Monitor Variations

[Xia_Ke]

As some of you may have noticed from my work, I like dark, contrasty black and white images. At home I have an HD LCD display and all my pictures show up crisp and clear. I just realized today, when viewing my pics from a work computer with an old LCD display, that my pics looked like crap and blacked out. I've had a few relatives tell me that the images were too dark for their tastes. Thinking back they were probably just experiencing what I have described. Is there any way at all to get around this?

[melscamera]

The colors on your monitor are out of calibration that is why they look different. I use the eye-one display 2 device that will calibrate your screen so what your seeing is actually what colors are in the photograph. This also makes a big difference when printing out photos.

As some of you may have noticed from my work, I like dark, contrasty black and white images. At home I have an HD LCD display and all my pictures show up crisp and clear. I just realized today, when viewing my pics from a work computer with an old LCD display, that my pics looked like crap and blacked out. I've had a few relatives tell me that the images were too dark for their tastes. Thinking back they were probably just experiencing what I have described. Is there any way at all to get around this?

[Xia_Ke]

You think that's it? I haven't had any problems with colors at all. The problem seems just to be with my darker B&W images and some contrasting not coming through on a regular LCD like they do on my Hi-Def LCD.

[another view]

Every monitor looks different, and there isn't any way of getting around that. Not a lot of photographers even calibrate their monitors, so it's only a tiny percentage of computer users that do this - or are even aware of it. It really helps though.

Ever bought a shirt online and when you got it the color was different than you expected? Look at your images on your display, then on several others and chances are they'll all look different. If you're using a calibrated monitor you're doing the best you can do. I use Monaco Optix XR which does the monitor only. They have others that calibrate printers, scanners and cameras but that's a ton of expense for only incremental improvement. With B&W you're obviously not worried about color accuracy (unless you're toning your images) but the way the blacks, whites and everything in between are displayed will still benefit.

One major thing to be aware of with calibration is that it's calibrated for only one type of lighting. I'm sitting in my office next to a window with no light on, and everything will look slightly different at night with either no lights on or with different kinds of artificial light. Calibrate under consistent lighting - which for me means in the dark, at least in the winter. It's not easy on the eyes but I don't need a lot of time with that kind of accuracy.

[Xia_Ke]

Well, I did a quick job with Adobe Gamma when I first got my laptop. For reference, it's a Compaq V2000 series with a WXGA High-Definition BrightView Widescreen (1280x768) display. Take the pic below. Now the sky and the ice/water look virtually the same on my display and the work monitor. The difference is in the tree line. On my home computer, I made the trees dark but still visible enough to see individual trees. Here on my work monitor the treeline is all black and you can't distinguish the individual trees.

[another view]

I made the trees dark but still visible enough to see individual trees

That's where I'm at with my monitor at work - uncalibrated Gateway tube...

[SmartWombat]

I calibrated my work 24" widescreen LCD, home 19" trinitron, and laptop LCD.

The Mitsubishi diamondtron after doing the advanced calibration showed an almost imperceptible red shift when I clicked the before/after button. It was almost spot on even though it's 5 years old.

The LCDs were way off

So unless you can persuade everyone to calibrate their monitors, I suggest you create a test image, with a grey scale and colour bars so people can adjust their sets
Or go round with a huey or I1 or something cheap and do i for them

[Xia_Ke]

...Or go round with a huey or I1 or something cheap and do i for them

LOL... Thanks Paul. In hindsight, I guess this wasn't so much a question as a venting. Guess this was the first time I really noticed how much of a change a monitor that is slightly off can make in an image.

[Medley]

Xia Ke, also be aware that you will most likely see a difference between Mac's and PC's when it comes to your image, due to something called gamma. It doesn't sound like that is your main trouble here, but if you keep trying to match images across different monitors, you will eventually run into it.

Gamma is an adjustment in how the monitor defines "neutral grey". The human eye sees more detail in darker part of an image than it does in light parts. As a result, the monitor tends to shift the neutral grey setting to a darker definition, to make things seem more even to us. The amount of that shift is called the gamma setting.

By default, Macs have this gamma setting built in. PCs, by default, do not. This tends to make images corrected for a Mac monitor look too dark on a PC monitor.

- Joe U.

[SmartWombat]

Xia Ke, also be aware that you will most likely see a difference between Mac's and PC's when it comes to your image

Not so much any more maybe? Our newest macs at work have the same gamma default as the PCs.

[Medley]

Not so much any more maybe? Our newest macs at work have the same gamma default as the PCs.

True enough. The new Intel Macs are a breed apart, breaking several of the traditional Mac conventions. Also of interest is the .png file format. Apparently, the format saves a gamma adjustment along with the file, but I haven't experimented with it enough to know how truly helpful this is in reality.

Still, when discussing monitor variations, gamma is something one should keep in mind.

- Joe U.

[freygr]

I use the gamma control in thumbs plus all the time. Adjusting the gamma can save a photo.