What Color Temperature to use when Calibrating Monitors?

I use the Spyder 3 Pro for my monitor calibration. Initially, it asks me what white balance I want to use. I've tried: 2.2 5000K, 2.2 5800K, and 2.2 6500K. 5000K is my favorite as the others appear too bluish on my monitor. The room with is lit with mostly yellow incandescent light. (I have a HP2408H monitor with Windows 7, 64-bit, Lightroom, Photoshop CS4)

My questions are:
1) What is the best white balance temperature to use or is this personal preference?
2) Does this ultimately effect setting the white balance in an actual photo (using the white eye dropper)? In other words, if I have the monitor set to 2.2 6500K will this make the photo more blue than a 5000K white balance?

Thanks for your advice?

Generally speaking you want a gamma of 2.2 and a temp of 6500K.

As regards the image looking too blue, that may simply be a question of your eyes readapting and it may seem unnatural for a while.

How do your prints compare to your screen?

Native or 6500K. If one really fails, try the other and see if that gives better (more neutral) results.

Electric Shepherd wrote in post #8965653
Generally speaking you want a gamma of 2.2 and a temp of 6500K.

As regards the image looking too blue, that may simply be a question of your eyes readapting and it may seem unnatural for a while.

How do your prints compare to your screen?

This is precisely why I went with the Huey, it adapts to ambient light.

+1 for your eyes adapting to the adjusted calibration. Mine felt awful, but prnt quality was significantly better after I became accustomed to the adjusted monitor. All skin tones were more accurate as well as saturation and contrast. Best thing I ever did. Calibrate, process a few images and have them printed. You'll like the result.

Here's some info which may help you. I would stay with with settings of 6500k or native in your calibration software and 2.2 gamma.

http://www.prad.de …view-hp-w2408h-part8.html

Yes, the incandescent lighting will affect your color perception. At barest minimum get a low wattage CFL bulb at 4700-5000k and don't have it throwing light on the screen.

I use 6500 deg K.

I set mine to gamma 2.2 at 5000K.
A professional photobook printing company advised me to use 5000K if my ultimate aim is to print my pictures using a professional lab service.
In addition, I have been advised to set it to 6500K if I were to print on my own using inkjet printers.
Anyone of you have the same kind of advice?

That may make a lot of sense if you're planning on viewing prints under a 5000K illuminant [quite typical], but anything posted to the web may have a colour cast if edited under these settings. Better in these circumstances to soft proof your prints using a printer profile calibrated to 5000K but your monitor set to 6500K still.

Electric Shepherd wrote in post #8967120
That may make a lot of sense if you're planning on viewing prints under a 5000K illuminant [quite typical], but anything posted to the web may have a colour cast if edited under these settings. Better in these circumstances to soft proof your prints using a printer profile calibrated to 5000K but your monitor set to 6500K still.

Electric Shepherd, thanks for your feedback. Will certainly look into it.

Thanks for all your feedback. I'll try 6500K for a while -- but it sure is hard getting used to after having it set to 5000K for so long.