Calibrating

[SabrinaO]

How do I calibrate my monitor? What do YOU all use to calibrate? How different do photos look on a monitor thats calibrated vs. not calibrated?

 

[Ken Rockwell Fan]

What kind of computer/monitor do you have?

These work great if you are on a budget.

Datacolor Spyder3Express Color Calibration System

Some reading about the subject.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/colorvisionspyder.htm

http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/why-pros-use-mac.htm

 

[SabrinaO]

What kind of computer/monitor do you have?

These work great if you are on a budget.

Datacolor Spyder3Express Color Calibration System

What?? It cost's money to calibrate??? :thumbdown:
I have a Mac...do they come calibrated?

 

[Ken Rockwell Fan]

Yes unless you know someone who has a calibrator and will let you borrow it.

 

[SabrinaO]

Yes unless you know someone who has a calibrator and will let you borrow it.

Or maybe I can buy one locally... calibrate and return it?

Geeze I didn't know this was going to cost me more money. Is there a huge difference if a monitor isn't calibrated compared to a print?

 

[SabrinaO]

Do macs come already calibrated?

 

[GeorgieGirl]

Mac's do come calibrated, but they are not really calibrated for photographic purposes.

 

[GeorgieGirl]

Here is a link so a recent thread on this topic with examples of calibration differences and software. Hope this helps.

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/landscape-cityscape/223413-help-calibration.html

 

[Ken Rockwell Fan]

Sweet! That's the cheapest I've seen... I might have to do some review searching on that one :sillysmi:

Have you used it personally?

No I havn't. I don't need it. I'm on a Mac. All I had to do was change my gamma setting. I do have a friend that has one though and he swears by his. He does a lot of color printing.

 

[ann]

I use a Color Munki, and yes images look different as will the prints .

Some folks calibrate their camera to the monitor to the printer/ scanner. It depends on how you feel about the quality of your work.

If you just taking photos of your family etc. it may not be important . If your a professional, meaning selling your work rather it be commerical , art, whatever, it is important.

 

[Ken Rockwell Fan]

I'm on a mac too... but the problem is that I'm using a PC monitor because I'm currently using a Mac Mini

And the monitor is certainly not calibrated from what I can tell.

I'm on a PC monitor too. Just follow this.

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]

Easy Color Calibration

[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Every Mac has had built-in software monitor color calibration for years. [/FONT]​

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Of course I've always set my Macs to 2.2 gamma, which oddly isn't the default. If you leave your Mac at its default of 1.8 things may look too light. Set it to 2.2, which is only a few clicks away (top left blue apple > System Refs > Displays > Color > Calibrate (choose 2.2 gamma when asked)), and everything looks great and matches the rest of the consumer world of sRGB, photo lab printers and the Internet. [/FONT]​

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]I use a hardware calibrator, the Color vision Spryer. Unlike CRTs of old, every LCD ought to be calibrated. [/FONT]​

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Macs default to 1.8 from their historical use in publishing, long before the Internet and Photoshop went consumer. It's kind of the same reason why railroad tracks are still at the same spacing as the wheels of Roman chariots and the sharpening filter in Photoshop is still called un sharp mask. [/FONT]​

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Today Macs ought to default to 2.2, but oh well. Pros know better.​

[/FONT]​

Really loving being surrounded by women in this thread. TPF rules!

 

[Travis F]

Geeze I didn't know this was going to cost me more money. Is there a huge difference if a monitor isn't calibrated compared to a print?

The difference will depend how far off your colors currently are. They may be spot on or not....

I use an inexpensive pantone huey to calibrate. It has worked very well for me. Prints always come back looking like I intended them to.

Travis

 

[SabrinaO]

I'm on a mac too... but the problem is that I'm using a PC monitor because I'm currently using a Mac Mini

And the monitor is certainly not calibrated from what I can tell.

I'm on a PC monitor too. Just follow this.

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]

Easy Color Calibration

[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Every Mac has had built-in software monitor color calibration for years. [/FONT]​

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Of course I've always set my Macs to 2.2 gamma, which oddly isn't the default. If you leave your Mac at its default of 1.8 things may look too light. Set it to 2.2, which is only a few clicks away (top left blue apple > System Refs > Displays > Color > Calibrate (choose 2.2 gamma when asked)), and everything looks great and matches the rest of the consumer world of sRGB, photo lab printers and the Internet. [/FONT]​

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]I use a hardware calibrator, the Color vision Spryer. Unlike CRTs of old, every LCD ought to be calibrated. [/FONT]​

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Macs default to 1.8 from their historical use in publishing, long before the Internet and Photoshop went consumer. It's kind of the same reason why railroad tracks are still at the same spacing as the wheels of Roman chariots and the sharpening filter in Photoshop is still called un sharp mask. [/FONT]​

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Today Macs ought to default to 2.2, but oh well. Pros know better.[/FONT]​

Really loving being surrounded by women in this thread. TPF rules!

Soo... what is Ken Rockwell saying? If I have a mac...all I need to do is set the gamma to 2.2 and it should match printers? But then he went on to say he bought calibrator... so which is it? Basically, I have a Mac and I set the gamma to 2.2(default), so I should be straight? Seriously, is a calibrated monitor REALLY REALLY needed? Once again, I have a new mac.

 

[Ken Rockwell Fan]

Soo... what is Ken Rockwell saying? If I have a mac...all I need to do is set the gamma to 2.2 and it should match printers? But then he went on to say he bought calibrator... so which is it? Basically, I have a Mac and I set the gamma to 2.2(default), so I should be straight? Seriously, is a calibrated monitor REALLY REALLY needed? Once again, I have a new mac.

If you have a stock Mac display all you need to do is change the gamma setting. If you have a aftermarket display then you can use the calibration program built in to the Mac. A calibrated monitor is needed to get accurate colors. If you are doing professional photography or printing then it is a necessity in my opinion to buy and use a hardware calibrator.

 

[Village Idiot]

Soo... what is Ken Rockwell saying? If I have a mac...all I need to do is set the gamma to 2.2 and it should match printers? But then he went on to say he bought calibrator... so which is it? Basically, I have a Mac and I set the gamma to 2.2(default), so I should be straight? Seriously, is a calibrated monitor REALLY REALLY needed? Once again, I have a new mac.

If you have a stock Mac display all you need to do is change the gamma setting. If you have a aftermarket display then you can use the calibration program built in to the Mac. A calibrated monitor is needed to get accurate colors. If you are doing professional photography or printing then it is a necessity in my opinion to buy and use a hardware calibrator.

Bull ****.

Run a hardware calibrating device over an OS X install that you've done by eyeing it with the OS X calibration. There will be a difference.

I run a Spyder 3 Pro which calibrates the monitor and then adjusts the profile according to ambient lighting in the room.

And even then, some monitors can't be truly calibrated. A TN panel is nearly impossible to get calibrated, from what I understand, vs. an IPS panel.