monitors/calibration for photo work

[pc2mac]

Hi,
I'm new here.
I have a mac pro with two dell 24" 2405 fpw, which are pva screens.
I cannot get my prints to match what is on my screen. I have an HP B9180 printer, which I love.

I hear a lot about S-ips monitors and that they are great for photo work. I'm using aperture and photoshop.

Should I keep my monitors and buy a calibrator like eye one or invest in new s-ips monitors?

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum.

You do need to calibrate your monitors. There is no getting around that. And there certainly isn't any guarantee that new monitors will be any more accurate than your current ones.

To properly calibrate a monitor, you will need a hardware device...ColorVision Spyder, Huey, Eye One etc. These will create a profile which is loaded into your video card.

That will get you pretty close...but there are better options. Some high end monitors have LT (Lookup Table) capabilities. So when you use a calibration device with them, it can actually change the characteristics of the monitor, rather than just doing it with the video card.

 

[Garbz]

PVA screens suffer from a lower viewing angle and uneven backlighting. But even so they can still be made colour accurate from one position. Their biggest problem is that if you take a large screen like your 24" and stare straight at the centre from a comfortable viewing distance, the edges will be 10-30 degrees off the viewing angle which effects the colour, the top and bottom will less off but will effect the brightness.

So if your photo is in the dead centre of the screen and you still can't match the colour on a PVA screen I will point the finger at the need for a calibrator.

I may make the suggestion to start there. I have the iOne Display 2 calibrator myself, which is the one NEC bundles with it's Spectraview line of monitors. I use it with the spectraview software, and get wonderfully accurate results with my screen. But even if you do get an IPS screen you still need a calibrator anyway.

My suggestion is try a calibration unit like the iOne, see if it works. If it doesn't you can always upgrade to an IPS screen like the NEC MultiSync xx90WUXi without the spectraview bundle, or of course an equivalent Samsung SyncMaster or Eizo ColorEdge without calibrator and you would be no worse off.