Monitor calibration

[adina]

HELP!!!

Okay, so I finally decided to get this done. I'm using the X-rite Eye-One Display 2, and have a Dell LCD monitor. Everythings going fine, until I get to the rgb channels. I can't get the sliders all to the middle of the green area.

Anyone use this system and have the rgb numbers? I'm going to leave it for dh at this point, who knows this kind of thing, but I really wanted to get it done this afternoon.

Thanks!

[jorgemonkey]

I've got a dell monitor, but for calibrating I have the Sypder 2 system.

Do you need help adjusting the rgb sliders on the monitor? If so, you hit the button that brings you to the monitor menu, goto color settings, and choose the user preset. Then you can click on the inidividual channels and adjust them.

[gahspidy]

I had the same system for a few alittle more than a year.It was Gretagmacbeth at the time i got it before it was taken over by Xrite. Unfortunately, my device is now faulty and not working, as confirmed by my various off the chart readings and tech support and now am in need of a new one.
It is not important that they all be exactly in the middle of the green, although that is ideal. It is ok if you can get all three at least in the green area with at least one or two close to middle.
Just curious, what color temp are you setting to?

[adina]

according to my lab, the white point (?) should be 6500, and the grey gamma should be 2.2

[adina]

I can get to the rgb settings, but I can't get them to the right point where the sliders are all in the middle. I've got one on each end, and the other somewhat centered.

[readingr]

I can get to the rgb settings, but I can't get them to the right point where the sliders are all in the middle. I've got one on each end, and the other somewhat centered.

I had this problem on the last system and the way I eventually fixed it was to Auto reset the monitor and then put the Green in the middle and then moved the Blue and Red to the opposite sides. I then re-did the calibration and found that I could now get them to within a bar or so of the Green. Why that worked is beyond me.

Roger

[drg]

The obvious questions:

- Is the screen dust free? (will really screw up the colorimeter)
- How much ambient light do you have in the room?
- What color is the ceiling and opposite wall to the monitor?
- Calibration won't look the same if the light changes in the room during different times of the day or if the monitor even partially faces a window. Calibration will even not work if the light changes during the testing phases.

After a succesful calibration shoot a known object like quilt or a color checker or a cereal box and have it printed after adjustment and then look at the photo side by side in the light of your editing area as a 'test'.

I edit at night in a fairly dark room wearing a black shirt. Or in the windowless office in the day and calibrate while making the second pot of coffee.

The reset is a good start, and also make sure your LCD monitor is at native resolution.


Best luck and let us know how it works.

[gahspidy]

according to my lab, the white point (?) should be 6500, and the grey gamma should be 2.2

Ok, are you able to get close to your luminance target? I'm asking because my "Defective" colorimeter also displayed the RGB levels as you describe. One was near middle while the other two were on complete opposite ends and no adjustments could get them to move. Another problem was I could not get the luminance target even close. I had set mine for 5500 and the Eye-One was showing that the monitor was about 11000K even with brightness and contrast dropped all the way down and with preset temp of 5500K on the monitor. This happened with two different monitors, Both brand new. Tech support told me my Eye-One was defective
Try letting the Eye-One do the fully automatic calibration and when you get the read-out see if the luminance level is near where you want (6500K
Also, if you have a hand bulb squeeze some air into the 4 holes under the meter to make sure there is no dust on the sensor
Good luck

[adina]

dh worked on this last night...I'll be editing this weekend, will let you know how it goes, and what he did. Lots of adjusting, will get his process and share.

[adina]

Yikes. What a nightmare.

So dh calibrated in the advanced mode, got all the sliders where they are supposed to be, and the display was horrid! Way way to bright and faded, everyone's skin looked rubbery. Stared at it for 2 days like that.

This morning I got up and redid it, using the easy mode. Which basically means you hit the go button and it does everything. I did it early, before it was too bright out, closed the shade while I did it. Now everything looks pretty good. I've just sent out some images for printing, and we'll see how they look.

This is getting sooo expensive!

[gahspidy]

Yikes. What a nightmare.

So dh calibrated in the advanced mode, got all the sliders where they are supposed to be, and the display was horrid! Way way to bright and faded, everyone's skin looked rubbery. Stared at it for 2 days like that.

This morning I got up and redid it, using the easy mode. Which basically means you hit the go button and it does everything. I did it early, before it was too bright out, closed the shade while I did it. Now everything looks pretty good. I've just sent out some images for printing, and we'll see how they look.

This is getting sooo expensive!

Be careful with that easy mode. It will work (claim that it was a success) even if it comes out wrong.

[Medley]

And just think adina, in a month or so, a little reminder's gonna pop up on your screen and tell you it's time to do this all over again.

- Joe U.

[mn shutterbug]

This may sound stupid, but I never stopped to figure out why my prints always seemed to come out a little dark. :mad2: Unfortunately, I use my inexpensive laptop for just about everything these days, and my laptop only has adjustments for brightness, none for contrast. I did compare a few prints with my screen and darkened the monitor to match as close to the prints as possible. However, doing that seemed to decrease the monitor contrast. I'll just have to make a mental note that the prints will come out with more contrast. Or, I could set my screen back to where it was, do my post processing, and then darken my screen to the proper brightness and then lighten the photo to the brightness I like and ignore the contrast, knowing that the contrast I saw previous to darkening the monitor, was the contrast I wanted. Does this make sense?

[adina]

OR,

You could spend $250 on a dangly mouse looking calibration thingy, and experience a whole new level of frustration!

[readingr]

OR,

You could spend $250 on a dangly mouse looking calibration thingy, and experience a whole new level of frustration!

Adina,

Is it now sorted?

I just remembered I was going to ask if the graphics card is okay. Recently mine decided to break in an erratic manner and caused me all sorts of problems. I had a colour cast on some of my pics even though it said it was calibrated okay.

Roger