Monitor Calibration

[Kayaker72]

So I recently decided I was long overdue to be working on a calibrated monitor. Back when I purchased my monitor, I read several reviews trying to make sure I had a good monitor for photography and, after purchasing it, I ran several tests such as printing photos from several sources and decided that it was "good enough" for an amateur such as myself. But that was 2011 and a bit ago, a few members thought some of my images were a tad dark.

So I picked up SpyderPro5 about 2 weeks ago and have since used it to calibrate my monitor. Very easy. Turns out my monitor was just outside the high end of the brightness range the SpyderPro software recommends. So, I've now dialed my monitor into the center of their range. In looking at photos before and after, I do not see much of a change in brightness.

But....it also adjusted the tint of my monitor. Apparently my monitor was a bit green, at least according to SpyderPro. I can go back and now several photos I processed have a bit of a magenta tone to them and I did have a tendency to always be adding a bit of magenta tint above the camera parameters, so this may be a legitimate issue with my monitor.

Knowing full well that there is significant variation between monitors, I write this wondering if you, especially those of you with calibrated monitors, can comment on my recent photos (starting with the recent waterfall trip). Let me see if anything seems out of whack. I will be rerunning SpyderPro in another week or so just as a check. I'll also probably print a few photos to see how it is doing. Granted, I did crank the Vibrance and color saturation of the waterfall images at Watkins Glen as the gray rock wall canyons looked pretty drab otherwise. But, I am more interested in color accuracy in those, and other images going forward. I now have the means to adjust my monitor if there is an issue.

Thanks,
Brant

[Raid]

I write this wondering if you, especially those of you with calibrated monitors, can comment on my recent photos (starting with the recent waterfall trip). Let me see if anything seems out of whack.

Jealousy prevents me from commenting on your photos (Still waiting for the Green with Envy Emoticon).


Being an old fart I now get my eyes checked every couple of years. While I was discussing colour vision with my Optometrist, he just happened to mention that I had a slight Colour Blindness. I was more than a little surprised, I have had glasses most of my life, yet it had never been mentioned before. He told me that most Optometrists only check the basics (for safety related problems like Red & Green for traffic lights) or they don't bother to tell the person about a small problem.

I have a slight problem with green, in that I have trouble telling the difference between shades of green. This means that I sometime get the amount of colour enhancement wrong and greens are either overdone or underdone.

I have seen interviews with a number of famous photographers who only shoot in Black & White, is this because of the eye sight?

Is it our monitors or is it us? So how many of us have a slight problem with colour vision? Now that I understand that I have a sight colour vision problem I now realise that I cannot trust my vision, so I must trust the tools.

PS: For genetic reasons, Men are far more likely to have problems with colour vision. So the next time you get your eyes tested ask your optometrist for a full colour vision test, you may be in for a surprise.

[jrw]

Not noticing an issue with the latest images you have been posting except perhaps the name attached to the files not being mine....

As for the colour blindness most males do lose some of the green brown differentiation over the years. Mine remains slight. Noticed during assesment for working with lasers in the labs.

[Jonathan Huyer]

Brant --

The whole waterfall series looks brilliant. Did you use the eyedropper to set white balance, or did you adjust it entirely on how it looked on the monitor? I tried importing a couple of your jpegs into Lightroom, and then used the white balance eyedropper on the water. Lightroom made Image 8910 a bit warmer, and 8937 a bit cooler, in order to achieve neutral balance. I use the eyedropper with a lot of images, and then decide which version I really like... the camera's auto white balance version, or Lightroom's eyedropper-neutral version. More often than not I end up manually adjusting the sliders to something halfway in between. But with the calibrated monitor you'll certainly have more confidence that what you see is what you'll get when you print, and what others should see if they also have calibrated monitors.

[Kayaker72]

First off...thanks and very glad that you like the photos. Those scenes where so great, I just hope to do them justice. I am also glad to hear that my monitor is likely dialed in.

I have seen interviews with a number of famous photographers who only shoot in Black & White, is this because of the eye sight?

Is it our monitors or is it us? So how many of us have a slight problem with colour vision? Now that I understand that I have a sight colour vision problem I now realise that I cannot trust my vision, so I must trust the tools.

As for the colour blindness most males do lose some of the green brown differentiation over the years. Mine remains slight. Noticed during assesment for working with lasers in the labs.

It is a very interesting concept, that many personality traits may not be simply peoples opinion, but rather peoples opinions, personality and different characteristics may be, in part, due to how they are biologically/physically set up to differently perceive and interact with the same physical world.

So, I agree, each of us may physically "see," perceive and interact with colors differently. I've come to expect it. Of course, really the goal of calibration is to best insure that the output observed on my screen is consistent to what is being displayed on other monitors and when printed. Calibration won't fix how I personally interpret and manipulate the image.

BTW, working in the hazardous waste industry, I am tested annually for things such as color blindness. So far, no issues.

Did you use the eyedropper to set white balance, or did you adjust it entirely on how it looked on the monitor? I tried importing a couple of your jpegs into Lightroom, and then used the white balance eyedropper on the water. Lightroom made Image 8910 a bit warmer, and 8937 a bit cooler, in order to achieve neutral balance. I use the eyedropper with a lot of images, and then decide which version I really like... the camera's auto white balance version, or Lightroom's eyedropper-neutral version. More often than not I end up manually adjusting the sliders to something halfway in between. But with the calibrated monitor you'll certainly have more confidence that what you see is what you'll get when you print, and what others should see if they also have calibrated monitors.

I do a little of all three as well. I tend to start with the dropper on the waterfall. But I also look at the settings for "as shot" and the LR "auto." Amazes me how different those three can be. So then I pick one as a starting point and make adjustments until it is the most pleasing to me. Thus, my monitor plays a critical role in where those images end up.

Part of what is going on is that I've gone back to look at several photos processed in the last few years and some of them now strike me as having too much magenta. It is a bit odd, but most are actually ok, IMO. So there seems to be some sort of tipping point where maybe I had processed an image with an acceptable but high amount of magenta before and now, after calibrating the monitor, it appears to be too much.

Again, thanks for the feedback...

[Raid]

BTW, working in the hazardous waste industry..

Isn't the "Hazardous Waste Industry" in the U.S. a euphemism for the Mafia?