Advice on screen calibration, please...

[sixpence]

Hi all,

I am a complete newbie when it comes to image processing.
Let me sum up a little bit:

- just started to develop my own b&w-film with ok/ good results. (Great info on RFF, Roger Hicks)
- bought a scanner (Reflecta RPS 7200, SilverFast) for scanning my negatives. Scanning is still a little bit all over the place but I am getting there by reading (very helpful technical pages at Chris Crawford) and trying different settings. Still looking for the perfect workflow to produce nice linear, flat scans.
- never worked with any editing software before but now try to edit my pictures in LR4.

I experienced lately that my edited pictures have a different look on different screens once uploaded to the web (darker, brighter, less contrasty). Of course they look the way I like them on my own screen :bang:

Where should I start adjusting? Maybe you could point me to a cheap and easy to use tool to calibrate my screen with? I want to print some of my pictures in the future as well. Do I have to buy something like Spyder 4 or would online tools like calibrize or lagom lcd-test do the trick (at least for posting on the web)?

It would be great to end up with what you see is what you get...

Thanks for all your help.

c:

 

[robert blu]

I use a "spider2" bought a few years ago and it works quite well. Honestly on my i.mac screen (old matt one) there is not a big difference before and after calibrating. Difference is due to reduce brightness of the screen and choosing a warmer white point (more similar to the paper I print on). I'm not very experienced hope this suggestion can help you. Probably there are better tutorial on line, like you already found).
robert

 

[OurManInTangier]

I use a Spyder 4 and its quick, easy, accurate and relatively cheap. I assume you don't know anyone who has one that you could borrow to start off with?

I couldn't say either way whether the online ones are worth using as I've never looked into it but calibrating your monitor is very much worthwhile. As Robert noted, most won't show an astonishing difference in appearance before and after until you realise just how much a tiny difference in colour, tone etc will make overall.

If buying a calibration tool is an option I'd recommend it. As to which one, that will come down to budget and personal preference.

Good luck

 

[segedi]

Just remember, even after your screen is calibrated, your images will still look differently on different screens. And if you don't have a screen capable of wide gamut display, calibration can only help so much. But better to have it calibrated and when printing, especially if printing offsite (I like Costco) you need to download and then proof using their ICC targets.

 

[TXForester]

One simple thing you might look into is the way you save the image. I noticed that viewing my images on the web and offline one the same computer, the looked different. Then I tried "save for web." I don't know the difference in the settings for saving a jpg between save/save as and save for web, but it makes on and offline images look alike. That will solve a problem if all the monitors have been calibrated already.

 

[sevo]

I use a Spyder 4 and its quick, easy, accurate and relatively cheap.

Agreed. For personal use, any kind of professional web application and daily press print quality these are perfectly adequate. If you are providing services to the motion picture industry or selling photographs that are high quality printed, you may need a calibration solution that covers all involved in- and output devices.

 

[sixpence]

Thanks a lot for your replies and feedback on this matter.

I have done a little bit more of research and I think I will stay away from the online tools for now. Maybe I forgot to mention that I usually use my laptop for most of my scanning and editing and possibilities of making proper adjustments/ calibrations seem rather limited in the first place. After some reading I think I will try the following:

As far as I understood it is a good start to keep the brightness-level somewhat low and always use the same level for editing.

I don`t have a printer yet, but I guess when it comes to printing I will definitely follow your advice, Simen, robert blu and sevo. A Spyder is probably a good tool to calibrate stuff for painless printing of what you see (guess you have to calibrate the printer as well?)

And I will definitely try different jpg- saving settings like you suggest, TX.

In general, there is a lot to learn for me and I guess I never thought about how pictures may look differently on different screens, due to calibration and setting differences 😕

If they look good on your screen and good on your prints then forget the rest of the world and don't change anything.

You can't expect that everyone out there has a calibrated screen and sees the pictures exactly the way you expect.

tom.w.bn, you definitely have a point there...maybe I should think more KISS, worry a little less, shoot more, have fun and don`t expect everything to be perfect right away.

If you by accident should come across some of my pictures on this forum and they look completely "off" on a calibrated screen, please drop me a line so I have something to work on 😀

Thanks again, I appreciate all your advice and all the information on this forum...great place to be!
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-Claus