Moniter calibration issues

[MikeAldrich]

Hey, so my bossman recently upgraded my computer since I started doing all of our product photography and image editing, I now have a shiny new HP Pavilion 27xi. My problem is that while the images look spot on on my monitor, they look off on other monitors. I've viewed the images on 3 other computers besides mine (1 laptop, 2 desktops) and the image varies. I know the images are going to vary from monitor to monitor, but the images I'm working on are going to go on our website and in our brochures, so it's important they are accurate. Should I trust in my monitor or could there be something that is off? Should I get a monitor calibrator? If so, any suggestions? It's really frustrating me to spend so much time getting things right just to have someone come up and tell me the products look too pink or too red or too light. I'm not sure how to fix the issues when all looks good on my end.

 

[Msteelio91]

When dealing with business it may be worth it to calibrate if the images are that sensitive. You always want to shoot for the most realistic match to natural light when dealing with a screen. People like to use the fancy modes such as "theater" and "games" but they skew the colors and that could be a problem for editing. That said, from the factory the screen should be fine, that's a good monitor too. I would say it's more likely that the other screens are the ones that are "off".

 

[71M]

Hey, so my bossman recently upgraded my computer since I started doing all of our product photography and image editing, I now have a shiny new HP Pavilion 27xi. My problem is that while the images look spot on on my monitor, they look off on other monitors. I've viewed the images on 3 other computers besides mine (1 laptop, 2 desktops) and the image varies. I know the images are going to vary from monitor to monitor, but the images I'm working on are going to go on our website and in our brochures, so it's important they are accurate. Should I trust in my monitor or could there be something that is off? Should I get a monitor calibrator? If so, any suggestions? It's really frustrating me to spend so much time getting things right just to have someone come up and tell me the products look too pink or too red or too light. I'm not sure how to fix the issues when all looks good on my end.

For this kind of thing - commercial services - you need (absolutely) to be calibrated and profiled. You're letting yourself down, if you're not.

 

[MikeAldrich]

Hey, so my bossman recently upgraded my computer since I started doing all of our product photography and image editing, I now have a shiny new HP Pavilion 27xi. My problem is that while the images look spot on on my monitor, they look off on other monitors. I've viewed the images on 3 other computers besides mine (1 laptop, 2 desktops) and the image varies. I know the images are going to vary from monitor to monitor, but the images I'm working on are going to go on our website and in our brochures, so it's important they are accurate. Should I trust in my monitor or could there be something that is off? Should I get a monitor calibrator? If so, any suggestions? It's really frustrating me to spend so much time getting things right just to have someone come up and tell me the products look too pink or too red or too light. I'm not sure how to fix the issues when all looks good on my end.

For this kind of thing - commercial services - you need (absolutely) to be calibrated and profiled. You're letting yourself down, if you're not.

Yeah, I agree, I was planning on getting a calibrator at some point, but I thought my new monitor would be fairly accurate. I'm defiantly feeling let down by my images not being represented properly on other computers. I'm not all that familiar with monitor calibrators, do you have suggestions as to what to look for? And this may be dumb question, but what do you mean by profiled?

 

[71M]

Hey, so my bossman recently upgraded my computer since I started doing all of our product photography and image editing, I now have a shiny new HP Pavilion 27xi. My problem is that while the images look spot on on my monitor, they look off on other monitors. I've viewed the images on 3 other computers besides mine (1 laptop, 2 desktops) and the image varies. I know the images are going to vary from monitor to monitor, but the images I'm working on are going to go on our website and in our brochures, so it's important they are accurate. Should I trust in my monitor or could there be something that is off? Should I get a monitor calibrator? If so, any suggestions? It's really frustrating me to spend so much time getting things right just to have someone come up and tell me the products look too pink or too red or too light. I'm not sure how to fix the issues when all looks good on my end.

For this kind of thing - commercial services - you need (absolutely) to be calibrated and profiled. You're letting yourself down, if you're not.

Yeah, I agree, I was planning on getting a calibrator at some point, but I thought my new monitor would be fairly accurate. I'm defiantly feeling let down by my images not being represented properly on other computers. I'm not all that familiar with monitor calibrators, do you have suggestions as to what to look for? And this may be dumb question, but what do you mean by profiled?

Well, the output intent - the printer; excuse me if i've not understood fully what you're doing, but as well as being fully confident that your screen is calibrated, you need to be also confident that you are matched to your printer device.

 

[71M]

'Brochures'

These things may be acceptably similar - your monitor is 6500k, calibrated sRGB and your print output accepts that as source data; or your printer is more suited, optimal, as XYZ (output device specific colour profile). There are custom profiles for certain printers/chemistry - it may not be 'critical' to what you do, there's no way of knowing, as someone not involved. - you need to know; you need to ask.

 

[IzzieK]

Here what you need to know...
Calibrating Your Monitor to Your Printer | The Digital Photo Experience

I hope this will help you...

 

[ruben_c]

Every screen needs a calibration, no mather how good or bad, if you want reliable colours. I use a Spyder4 myself to calibrate mine, so would highly recommend to get a sensor like this to calibrate your screens. Not only for web, but also when you print or order prints.

 

[MikeAldrich]

'Brochures'

These things may be acceptably similar - your monitor is 6500k, calibrated sRGB and your print output accepts that as source data; or your printer is more suited, optimal, as XYZ (output device specific colour profile). There are custom profiles for certain printers/chemistry - it may not be 'critical' to what you do, there's no way of knowing, as someone not involved. - you need to know; you need to ask.

Oh yes, Profiled=Printer. We don't actually print the brochures ourselves, we send those out. The printers set everything up and send us proofs, we also send a sample of the finish so they can do any tweaks on the images to get the colors right.

I have had some personal prints done from WHCC (White House Custom Color) that were edited on my new monitor and they came back spot on. I'm going to look into monitor calibrators today, any suggestions?

 

[IzzieK]

Data Color Spyder will be good ....

 

[MikeAldrich]

Here what you need to know...
Calibrating Your Monitor to Your Printer | The Digital Photo Experience

I hope this will help you...

Good read, thanks.

 

[KmH]

You will need to calibrate your display on a regular basis. The colors of our photos will look different on other displays, unless those other displays have the same ambient light falling on them and are calibrated exactly like your display.

It's unfortunate they got you that inexpensive IPS display. It has a 16:9 aspect ratio and is more suited to video than to still photographs. Most DSLR cameras make 3:2 aspect ratio images (13.5:9).

HP doesn't even list color specifications for that display so it likely can only display 8-bit color (about 98% of the sRGB color space).

Adobe Photoshop minimum requirements for a display is 16-bit color (about 98% of the larger Adobe RGB color space) - System requirements | Photoshop

I recommend X-rite calibration devices, software, and color aids like their Passport ColorChecker.