Screen Calibration help!

shaheedjoed · May 17, 2016

Hey there! I recently calibrated my screen with my new Spyder 5 Express and now the colors seem off and my black and white images are very warm and almost sepia-ish. I was wondering if anyone who is accustomed with screen calibrations or has a calibrated screen can figure out if I did something wrong and if so, is there anyway to fix this? Thanks in advance

Here's a link to my website: dewarderphoto

tirediron · May 17, 2016

Are your files colour-corrected (accurate white balance)?

shaheedjoed · May 17, 2016

I don't believe my white balance is the most accurate... When I bring them into photoshop or camera raw, I have to fiddle around a bit before the colors are normal.

fmw · May 18, 2016

Make some images. Do a manual white balance with a white card and shoot the same subjects again. Then you will know.

table1349 · May 18, 2016

Making fine prints in your digital darkroom: Getting started

wfooshee · May 18, 2016

If the calibration changed your display to any extent at all, then yes, your images look different now. That doesn't make them any "wronger" than they were before, you just know about it now......

Oddly enough, I've always found my Samsung phone to be a pretty good "Mk-I eyeball" reference. I upload an image to flickr and view it on the phone with the flickr app. I got to trusting that way before I trusted my calibrated monitor, because my monitor was so far off before calibration. I didn't believe it was right until I viewed it on the phone and it looked good, because I'd been using the display on the PC for 2 or 3 years without calibration beyond the built-in Windows eyeballing it color "correction." ("Make the gray look truly gray, with no cast of blue, green, or red." There ain't nobody can do that....)

dannylightning · May 20, 2016

well ill tell you this, my laptop screen has a very blueish tint to it, i never noticed it till i got a monitor to hook up to the laptop, and i could see how different they wre in color. i got the colormonkey calibrator and calibrated my screen, now my white are white and not blueish. both of my screens look almost exactly the same now.. also my cell phone must be calibrated pretty well cus both my screens and my cell phone make colors look the same when i view the same photo on all 3.

before i calibrated my screen if i was adjusting my white balance i was probably making it worse. with my calibration tool there are a few different setting i can choose the calibrate the screen.. some of them make the screen look really bad, i used what they said were the recommended settings and i think every thing looks nice.

when i send the prints off to the print shop they come back looking very close to what i see on my screen, they color correct your photos so they adjust them to what they think looks so its not going to be a exact match since they do that, one day i should get a few prints that are not color corrected and see how close they match up to my screen..

there are color charts you can use. you hold the print of the chart up to the same photo on your screen and see if the colors match..

gckless · May 20, 2016

You know, I recently calibrated my monitor with the Colormunki Smile and color was great after, but it made it way too bright for some reason. Processed a whole set of images too dark because of that before I caught it. Not sure why that happened, but something to look out for.

As mentioned, uploading to the web somewhere and viewing on a good phone is a decent eye-o-meter comparison. A great way to do it would be to order a couple test prints (or print them yourself if that's what you do) and fine-tune from there.

crimbfighter · May 31, 2016

gckless said:
You know, I recently calibrated my monitor with the Colormunki Smile and color was great after, but it made it way too bright for some reason. Processed a whole set of images too dark because of that before I caught it. Not sure why that happened, but something to look out for.

This could have been caused by what I think is a common error on the part of the user, one that I've made myself. When calibrating your monitor, an important aspect to consider is ambient light in the room where you are calibrating. The brightness, type, and color of the ambient light can change throughout the day if for example you have a window in the room, or if you are editing at different times of the day. If you calibrate during the day when say there is bright ambient light coming in through the window, then the calibration will compensate and request you to increase the brightness of your monitor to even out the exposure. That could have accounted for your brightness issue if this were the case. There can even be issues using two different types of light bulbs in your room, or having a colored window curtain that puts off color cast..

Bottom line, make sure that you are editing under the same conditions each time as when you calibrated your monitor. That might mean using blackout curtains on a window during the day, or making a monitor hood, etc. Just a thought.

KmH · May 31, 2016

shaheedjoed said:
I don't believe my white balance is the most accurate... When I bring them into photoshop or camera raw, I have to fiddle around a bit before the colors are normal.

How do you judge that the changes you've made result in 'normal' colors?

You get what you pay for:
The ColoMunki Smile is an inexpensive entry-level calibration device and software. I'm not sure the Smile has an ambient light detector.
The ColorMunki Display is more advanced, more costly, hardware and software. The Display has X-Rite's Ambient Light Smart Control.
The iDisplay Pro is a professional grade tool and software and is priced accordingly.