challenge.
02/04/2015 11:49:39 AM · #3
Must confess I have never noticed that tonality guide. On my desktop monitor I can see differences in every segment apart from the last 2 so sounds like I need to calibrate a little.
02/04/2015 11:51:28 AM · #4
Originally posted by nygold:

The good images seem to rise above the calibration issues.
Just another challenge.


true
02/04/2015 12:14:20 PM · #5
Originally posted by hahn23:

I'm receiving some comments that lead me to conclude some monitors are not well calibrated. Perhaps there are some laptops turned up to 100% brightness to cope with daylight use. And, then the laptop owner forgets to readjust for voting in challenges in the dark.

On every DPC voting page, there is a useful tonality guide. One is supposed to see differences in every segment from white to black. If your monitor is out-of-whack, you will not see all the gradations. The guide should be a touchstone for viewing and voting fairly and objectively.

As a courtesy to other members, please calibrate your monitor in an environment of balanced ambient light. (Don't calibrate in the bright sunlight or the black of night.)

Monitors of all kinds drift over time and with age. It's a good idea to calibrate about once a month.

edited to repair typos


or you could just ignore the comments since they dont apply.
02/04/2015 12:30:44 PM · #6
I can see each square until the last three in the black. They tend to blend together.
02/04/2015 12:35:16 PM · #7
Of course calibration preferences for viewing and voting on photographs might not be the same preferences for other work we might be doing on our machines...
02/04/2015 12:55:11 PM · #8
A well calibrated monitor assists in other areas, other then photo contest fairness. If your monitor is out-of-whack, your printing will be affected. For example, if your monitor is set too bright, your image may look fine on the screen but will print out too dark from a printer. It's counter-intuitive. The pathway to quality printing and viewing is to start with a properly calibrated monitor.
02/04/2015 01:05:26 PM · #9
Originally posted by nygold:

I have my monitor at 100% for both brightness and contrast yet it's still on the dark side.
Is there anything else I can tweek?

That explains a lot. I rest my case.
02/04/2015 01:20:58 PM · #10
Originally posted by nygold:

Originally posted by hahn23:

Originally posted by nygold:

I have my monitor at 100% for both brightness and contrast yet it's still on the dark side.
Is there anything else I can tweek?

That explains a lot. I rest my case.


That's a big help.
If I lower either of them I can't see the images.
Maybe I should buy a new monitor so you get a better score.

Your performance as a photographer is more important than my score. I recommend this Monitor Calibration for Photography tutorial. It may be an epiphany for you. Or, maybe you should throw out your current monitor, whether LCD or CRT.
02/04/2015 03:14:59 PM · #11
Option C) my monitor is perfectly calibrated and I just don't agree with your editing, because oh I don't know, I might just be way out there and have a different style and preference to you?

It's unrealistic to expect every single person here to have perfectly calibrated monitors...which by the way, would all be completely different anyway depending on what printer you're calibrating too.

We all equally have this "handicap" to deal with and somehow we manage. You'll be okay.
02/04/2015 03:32:26 PM · #12
Originally posted by Parabelle:

Option C) my monitor is perfectly calibrated and I just don't agree with your editing, because oh I don't know, I might just be way out there and have a different style and preference to you?

It's unrealistic to expect every single person here to have perfectly calibrated monitors...which by the way, would all be completely different anyway depending on what printer you're calibrating too.

We all equally have this "handicap" to deal with and somehow we manage. You'll be okay.

Congratulations on your monitor calibration perfection. (I've never been able to claim perfection, but I do calibrate every month.) AFAIK, you've never commented on one of my images in a challenge. So, I don't know if we have different styles and different preferences.
Maybe after you've been a member for a few months and or 100 challenges or so, I'll have an idea of what kind of photographer you are.
I titled this forum as "Calibration courtesy". Of course it's optional. It's just a good idea. And, the photo contests would be better if the outlier monitors were calibrated.

Message edited by author 2015-02-04 15:32:57.
02/04/2015 03:36:29 PM · #13
It's really pathetic that this thread can't be a helpful thread instead of a bitch session... A how to. If you want to try or learn great if you don't great but these bitch sessions are wearing thin.
02/04/2015 03:58:01 PM · #14
Thanks for the reminder Richard.
02/04/2015 03:59:06 PM · #15
Originally posted by BrennanOB:

Thanks for the reminder Richard.

You are most welcome!
02/04/2015 04:01:36 PM · #16
Originally posted by hahn23:


I titled this forum as "Calibration courtesy". Of course it's optional. It's just a good idea. And, the photo contests would be better if the outlier monitors were calibrated.


Calibrated to what though? Your printer or print lab, or mine or someone else's? If you're calibrating to your own prints, then everyone is still going to have different "calibration"
02/04/2015 04:11:11 PM · #17
Originally posted by Parabelle:

Originally posted by hahn23:


I titled this forum as "Calibration courtesy". Of course it's optional. It's just a good idea. And, the photo contests would be better if the outlier monitors were calibrated.


Calibrated to what though? Your printer or print lab, or mine or someone else's? If you're calibrating to your own prints, then everyone is still going to have different "calibration"

If your monitor is not correctly reproducing shades and colors, then all the time spent on image editing and post-processing could actually be counter-productive. When my monitor is calibrated correctly, I can transfer an image (digitally) to my favorite print house and they will generate a print (physical) that exactly matches what I see on the monitor. I print a lot during the year because it is the business of my gallery. I don't print at home anymore. My printing is all done remotely by my choice of print house. It's a cost item to make mistakes. The success of sales depends on presentation.
02/04/2015 04:12:07 PM · #18
Originally posted by Parabelle:



Calibrated to what though? Your printer or print lab, or mine or someone else's? If you're calibrating to your own prints, then everyone is still going to have different "calibration"


I have different presets that I store based on different activities. sRGB is a lousy color space to get the most out of your editing software, but is is the standard for all web applications, so that is the space you should be calibrating for to edit you final posts, and the space you should be judging the correctness of images on the web in.

If you are going to view the internet while calibrated for you printer you may as well wear tinted glasses.

Message edited by author 2015-02-04 16:12:31.
02/04/2015 04:19:46 PM · #19
Originally posted by hahn23:

Originally posted by Parabelle:

Originally posted by hahn23:


I titled this forum as "Calibration courtesy". Of course it's optional. It's just a good idea. And, the photo contests would be better if the outlier monitors were calibrated.


Calibrated to what though? Your printer or print lab, or mine or someone else's? If you're calibrating to your own prints, then everyone is still going to have different "calibration"

If your monitor is not correctly reproducing shades and colors, then all the time spent on image editing and post-processing could actually be counter-productive. When my monitor is calibrated correctly, I can transfer an image (digitally) to my favorite print house and they will generate a print (physical) that exactly matches what I see on the monitor. I print a lot during the year because it is the business of my gallery. I don't print at home anymore. My printing is all done remotely by my choice of print house. It's a cost item to make mistakes. The success of sales depends on presentation.

That's my point. Your monitor us calibrated to your print house. Mine is calibrated to a different printing house. Strictly speaking, we're both "calibrated". But I can almost assure you that since every print house has their own profiles, your prints will look different if you print at my print house, and vice versa. There is no "universal" calibration as long as we're all calibrating to different printers.

Hence my view that there's just no way everyone at DPC can be calibrated equally. We're all going to have very different white points and black points no matter what.
02/04/2015 04:24:31 PM · #20
Originally posted by BrennanOB:



I have different presets that I store based on different activities. sRGB is a lousy color space to get the most out of your editing software, but is is the standard for all web applications, so that is the space you should be calibrating for to edit you final posts, and the space you should be judging the correctness of images on the web in.

If you are going to view the internet while calibrated for you printer you may as well wear tinted glasses.


Absolutely. No argument here. Therein lies the trade-off, right? Calibrating for one (screen vs print) usually happens at the cost of the other.
02/04/2015 04:32:14 PM · #21
Originally posted by Parabelle:

... Hence my view that there's just no way everyone at DPC can be calibrated equally. We're all going to have very different white points and black points no matter what.

Well, everyone CAN get fairly close if you check the Wht --> Blk gradient bar that Richard pointed out. There IS a reason why that is available on the voting page. If you pull up images while voting and notice that the high points for both ends are blending together then you may be off for seeing the image in it's best light.
02/04/2015 04:32:18 PM · #22
Originally posted by Parabelle:

There is no "universal" calibration as long as we're all calibrating to different printers.

Hence my view that there's just no way everyone at DPC can be calibrated equally. We're all going to have very different white points and black points no matter what.


From Pantone's site "Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and others have developed the sRGB standard monitor color space that is optimized to meet the needs of most users. Very simply, sRGB is calibrated RGB that is optimized for the vast majority of computer monitors, operating systems and browsers. sRGB specifications use a monitor with a gamma of 2.2 and 6,500 degree Kelvin white point. sRGB will allow color to be reproduced and displayed in a single, unified method that provides for viewing consistency from monitor to monitor."

If you are using the same colorspace and calibration for both your prints and your postings to websites then one of them will be short of the mark. Photoshops "Edit/Assign Color Space" tab gives a pretty good translation, the way Google translation works from English to Latin, in other words, sorta, not really.

Here is an ancient 2010 thread on calibrating for web V printing.

Originally posted by Parabelle:

Calibrating for one (screen vs print) usually happens at the cost of the other.


What I do is have different preferences set up, 90% of the time it is set to web work, and I keep 2 calibration preferences for the remote printers I most often use. I rely on Photoshop's rough translation to edit the RAW and then use a different set for web and print edits and the final tuning requires the secondary calibration. It is a bit like four wheel drive with the controls on the wheel hubs; you don't use it often, but it is essential when needed, but don't forget to unlock them before you hit the highway.

Message edited by author 2015-02-04 16:39:57.
02/04/2015 04:39:25 PM · #23
If we were all calibrated for Web display, life would be rosy for a web-based site like DPC. Unfortunately we're not all calibrated for Web display since that is not the only medium of showing images.

As I mentioned in my previous post, it's a trade-off (screen vs print) that everyone needs to make according to their individual needs.
02/04/2015 05:18:06 PM · #24
As a courtesy to other members, don't assume your low votes stem from a problem on their end.
02/04/2015 06:38:45 PM · #25
This has been going around and talk about some of my other photography groups I belong too because other members actually brought it up.

Great reminder :-))

A few did show how to calibrate monitors but being on a PC is way different, then you have your mac users and PC users.. They showed how to do it on the macs but still waiting on the PC versions

I will be following this to see if any more information can be helpful

Message edited by author 2015-02-04 18:39:25.
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