Screen calibration

JohnJohn Posts: 134Member
edited April 2013 in General Discussions
I'm slowly implementing a fully calibrated workflow.
I already have the "camera calibration" taken care of with a Spyder Colorchecker.
(This creates an adjustment preset that can be used to correct the adobe camera profiles in Lightroom 4)
The next step will be to calibrate my monitor.
I'm looking at both colormunki as well as datacolor (Spyder 4 Elite) products and am looking for advice, suggestions, stories,...
So feel free to share.

Comments

  • SymphoticSymphotic Posts: 711Member
    I use the X-Rite i1 system when going to print with my Canon 9500 mkII. It saves a lot of time and money.
    Jack Roberts
    "Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought"--Albert Szent-Gyorgy
  • IronheartIronheart Posts: 3,017Moderator
  • obajobaobajoba Posts: 206Member
    I use the X-Rite i1 Display Pro and occasionally the ColorChecker Passport. One thing I really like about having purchased the i1 Display Pro is the "Ambient Monitoring" which keeps the display updated for the ambient light in the room. I can't tell you how many times I exported, or tried to print, photos that were too dark or too bright because the brightness of my monitor was off.

    The one beef I do have, however, is that I've never been able to find the correct specs of my display (HP LP2465)
    D4 | 70-200 2.8 VR | 24-70 2.8 | TC-17e II
  • MsmotoMsmoto Posts: 5,398Moderator
    Huey Pro on my MacBook Pro...easy...

    Now to see what happens in the prints...
    Msmoto, mod
  • spraynprayspraynpray Posts: 6,545Moderator
    I had a swine of a time with ColorMunki not working with twin screens. I had to uninstall it all and use the Spyder in the end.
    Always learning.
  • JJ_SOJJ_SO Posts: 1,158Member
    Strange. ColorMunki (old and new version) is working on twin screens, at least with windows. And on iMac, too.

    Some weeks before I was on Colormanagment training, after that I felt different proportions:

    Camera Profiles are really difficult - they need to be done with each body, each lens on each body and different shutter times, in each light your shooting in. Very quickly it became clear, this is something for specialised tasks, but then it is really fast and reliable. Otherwise I don't bother too much, as some lighting situations need to be interpreted in any case.

    As for screens: hardware calibration is the only real thing, although a ColorMunki (or EyeOne and some more sophisticated devices) on an iMac or other screens is better than no CM at all. Hardware calibration monitors have a wider color space while the other monitors already can do maybe sRGB, but not fully Adobe RGB and by calibration this space doesn't get bigger - worse, it's usually narrowing it.

    And since screens and printers need additional software help to show what a camera with 14Bit captures, it is essential to calibrate both, screen and printer. As for me: I don't run a big printer yet, so all the "trouble" at the moment is a bit useless to me. there are not much copy labs respecting colorprofiles. I decided afterwards, I will go on with CMS at the moment I've more space to set up twin monitors, one of them an Eizo and of course a big printer. Also, there's a need of controlled light (this device is expensive, too) and constant lighting conditions.

    Altogether, I got the impression there's not much to gain if my screen is already not the cheapest and I still have no decent printer. Since I don't make "destructive" color adjustments outside of my RC, I still have all options open later on.
  • NSXTypeRNSXTypeR Posts: 2,286Member
    Slightly off topic but related how do we know if the monitor on the camera is calibrated?

    I mean, there is sample variation even if Nikon is consistent.

    I mean, even the D800 had problems with green shifted tones.
    Nikon D7000/ Nikon D40/ Nikon FM2/ 18-135 AF-S/ 35mm 1.8 AF-S/ 105mm Macro AF-S/ 50mm 1.2 AI-S
  • JohnJohn Posts: 134Member
    Slightly off topic but related how do we know if the monitor on the camera is calibrated?

    I mean, there is sample variation even if Nikon is consistent.

    I mean, even the D800 had problems with green shifted tones.
    The monitor on the camera is calibrated to a certain standard by Nikon.
    But we don't know exactly what that standard is.

    That being said, the monitor on the back of a camera should not be used when trying to determin color accuracy.
    Such small displays are just to limited and the impact of the environment/lighting conditions is just to much.
    You can use it for general evaluations but you shouldn't expect exact representations of the end result.
    (If the entire image is deep blue although you're looking at a white subject then something is probably wrong with the white balance. If the color is only 95% correct then it might very well be a limitation of the screen.)
    The main reason we have a display is to look at things like highlight warnings and histograms; not to evaluate exact colors.
    And if you need exact colors you should be shooting in RAW and using a gray card and color calibration tool, in which case the jpg preview you see on the camera screen becomes even more irrelevant.

    When I talked about camera calibration I didn't refer to the tiny dispay on my camera. I refered to a profile to correct the Lightroom camera profiles to get the exact colors (for a given lens, lighting,...).

    High quality publications are edited and evaluated on specialised, calibrated wide gamut monitors with special screen hoods (to limit stray light hitting the screen) in order to get good color accuracy.
    Doing the same thing on something resembling a smartphone screen is just not possible.
  • IronheartIronheart Posts: 3,017Moderator
    The screen on the back is good for checking framing, and reading histograms. If you use it for anything else you are asking for trouble. You will be mighty unhappy when you upload and say, "gee these looked properly exposed in the bright sunlight..."
  • MsmotoMsmoto Posts: 5,398Moderator
  • WestEndBoyWestEndBoy Posts: 1,456Member
    Does anybody have any experience with the Eizo line of monitors with the colour calibrator that pops out of the bottom of the monitor periodically to confirm colour calibration and reset if necessary?
  • DenverShooterDenverShooter Posts: 416Member
    I run ColorMunki and it calibrated all three of my Epson printers R260, R2880 and 7900 to exactly match each other. So I can crank out small stuff on the 260 and make the 24 inch by 48 inch on the 7900 and they all look the same..

    Denver Shooter
  • Vipmediastar_JZVipmediastar_JZ Posts: 1,708Member
    edited December 2013
    colormunki. There is a problem with Mavericks at the moment for dual screens but there is a workaround found on their website. Basically assign the second screen as the primary then calibrate the switch back.
    I like it very much. It stopped my second guessing once that was in my workflow.
    Post edited by Vipmediastar_JZ on
  • DenverShooterDenverShooter Posts: 416Member
    My ColorMunki paid for itself in ink and paper within a year of me purchasing it. No more uncertainty on prints or duplicate prints to try to fix issues or wasted time. WYSIWYG and that saves time and time equals money.

    Denver Shooter
  • IronheartIronheart Posts: 3,017Moderator
    The pop-out calibrator will perform essentially the same function as colormunki. The advantage comes in if you have more than one monitor. If you have a team of folks, say 10 that each have 2 monitors, you can use a single colormunki to calibrate each monitor once, and teach the pop out calibrator system what "calibrated" looks like. This way you can have a large group of monitors calibrated to a single standard, and each one can be re-calibrated locally as needed. The pop out calibration can be scheduled to run as frequently as needed (daily, weekly, etc..).

    LCDs will change their calibration over time.
  • WestEndBoyWestEndBoy Posts: 1,456Member
    I will research this Colorminki.
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