# If your monitor is CALIBRATED I need your help!



## MohaimenK (Nov 14, 2010)

OK so I got the xrite and did what it said but i feel the screen is still off. It looks a little more warm than usual. 

Both the brighness and contrasts are at 100
R 55
G 48
B 46

when I printed this image but on the screen it's a little brighter than my printer. I mean my printer is just a regular colo printer. So should I just let it go or try to recalibrate the monitor? Of course in my uncalibrated monitor this image looks super bright. I have to calibrate that also.


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## ann (Nov 14, 2010)

i think you need to calibrate your printer as well, they need to match. At least as close as they can as they reflective light differently.


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## MohaimenK (Nov 14, 2010)

the one I have wont' calibrate printer. I didnt need t but i just wanted to print it to see if it was properly calibrated. What's my other option? I guess I can aways have a few images printed in 8x10 and send to a print lab and once their copy arrive I can compare with my monitors?


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## ababysean (Nov 14, 2010)

You should get a test print done somewhere and then compare the print to your monitor.  I think your regular color printer has to be calibrated too or it will look different.  You know I like bright, contrasty edits, so for me this looks a tad dark, but probably for most people it looks spot on!


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## KmH (Nov 14, 2010)

Profiling your display is just step one of the print management job.

The next step is that you need the ICC profile for the machine that will make your prints, yours or theirs.

A good lab has a link where you can download their printer ICC profiles.

With the ICC profiles, then you can soft-proof in Photoshop. Soft-proofing in Photoshop will still only give you *an approximation* of what the print will look like, because a computer display is backlit, a print is front lit.


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## clanthar (Nov 14, 2010)

Do not use printer output to judge your display calibration. Kmh is correct that you can't expect your prints to exactly match your display.

The results from any printer can't be considered a standard. Different printers have different color gamuts that are not coincident. Using proper color management practices will keep your workflow under reasonable control but if you capture a color in-camera that your display isn't physically capable of reproducing then you won't see it and if you have a color on your display that your printer isn't physically capable of reproducing then nothing you can calibrate will make the physically impossible possible.

Soft-proofing in Photoshop helps you by giving you an idea of what you can expect under the circumstances -- an image created with light is not going to look like and image created with pigment.

Here's something that can help you verify your display calibration:

http://photojoes.org/colorchecker.jpg

It's a computer generated file of a standard color checker in which the squares have been painted in with the correct Adobe 1998 RGB values for each square in the color checker. You can load it in Photoshop and then compare that to an original color checker held next to the display. Don't expect to see the contrast match, but hopefully the color values will be close.

Take Care,
Joe


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## RauschPhotography (Nov 14, 2010)

ababysean said:


> You should get a test print done somewhere and then compare the print to your monitor.  I think your regular color printer has to be calibrated too or it will look different.  You know I like bright, contrasty edits, so for me this looks a tad dark, but probably for most people it looks spot on!



Agreed. My monitor is calibrated, and it still looks dark to me.


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## MohaimenK (Nov 14, 2010)

Thanx guys! The contrast and brightness won't go any higher on my monitor


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## Bitter Jeweler (Nov 14, 2010)

I think, Mo, you need to turn your brightness down. I had similar problems, with the same xRite thing you have. I can't remember exactly how it went after going through it 3 times, but that was an issue. My monitor was at 100 brightness too. I haven't had time to go through it again, as editing black and whites look pink, till exported and viewed on the web or printed. I am on my laptop so I can't judge your image right now.

I think my brighness went down by half, and then my prints came out at the proper "brightness".


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## loosecanon (Nov 14, 2010)

What I did.....
I took a bunch of crayons and took a raw shot of them using flash after setting custom white balance. I then loaded it into CS5 with out any adjustments in ACR, then I adjusted the display so that the colors matched the crayons as good as possible. I used 80% brightness and 60 % contrast so that I would not produce too dark or too light of an image. Once I was happy, I started printing the image with different printer settings making sure I chose the proper paper settings until the print , the display and the crayons looked as close as possible. I then published the image to my website to make sure it was not too dark or light. I just printed the color checker chart above and it is as close as I can expect it to be. I have viewed the same images form many displays over the web and they look pretty good, and have never had any complaints from weddings or portrait customers.


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## loosecanon (Nov 14, 2010)

By the way MO, on my display the colors of you picture look pretty good, maybe a tad too much red but ever so slightly.


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## MohaimenK (Nov 14, 2010)

Thanx Bitter So I probably did tis 6 times now, everytm there is a new set of "correct" settings. 

I guess my question is, is there a good starting point? Should I have my monitors have everything set to 50% and then go from there? I have 2 different monitors about 95% similar but one is a little "pinkish" where the other feels a little "bluish"


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## MohaimenK (Nov 14, 2010)

Thanks loosecanon! That's a great idea. Or I was thinking of going and buying a color chart similar to this? http://photojoes.org/colorchecker.jpg

I mean, if I had a correct printed version of that then held it against my monitor it should be exact whereas if I looked it throught the monitor I woulldn't know if that's how the colors are supposed to display. (not sure if that sounded confusing?

Yeah I also think the image is a little reddish side on the WB. 

Here's an image I took of my displays side by side. Can you tell the slight different between them? I am looking at the large WHITE spot on both

I know the RGB value is different from A to B and it's at 100 on monitor. I started my tests at all low number for all settings to 50 and I ran out of space for raising the brightness on the previous test so I re started the test with everything at 100% and lowering them as I calibrate so the numbers are higher for RGB value where the brightness and contrasts are smaller values VS larger bright/contrast with low RGB value


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## MohaimenK (Nov 14, 2010)

Bitter, did you set your white point to 80 90 or 120?


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## KmH (Nov 14, 2010)

MohaimenK said:


> Thanx Bitter So I probably did tis 6 times now, everytm there is a new set of "correct" settings.


 The i1 Display 2 measures the ambient light, is the amount of ambient light in the room where the dosplay is changing throughout the day?


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## Bitter Jeweler (Nov 14, 2010)

I can't find the white point setting. I think I went with warm?

My brightness is 57 contrast 99


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## prodigy2k7 (Nov 15, 2010)

What appears on your monitor and your printer are different because the light from your monitor is most likely different than the light illuminating your photo after you print it.


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## MohaimenK (Nov 15, 2010)

The i1 Display 2 measures the ambient light, is the amount of ambient light in the room where the dosplay is changing throughout the day?[/QUOTE]

No, pretty much the same light. Just 2 60 watts bulbs on my fan. I calibrated the i1 before the test. Maybe I should do it with the lights off?



Bitter Jeweler said:


> I can't find the white point setting. I think I went with warm?
> 
> My brightness is 57 contrast 99



It's the first screen once you open the Eye One Match 3. It asks you to set the gamma, white point and luminance. I meant the *Luminance *not white point. Sorry. 

The recommendation Luminance is 120 for LCD monitors but for graphics you're supposed to set it to 80 or 90 so your prints aren't darker than what your LCD shows. I set mine to 90



prodigy2k7 said:


> What appears on your monitor and your printer are different because the light from your monitor is most likely different than the light illuminating your photo after you print it.



Yes, that's certainly the case I believe. i1 says to compare prints, I need a device that shows the "correct light output" and hold my picture under it to see the difference. Ehh I printed some pictures from costco today (yes I know I know) but let me see how that turns out. If the prints are good then I'm happy. 

I read that you can't have 100% identical looking monitors but as long as they're extremely close, which mine are, then should be fine. But once I get the pictures later today I'll see which monitor it is closer to that's the  one I will use to edit.


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## MohaimenK (Nov 15, 2010)

Hey on the bright side, I offered on fb for monitor calibration for $25 and a local photog is interested for 2 monitors he said he'll give me some extra because it's 2 monitors


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## KmH (Nov 15, 2010)

Does the room have a window? If so, does it contribute any light to the room? Did you let the displays warm up for a couple of hours before profiling?

Displays need to be profiled regularly, because displays age and drift. At least monthly, weekly is better.


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## MohaimenK (Nov 15, 2010)

Yes sir! I tried w/ the windows closed then opened it. I guess to keep everything right I should always keep the windows closed during editing since I edit both nighttime and daytime. That way no outside light will contribute to it. The monitors have been on for at least 2 hours

I set it to 4 weeks for calibration reminder. 

One thing I want to know. I go through the whole calibration process for my first monitor. Then after that I save the ICC. For the 2nd monitor, the values will be different of course, since they're different company and different in age. So would I load the ICC from first monitor before calibrating to the 2nd monitor? Or do I just leave it alone and calibrate the 2nd monitor and not save a new ICC?


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## MohaimenK (Nov 15, 2010)

OK got my pix from Costco. So holding it in my room, it looks just about right. But holding it near the window, comparing them to the screen, 100% match. It's a cloudy day today so it's not super bright outside. So in this case, should I be satisfied?


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