Calibrating when running two monitors?

[Summer75]

I run two monitors. One old cheap one that uses a VGA cord.... awful colors. I honestly can't see it even calibrating correctly. That is my "persona screen' that I use for doing my personal stuff

And than I have my more expensive "photography monitor".

I want to calibrate the photography monitor (I just ordered a calibration system). I run in Windows 10 extended screen mode, so both monitors are running on the same tower.... one long screen like a panorama photo.

Do I calibrate both? Do I turn Windows 10 onto single monitor, calibrate and than go back into extend mode? How do I calibrate when I use 2 monitors for "one long screen"?

 

[smoke665]

Even monitors of identical manufacture, model and age will require individual profiles. To calibrate and profile dual monitors on Windows based system, you need a higher end graphics card that will provide:

- Support for individual Video LUTs (lookup tables) for both monitors (support of two graphic chips)
- Support for handling individual ICC profiles for both monitors
- Dual monitors will need to be physically connected to individual ports on a single graphics card setup...no splitters or switches!

 

[Summer75]

Even monitors of identical manufacture, model and age will require individual profiles. To calibrate and profile dual monitors on Windows based system, you need a higher end graphics card that will provide:

- Support for individual Video LUTs (lookup tables) for both monitors (support of two graphic chips)
- Support for handling individual ICC profiles for both monitors
- Dual monitors will need to be physically connected to individual ports on a single graphics card setup...no splitters or switches!

This is great info. Thanks. I am not sure how to check all that on my computer. So when getting something ready for the printers I would just unplug my "personal monitor", calibrate my photography monitor and than send make adjustments on that before plugging in the old monitor?

 

[Summer75]

So I did get it both monitors calibrated. I do have two graphic cards and so all went well.... expect the calibration didn't match my prints from the printer good enough. In the end I had to take my "photography monitor" and adjust the monitor settings with less yellow, less red, less contrast, and less brightness. With these adjustments I can now use my calibration system and now I have a monitor that is nicely calibrated with the prints I got from the printer..... almost exactly (just abit too much saturation). The only problem is that the screen is icky and dark and I can't properly look at facebook or my online photos as the blacks are so heavy! I have to use my other monitor for my online viewing of my photos (calibrated about like it would look on my phone for online viewing), and my photography (now calibrated monitor) for editing for the printers. This does not seem right to me. The printers verses online can't be such a difference in brightness would there???

 

[Derrel]

My suggestion would be to get rid of that old crap monitor, and start working on a high-quality screen. Last night I switched back to my old Apple 30 inch cinema display, and it is so much better than my iMac. It had been about two years since I had looked at anything on the30 inch cinema display, and I'd forgotten how good a 2480 pixel-wide photograph looks on a big, high-quality screen.

 

[Derrel]

I see absolutely no reason to work on a bad screen, and then think that you can just quickly get stuff ready for the printers on a decent screen.

 

[Summer75]

I see absolutely no reason to work on a bad screen, and then think that you can just quickly get stuff ready for the printers on a decent screen.

Yes, thankyou. I think it is time to get a new screen. I have heard good things about IPS screens. Do you have experience with those monitors?