Monitor Calibration

[Photog82]

My prints came back today.

The exposure was pretty much spot on; some of the shadows in one portion of the print was slightly darker but not a big deal at all. The colors looked good with the exception of the skin tones; they were slightly warmer in the print. I believe that is due to the fact that Mpix prints at D50 and I'm on D65. I'm going to order the same prints and have them color correct the prints to see what the actual difference is.

I've read that an update to JPG is coming out to support 10bit color depth but it didn't indicate when. :| How did you test your color depth? I tried installed the BenQ software and it kept crashing.

I'm using DisplayPort. DVI-D works but doesn't perform as well at higher resolutions. I'm also running mine on sRGB as that is what most of the world is using.

[Kayaker72]

did you use a calibrator before and after Brant ? I am curious to know if the color output did change after upgrading the graphics card. I bought a monitor that was advertised at 1 billion colors but when I calibrate , I am only getting 74% abode rgb but 100% srgb. I have an older graphics card though.

Yes. Similar to James, I gave up on the software that came from Benq (Palette). It actually stopped working for me, but I just checked and it is working again. So I may try it again.

But I calibrated my monitor through x-rite display pro's software that also lets you look at delta E. I am not sure if I would know if the color output changed with the new graphics card. But in terms of color accuracy, there does seem to have been an improvement. Granted, very modest, but testing through the x-rite software my old card and D-DVI connection was doing very well (avg delta E = 0.43 and max delta E = 1.78 in one run, another run avg delta E = 0.39 with max delta E = 0.93 in the second). I only have run one calibration and validation test with the new card, but it came back avg delta E = 0.32 and max delta E = 0.7.

But all of those numbers are very good. So I am now happy with the color accuracy of the new monitor as I trust x-rite much more than Benq's software.


As for the 1 billion colors, that is likely a reference to 10 bit color depth, which is different than color space. So, both of those can be true. You can have 10 bit color depth (or your monitor can, as I am finding, you need the right GPU, cable, monitor and software to actually have 10 bit color depth) in a sRGB color space or 10 bit color depth in an Adobe RGB color space. Think of color depth as subdivisions, 10 bit color depth gives you 1.07 billion subdivisions of whatever colorspace you are working. 8 bit color depth gives you 16.7 million subdivisions of whatever colorspace you are working in. For your monitor that seems to be 100%sRGB.

My prints came back today.

The exposure was pretty much spot on; some of the shadows in one portion of the print was slightly darker but not a big deal at all. The colors looked good with the exception of the skin tones; they were slightly warmer in the print. I believe that is due to the fact that Mpix prints at D50 and I'm on D65. I'm going to order the same prints and have them color correct the prints to see what the actual difference is.

I've read that an update to JPG is coming out to support 10bit color depth but it didn't indicate when. :| How did you test your color depth? I tried installed the BenQ software and it kept crashing.

I'm using DisplayPort. DVI-D works but doesn't perform as well at higher resolutions. I'm also running mine on sRGB as that is what most of the world is using.

And that is what matters, right? The intent of this is to process our photos in a way that when they are output it is as close as possible to what we thought. I am about ready to do the print test myself, and really, that is the ultimate test.

Besides mpix, any other prolabs you recommend? I had an interaction with a snarky agent from mpix 2-3 years ago. This was before I calibrated my monitor and he was pretty condescending about it all.

[Photog82]

Yes. Similar to James, I gave up on the software that came from Benq (Palette). It actually stopped working for me, but I just checked and it is working again. So I may try it again.

But I calibrated my monitor through x-rite display pro's software that also lets you look at delta E. I am not sure if I would know if the color output changed with the new graphics card. But in terms of color accuracy, there does seem to have been an improvement. Granted, very modest, but testing through the x-rite software my old card and D-DVI connection was doing very well (avg delta E = 0.43 and max delta E = 1.78 in one run, another run avg delta E = 0.39 with max delta E = 0.93 in the second). I only have run one calibration and validation test with the new card, but it came back avg delta E = 0.32 and max delta E = 0.7.

But all of those numbers are very good. So I am now happy with the color accuracy of the new monitor as I trust x-rite much more than Benq's software.


As for the 1 billion colors, that is likely a reference to 10 bit color depth, which is different than color space. So, both of those can be true. You can have 10 bit color depth (or your monitor can, as I am finding, you need the right GPU, cable, monitor and software to actually have 10 bit color depth) in a sRGB color space or 10 bit color depth in an Adobe RGB color space. Think of color depth as subdivisions, 10 bit color depth gives you 1.07 billion subdivisions of whatever colorspace you are working. 8 bit color depth gives you 16.7 million subdivisions of whatever colorspace you are working in. For your monitor that seems to be 100%sRGB.



And that is what matters, right? The intent of this is to process our photos in a way that when they are output it is as close as possible to what we thought. I am about ready to do the print test myself, and really, that is the ultimate test.

Besides mpix, any other prolabs you recommend? I had an interaction with a snarky agent from mpix 2-3 years ago. This was before I calibrated my monitor and he was pretty condescending about it all.

Millers is another good lab, however, Mpix has been VERY good to me. There's been a few occasions where prints shipped very dark, at first I thought it was my monitor but it wasn't. They reprinted all of the prints for free and shipped them out the same day. Their customer service for the past few years has been really good.

I stopped looking into all of the technical stuff on the screen such as 10bit, AdobeRGB, etc. What's the point right now when print technology has not increased and most people can't see the difference anyways. :|

Maybe that will change down the road, but for now, I'm saving myself the frustration. At least I know my colors are calibrated the way I want them.

[Kayaker72]

Millers is another good lab, however, Mpix has been VERY good to me. There's been a few occasions where prints shipped very dark, at first I thought it was my monitor but it wasn't. They reprinted all of the prints for free and shipped them out the same day. Their customer service for the past few years has been really good.

Exact same issue, but very different response from Mpix. I was making an album for a family member in 2014 and decided to do a test. I sent pictures to 4 labs: Mpix, Adorampix, Snapfish (my wife loves their sales), and a local Walgreens. I sent the entire 200 picture album to Mpix and only 8-10 pictures to the other labs assuming Mpix would come out best. The entire set from Mpix came out a half to a full stop dark while, in terms of brightness, the other 3 labs were good. I called Mpix, who were double the price of the next highest lab (Adoramapix) and 6-8 times that of snapfish, and tried to talk to them about it. Just to keep this short, they refused to reprint the pictures and had a bit of attitude about it.

That said, other than being dark, they were the best. Granted, only slightly better than Adoramapix (who I have used since). But you could really see the difference between Mpix/Adoramapix vs Walgreens/Snapfish.

I stopped looking into all of the technical stuff on the screen such as 10bit, AdobeRGB, etc. What's the point right now when print technology has not increased and most people can't see the difference anyways. :|

Maybe that will change down the road, but for now, I'm saving myself the frustration. At least I know my colors are calibrated the way I want them.

I think I have hit this point. My winter project is almost complete, I have learned a fair amount. I'll send out some prints just to confirm, but we live in an 8 bit world. I can live with that.

What does crack me up is that groups like Netflix are starting to stream 4K 10bit (even heard reference to 12 bit), but for photography, we have 8 bit outputs.