Calibrating monitor

[browncd81]

Hi, anyone calibrate their monitor regularly? I'm just looking to see what works for you. I've got some pictures printed from Wal Mart that came out really dark. I know Wal Mart is probably not very high quality, but I really want to see if it's more them or my monitor being out of Cal.

The technique I'm using is calibrating my screen to the picture. But then I realize that Wal Mart's printer is not the Gold Standard, so I'm probably only going to calibrate to them and not reality. Is there a Gold Standard I can manually calibrate to?

Thanks!

 

[danvolker]

Hi, anyone calibrate their monitor regularly? I'm just looking to see what works for you. I've got some pictures printed from Wal Mart that came out really dark. I know Wal Mart is probably not very high quality, but I really want to see if it's more them or my monitor being out of Cal.

The technique I'm using is calibrating my screen to the picture. But then I realize that Wal Mart's printer is not the Gold Standard, so I'm probably only going to calibrate to them and not reality. Is there a Gold Standard I can manually calibrate to?

Thanks!

Actually, calibrating your monitor and your printer together, is critical for you if you want to be able to perfect an image on your monitor, and then be able to press PRINT and have the printer create a print identical to the screen image.....Once this is done, you can also get a profile for commerical outfits with 44 inch or 60 inch wide printers, that will then be printing precisely what you had seen on your screen.

Visit my www.sfdj.com site and look at the article on calibration/color workshops by Matias.... He specializes in going around the US calibrating the monitors and printers of Big commercial print houses, for them...and he is a university professor, photographer, and diver


Two things you need to know...all monitors are not equal--some are so bad you can never calibrate them ( as in a TV set used as a PC monitor also)
And products like the Imac 27 is pretty optimal right out of the box......still when we had matias calibrate Sandra's Imac 27 with our Epson 4880 ( 17 inch wide pro level printer), whatever we saw in Lightroom, was EXACTLY what we would get when we printed...When I had tried using my Dell PC with a 52 inch Samsung LCD TV / Monitor, the color space was just off so far, it could take 10 different printings to get one we could live with--even with a calibration, because this is a massively defective monitor for Still photo printing...However, it was fine for my 1080p videos though, with light and color modified via NeoHd and edited with Vegas Pro, then ecoded with Sorrenson Squeeze for you tube here is an example shot of Pauls Reef, ooff of Palm beach, Fl ‪best-of-palmbeach1a‬‏ - YouTube camera was canon 5d mark II in Aquatic housing with two 50 watt cave video lights ( battery on waist held cannister) ... Camera sits on 70 pound Gavin scooter on mount for it, which stabilizes it for when you try to stop in currents and eddies....and lets you go fast when you need to...

 

[browncd81]

Dan, nice video... well done and much better than the water we've got here in Mass. Thanks for the advice too. Yeah, calibration sounds like a bigger chore than I first thought :shocked2:

A workshop may be too ambitious for me. I was thinking about this device, can't think of the name of it right now, that you can use to calibrate with the device held next to the monitor. Looks pretty professional. Don't know if anyone has tried anything like that and determined whether it was worth the money or not.

 

[Cumbo]

I've been struggling with the same issue. I had 500+ dive photos printed and many of them came out way too blue and dark. I was already about to order a new monitor (with an IPS panel), but am now thinking about getting a calibration device, namely Spyder3Pro - Datacolor - Global Leader in Color Management Solutions.

 

[danvolker]

Dan, nice video... well done and much better than the water we've got here in Mass. Thanks for the advice too. Yeah, calibration sounds like a bigger chore than I first thought :shocked2:

A workshop may be too ambitious for me. I was thinking about this device, can't think of the name of it right now, that you can use to calibrate with the device held next to the monitor. Looks pretty professional. Don't know if anyone has tried anything like that and determined whether it was worth the money or not.

There is a good benefit to just buying a Spyder and doing the quick calibration....the amount of perfection you can achieve, is the difference....If I print a 17 by 24 print from a roll of Luster Premium , between ink and paper costs, I am not going to want to waste even one or two prints to get one I like....in the course of a month, or a few months, this could be many hundreds or dollars , or more...So if you are going to be doing a lot of printing, the high end callibration can pay for itself....and even if you are sending your images out to someone with a 40 in wide or bigger pro level printer, if you have a perfect calibration profile, what you see on your screen, is exactly what you will get back from the pro printer--from any where in the world you send the image file and profile to...

 

[Gilligan]

Another thought:

I don't print my own photos and I hardly ever get prints but when I do I get them done at a shop in Bohol, Philippines that has their monitors calibrated to their printing equipment. There are several clerks in the shop so I sit down with one of them and look at all my photos on their monitor in a software program that they are using to display/adjust with large thumbnails. They make brightness/darkness adjustments in front of me. Every one of my pics edited in Photoshop on my laptop are too dark compared to their monitor. Maybe you can't do this in the USA? I haven't tried it there.

 

[danvolker]

Another thought:

I don't print my own photos and I hardly ever get prints but when I do I get them done at a shop in Bohol, Philippines that has their monitors calibrated to their printing equipment. There are several clerks in the shop so I sit down with one of them and look at all my photos on their monitor in a software program that they are using to display/adjust with large thumbnails. They make brightness/darkness adjustments in front of me. Every one of my pics edited in Photoshop on my laptop are too dark compared to their monitor. Maybe you can't do this in the USA? I haven't tried it there.

If you used your laptop with a monitor that would calibrate properly ( start at around $500 or so), then when calibrated to a pro level printer, your profile would allow you to finish in photoshop, and send the image to the shop in Bohol, and for it to print just like it appears on your monitor.....Laptops will not typically have a monitor that can calibrate well enough for pro level printing--even the hi def ones. But any laptop can be used with an external monitor. You can do most of your work on the laptop, but the final tweaks need to be done on the calibrated monitor.

 

[Gilligan]

If you used your laptop with a monitor that would calibrate properly ( start at around $500 or so), then when calibrated to a pro level printer, your profile would allow you to finish in photoshop, and send the image to the shop in Bohol, and for it to print just like it appears on your monitor.....Laptops will not typically have a monitor that can calibrate well enough for pro level printing--even the hi def ones. But any laptop can be used with an external monitor. You can do most of your work on the laptop, but the final tweaks need to be done on the calibrated monitor.

Thanks for that info but I'm not into spending $500. on an external monitor.
Retired = pension = better use of $500. .
I'll live with using the shops monitor for the few times I get prints.