Monitors and calibration - General Discussions on Fuji X Series Camera Forum - Fujifilm X-Pro1 X-E1 X100S X100 X20 X10 XF1 X-S1

jeremya

Someone came to calibrate my monitor at the weekend. He said that it was a very poor monitor as the lightness/darkness of the image varied enormously depending on the angle of view; he also said that most monitors didn't do that. He did calibrate the monitor and the printer/paper and do all the colour management settings. But it didn't work - the first print came out loads darker than the screen image. He gave me my money back.

Now I am even more confused than before. Should I really get a new monitor and if so which one (affordable!), or would someone else be able to do a better job? Or should I buy a Spyder 3 or equivalent, do it myself and get a free paper profile from Fotospeed?

Colour management is a serious problem - especially for someone who is colour blind! I could ignore this doing B&W in the wet darkroom but not digitally.

Can anyone help?

K1W1

Monitor calibration slips regular so doing the job is not a set and forget operation. A Spyder 3 device is relatively cheap if you buy the base model and is very easy to use. Takes about 5-8 minutes the first time and 3-5 minutes each time after than. The Sypder software will remind you to recalibrate the monitor at regular intervals if you want.
Without knowing what monitor you have nobody can really comment on whether it needs replacing but monitors are also relatively inexpensive these days compared to even 5 years ago. Here is Australia you can now even but LG IPS 23" monitors under $300 retail.

Christopher

@jeremya, You might consider this 24" Dell monitor: http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&sku=294438

It's designed for high color accuracy, it can properly display Adobe RGB with 96% coverage and sRGB with 100% coverage. It's also an "IPS" LCD display, which means that the image has wide viewing angles so the color and brightness won't change when you view it from different angles.

jeremya

Thank you both for your advice. Christopher that's exactly the sort of tip I need. Not expensive on Amazon

K1W1

Even with a new IPS monitor calibration will still be required so factor that into your calculations.

danm

here's an interesting read if you are just starting with digital printing. according to this article, monitor calibration is relatively unimportant in the wider context of color management, printer profiles being the crucial part. that said, with a monitor as poor as yours you would probably benefit from getting a new one anyway, but just don't sweat too much over monitor calibration unless the entire color management workflow is already perfect for you...

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2011/12/introduction-to-digital-printing-part-iii.html

this is part 3, I think there are links to the other 2 within
enjoy!

K1W1

If you can't see the correct colours on your monitor how can you print the correct colours?
You also need to factor into the equation that over 95% of pictures these days never get printed but are viewed on monitors either belonging to the owner or on web sites.

cooloregon

I shoot my photos in adobeRGB and set my 27" iMac to display adobeRGB when using Aperture. I also set the color profile on my printer to adobeRGB. What I see on the iMac, I see in my photos.

Hello Photographer!

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