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03/19/2002 10:35:22 PM · #1 |
I've seen comments here on photos that suggest to me that some of us aren't working on a calibrated monitor (ie. "Your red is orange."). Of course, every monitor is a little different, and different systems will "see" the colors in an image differently, but calibration will help to minimize the difference.
On the top end, there are hardware calibration systems for professional use that cost thousands of dollars. Think I'd rather have a new car...
In the middle, the Optical monitor spyder, at $250 - 400, seems to be a good solution. Works on CRTs and LCDs, and includes a USB sensor that reads the colors directly from the screen. I'll go this route eventually, but for now I'm sticking to the basics.
The free (if you have Photoshop) method is to use (regularly) the Adobe Gamma Loader. This wizard takes you through several steps to create a unique ICC profile for your system. Since it relies on your perceptions of brighness and color, it's subjective, but much, much better than nothing at all. You can access it through "help" in Photoshop.
Finally, I'd suggest that you set your monitor (in "properties" on the desktop), to display 32 bit color. Even if you have to drop your resolution, you'll stand a better chance of seeing what's actually in an image.
Color management is most likely the biggest headache in digital imaging, but it's not beyond your grasp if you're willing to dive in. You'll find it improves your prints, as well.
Good luck,
-E |
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03/20/2002 06:13:31 AM · #2 |
Very true. For a quick'n dirty fix, take a look at this picture:
 You should be able to see difference between ABC and XYZ (Thanks to Phil at dpreview.com for this tip and graphics)
* This message has been edited by the author on 3/20/2002 6:14:36 AM. |
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03/20/2002 05:48:36 PM · #3 |
| The rectangles should look the same how? same color? Same depth? :0 |
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03/20/2002 05:48:37 PM · #4 |
| The rectangles should look the same how? same color? Same depth? :0 |
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03/20/2002 06:35:36 PM · #5 |
Well, not sure how to explain it in plain english, but they should be as close as possible. I was totally shocked one day when I saw that my photos looked totally different on my home monitor than my work monitor.
My Matrox G400 allows me to tune RGB gamma levels induvidually, and it's different for each (both my) monitor. But then I'm no color expert, I just want my photos to look more or less the same on every monitor. :) |
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03/21/2002 10:37:16 AM · #6 |
I just installed colorific, a gamma correction utility I got with my graphics card 3 years ago. I adjusted the gamma settings until the smaller rectangles disappeared into the larger ones. (I was a little sceptical before I tried it, I didn’t actually think they would disappear completely but they did.) The difference it makes to the contrast of the photos is fantastic. They look even better now than they did before. :) |
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03/21/2002 02:25:53 PM · #7 |
What he means is that the smaller solid color rectangle and the larger, half-toned border should have the same apparent brightness, ideally so close that the inner and outer areas blend to look like one big rectangle.
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03/21/2002 10:52:07 PM · #8 |
| Thanks! I found the Gamma Wizard and boy, what a difference. I've had some problems in the past with photos ending up too dark at the recipient's end and now I know why! |
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04/13/2002 09:43:04 PM · #9 |
| I've probably given low scores before because the images looked too dark but when I adjust all the what nots they look ok. |
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04/24/2002 03:29:24 PM · #10 |
One of the hardest things is getting pictures on the web to look similar across systems. The other thing that people run into alot is that a Macintosh has a differnt gamma default than a PC monitor. If I remember correctly it is 1.8 for the mac and 2.2 on the PC. The result is a picture on one will look much darker on the other.
There was some technology that would allow color correction of your web-browser that was embeded into the web site. It was designed for e-store photos but I will have to look for the link again.
You need to be aware that different lighting in a room can affect the the appearence of differnt colors. As your monitor begins to age, differnt colors darken at differnt rates. This is my favorite usage of Colorific.
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04/24/2002 06:15:01 PM · #11 |
Originally posted by rjhawkin:
There was some technology that would allow color correction of your web-browser that was embeded into the web site. It was designed for e-store photos but I will have to look for the link again.
Colorific's maker produces this product. The Company is EColor. |
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04/25/2002 06:34:33 AM · #12 |
Originally posted by jonr:
Very true. For a quick'n dirty fix, take a look at this picture:
OK. I see big rectangles with smaller, much darker rectangles inside. This is my work computer, no Photoshop or graphics programs, and I'm not really too familiar with Windows. Is there any way I can fix this in Windows 98, so I can vote from here instead of at home on my slow dial-up?
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04/25/2002 07:29:51 AM · #13 |
Originally posted by jonr:
The rectangles should look the same.
[/i]
Are you saying the inner rectangle should be the same shade (color) as the outer, that it will just be a finer or diferent texture?
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04/25/2002 10:36:17 AM · #14 |
Originally posted by David Ey:
Originally posted by jonr:
The rectangles should look the same.
Are you saying the inner rectangle should be the same shade (color) as the outer, that it will just be a finer or diferent texture?
[/i]
If you squint at it, it should all look like one block of colour, the same hue and brightness.
Typically you should set your contrast to maximum, then adjust the brightness until you can see the full range of the greyscale chart, with resonable separation between each of the three boxes at either end.
Next you need to adjust your gamma values, if your display driver lets you do this. Find this on windows by right clicking on the desktop and selecting 'properties' from there pick the 'Settings' tab, and click 'advanced' You want to look there for something that lets you set gamma values - it varies between graphics cards & drivers. Then you want to tweak the red, green and blue gamma values until those 3 colour swatches look the same on the inside as on the outer shaded areas (helps to squint a bit)
Gordon
* This message has been edited by the author on 4/25/2002 10:39:16 AM. |
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04/25/2002 11:06:59 AM · #15 |
Originally posted by GordonMcGregor:
[/i]
Next you need to adjust your gamma values, if your display driver lets you do this.
Gordon
[/i]
Thanks, but no such luck on being able to adjust gamma settings. Hospitals aren't so good at providing computers optimized for graphics work, I guess.
Feeling quite dumb here, but what would this be likely to affect? Will pictures on my monitor be darker, lighter, bluer, greener..?
Just curious as I don't want to be making 'uncalibrated monitor user' comments about photos.
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04/25/2002 11:26:43 AM · #16 |
Originally posted by Kimbly:
Feeling quite dumb here, but what would this be likely to affect? Will pictures on my monitor be darker, lighter, bluer, greener..?
Any of these. You should certainly be able to turn the contrast up high, and adjust the brightness to see all the grye levels on the strip. These adjustments should be on the monitor.
The gamma adjustments change how much red/blue/green appears |
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04/25/2002 11:35:50 AM · #17 |
Originally posted by GordonMcGregor:
Any of these. You should certainly be able to turn the contrast up high, and adjust the brightness to see all the grye levels on the strip. These adjustments should be on the monitor.
Yes, I did this a while ago when I realized an B&W image I had done on my home computer looked overwhelmingly grey at work.
The gamma adjustments change how much red/blue/green appears
Nothing else I can do for this, huh? Darn.
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04/25/2002 12:29:34 PM · #18 |
Originally posted by Kimbly:
Nothing else I can do for this, huh? Darn.
Pretty much you are stuck if you can't change it with your display driver, or monitor settings
This link has more details and links to even more information
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04/25/2002 01:22:14 PM · #19 |
Thanks for these tips. In another thread I told that the quality of my picture looks worse when viewed in my webbrowser. After calibrating my monitor using the method mentioned above it looks perfect.
Maybe it's a good idea to mention this calibration-method on the main page of this site so that everbody looks at the photo's the right way. |
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04/26/2002 03:53:49 AM · #20 |
//www.beecee.org/photo/img/grayscale.gif
When you right click on the greyscale.gif which I hope appears in this post, you should get the option to 'set as desktop item'.
It will them appear on your desktop and allow you to calibrate your monitor/screen manually for day or night viewing.
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