I did a "slide" show last night for my family of a recent trip to New Zealand and Australia and in spite of have previously spent several hours attempting to color calibrate my BenQ MP626 projector, the projected images were badly washed out and the colors barely recognizable relative to those on my iMac screen. I used a Spyder3 in calibrating both the monitor and the projector. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks,
Mark
Posted by David Bostedo on March 6, 2011 at 12:34 PM
Mark - How'd you calibrate the projector? Where'd you hang the Spyder3 puck? Are you connecting the projector to the iMac? Are you using a screen or a wall with the projector? How was the lighting in the room when viewing and when calibrating?
The Spyder 2 and 3 series of colorimeters allow you to make profiles for digital projectors. This involves placing the colorimeter in front of the projection screen (a tripod can be used for this purpose). The software projects a set of crosswires onto the screen which can be used to make sure that the colorimeter is positioned correctly. The rest of the process is very similar to calibrating a monitor -- the whole gamut of colors and gray tones are projected, the colorimeter measures things as needed and in the end a profile is created. Ambient light is taken into consideration. It should be noted that when you create a profile in this fashion, it is only applicable for that particular projector, screen and ambient light setup.
David - I calibrated the projector as Anil describes. The show was with the projector connected to the iMac, projecting onto a screen (30 years old) under the same lighting conditions (I think) as the calibration. Is this possible a problem with the computer color space set to ProPhoto and while the projector is sRBG? I'll check that out tonight after it gets dark.
Hmm....Is it possible that the screen is insufficient to match the profile that the spyder sets up? After all, the puck is not actually reading the reflected light from the screen that you see, instead reading the light that hits the screen.
As far as the color space, if the image is in ProPhoto in you computer app, you could certainly have colors that are outside what the projector can show. (You could actually have colors outside of what just about any monitor can show - ProPhoto is a large gamut.) I wouldn't think that could cause barely recognizable colors though - it would more likely just remove some saturation.
Wish I could be more help, but it does sound a bit puzzling.
David : The colorimeter's sensor is supposed to face the screen, so it is reading off of the screen surface. The procedure requires that it be placed perpendicular to the screen and about 12 inches away from it. It will cast a small shadow, but that doesn't affect the calibration process. This thing works reasonably well, so I won't doubt the process itself.
Mark: Have you changed the gamma and white point to 2.2-Native, the recommended values for projectors?
Discussion
5 repliesThanks,
Mark
The Spyder 2 and 3 series of colorimeters allow you to make profiles for digital projectors. This involves placing the colorimeter in front of the projection screen (a tripod can be used for this purpose). The software projects a set of crosswires onto the screen which can be used to make sure that the colorimeter is positioned correctly. The rest of the process is very similar to calibrating a monitor -- the whole gamut of colors and gray tones are projected, the colorimeter measures things as needed and in the end a profile is created. Ambient light is taken into consideration. It should be noted that when you create a profile in this fashion, it is only applicable for that particular projector, screen and ambient light setup.
As far as the color space, if the image is in ProPhoto in you computer app, you could certainly have colors that are outside what the projector can show. (You could actually have colors outside of what just about any monitor can show - ProPhoto is a large gamut.) I wouldn't think that could cause barely recognizable colors though - it would more likely just remove some saturation.
Wish I could be more help, but it does sound a bit puzzling.
Mark: Have you changed the gamma and white point to 2.2-Native, the recommended values for projectors?