Calibration: I need help!!

[cleyvosier]

I have a pantone huey calibrator.......i signed up for white house custom color so that i can be a client......the pic that was on my monitor is brighter than the prints they sent me to compare...........when i calibrate with my huey.......everything is brighter.......was wondering how do i set my white point & gamma with the huey...or should i just go in & create a display profile myself on my macbook pro......i want to get the optimum print resolution so that it all matches

[tim]

Your post's hard to read. How about using sentences instead of .... all over.

LCDs are backlit, they'll always look brighter than a print. What does the histogram of the image you sent look like? Have you not created a display profile? That's the whole point of having a hardware calibrator.

I understand color well enough, but when I use a calibrator I just follow the on screen instructions and things work out fine. I don't use ambient light sensors.

[Titus213]

I don't think the Huey can adjust the monitor's brightness. I know I went to the Spyder3Elite to get that function. When I calibrated I was amazed at how much I had to turn my iMac down and I'm talking well over 50%. Right now it's down to 80 cd/m2.

[Lowner]

My calibrator will not directly alter the monitor brightness (aka luminance), but it WILL guide me by telling me what the target CD/m2 is, and what I've actually set, so I know while fiddling with the brightness control whether I'm getting close or not.

Dave (Titus213) and I seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet over this although we use very different kit to achieve our purposes.

[Wilt]

Monitor vs. print is analogous to what film shooters had to cope with...slides were viewed with TRANMITTED light, while the prints made from them were viewed with REFLECTED light, so it is inherently impossible to make the print appear 'just like the slide'.

Monitors are viewed with transmitted light (regardless of LCD or LED monitor...the only difference is the source of that transmitted light in each type of monitor!), too. And while software can send digital instructions from 0-0-0 to 256-256-256, you need to set initial Brightness and Contrast of the monitor via its own hardware control knobs to within a certain starting range to establish how dark 0-0-0 appears and how bright 256-256-256 appears.

Calibration is primarily for control of Hue representation, so that if the monitor phosphors are not absolutely balanced, the software knows it really needs to send the code 128-128-127 because the blue phosphor otherwise is a bit brighter and simply sending 128-128-128 would be perceived by you as 'too blue' compared to 128-128-128 on the print.

[Hopelessdfilms]

If you are attempting to use a laptop screen as a calibrated screen to match prints to, you are in for a world of trouble.

With that said, there are ways to get the screen 'close' to what your output will be.

First off, find yourself a very dark dimly lit room.

Go into this dark room.

Drop your laptop backlighting to the 1st - 3rd level of brightness (on the dark side) This is a good starting point.

Depending on your print output workflow and settings the following may not make sense for your workflow.

It is a good idea to aim for 100cd/m2
Depending on your workflow and output papers, aim around a white point of 6500k
Gamma @ 2.2


After you've created this custom icc profile, make sure that your computer is actively using this profile.


The next step is to learn how to accurately read histograms, as well as reading your RGB scale. I prefer to have the info tab in photoshop always open so I can highlight an area of my images and see what the rgb scale is reading at.

A general idea is this,

any values higher than 240 will have no detail when printed. So 240-255 = pure white

any values lower than 30-35 will likely have no detail when printed. So 35-0 = pure black

This is just a general rule and will change depending on the printer, and paper or material being printed on. This is also not the case when viewing a file on a computer screen.... as most screens (good ones at least) will be able to replicate detail and data in a much wider range than prints.

When you are comparing your print to your screen, what's your screen brightness set at? I'm guessing it is set quite high.

Try creating a new icc profile and sending a new file over to whcc. Those guys are awesome and will work with you as much as they can to help you nail a good workflow with them.

hope this helps,

just my .02c

[Chips]

Rather than make the irritating rookie mistake of starting a new thread, I'll just ask for advice here since I'm having a difficult time figuring out where to find suggestions for an ideal/appropriate monitor calibrator.

I want to start from the beginning, be it books or threads here. I was able to get CS6 Extended, with a educational discount and finally stepped up to a full RRS support for my gear. I want to start printing with my Pixma 9000mk2, but I'm wasting paper and ink not knowing how to change what I see on the monitor to get the desired print.

The new Retina Display MBP I ordered should be here tomorrow, so I'm fully devoted to learning how to use photoshop (complete rookie) on that laptop and hopefully being able to finally print like a capable amateur. I know that Photoshop doesn't fully support the new resolution of Retina Display, but I figured it would be a good start.

Any pointers in the right direction would be awesome, for which calibrator hardware to get, and maybe some links to what I need to learn. I'm seeing some good links in folks signature lines that look promising as well.

[tim]

Chips - Spyder 4 Express and check out my book thread. The books that'll help you will be Scott Kelby books for Photoshop, Real World RAW (the theory applies to all raw converters and CS6), and Real World Color Management. Learn to use Adobe Bridge, or Lightroom, but I like Bridge much better.

[bpalermini]

I just calibrated a Retina display Macbook for the first time yesterday. What I found confirmed what a friend who does color correction for television and film says. The Reitna displays are very close, out of the box, to industry standard color.

My calibrations (SpyderElite 3) barely changed the look of my monitor and I mean not by much. I need to flip back and forth between calibrated and uncalibrated a number of times to see what it did and even then, I'm not sure if the calibrated is that accurate due to the variables in the calibration routine.

Again, my friend says people in the video and film industries are using Retina display iPads and now Macbooks and all but completely trusting what they see on those screens. He is excited that eventually everyone will look at his work on screens that are as accurate as his. He has a pro coming to calibrate his workstation monitor (Dell 24 inch) and the 50" plasma display he uses for customer viewing this week and he says his iPad will look just like them.

[Chips]

Thanks! I'm heading out to Barnes and Noble now, since I have a gift card and figured a photoshop for dummies would be a good start. I have 5 of Kelby's other books that I love, but I need to start from square one.

There's a Best Buy next to it, I doubt they'll have a decent quality unit on the shelf, but it will be easy to check. I hate buying things twice, so I'd rather have something that is easy to set up, yet works best for my applications.

Thanks again.

[Chips]

Oh, and I went straight to your book thread on you sig right after my first post. Great stuff. Thanks again.

[tim]

I suggested the Spyder 4 express for two reasons:
- Compatiable with most screens, including LED (not all are)
- Easy to use.

[Chips]

I'll have to order it thru Amazon, but looking at OS compatibility shows that the latest version is supports for Mac is Lion. Would it be safe to say it would also work for Mountain Lion? I have an email in to customer support but I probably wont hear back till a day or two.

[tim]

If it doesn't work immediately I'm sure Spyder will issue a patch quite quickly. Spyder 4 was only released a couple of months ago, and Apple will be a big platform for them.

[Titus213]

I use a Mac too and prior to Lion the SpyderElite 3 with the latest Spyder software automatically set the monitor brightness to a target level you selected. I read somewhere that Lion caused that functionality to stop and the adjustment is now manual for luminance. So far it hasn't been an issue as the target is easy enough to achieve. I'm waiting on Mountain Lion to see what else might not work quite as expected so I'll be interested in what customer support tells you.