# Monitor problems



## Fredric (Apr 5, 2010)

Hello everyone!

I just started taking photography a bit more serious and also just bought my first DSLR, i'm already in love with my camera 
I do however have a technical question, I started following an online photoshop lightroom course and it came with a few exercise files. One of the pictures is supposed to be black and white. However, on my primary monitor (Samsung 2333SW) it looks very yellow. I also have an older monitor hooked up to my PC, a Sony SDM-HS73, on this monitor it looks fine. So i'm thinking it has something to do with my Samsung monitor, but can't figure out what...
Below are captured screens from both monitors, any help will be really appreciated.

Thanks!

Fredric 

Primary Screen:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49051159@N03/4494786083/

Secondary screen:
screen2 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!


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## Garbz (Apr 6, 2010)

Strange. Click Start -> Control panel -> Windows Colour management. 

Check that the primary display has no strange profiles assigned to it. Also check that under advanced the windows colour system defaults show the device profile as sRGB.


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## Fredric (Apr 6, 2010)

Thanks for the reply, I checked everything in Windows Color Management, all seems to be on default.
See screens:

screen3 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

screen4 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I already removed the Color Profile from Samsung, because it gave an error message when opening Photoshop, something like: The monitor profile Samsung - Natural Color Pro 1.0 ICM is unsupported.
Have no idea what to do...


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## Garbz (Apr 6, 2010)

Ok just to combat this weirdness a bit, since the only thing I could possibly think of is colour management which photoshop would load straight out of windows;

Can you go back into the colour management tool and for all displays tick the box that says "use my settings for this device"

Then add the profile sRGB IEC61966-2.1.icm to both monitors, just so you know windows isn't messing with you.

Don't forget to close and re-open Lightroom.


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## Fredric (Apr 6, 2010)

This helped a lot, thanks! However, the Samsung monitor still has a bit more yellow in it. I can't show you, because it does display the screenshots I take correctly on the Sony monitor, so I guess it will do the same for your display. You think this is something that I can fix with the screen settings? If so, what settings?

Thanks again!


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## Garbz (Apr 6, 2010)

Excellent so windows was screwing around again.

The physical differences are due to the colour white balance in the monitor. If you are using the monitors side by side then you need to adjust this white balance if possible somewhere in the menu. If not then you would need to buy some kind of calibration device to make both monitors the same (I use x-rite i1 Display 2, but there's plenty others out there).

If the monitors are not side by side (which it sounds like they are, then the difference won't be an issue. The reason so few monitors have colour temperature adjustments is because they perform best at their native temperature, and the human eye adjusts it's white balance to what it's looking at, so unless the screens are side by side you never know what is or isn't actually white.


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## Fredric (Apr 7, 2010)

Thanks for all the help!
By now I'm pretty happy with the colors on both monitors, they are side by side, and now there is almost no difference in color. I used this site to calibarte them, it works pretty good!
LCD monitor test images


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## Garbz (Apr 8, 2010)

Good choice of site. However it just gives you a base. Remember all you're doing is calibrating one point. The calibration units that can be had for under $200 calibrate the colour of your monitor to a specific curve, ensuring consistent colours at all points and that the monitor brightness follows the correct gamma curve.

Something to keep in mind for the future. I'm not sure a single person here wouldn't recommend one of these, especially if you have 2 screens 

Good to hear it's mostly resolved.


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