Advice Needed - Spyder2Pro & Dell 2311 Monitor

ChasP505 wrote in post #12347942
Elie, have you found it necessary to adjust the RGB levels on your U2311h?

No, the deviation is small and the profile seems to correct it pretty well.

tzalman wrote in post #12347963
No, the deviation is small and the profile seems to correct it pretty well.

That's what I meant when I advised the OP to let the software do its job.

You Guys have been such a great help. Thanks
I will edit a pic and post it on here hopefully you can check it looks ok your end.

I will keep an eye here as well if any further info pops up.

Heres a quick one just to see if its not too fair away??

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It doesn't look too dark to me -- maybe find a shot with some shadow areas that you can boost just enough to show real detail on your display and post it?

Oxford_Matt wrote in post #12348114
Heres a quick one just to see if its not too fair away??

I can't comment on color as I'm on a cheap netbook right now, but otherwise, the picture looks fine. Appears to be brightly lit (natural window light?), but not overexposed or blown out. Good contrast and shadow detail.

I'm probably too picky, but it is a bit clipped.

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Yes, it was natural window light.

One more quick question.

When setting the target to 6500 2.2, it gives me the option to adjust colours to get it closer to the 6500 before calibration.
Its 6865 approx before any RGB adjustments.

Heres the Adjustments I had to make:

Red: 100%
Green: 90%
Blue: 97%

Should this make the White screen look pure white after calibration?

Also I my brightness is around 58% and lumen value of 120 is acheived.

Does the lumen value dictate the brightness of my screen?

THANKS

In your first post you say you are calibrating your new display. For what purpose? Are you trying to match prints from your printer? What are your lighting conditions under which you will be viewing the prints to compare the print to the display, and, hence, judge your match?

You are picking targets for luminance and white based on "suggested" values for general purpose viewing, likely. If you want your display to match your print, you are likely going to have to establish a viewing environment and then match your display to the print medium under the viewing environment. In this case, your targets may change, depending on the paper white under the viewing light and contrast ratio of the medium.

Everyone suggests values for viewing but your mileage may vary, depending upon your viewing environment. In the dark, 90 cd/m2 may work well; however 90 cd/m2 may fail miserably in a room with even "typical" ambient light. Same for 120 or 150 cd/m2 - these may be overbright in a dark room, but spot on in a room with ambient light that is acceptable for performing normal office tasks like writing, reading and viewing the keyboard.

I am unfamiliar with the specifics of the display that you are using; however, in general there are two areas of adjustment that will ultimately affect the display:

1) hardware calibration (ie, the adjustments you are making to R, G and B gains and brightness, via the OSD)

2) software calibration (adjustments made to your video card).

You want to tap into both so you get the most range out of your display system. So, typically, you want to use the Spyder puck to measure the brightness and RGB color of white being put out by your display with no calibration/profile and then make adjustments to the brightness and RGB gains via the OSD to get very close to your luminance and white targets. Usually the calibration software displays a white patch over which you place your puck and window that shows the brightness and white RGB relative to a zero point that represents the targets - you make adjustments to the appropriate OSD buttons until the values measured by the puck are close to the targets. This is the hardware calibration. You may find that RGB and brightness are interrelated, and it is often suggested that you make a cycle of adjustments to brightness R, G and B a little at a time to maintain a balance as you move toward the target values. Some displays actually have the ability to communicate with the profiling software and vice versa, so that the hardware calibration adjustments to the display are actually being made not by you, but by the profiling software through feedback from the puck.

Once hardware calibration is complete, you start the software calibration and profiling, ultimately outputting a profile for your display at the manually set brightness and RGB gains you set in the hardware adjustment phase. It sounds like you are getting the hang of using the OSD controls for brightness and RGB gain to get your display close to the targets and starting point for the software cal/profiling. Keep at it!

Good luck.

Kirk

kirkt wrote in post #12352925
I am unfamiliar with the specifics of the display that you are using; however, in general there are two areas of adjustment that will ultimately affect the display:

1) hardware calibration (ie, the adjustments you are making to R, G and B gains and brightness, via the OSD)

2) software calibration (adjustments made to your video card).

The Dell U2311h is a typical good quality, entry level, 8 bit, 23" LCD with a common LG sourced e-IPS display panel. The ONLY true hardware adjustment capable of being made is to the backlight intensity, aka, the Brightness.

You can attempt to tweak the RGB levels via the the OSD, or, at the video card LUT. The only decision is where you choose to do it. Elie stated that he leaves his at 100% and allows the profile to make the minor corrections.

It's pointless to hope for perfection with a monitor at this level. With conservative calibration settings, it should deliver very good performance.

Good to know. Thanks chas

Kirk

Oxford_Matt wrote in post #12352416
When setting the target to 6500 2.2, it gives me the option to adjust colours to get it closer to the 6500 before calibration.
Its 6865 approx before any RGB adjustments.

Heres the Adjustments I had to make:

Red: 100%
Green: 90%
Blue: 97%

Should this make the White screen look pure white after calibration?

Those settings are very reasonable and shouldn't cause banding issues in smooth gradiants.

And "pure white" is only a perceptual thing. Your brain will translate the whitest tone the screen can render into pure white. Look at some classic B&W landscape photos and tell me if the clouds are really pure white.

Oxford_Matt wrote in post #12352416
Also I my brightness is around 58% and lumen value of 120 is acheived.

Does the lumen value dictate the brightness of my screen?

No, the backlight intensity dictates the luminance value, which largely dictates the contrast ratio (difference between brightest and darkest tones the screen is capable of rendering).

http://www.prophotohom​e.com …ion-contrast-setting.html
http://www.luminous-landscape.com …_my_prints_too_​dark.shtml

Oxford_Matt wrote in post #12348114
Heres a quick one just to see if its not too fair away??

OK... back at my desktop. This is what I see in ACR 5.7 on my Dell 2209wa (normal gamut and 2 months overdue for recalibration)

***ACR is set for export as sRGB, 8bit. When I change it to Adobe RGB, it shows almost no clipping on the skin.

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Kirk, Thanks for your info, much appreciated. I am using monitor in average ambient lighting.

Chas, Thanks again for your help. You guys dont know how helpful you have been to me.

Heres my calibration Results:

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Oxford_Matt wrote in post #12353653
Hopefully finally there. After looking at it for a while it looks more white

In future recalibrations... don't reset the monitor back to defaults. Just start from the previous settings and tweak as needed if there was any "drift". Recalibrate every 3-5 weeks.