Maybe I was confused with what the "ambient light" measuring does on a calibrator

[TheHoff]

I just bought a Spyder3 Elite. Maybe I'm confused... I thought that the ambient light measuring device would detect when the ambient levels change and adjust the profile automatically.

All it seems to do is "warn" me that the light levels have changed and tells me to recalibrate. That really isn't helpful at all. I'm not so blind that I can't see that it is now much darker than it was around noon.

So am I missing something obvious? Will one of the others -- EyeOne, ColorMunki, etc -- do a better job at adjusting automatically when the ambient changes?

[Damo77]

I've got no time for that "ambient light adjustment" business. If you're serious about it, put some heavy curtains, or even cardboard, over your windows, so the light doesn't change.

[Pete]

The ambient light setting on the Spyder 3 also confused me. (I usually work in my living room where the light changes all the time (natural light in the daytime, artificial in the evening).

Regardless of the time of day, attempting to calibrate using that setting ends up in me being told that the gamma can't be achieved.

So I ended up not using that feature - I guess it's there for home offices where the light is constant.

Maybe Renee will come along and tell us where we've been going wrong.

[cdifoto]

I disabled that feature on the Huey. It actually adjusts brightness of the screen but it sucks. My laptop screen is barely bright enough on full monty, dimming it makes it unusable.

[René Damkot]

Originally Posted by Damo77

I've got no time for that "ambient light adjustment" business. If you're serious about it, put some heavy curtains, or even cardboard, over your windows, so the light doesn't change.

Agree.
The whole point about calibrating is that you get things *constant* IMO.

[TheHoff]

Thanks, point taken. I'm setting up blackout curtains now.

I did find a utility that Datacolor includes called "Profile switcher" so you can change them on the fly. For now I have two profiles, one for day and one for night; I'll be able to abandon that once I get the room blacked out.

[ChasP505]

Originally Posted by Damo77

I've got no time for that "ambient light adjustment" business. If you're serious about it, put some heavy curtains, or even cardboard, over your windows, so the light doesn't change.

Just a humorous aside-- I'm in my home office last week with the blinds shut tight, no lights on, calibrating my monitor and my wife walked in, looks at me and throws open the blinds saying, "How can you work in the dark? You can't even see what you're doing!"

[René Damkot]

[chris26]

This constant ambience thing is impossible for many people. Restrictions on where you can set your computer at home. Practicalities for lighting etc, I will set two profiles for my monitor, one for the daylight coming through my window and one for the evening with low light. rather than investing in impractical furniture shifting and new light fixings and double thick curtains I do think that this idea of having a couple of generic monitor profiles for different working conditions is far more logical than measuring ambient light the whole day, and night, morning and evening. Ok if you own an office or have a separate studio or dark garden shed, but for most home users not practical. What do you think?

PS will somebody answer my question that I posted just above this one on the forum, I'm stupid and need guidance.

thanks all

Have a nice day - chris.