Calibration and Brightness

I have and use the Spyder Express 4 to calibrate my computer monitor. However, I have read that I might have to (in addition) manually adjust the brightness on my monitor? I assumed that it was adjusted with the program? Now I am concerned because my monitor is set at 75% brightness. My prints come back (usually from Millers, Simply Color, or MPixPro)and look great most of the time. Still, I want to make sure I am "seeinig" everyone correctly. What is your monitor brightness set to? Thanks for any feedback on this issue.

If your prints come out looking close to what you see on monitor, congratulations. I wouldn't mess with it.

Mines set very close to 80%.

My monitor is down at a setting of 18, I think it is on a % scale. I had a Huey Pro but it was plugged in a USB hub that got zapped by a power surge and died. Using the old profile it created it is very close to my prints. I'm still using Vista, but have access to a Win 7 upgrade if I want it (through a youth organisation I do voluantry work with). I have not done the upgrade incase Win 7 dosen't like that profile. I cannot afford to replace the Huey at the moment.

Alan

In lightroom you can do a final brightness and contrast adjust the print module to make up for anything special about your room lighting, the monitor, the printer or the paper.

When I calibrated my Dell IPS monitor (used a Spyder3Pro) I needed to set brightness to 15%, which seemed to be in line with a lot of other peoples experience.

When you send out to print are you telling them to turn auto-corrections off? If you don't then Millers is adjusting brightness to whatever their equipment thinks is correct. If you haven't been instructing them to do that then any editing (color, contrast and brightness) you're doing is going to be adjusted, sometimes severely. If that's the case then have some prints made with all auto-corrections OFF and then see if you need to adjust brightness.

Yes, I never let them auto-correct. My brightness is set to 75% and they look great! Not sure I want to change anything, but I am concerned that I'm supposed to adjust the brightness. If they are to match the prints, then I don't see where I should change, though I might just lower it a bit -- but it's way higher than yours at 15%! Weird and confusing.

We must be talking about a different scale, even though both are in "%". 15% simply does not compare with my 80% or your 75%. Maybe if its a 15% reduction from full brightness?

Lowner wrote in post #16561140
We must be talking about a different scale, even though both are in "%". 15% simply does not compare with my 80% or your 75%. Maybe if its a 15% reduction from full brightness?

Not every scale that goes from 0 to 100 means % unless it is linear. And % itself is not an absolute measure but rather relative to the quantity to which it is applied. 50% of my bank account is pennies and 50% of yours is probably millions of £sd. Nor can you compare, say, a Dell to a Samsung (even though they both may have been made in the same anonymous Chinese factory.)

Yankee Mom - If you have a Spyder4 Pro, you can measure the brightness of your white point with the test facility that comes up after you have finished making the profile and tell us what it is in candelas per square meter (cd/m^), which is an absolute measure and far more descriptive than "75% of something or other". The usual recommendation is that it be 120 cd/m^, but that is for average room lighting and who knows what average is? I and many others who prefer to edit in a somewhat dim room have it set down to the 80-90 cd/m^ range. But, as said above, the ultimate test of whether the pudding is tasty is in your prints.

Elie,

A percentage reduction from full brightness is a pretty standard measure. We don't need to fret about how bright 100% is, or whether brand A is brighter than brand B. But if it should be a more precise measure then the industry needs to get it's act together.

As you say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating and I'm generally happy with my 80 ish %.

Lowner wrote in post #16561188
Elie,

A percentage reduction from full brightness is a pretty standard measure. We don't need to fret about how bright 100% is, or whether brand A is brighter than brand B. But if it should be a more precise measure then the industry needs to get it's act together.

As you say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating and I'm generally happy with my 80 ish %.

I notice that you don't deny the size of your bank account. Not surprising really, sailboats don't fall off lorries.

tzalman wrote in post #16561197
I notice that you don't deny the size of your bank account. Not surprising really, sailboats don't fall off lorries.

Those days are long gone I'm afraid. My black-outs and associated brain problem mean I can no longer be afloat - in any capacity. As far as my bank account is concerned, the current recession does not reward keeping vast sums of money in a bank account, so I try not to! Its actually quite easy to achieve.

Well, it says 75 on the brightness level of my monitor (I have a Dell Ultra Sharp U2312HM.) I assume that meant %?

Mine is set at 11, anything higher and the prints come out darker than I expect. Dell 2209.

Wow, that's so low. Glad for my histogram.