Calibrating/Profiling Monitor and the PIA it is giving me.

[Ballistics]

My last monitor died so I went out and bought a Dell S2440L. It was during winter break so I couldn't test
the calibration with a print until recently(printers are in school). As it turns out, I can't seem to get the image dark enough. My old monitor didn't
take much calibration at all and the prints matched it pretty well. Is there something I could be missing? A lot of reviews recommended this monitor for
photo editing, and the contrast just seems to be wrong. Anyone have experience with this monitor? Maybe there's something I'm missing?

THe manual doesn't say much either.

 

[Josh66]

How are you calibrating? Kinda sounds like you're just manually setting it to match a print?

 

[KmH]

Maybe you're missing calibrating hardware and it's associate software. Xrite CMUNDIS ColorMunki Display1
Also the display you bought is a VA display (Vertical Alignment) and not a desired-for-image-editing IPS display (In-Plane Switching).
Essentially, you got what you paid for.

Most of Dells UltraSharp line of displays are IPS type displays, but cost more.

 

[Ballistics]

How are you calibrating? Kinda sounds like you're just manually setting it to match a print?

Initially, i used the calibration software on the computer, and then downloaded couple programs, but then just tried matching my ipad's screen.

 

[Josh66]

How are you calibrating? Kinda sounds like you're just manually setting it to match a print?

Initially, i used the calibration software on the computer, and then downloaded couple programs, but then just tried matching my ipad's screen.

So, you are not using any hardware specifically made for calibration? If so, I would do something about that pretty soon...

 

[Ballistics]

How are you calibrating? Kinda sounds like you're just manually setting it to match a print?

Initially, i used the calibration software on the computer, and then downloaded couple programs, but then just tried matching my ipad's screen.

So, you are not using any hardware specifically made for calibration? If so, I would do something about that pretty soon...

What do you mean hardware?

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Maybe you're missing calibrating hardware and it's associate hardware. Xrite CMUNDIS ColorMunki Display1

. ^​

 

[Ballistics]

I missed that. Thank you bitter.

 

[Garbz]

Indeed. Software calibrations rely on some horrendously inaccurate and easily tricked tools, our eyes.

We're great at judging the differences in colours, but we absolutely suck at picking a colour to begin with. A hardware calibrator takes all the guess work out of it.

 

[Josh66]

Once you get the hardware, have a look at dispcalGUI (you will also need ArgyllCMS - it's a dependency of dispcalGUI) for software. It's free and cross-platform. Many people say that it's better than the software that ships with most calibration units.

 

[Garbz]

Bookmarked and thankyou. I'll investigate. It looks pretty good and if it supports monitor based lookup tables it would look almost perfect. Alas I can't seen any reference that it does...