Monitor Calibration

Hello,
Do you need to calibrate your monitor if you are going to be converting color to B/W?
Thank you.

Tim

It would probably be a good idea.

When I first calibrated my monitor the most obvious change that I noticed was the brightness of the display - it became much dimmer. That certainly affects the way black & white looks.

You can set the brightness level yourself if you can find what that level should be. I remember doing this on my imac at one time, but the recommended setting I used was pretty far off from the calibration result.

You can also use a histogram to tell how exposed your b&w photos are.

Thank you for your suggestions. It appears I will need to calibrate just to be safe. If I had more experience I might be able to use the histogram. However, I don't have that experience to call on.

I'd say it depends on your final output, ie: how your photos will be seen.

If you are going to print then calibrating your monitor for brightness is helpful to match your screen to what you get out of a printer.

If you are not going to print but only display your photos on various screens I would want to process my photos on a brighter monitor to match what the average computer/phone user sees. Most people run their screens quite a bit brighter than what a calibration device will ask for.

Thank you Bob. I am going to have them printed for my home and family. In my signature is a path to Flicker where I have some of my images. Some of my family have expressed interest in having a few so I am working towards this. Thank you for your response.

Very nice work Tim. I can see why your family wants prints. They should print very nicely.

And to be clear there is no doubt you should calibrate your monitor. It's not that hard or expensive. You do need to consider the final use of a file when deciding how bright your monitor should be while working on a particular version of that file.

raven4ns wrote in post #19479008
Hello,
Do you need to calibrate your monitor if you are going to be converting color to B/W?
Thank you.

Tim

You didn't mention how you convert color to B/W. Some people just desaturate a color image and consider that a conversion. But you get far more flexibility if you tweak individual colors -- for example, using either a Photoshop B/W adjustment layer or in the color panel of ACR (or some other program such as NIK Silver Efex). In those cases, there might be more of an advantage to calibrating your monitor.

I am going to get Silver Efex eventually. First I am looking at a new camera that will allow me to shoot at iso 10000 or 12500. I may not shoot at those levels but I want the ability to shoot at those ISOs. I saw some images shot at those levels and I couldn't believe how great they were. It will eliminate carrying a tripod which at my age (76) is a big bonus.
As for my B/W's, I am hoping to use a selenium tone. Hopefully, Silver Effex's will accommodate this tone without it being too complicated. My computer skills are rudimentary at best not to mention I am an amateur as far as photography goes. In my signature line is the address to Flickr where I have a few images posted. Thank you for your suggestions, they are much appreciated.

You have some exceptional images on your Flickr site Tim.

Thank you very much, Bob, for your kind comments. I'm just an amateur but I get satisfaction from attempting to be creative.

Thank you, Bob, for your kind remarks.

Simply adjust your Brightness and Contrast settings so that you see all of the 26 tonal zones in this illustration are individually distinguishable from its neighbors, to make sure your monitor is not set overly bright (factory setting is to make the monitor look good in a bright retail store!)

Thank you, Wilt, for the explanation. That seems simple enough even for me. My images will be enlarged for family and friends so they aren't likely to be as critical of my shots as I will be. Thank you again for your response.

Depends. I need monitor to be calibrated anyway. Got my Spyder and it solved many problems.

As for BW, you should have no issues on the monitor. Issues comes with printing. I wasn't able to get BW from Costco, always with some colorcast.
While my Epson have BW printing mode. But only on matte paper. Glossy is possible, but troublesome.