Do you calibrate your monitor?

7 years ago

last modified: 7 years ago

I started messing around with it tonight and wish I wouldn't have. It was one of those things where I was going to be online for about 5 min. looking something else up because I have other things to do and then, for some reason, thought it would be a good night to adjust the calibration! Started with some online instruction ended up being overly detailed and I kind of stopped half way. Tried something else. Finally I messed with the step by step calibrator on my computer. I don't feel confident it's 100% correct and my photos, mainly the warmer black and white photos that I love, are a bit darker and showing a slight green cast.

I know you can buy a calibration software, but even the cheap ones aren't really cheap. I still may end up going that route. I'm done for the night. I guess I'll send some prints off different places for comparisons.

I also had the brightness on my screen low and got used to it apparently. Don't know what exactly it was set at, but now it's 32 any my eyes are hurting. Actually I just realized my whole face is hurting so it's probably sinus related. The joy.

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Comments (9)

tinam61
7 years ago
Oh allergy/sinus stuff here for sure! But no, I don't calibrate my monitor. You're over my head LOL.
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writersblock (9b/10a)
7 years ago
The only way to get really accurate color is with a colorimeter. With just basic software, you can safely set the gamma and temp or choose a preset profile (like sRGB), but it's extremely hard to eyeball things more complicated than those.
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loonlakelaborcamp
7 years ago
I just calibrate using the buttons on my monitors. I have dual monitors from different manufacturers and just do my best to get them to match. Once they do -- don't touch them.
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Bunny
7 years ago
I used to, back in the day when I was really into Photoshop and still had Windows-based computers. Since I've gone all Mac, I no longer bother and think everything looks pretty close to what it should.
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writersblock (9b/10a)
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
You know, Linelle, Apple used to be like that--just set the gamma and white point and you were in a decent place,as long as you weren't doing prepress or something, but that Apple is long gone, alas. It died before Steve Jobs did.

I'm sure yours is good enough, but don't be too surprised in threads where everyone is complaining about, say, a pink cast to tile, and you can't see it.

These days it seems like every copy of the OS they use for imaging has different settings. I see wildly different colors on the same machine models. On the other hand, with the emphasis shifting to mobile, proper calibration is a very low priority in most situations.
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Bunny
7 years ago
writersblock, I understand. When I really got into it was when I was trying to get printouts that looked like they did on my monitor. All those color spaces! From source (camera) through monitor to printer. At one point I grasped it, and now it's kind of deserted me.

I know my camera (iPhone) often renders color wrong. As if color perception weren't already quirky enough. I'm slapping some sample paint colors in an out of the way bit of siding on my house and everything looks minty, esp. SW Mindful Gray, just horrible. The culprit is the greenery on the north side of my house. Ugh. Thank goodness it's an out of the way space.
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User
Original Author
7 years ago
When I really got into it was when I was trying to get printouts that looked like they did on my monitor.

Yeah, this is my issue. If I'm going to take the time to edit a photo I want it to print out the way I see it on my screen or there's not much point in the effort. I haven't done any other adjusting yet. Waiting on a new order of prints.
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Bunny
7 years ago
Shee, are you using Photoshop or something along those lines, i.e., a bit more sophisticated than Photos? Don't get me wrong, for everyday stuff I think Photos does a very decent job.

If I were you, I'd read up a bit about color spaces. There so much online and it's got a definite learning curve. Remember that you have your camera, monitor, and printer. If something gets changed or mismatched, you're going to have unpredictable results.

I have an older but quite decent Canon 7-ink photo printer. I always test using 4x6 photo paper before I commit to something like 8x10.
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User
Original Author
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
Yeah, I normally use Cyberlink Photodirector 5, but I do have a very old version of Photoshop. I also will mess around in Gimp or Pixlr Editor occasionally. I just spent an annoying amount of time on this again. Twice now I thought I had things pretty decent and I bumped the 'auto' button for my monitor. ................. I definitely need to do some more reading. :(
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