Monitor profiles or suggestions

[nightOwl]

Is there a monitor people prefer to edit photos on or a certain color profile people use when editing their photos? I purchased the Spyder Pro 3 and calibrated my monitor (Dell 1905 FP - had for years now) the pictures look better after the before and after calibration settings but my monitor now has a slight blue cast to it . If you would please share you settings and the monitor you are using?

Gamma 2.2
white point is at 6500K

Thanks

 

[nightOwl]

Anyone?

 

[Reef Bass]

Sorry to hear about your Spyder3 Pro issues nightOwl. That same package rocked my Dell monitor display (2208FPW), removing the flat bluish tinge and making it more crt like.

I used the same gamma and color temp settings. Did you reset the monitor to factory defaults before calibrating?

Also, make sure you monitor surface is clean (so the Spyder3 Pro sensor can interpret the display properly) and the sensor is appropriate positioned (flat on the monitor surface).

I would definitely run the calibration again.

Hope this helps.

 

[Hookup]

agreed, sounds like somethings up... Try Reef Bass's suggestions. If that doesn't work, maybe the store you bought it from can do some tests with a different spyder3 to see if there is a hardware issue?

 

[xtm]

I borrowed an HP colorimeter from work to calibrate my Cinema Display at home. It created a custom profile and while the colors are definitely better, the overall display got darker. I guess I just have to get used to it.

Make sure your monitor has been ON for at least 30 mins before profiling and it also helps if you're in a pitch dark room. The ambient light does affect the profiling.

Other than that, I'm not familiar with color profiles on XP machines...

 

[PSam]

I use this: http://www.photofriday.com/calibrate.php

Not sure how accurate it is, but it's better than what my monitor has (some dell flat screen LCD)

 

[BlueCorn]

While using a chart may be a good starting point, the only way to get reliable prints and on-screen colors is to use a hardware calibration device. They can be had for less than $100. Considering that it costs me about $7 to make a 13" x 19" print. It doesn't take too many "re-dos" to make that cost effective.

 

[nightOwl]

Reef Bass and others,
Sorry for the late responses its been a long week. Thanks everyone for your suggestions on how to improve the calibration.

I ended up redoing the calibration and the issue was the ambient light! I think since LCD monitors are so bright to start off with extra light in the room makes the Spyder 3 work overtime. After turning out the lights in the room and rerunning the calibration things turned out much better.

PSam I agree with beerguy the hardware versions are much better. Before my purchase I had used a couple of the online tools and even one of the software ones you can download. They get you in the ball park but the ambient light is was screws you over.

Now on to the next step of waiting to see if canon will have a rebate in May so I can buy some new glass ( EF 70-200/2.8 L IS USM, EF 24-70/2.8L USM, and possibly the EF 10-22/3.5-4.5 USM oh and the EF 1.4x II or 2.0 extender) and deciding on a new monitor.
Figured I would get the glass while its on sale and get that out the way.

Hookup, xtm, PSam, and beerguy which monitors do you all have?


Thanks again everyone,

Henry

 

[BlueCorn]

Henry,

I actually do most of my photo work on a 15" MacBook pro. I do some editing on my 20" iMac at but everything for sale is processed solely on my my laptop. Don't get too hung up on any one individual process, it's the result that is important. I like my prints and have very little waste; it works for me.

Cheers

 

[nightOwl]

Thanks beerguy!

 

[xtm]

Hi Henry,

My main rig has a 24" Apple Cinema Display.

Leopard comes with a built-in display calibrator, but it's still dodgy and it relies on user input. In this regard the hardware based profiler (like the spyder pro) is leaps and bounds BETTER because it knows that a red is red and blue is blue and if your monitor displays something else, it will issue a value for you to match. It's very hard to make a mistake with a colorimeter.

I suggest you calibrate your display once a month and see how much it "drifted" from the original profile. My Apple display has been very consistent but my HP laptop has been drifting a LOT.

Also, keep this in mind... no matter how much calibration you do, someone out there will look at your image and say.... "that color is way off!!" lol I deal with these kind of problems at work all the time.

 

[nightOwl]

xtm,

Thanks for you input I am noticing Apple has a lot of photographers using their products. I plan on calibrating once a month like you suggest. I figure people will complain one way or the other but now at least on my prints I can be happy. I did a test with my old settings and the calibrated monitor and the difference in the pictures is very noticeable.

 

[BlueCorn]

Having the monitor calibrated is just step one to good prints. Step two is downloading the ICC profiles for your printer/paper/ink combination is the next step. It's basically doing the same thing for your printer as you're doing for your monitor. Once you have that in place you turn off color correction in your print module and just point the printer to your profile.

 

[PSam]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14938129#post14938129 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by nightOwl
Hookup, xtm, PSam, and beerguy which monitors do you all have?

Pretty sure the one I have is the same as yours, the Dell 1905 ultrasharp. What hardware calibration tool do you have? I planned to blow up some photos soon and after reading this thread, want to make sure they're going to be great. Sounds like it will be a good difference from that online tool I have used.

 

[nightOwl]

Beerguy,
Thanks for the heads up on the ICC profiles.

PSam,
I have the Spyder 3 Pro for my calibration software/hardware.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I agree with beerguy and others who recommend hardware based calibration. The problem is that the devices available in the consumer price range (less than $1000) do not do a very good job. In MOST cases, you will end up better of than if you used a website or other pattern generator and your eyes.

Most of the consumer based hardware devices are tri-color sensors that rely on integrated filters and internal callibration profiles. They ARE NOT designed to work with LCD displays (even if the sales pitch says so). They are extrenely prone to drift due to filter degredation and temperature/humidity. Placement on the screen, pixel size, pixel alignment, cosine error and a dozen other things directly affect the readings. They use diffusor or "slits" to average the light coming from each pixel group (Red Green Blue) and don't do it well. Toss in the poorly designed/featured software and you are fighting an uphill battle. Display callibration is an art that is not easily mastered. Print and video production houses struggle daily with these problems, even when using hardware that costs tens of thousands of dollars.

That is not to say that beerguy (or any of you) are not having great results with the spyder (or similarly priced colorimeter) it just means that most people will not fall into that lucky category.

On the same note, there is not much you can do unless you want to spend more money and go down a rabbit hole with regard to learning about color callibration.

For those who are serious about color and have a need to be very accurate, I would check out the products developed by Cliff Plavin at Progressive Labs http://www.progressivelabs.net/

Don't be fooled by the look of the C-5, its internal sensors are nothing like the similar looking products being sold (they are all "puck" colorimters, but greatly differ in sensor quality, filters, chipset, and firmware). The C-5 is the only tri-color sensor out there that can do direct view LCD well.

Also check out the freeware package HFCR software. http://www.homecinema-fr.com/colorimetre/index_en.php There are huge threads at avsforum.com and a few other places.

While these devices are aimed at Home Theater and video display callibration, they can be leveraged four our purposes.

 

[BlueCorn]

Sorry Bean, but you can buy a professional grade colorimeter for under $300. The notion that using website or "your eyes" is better than most of the devices in that category is dead wrong.

Use what ever method that you prefer but I don't know a single professional photographer (and I know a bunch) that would advocate using a website test pattern over even a low end calibration device.

 

[BeanAnimal]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14999959#post14999959 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by beerguy
Sorry Bean, but you can buy a professional grade colorimeter for under $300.

I have had exposure (no pun) to many of the units out there. Sadly, $300 does not buy you much if true to life screen colors and gamma are important.

I would again stress, that if the consumer/prosumer type products yield acceptable (and or repeatable) results that allow you to output consitent color (even if you have to make the mental adjustment between screen and print/output media), then you have won 90% of the battle. You will find many people that end up looking at a post callibrated screen and scratching their head (knowing something is not right). Again, most tri-color devices just don't do well with LCD type displays.

The notion that using website or "your eyes" is better than most of the devices in that category is dead wrong.

Use what ever method that you prefer but I don't know a single professional photographer (and I know a bunch) that would advocate using a website test pattern over even a low end calibration device.

I think you misread what I typed

I said "In MOST cases, you will end up better of than if you used a website or other pattern generator and your eyes."

That is, even with a poor quality device, you can get closer than just eyeballing it with test patterns, pluges and color bars. Or better said, even a crappy device is (in most cases) better than no device.

 

[xtm]

It's already difficult enough to convince anyone to calibrate their displays, let alone make them spend $8,000.00 to calibrate.. lol :lol:

 

[BeanAnimal]

Or worse, some of us are ISF certified and never take the time to callibrate our own equipment. My two ViewSonic VP2030b monitors don't even come close to matching and the my SyncMaster 2493 is a blazing blue torch. My Home Theater projector (Epson PowerLite 6100) looked decent "out of the box" and I never get around to callibrating it. I own a progressive labs unit... but I rarely use it.

I own an IT consulting company. (2) of my clients are graphics oriented (one is an advertising company, the other a screen printer). Neither have anything close to accurate and can't be convinced they need it.