Overexposed - Underexposed - Monitor callibration

[Robin_Usagani]

Ever since I started shooting, I had never calibrated my monitor until recently. I always try to set my monitor close to my iphone and ipad. That seems to do the trick. I am not as concern about the color as much as the brightness/exposure. It always drives me nuts when I cc someone work and I tell them it is overexposed and they come back to me and say.. do you calibrate your monitor? Well guess what, do you rather have an image that looks correct on a "calibrated" screen, or do you rather have an image that looks correct on the most used mobile phone and tablet in the world?

Now I have a brand new laptop with non glossy screen, I decided to buy spyder color pro and calibrate it. IMO, my calibration vs iPhone and iPad (factory setting brightness level) is pretty dead on. If you are new to photography, I highly suggest my method. I even printed bunch of stuff at costco, they all look pretty close too.

Now that I have a calibrated monitor, which by the way look identical to my iphone and ipad, a few people just criticized my latest boudoir photos being overexposed. This got me thinking.. is buying a calibration tool really that worth it? So far I think it is a waste of money. Setting my monitor close to iphone and ipad is good enough IMO. Do I need to be THAT guy and reply back, "Do you have a calibrated monitor?". I don't even know anymore. All I know is this... my boudoir photos look good on MY monitor, MY iphone, My ipad and the album I printed . If you dont calibrate your monitor, I highly suggest comparing your monitor to factory setting apple devices.

 

[cgipson1]

Ever since I started shooting, I had never calibrated my monitor until recently. I always try to set my monitor close to my iphone and ipad. That seems to do the trick. I am not as concern about the color as much as the brightness/exposure. It always drives me nuts when I cc someone work and I tell them it is overexposed and they come back to me and say.. do you calibrate your monitor? Well guess what, do you rather have an image that looks correct on a "calibrated" screen, or do you rather have an image that looks correct on the most used mobile phone and tablet in the world?

Now I have a brand new laptop with non glossy screen, I decided to buy spyder color pro and calibrate it. IMO, my calibration vs iPhone and iPad (factory setting brightness level) is pretty dead on. If you are new to photography, I highly suggest my method. I even printed bunch of stuff at costco, they all look pretty close too.

Now that I have a calibrated monitor, which by the way look identical to my iphone and ipad, a few people just criticized my latest boudoir photos being overexposed. This got me thinking.. is buying a calibration tool really that worth it? So far I think it is a waste of money. Setting my monitor close to iphone and ipad is good enough IMO. Do I need to be THAT guy and reply back, "Do you have a calibrated monitor?". I don't even know anymore. All I know is this... my boudoir photos look good on MY monitor, MY iphone, My ipad and the album I printed

. If you dont calibrate your monitor, I highly suggest comparing your monitor to factory setting apple devices.

Guess what, Robin! Professional print labs CALIBRATE their equipment to a standard! (even NON-Professionals labs typically do this also!) Which is why calibrating your monitor will allow them to give you prints that look exactly like what you see on your calibrated monitor. It works together!

And if close enough is good enough for you... fine, but it may not be close enough for others. If another persons Ipad or Samsung galaxy is different from yours... and they match their monitor to those... wow, your shots will look like crap on their screens!

Calibration helps to help everyone see something similar, gives us common ground, as much as possible... so everything looks good on all screens.

Maybe we should just tell the PRO print labs to start matching their output to a frigging PHONE? Yea.. right! lol! (That would be like using Facebook as the definition of Professional Quality, in other words?)

Your idea might be better than no calibration at all.. but not better than true calibration!

(And I apologize if it sounds like I am being a smartA$$... it is not intentional! Too frigging much caffiene! BBBRRrrrrrrrrr!)

 

[cgipson1]

Oops.. I am being logical again...

curious as to what others think on this topic too!

 

[Josh66]

It always drives me nuts when I cc someone work and I tell them it is overexposed and they come back to me and say.. do you calibrate your monitor? Well guess what, do you rather have an image that looks correct on a "calibrated" screen, or do you rather have an image that looks correct on the most used mobile phone and tablet in the world?

Sorry bud, but I would rather my **** be right, period. I don't care who makes your tablet - if it's off, it's off.

Just today, someone here said that the WB in a photo of mine was off. It wasn't. No offense to that guy (he didn't realize his calibration was off), but you can't really comment on colors unless you are sure you're seeing the same thing the photographer is seeing. It's either right, or it's not.

 

[Robin_Usagani]

Fair enough Josh. So I have calibrated my monitor and printed the photos I shared and I still have comment about overexposed.

Not everyone is willing to spend $ just to calibrate their monitor. What I said about comparing it to an iphone and ipad is still a good idea though. Do you rather have no adjustment at all? Or do you rather compare it with an iphone? Some people have the brightness of their monitor turned soo high or so low.

These websites work too.
5 Online Tools to Help Calibrate Your Monitor

 

[Tee]

All I know is this... my boudoir photos look good on MY monitor, MY iphone, My ipad and the album I printed .

Your exposure was fine. It just wasn't in alignment with what viewers want. Remember Rub? She used to post lots of bright boudoir. People expect boudoir to be soft and moody. Brighten that sheet up, I say.

 

[cgipson1]

Fair enough Josh. So I have calibrated my monitor and printed the photos I shared and I still have comment about overexposed.

Not everyone is willing to spend $ just to calibrate their monitor. What I said about comparing it to an iphone and ipad is still a good idea though. Do you rather have no adjustment at all? Or do you rather compare it with an iphone? Some people have the brightness of their monitor turned soo high or so low.

These websites work too.
5 Online Tools to Help Calibrate Your Monitor

Since the brightness can be adjusted on Ipads and Iphones... where do you suggest everyone set that too... before using it to adjust their monitor? Still would need to be the same for everyone... or it won't work.

 

[Josh66]

Robin, check this out:
dispcalGUI?Open Source Display Calibration and Characterization powered by Argyll CMS

You will need to install this first though:
Argyll Color Management System Home Page

Calibration doesn't have to be expensive.

 

[Robin_Usagani]

I said, factory setting.

Fair enough Josh. So I have calibrated my monitor and printed the photos I shared and I still have comment about overexposed.

Not everyone is willing to spend $ just to calibrate their monitor. What I said about comparing it to an iphone and ipad is still a good idea though. Do you rather have no adjustment at all? Or do you rather compare it with an iphone? Some people have the brightness of their monitor turned soo high or so low.

These websites work too.
5 Online Tools to Help Calibrate Your Monitor

Since the brightness can be adjusted on Ipads and Iphones... where do you suggest everyone set that too... before using it to adjust their monitor? Still would need to be the same for everyone... or it won't work.

 

[Gavjenks]

Guess what, Robin! Professional print labs...

That's nice if you print your photos.

What if you shoot photos intended mainly to be displayed on the internet, though? Desktop backgrounds, stock scenes for online articles, blah blah.

If so, then it may in fact BETTER not to calibrate your monitor, because all the people viewing your image will be using whatever their factory-standard calibrations are. You'd be better off buying whatever the most common monitor type is, or two or three of the most common devices, and adjusting your colors to look best on that/those, even if it looks bad on a calibrated monitor.

Sorry bud, but I would rather my **** be right, period. I don't care who makes your tablet - if it's off, it's off.

The people who care are people who look at your work on their tablets, obviously.

Again, if your main audience uses tablets, and you calibrate your equipment away from what they have and toward a more "correct" monitor (according to printing standards), you are effectively breaking it and guaranteeing that you're going to get wrong, inaccurate images.





Bottom line: There is no such thing as a "correct" (universally) calibration. The correct calibration is whatever best matches the situation in which your work will be viewed most.

 

[Robin_Usagani]

^^^ thats what I meant.. I am not a good writer.

 

[Josh66]

Guess what, Robin! Professional print labs...

That's nice if you print your photos.

What if you shoot photos intended mainly to be displayed on the internet, though? Desktop backgrounds, stock scenes for online articles, blah blah.

If so, then it may in fact BETTER not to calibrate your monitor, because all the people viewing your image will be using whatever their factory-standard calibrations are. You'd be better off buying whatever the most common monitor type is, or two or three of the most common devices, and adjusting your colors to look best on that/those, even if it looks bad on a calibrated monitor.

Sorry bud, but I would rather my **** be right, period. I don't care who makes your tablet - if it's off, it's off.

The people who care are people who look at your work on their tablets, obviously.

Again, if your main audience uses tablets, and you calibrate your equipment away from what they have and toward a more "correct" monitor (according to printing standards), you are effectively breaking it and guaranteeing that you're going to get wrong, inaccurate images.





Bottom line: There is no such thing as a "correct" (universally) calibration. The correct calibration is whatever best matches the situation in which your work will be viewed most.

Better not to calibrate? Are you insane?

If you're only posting to the web, calibration is arguably even more important.

 

[Gavjenks]

If you're only posting to the web, calibration is arguably even more important.

If calibration were designed to bring your monitor to the median color space of all popular manufactured viewing devices in the modern era, yes.

But that's not what typical calibration does. It pushes you toward a standard that was arbitrarily decided somewhere and is used in professional circles like printers, which may or may not equate to what the typical internet viewer sees.

So if your work is mainly intended for the internet, you should either:
A) Calibrate to the central tendency of the consumer electronics market (mobile and laptops and desktops), rather than to printing standards, or if you can't find any official body that maintains that information,
B) Own or borrow a handful of the most widely bought viewing screens (e.g., Mac, Dell, and Lenovo computer monitors, and iphone, ipad) and attempt this yourself. Or
C) With limited funds, just calibrate toward whatever the most most one or two popular devices are (probably the iphone, but I'm not entirely sure. Easy enough to research)

 

[cgipson1]

I said, factory setting.

Fair enough Josh. So I have calibrated my monitor and printed the photos I shared and I still have comment about overexposed.

Not everyone is willing to spend $ just to calibrate their monitor. What I said about comparing it to an iphone and ipad is still a good idea though. Do you rather have no adjustment at all? Or do you rather compare it with an iphone? Some people have the brightness of their monitor turned soo high or so low.

These websites work too.
5 Online Tools to Help Calibrate Your Monitor

Since the brightness can be adjusted on Ipads and Iphones... where do you suggest everyone set that too... before using it to adjust their monitor? Still would need to be the same for everyone... or it won't work.

What is the factory setting for Brightness? No one can ever change it or they would be off, right?

On a bright sunny outside day... they need to increase brightness... when reading or surfing in a dark room, they usually dim it some.

The Ipad has a pretty wide range of brightness too....



Both shot at the same manual camera settings... no change except to the brightness on the IPAD....

 

[Josh66]

So, let's just dumb everything down to the lowest common denominator, that's how corporate America works, why should anything else be different?