A True or False About Color Calibration

[wgerrard]

True or false: Calibrating *your* monitor or LCD cannot ensure your images look the same on other screens.

 

[Pickett Wilson]

True. Every monitor has different characteristics that calibration can't completely overcome. It will make them more consistent, but not the same. We have a dozen monitors in our office, all I've calibrated for press output with the same hardware calibration system, and they all differ in some way.

 

[greyelm]

Unless all the other screens are calibrated then I can't see how they would all look the same. The benefit of calibration is in getting a print to show true rendition.

 

[wgerrard]

I thought as much, but wanted confirmation. I don't print. No one asks for prints. They're all looking online. With all kinds of equipment. So, I tweak them so I'm happy and hope for the best.

 

[IK13]

True.

I'm a believer in proper monitor calibration. Makes a big difference most of the time. The main benefit is that it gives you a common ground for comparison and evaluation. I also try to use printer profiles for proofing (even Costco publishes their printer profiles).
The (good) LCD nowadays actually don't vary as much once calibrated as the CRTs used to, but I still redo it once in a while.

 

[Matus]

Only think you can do is to make sure your photos are saved in sRGB as many browsers still do not actually support profiles and just interpret the image data the same way instead of translating them properly before sending them off to monitor. You can test yourself - just save the same image once in sRGB and once in say Adobe RGB (wider gamut). If you then view both images side by side with an application that does not "care" about the profiles (Firefox, Explorer, etc..) than the Adobe image will be much less vibrant. Of course this is just an additional issue and not really related to whether the monitor is calibrated or not.

Also try to avoid deep shadows where some detail should be visible - this gets often lost either because of lack of calibration or the poor contrast range of the monitor/screen used or external conditions (too much light around)

 

[Joe AC]

Not to hijack the thred but....any tips on calibration?

Thanks
Joe

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

To the OP, I found the most important thing is to create files with an SRGB profile. In Lightroom it's a menu choice at Export. In Photoshop use Convert to profile... SRGB. Such files display pretty well on most people's monitors.

If you work in AdobeRGB or another wide gamut color space, and don't convert to SRGB, the files will look fine on your mac but most people will see dull colors because their browsers do not respect color management.

 

[Roger Hicks]

I thought as much, but wanted confirmation. I don't print. No one asks for prints. They're all looking online. With all kinds of equipment. So, I tweak them so I'm happy and hope for the best.

Dear Bill,

It's the girl we all know and love, TINA (There Is No Alterative).

Cheers,

R.

 

[Steve M.]

Not only won't it help your photos look the same on other people's monitors, it won't help you with your own monitor. By that I mean, unless I let my monitor warm up for a while, and darken my room to the same degree each time, I get photos that are not consistent. It's just the nature of glowing pixels. Printed photos are no better though, as normally a photo will look very different depending on whether it's displayed under an incandescent light source, florescent, or natural light. We're talking B&W here. I don't know color.

 

[ferider]

Not to hijack the thred but....any tips on calibration?

Thanks
Joe

The best is to go full circle, by scanning a calibration chart, slide or negative, and calibrating both scanner and monitor at the same time.

You can simplify by doing this with a set of black/grey/white cards.

If you want to simplify further and have an LCD monitor, at least adjust the color temperature of the screen to daylight. Most LCD monitors when coming from the vendor, are adjusted to a higher color temperature than normal daylight, for marketing purposes (they look more impressive in the warehouse).

Roland.

 

[IK13]

Not to hijack the thred but....any tips on calibration?

Thanks
Joe

Get a hardware calibration device. i1Display2 and Spider are probably the most popular (if not the only) affordable choices. Anything less then that and you're just fooling yourself.
One thing to note about the newer wide gamut monitors: They are great, but if the OS and/or the software you're using is not color profile aware, even on a properly calibrated display you see reds that are out of this world.