Display Calibraton

[d3sl91]

I was recently asked if I can make a calendar with some of my pictures. I ended up not doing it, but that got me thinking about my monitor and calibration.

 

Normally, I don't care too terribly much, as I am not doing this professionally, and, 90% of the folks looking at my pictures, are doing so on computers that cost less that just my monitor did. But printing is a different story. 

 

So, here are my questions:

 

1. How often does a monitor need calibration?

 

2. vased on #1, is it more practical for a non-pro to rent, or should I just get one. 

 

3. Any recommendations on "my income doesnt depend on it" price-range calibration tools (~$100)? 

 

 

I am using a PB278Q.

[ALwin]

snip

 

Once a month of calibration is useful for a monitor.  No need to be more frequent than that.  But if you're on Windows.... yikes!  Windows' color management tool is nearly useless in my opinion. I'll explain below.

 

Unless you're printing photos yourself, there is not one answer to whether you should own a calibration tool or not.  It's up to you.  Additionally professional graphics designers and digital artists tend to have one calibration tool or another, it's not just photographers who use them.  Anyone who works with color will use such a tool.

 

This is about $100. Datacolor devices are good, though I personally have preferred X-Rite which can be more expensive.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1130967-REG/datacolor_s5x100_spyder5express_downloadable_software.html

 

OK, whether you use Windows, OSX, Linux, etc. you can calibrate your display and if you plan to print your own photos you definitely should create a custom profile of your display and printer.  Because without a properly calibrated profile it will be hard to match what you see on a screen to what comes out on print.  There are various reasons for that and one of the reasons is a computer display is illuminating light while a printed photo is reflecting light.  So you can see differences in brightness, color saturation, etc.

 

And why do I consider Windows color management tool useless?  Because I have created custom ICC profiles of my monitors in Windows, I set my measured profiles as the default (replacing the sRGB profile that comes as default in Windows).  They load when when I turn on my computer.  They work fine... until I open a program that uses it's own color profile, such as a game or media player software or anything else and then Windows uses that application's color profile or the application resets my custom configuration in the color management tool.  But when I close the application, it doesn't reactivate the custom profile I created.  And I have to manually go into the color management tool to reactivate it again, which is a pain to do every time.

 

OK it's not useless, it's just a pain in the ass to deal with if you also have programs and applications on your machine that use their own color profiles.  Otherwise, if you can have one PC dedicated only for photo editing and one PC for everything else, it's fine.

 

https://pcmonitors.info/articles/using-icc-profiles-in-windows/

 

If you are not doing the prints yourself, many print labs will have color profiles you can download and use with a tool such as Photoshop to help you with editing.  When you send them your image files to them for printing, they will be using these profiles.

 

This is one website you should visit if you want to know more about color management.

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/what_is_colour.html

 

Which is why my photo editing machine is my MacBook Pro with OSX.  I only use the Windows machine for games and for rendering videos that I have edited on the MacBook.  I do need to upgrade my monitor though, I'm considering an Eizo ColorEdge monitor which are overpriced but worth every dime.

[.spider.]

Rent it if won't calibrate other displays in future.

I haven't seen any color drifts of monitors so far and the error of using non standardized (D50 in print media) light at home is much bigger than the color drift of the monitor.

[ALwin]

snip

 

Here's an even cheaper one from X-Rite

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/894645-REG/X_Rite_cmunsml_ColorMonki_Smile_Color_Calibration.html/prm/alsVwDtl

 

Of course none of these entry level models are designed to calibrate printers, projectors or even cameras.  They are basic tools for calibrating the screen.  A good kit for calibrating everything costs around $500 as a starting price.

 

There are two types of calibration tools, a spectrophotometer and a colorimeter.  They work differently in how they measure the screen's colors and produce a color profile.

http://support.datacolor.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/1231/32/whats-the-difference-between-a-spectrophotometer-and-a-colorimeter-ive-been-told-that-a-spectrophotometer-is-better-but-im-unclear-on-how-and-why