LCD Monitor calibration?

Q. Does anyone know a really god place or downloadable software i can use to calibrate this new alienware 1080p native resolution monitor?

A. You really need hardware to properly calibrate a monitor. Something like Spyder:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/ColorVision-S3X100-Spyder3Express-PC-MAC/dp/B002OCF57K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1294076210&sr=8-2
or Pantone Huey:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pantone-MEU101-Huey/dp/B000CR78C4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1294076283&sr=8-2

They'd have you think that recalibration is necessary frequently, but for all but the most demanding uses (e.g. professional photography, in which case you need to consider your room environment and ambient lighting too), you probably just need a profile (.icm or .icc file). You could just borrow such a device if you can find someone who has one.

Having said that, Widows 7 does have some built-in calibration capabilities: see Control Panel, Appearance and Personalization, Display, Calibrate color.

Windows (all versions) comes with a variety of colour profiles, one of which may well improve your monitor display. Some LCD monitors have very strong saturation. Profiles are in C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color and WideGamutRGB.icc may be helpful for you.

See "To enable or disable calibration loading by Windows" in http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Change-color-management-settings for how to apply colour profiles and calibrate colour in general.

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Monitor Calibration?

Q. Can an LCD computer monitor be calibrated? I had a Spyder Pro2 and went through the whole process three times. Each time, everything turned a not so lovely shade of blue. I gave up and sold the Spyder on eBay. I have since read that you can't really calibrate an LCD monitor.

What's your experience with this?

Thanks.
Thanks, David. I have adopted a standard procedure to adjust things before I print. After I get the image the way I want it on my monitor, I save and then I reduce the red midtone levels to 0.7 and bump up the brightness "a bit" to a point that my eyes recognize. This makes the print come out pretty close to what I see on my monitor. If I LIKE that, I save it as a print version. I suppose another route would be to calibrate my printer output to match the monitor, but that would not do me any good when I use Mpix, etc.

Yeah, my dream setup would include a second CRT monitor for photo work, but I think that would be a hard sell to my wife, if you know what I mean. I keep reminding myself that this is NOT how I make my living! ;-)

A. Dr. Sam.

There are only a few LCD monitors that can be calibrated successfully to match printer or lab output.

Apple, ViewSonic, Samsung, NEC, Sony and Dell are on the list ... BUT not all models. For that reason, I am still using a Samsung and Sony Trintron CRT as my "calibrated" monitors for producing print ready image files.

Adobe used to provide a list of compatible monitors, but so far I have yet to see one listing LCD's. Perhaps you can write them and see which ones are recommended. Each time I have used someones LCD to adjust levels or contrast, the resulting print has been a disaster.

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Monitor Calibration?

Q. Can an LCD computer monitor be calibrated? I had a Spyder Pro2 and went through the whole process three times. Each time, everything turned a not so lovely shade of blue. I gave up and sold the Spyder on eBay. I have since read that you can't really calibrate an LCD monitor.

What's your experience with this?

Thanks.
I didn't think about the pressure sensitivity issues. My monitor is "nearly" upright - like about 89 degrees to the desktop - but it was resting on the screen. The directions tell you to insure contact, if I recall, but I had it over a year ago and maybe the LCD issues had not surfaced yet. Thanks.

A. The Spyder should work on an LCD. There are reviews on the we b of it working well on LCD monitors and notebooks.

LCDs are pressure sensitive, so you need to make sure that the sensor is not pressing on the surface of the screen, or anything for about a half inch around it. Alternatively maybe it was a defective unit.


The colour range of LCDs is less than that of CRTs, which is less than that of what you can see. So while you can calibrate your monitor to produce more accurate colours within the range it can produce there is no way to reproduce a really deep blue, or other highly saturated colours.

It would be very interesting for LCD manufacturers to start publishing their colour gamut figures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_gamut

Original Question

Monitor Color Calibration?

Q. what type of monitor color calibration do you use, or do you just leave it alone?

A. I use the Spyder3 Elite. http://spyder.datacolor.com/product-mc-s3elite.php It has good reviews and the price is decent. It does monitors (both CRT & LCD), laptops, and projectors.

Every now and then the question "why doesn't an image look the same when I put it on a friends monitor?" or "when I had photos printed, they don't look like they do on my computer" appears on Y!A...the answer is always monitor calibration.

Some key tips on calibration:
1) have the monitor on and in use for at least 30 minutes
2) avoid direct light on the screen when calibrating (can you see any light reflecting on the screen?) I turn off overhead lights and shut the shades on the windows.

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Should you skip the contrast adjustment when calibrating a computer's LCD monitor?

Q. I calibrate the monitor for my computer once a month using the Eye-One Display 2 calibration device and software. I read recently that if you are calibrating an LCD you should skip the adjustment for contrast and worry only about the brightness adjustment prior to letting the device profile the monitor. Is this true? And if so, why? I appreciate any knowledge on the subject. Thanks!

A. The adjustments on your monitor don't really have anything to do with what their actual functions are. Those buttons are holdovers from the age of analog TV's with tubes in them. The "contrast" on most LCD screens do what the "brightness" used to do. The contrast on an LCD is fixed, you can't change the ratio of the darkest to lightest image (which is what "contrast" is supposed to mean) on a digital panel.

Here is an enlightening article that explains it more in detail:
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/display_myths_shattered?page=0%2C0

The calibration tool makers probably already know this stuff (or they should know it, if they are in that industry), so they are probably dead on in their directions. Follow the instructions for your calibration tool to the letter. Make sure the calibration tool is meant to be used on your particular model of LCD screen. Not all calibration tools can be used on all LCD screens.

Original Question

What's the best monitor for photography I can buy for 320 bucks?

Q. I want a monitor that will display brightness and color as accurately as possible. Recommendations?

A. If you can find an LCD monitor with the sRGB mode built-in, it will make calibrating it much easier.

Calibration of your monitor is important if you want to have accurate colour

Here is a link that will help you understand the calibration process

http://www.thedigitalphotographyconnection.com/Photography_Player.php?ID=3

http://www.gballard.net/nca.html#getagoodfile

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What's the best monitor for photography I can buy for 320 bucks?

Q. I want a monitor that will display brightness and color as accurately as possible. Recommendations?

A. If you can find an LCD monitor with the sRGB mode built-in, it will make calibrating it much easier.

Calibration of your monitor is important if you want to have accurate colour

Here is a link that will help you understand the calibration process

http://www.thedigitalphotographyconnection.com/Photography_Player.php?ID=3

http://www.gballard.net/nca.html#getagoodfile

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What is the best computer/monitor to buy for processing digital photogaphs?

Q. Yes, I know..."the best you can afford". Aside from that, are there monitors that more realistically depict the printed photograph? Are there hard drives that cater to photography (and do all the rest of it too...)? Websites I should check out? Thanks.

A. Well "I dont know" just dont cut it does it.

What you want to look for is a monitor with a good contrast. I dont know the exact terminology but there are monitors out there that have more shades of grey than others. Go to a decent computer shop and ask about differences in contrast. Probably a LCD monitor. Theres also ways to calibrate your existing monitor.

Follow the link bellow. Its actually a scanner calibration tool but it will let you calibrate your monitor just fine.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and look at the "Reflection Scales" pic. At the bottom of that pic you should see a sliding scale going from white to black. You should see color gradients or steps evenly from one side to the other. If you have one end or the other all blurring solid adjust your contrast and brightness on your monitor until you get the clearest result. The monitor you have might be good enough.

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