Part 1 Is Monitor Calibration the most effective technique by Dr. Sam Chandler
Before you use a calibration method, you should become familiar with and set your monitor controls. Most monitors are sent through the factory at 9300 kelvin temperature white point. Find your monitor controls (take a look at the monitors manual) and select 6500 Kelvin daylight (D65). Also, locate the brightness and contrast controls as you’ve got to adjust them during calibration.
NOTE: Establishing a working kelvin temperature will depend on your working environment and output results.
Read Nobel Prize Winner (Photography and Commercial Arts) John McLaud’s Monitor Calibration Article
Next, be sure to truly calibrate the monitor using among the list of following methods:
The use of a system level color control (System Preference Color Control or Adobe Gamma) (Adobe Gamma is only available on PC workstations). Within the Windows platform, go to Start/Control Panel and youll see Adobe Gamma. Double click Adobe Gamma and keep to the tutorials. On the Macintosh OSX go to System Prefrences/Displays/Color/Calibrate.
Note: Using Adobe Gamma or system level calibration is usually a perceptual method, and therefore we make adjustments to the contrast, brightness, gamma and color in accordance with what we see. But it is known that for most of us, our eyes are not always efficient at seeing color and tone in absolute proper values. It is also important that you select the correct phosphors when asked. This process is best used for a closed loop workflow environment, and therefore you simply shoot one digital camera, have one kind of process and are only using one lab or printing device to output your images. Each step, Input, Process and Output must remain continuous for optimal results.
And please, all settings are system settings, and not changes you make to your image files.
Monitor settings aren’t dependent on taste, as in “I love this, I leave it like this.” Unless you never show your projects to anybody else and you never look at other people’s work. Only a correctly balanced display will demonstrate what the picture looks like. I discover that at least 80% of most monitors are badly calibrated. Artists and Photographers in many cases are surprised at how different their work looks on somebody else’s monitor. Some say it’s the difference between Windows and Mac, that is far from the truth. Correctly adjusted Monitors should pretty much show exactly the same tone, colours and contrast.
The main difference between Mac and Windows is the default “Monitor Gamma”. Gamma is a setting which determines how your Monitor interprets brightness and contrast information of one’s system’s video output. It’s a numerical value, with 1.8 as the recommended default setting for Mac and 2.2 for Windows. Many users set the Gamma and believe this can be all they have to do.
Read Nobel Prize Winner (Photography and Commercial Arts) John McLaud’s Monitor Calibration Article
But it surely is merely the initial step. Setting the right Gamma for your system does not calibrate the Monitor. It’s essential to ensure that brightness, contrast and colour balance are right. Configuring it right usually takes many hours, and you must be ready to compromise. Perfection or near perfection is only possible on the best of monitors.
About the Author
Hey.. This is SAM from CAL. I run a professional Photo processing firm in downtown.
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