OK so Calibrated my new 27" iMac Screen

[Chris399]

It looks like crap, and somewhat dull compared to the built in sRGB IEC1966-2.1 profile. I am using a spider pro 4 and followed all instructions with the exception of setting the Kelvin to 6500, which I cannot figure out. After calibration, the screen seems to have a dingy grayish/yellow cast and not near as bright. Can I test the screen colors by holding up a printed photograph to compare???

Also, during calibration, the program asked me to set the brightness to the "middle level" I did this using the slider under the display setting, is this correct?

Thanks in advance,

Chris

 

[MLeeK]

Does that dingy looking screen appear to match your prints? Just remember that you are looking at a lighted screen vs a print that is not back-lit when comparing.

 

[Chris399]

MLeek - I'm trying to compare to some prints now. I am struggling because the room lights are behind the screen creating a dark photo -vs- the backlit screen. I am going to turn the monitor around and see if that help.

 

[KmH]

Turning the screen around will change the ambient light falling on it, and you'll need to re-calibrate the screen.

 

[Garbz]

Err sure it asked you to turn the brightness down and not the contrast?

Also what kind of things is the software calibrating. If you've set the software in a way that you want to compare to a specific colour space like AdobeRGB or to prints they often impose a contrast ratio limit as well as a brightness limit on the images, likewise with any DICOM calibration. This is the first ticket to a dull screen to match prints.

Your monitor should in theory be calibrated only to the bare minimum. Leave the colour temperature as close to native as possible if you're in a dark room. Leave the brightness and contrast ratio at maximum (not the contrast setting on the monitor, that's normally to be set at 50% or 75% as I found with recent Dell monitors). This way the calibrator should only be adjusting the colours to be consistent across the tone curve and the brightness shouldn't be TOO much affected. Remember the more severe the adjustment the more of the brightness is going to be missing from your monitor.

It may help if you post a screenshot of the results page from your calibration software. Not sure about your software but mine shows what correction curve was applied to my screen.

 

[Chris399]

Keith - Good Point

Garbz - I'll have to look at the settings etc. tonight when I get home. i will try to post the processing report.

Get back to you


Chris