Hi my fellow photographers. As I've been working on some recent photographs, I've found that my monitor calibration is definitely sub-par. This may be a combination of my using a Spyder2Pro that doesn't work too well with Win 7 (although it does go through the motions, I've read online that others are having issues), and my monitor isn't exactly premium, but it's not a dud either. It's a 22" Gateway that is less than a year old.
The monitor is bright, and in conjunction with my monitor settings and calibration, I've tried to get it to the right point where it's close to what I print and what other photographers see online through their calibrated monitors.
However, recently, it's become clear that other photographers, whose monitors I assume are calibrated, are seeing my images as much darker than I am.
Any thoughts? What are you using for monitor calibration, and has anyone else dealt with super bright monitor issues? I try to be very anal about going through the calibration steps, but things still end up being too bright.
Hey Ryan,
check out the responses to a similar question posted by me, "monitor calibration targets and workflow. Confused?" in this forum. There is some great info there and a useful link or 2. I had the same issue but now i'm having problems with over saturation. Frankly, my images were more consistant before the pricey new monitor and calibration. Hopefully I can get that fixed. Good luck.
Do your prints closely match what you see on your monitor? If they do, then you may not have a problem.
Your last post was fairly dark, but you mentioned that you 'developed' it that way, so there's no way to make an accurate comparison concerning personal aesthetics.
I agree John about the personal aesthetics, but there is a pretty big gap between my monitor and my prints as well. I know it is impossible to truly match them given the difference in how we see transmitted light vs reflected light, but I'm having quite a battle with it. I've also had more than one post with darkness comments, and I think there may be something there.
"...but there is a pretty big gap between my monitor and my prints as well."
I know this may sound too simplistic, but if your prints are considerably darker than your monitor, why not adjust your monitor's brightness down to match your prints, and then edit your images accordingly? Almost all commercial LCD monitors come right out of the gate set way too bright for critical image editing, as most consumers just prefer a bright monitor.
Not sure if you can do this with the Spyder (I use an EyeOne 2), but if you get set your maximum luminance down to at least 120cd/m you should see an improvement. This is quite a bit duller than the factory settings, and if you or others use the screen for other activities (DVD watching/games) then you may find it gets turned back up!
I have also seen recomendations to set the max even lower than this, down to 90cd/m, but 110 works for me. This has been covered in other threads, and you may find the rationale for going to 90cd/m as well.
There are four variables that affect the look of an image on a screen:
Monitor Gamma
Color Temperature (White Balance)
Luminance
Contrast Ratio
I have found that the following values work well for me, and may be a good starting point for you:
Gamma = 2.2
Color Temperature = 6500K
Luminance = 110 Cd/m^2
Contrast Ratio = 400:1
Not being familiar with your colorimeter or calibration/profiling software, I can't say whether or not you can input these values. If you can, it's worth a try.
Also, some screens do not tolerate very low luminance levels (below 100 Cd/m^2): You may notice uneven illumination. So, if you set your screen to this level, be sure to evaluate the on-screen image very carefully.
As has been said, factory settings are usually way too high for image editing where the main goal is a print. If one does no printing, these higher values may be fine for web display.
Assuming you're using PS, one thing you can do is create a Layer Group labeled "Print" at the top of the stack. After you've made all your adjustments to get a nice looking web image, create any needed adjustment layers within the "Print" group to get the image just right for the print.
One final thought: 32-bit hardware drivers to do not play well (or at all) with Win 7 64-bit. Since your Spyder2 is not playing well with your OS, that could be a big part of your problem. If there is no 64-bit driver for your Spyder, you have two choices: Buy a new tool that's 64-bit compatible, or run a 32-bit OS in a virtual machine (assuming your version of Win 7 supports VM)
Screen brightness vs. Print darkness...and vice-versa
I'm not sure if we're talking about the same problem, but it sounds like what I experienced with the integral screen on my old iMac and then the screen in my hp laptop.
After beginning to work with the laptop and continuing to suffer the problem of lack of coherence between the brightness of the display screen image and the print, I realized that the problem was the angle at which I inconsistently viewed the screen during the PP process. When the laptop screen was tipped too far back, the image was dark...tipped too far toward me, the image brightened. When I assure that I am viewing the screen from a point perpendicular to it's center surface, the inconsistency between the screen image and the print image ceases to be a problem. I now have a 3x5 index card taped by it's long edge to the edge of the screen with the card's top edge at the horizontal midline of the screen. The card is tape-hinged so it can be can be viewed on edge, and along its upper edge. When viewing the screen precisely perpendicular to it's surface, I am sighting exactly along the upper edge of the card.
Try this, it may solve your problem.
Ryan - I use precisely the technique that John suggests. It is simplistic but I get great results. I calibrate my monitor for color but then I adjust my brightness/contrast by hand to match as closely as I can what I see coming out of my printer. The default brightness in my printer is 75 out of 100. I reduce brightness to a setting of about 38 to get it to match my printer. Since print matching is my first priority this ensures that what I see on my monitor will be pretty close to the print. If other people have their monitors set super bright and my images end up looking washed out to them I can't control that.
Discussion
8 repliesThe monitor is bright, and in conjunction with my monitor settings and calibration, I've tried to get it to the right point where it's close to what I print and what other photographers see online through their calibrated monitors.
However, recently, it's become clear that other photographers, whose monitors I assume are calibrated, are seeing my images as much darker than I am.
Any thoughts? What are you using for monitor calibration, and has anyone else dealt with super bright monitor issues? I try to be very anal about going through the calibration steps, but things still end up being too bright.
check out the responses to a similar question posted by me, "monitor calibration targets and workflow. Confused?" in this forum. There is some great info there and a useful link or 2. I had the same issue but now i'm having problems with over saturation. Frankly, my images were more consistant before the pricey new monitor and calibration. Hopefully I can get that fixed. Good luck.
Your last post was fairly dark, but you mentioned that you 'developed' it that way, so there's no way to make an accurate comparison concerning personal aesthetics.
I have also seen recomendations to set the max even lower than this, down to 90cd/m, but 110 works for me. This has been covered in other threads, and you may find the rationale for going to 90cd/m as well.
There are four variables that affect the look of an image on a screen:
Monitor Gamma
Color Temperature (White Balance)
Luminance
Contrast Ratio
I have found that the following values work well for me, and may be a good starting point for you:
Gamma = 2.2
Color Temperature = 6500K
Luminance = 110 Cd/m^2
Contrast Ratio = 400:1
Not being familiar with your colorimeter or calibration/profiling software, I can't say whether or not you can input these values. If you can, it's worth a try.
Also, some screens do not tolerate very low luminance levels (below 100 Cd/m^2): You may notice uneven illumination. So, if you set your screen to this level, be sure to evaluate the on-screen image very carefully.
As has been said, factory settings are usually way too high for image editing where the main goal is a print. If one does no printing, these higher values may be fine for web display.
Assuming you're using PS, one thing you can do is create a Layer Group labeled "Print" at the top of the stack. After you've made all your adjustments to get a nice looking web image, create any needed adjustment layers within the "Print" group to get the image just right for the print.
One final thought: 32-bit hardware drivers to do not play well (or at all) with Win 7 64-bit. Since your Spyder2 is not playing well with your OS, that could be a big part of your problem. If there is no 64-bit driver for your Spyder, you have two choices: Buy a new tool that's 64-bit compatible, or run a 32-bit OS in a virtual machine (assuming your version of Win 7 supports VM)
--P
I'm not sure if we're talking about the same problem, but it sounds like what I experienced with the integral screen on my old iMac and then the screen in my hp laptop.
After beginning to work with the laptop and continuing to suffer the problem of lack of coherence between the brightness of the display screen image and the print, I realized that the problem was the angle at which I inconsistently viewed the screen during the PP process. When the laptop screen was tipped too far back, the image was dark...tipped too far toward me, the image brightened. When I assure that I am viewing the screen from a point perpendicular to it's center surface, the inconsistency between the screen image and the print image ceases to be a problem. I now have a 3x5 index card taped by it's long edge to the edge of the screen with the card's top edge at the horizontal midline of the screen. The card is tape-hinged so it can be can be viewed on edge, and along its upper edge. When viewing the screen precisely perpendicular to it's surface, I am sighting exactly along the upper edge of the card.
Try this, it may solve your problem.
Dave Graham
East River, SD