Damien Symonds Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Guidelines for this section: When calibrating, please make sure you've followed my instructions to the letter. The instructions that come from the manufacturer are feeble, I'm sad to say. If you have a question about which calibrator to buy, read this article first. For general information about calibration, read this article. Refer below for frequently asked questions Search the forum first to make sure your question hasn't already been covered. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted January 18, 2016 Author Share Posted January 18, 2016 Frequently asked questions about monitor calibration: Q: I've just calibrated and my screen looks a lot different. Did something go wrong? A: Maybe something went wrong, or maybe something went right! Maybe your screen is correct for the first time ever. Either way, you can't know until you compare it to pro lab prints. Please follow my calibration instructions to the letter. Q: I've just calibrated and my screen doesn't look different at all. Did something go wrong? A: Maybe something went wrong, or maybe your screen was very accurate already. The only way to know is by comparing to prints from a pro lab. Q: I've just recalibrated, or bought a new screen. Do I need new prints? A: No, not at all. The prints you already have are fine. Your lab doesn't change the way it prints just because one of their customers has newly calibrated. Compare the prints you have to the screen, to see if the calibration was successful. Q: How many prints should I have, and what size should they be, for verifying my monitor calibration? A: Half a dozen should be plenty - enough to show a range of tones. And they don't need to be very big - 5x7 or 8x10 is ample. More info here. Q: My prints look horrible. I think something went wrong with my calibration. A: The purpose of monitor calibration is to make your screen match your prints. Not just your favourite prints - ALL your prints. So if your prints look horrible, your screen should look exactly the same shade of horrible. Then you can confidently re-edit your photos, knowing that you won't make them look horrible again. Q: My screen's brightness won't go low enough to match my prints. A: In most cases, this means that the light in your room isn't bright enough. But in some very rare cases, you might have to do this. Q: My screen's brightness won't go high enough to match my prints. A: This is exceedingly rare, and quite worrying. Please make a new post immediately and we'll see what we can figure out. Q: My laptop's screen changes brightness depending on its angle. A: This is a BIG problem, of course. If at all possible, invest in a good desktop monitor to plug in to your laptop, and edit on that instead. If that's not possible for you at this stage, this device might be a useful solution in the meantime. Q: Can I use prints from my home printer to verify calibration? A: No. Not even if it's the fanciest, most expensive printer money can buy. Not even if you'll never ever use a lab for the rest of your life. You still need prints from a pro lab to verify your monitor calibration. If you use your own prints to verify your own screen, you're working in what's called a "closed-loop" environment. Your screen might match your printer perfectly, but if they both don't match the rest of the world's standards, every photo you post on the internet will look wrong to everyone else. Q: Can I share my calibrator with a friend? A: Technically, yes, it will work. Legally, it might not be permissible. Check the manufacturer's website for more information before doing so. Q: Can I calibrate a TV? A: If it's connected to a computer, and acting as a monitor, then yes, you should be able to. But remember that TVs are not meant to be monitors. They're certainly not meant to be edited on. So make sure you're using the TV for a legitimate reason. Q: I have an desktop screen plugged in to my laptop. Can I calibrate both screens? A: Base-level calibrators such as the Spyder Express won't allow you to calibrate dual screens, but all good calibrators can do so. It's usually a simple matter of moving the calibration software window onto the screen you wish to calibrate. Q: Further to the previous question, do I need to calibrate both screens? A: If you're only ever going to be editing on one of them, then no, you don't need to calibrate the other one if you don't feel like it. But I've found that if one screen is calibrated and the other one isn't, the difference in colour can be noticeable to the point of distraction. So it might be a good idea to take a few minutes to do the other one. Q: I've calibrated both screens, and they don't match! A: Alas, this is very common. It's almost impossible to make them look exactly the same as each other. See which one matches your prints best, and use that one as the main editing screen; while leaving the other one for your windows, emails, etc. Q: My screen doesn't look sharp! A: Check the control panel to make sure it's set to the correct resolution. Also, check that you're using the best cable to connect the screen to the computer (HDMI and DVI are good, VGA usually not so good, although this isn't a set-in-stone rule). Q: The Apple salesperson said Macs don't need calibrating. A: Yeah, they often say that. It's baloney. All screens need calibrating, if you wish to edit photos on them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted December 9, 2018 Share Posted December 9, 2018 Hi Damien - this is kind of a silly question, but in terms of calibrating 2 monitors... since the calibration process on one monitor could be affected by the light of the other monitor, do you turn off the monitor that is not being calibrated? And then once done with the first, do you have to wait another 30 minutes before calibrating the 2nd monitor (since it was off for the length of time the 1st monitor was being calibrated - about 5 minutes)? I know it's not a big deal since I only use one for editing, but I was curious what you would do. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted December 9, 2018 Author Share Posted December 9, 2018 3 minutes ago, Jennifer said: since the calibration process on one monitor could be affected by the light of the other monitor No it won't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted December 9, 2018 Share Posted December 9, 2018 but isn't the room supposed to be completely dark when calibrating? Part 5: Lights out At this point, if you haven’t already, turn off the lights or pull the blinds, or whatever. Strictly speaking, the surrounding light shouldn’t matter, but it can’t hurt to be extra safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted December 9, 2018 Author Share Posted December 9, 2018 A little bit of light from a monitor is not going to make a speck of difference, I promise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted December 9, 2018 Share Posted December 9, 2018 awesome bc I would hate to have to wait another 30 minutes! lol Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ang Ēbs Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 I have calibrated the screen on my late 2015 iMac (running on Monterey) twice per the instructions and using prints I had on hand, they seemed to match fine, pretty close in color and depth and my screen color didn't seem to change much after the calibrations. I placed a new print order to mpix and they look bad. Yellow looking, soft, hilights are blown out. I have the color checker display pro. It's worth mentioning I also have a MacBook Pro that I have not calibrated, the digital images on both Macs match close on screen but neither to the prints. Here are some examples, please advise what steps I need to take to get this corrected. I did reach out to mpix with examples and they wanted my setting info. I have not heard back from them on my setttings besides they said it will never match exactly, that I do understand, but being this off is an issue I'm unsure of how to correct on my end. Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted January 31, 2022 Author Share Posted January 31, 2022 4 hours ago, Ang Ēbs said: I placed a new print order to mpix and they look bad. Yellow looking, soft, hilights are blown out. https://www.facebook.com/groups/askdamien/posts/4143619009031601/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ang Ēbs Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 Ok this make so much more sense now that I know about Millers and Mpix being overly warm, thank you. Now to locate a new lab! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ang Ēbs Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 Here I am again.... I have to apologize in advance as I'm very confused with myself. I'm going to try a local lab to order new test prints that use the D65 standard. I noticed one photo when uploaded to the lab platform is very different than my file in PS. I know I've done something stupid and do not know where I f'd this up. The other image in the snapshot is of another image of mine when I was going from LR to PS back to LR. The image of the man is my new workflow trying to navigate from Br to PS to done. I use Portraiture for the skin smoothing and do that last but it always makes me put it over the very first layer. I'm most deff taking the RAW after I understand Br better however, I have to get this darn monitor correctly calibrated otherwise I don't know what I'm looking at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted January 31, 2022 Author Share Posted January 31, 2022 Have you done this? https://www.damiensymonds.net/art_tscs000.html 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ang Ēbs Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 Yep I was in the wrong color space in ACR, back to re-edit in PS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mariia Morello Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 Hi Damien, I bought the calibrator and I am now planning to order the prints, there are so many options to choose from in terms of the size and texture of the prints, I am slightly lost in all of that, I read you suggest that 8X10 will do size-wise, can you also advise on the texture or anything else I should pay attention to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted December 19, 2022 Author Share Posted December 19, 2022 Plain lustre is fine. No texture, and definitely nothing glossy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janice Smith Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 Hi, getting ready send away for test prints. Will snaps from an iPhone be sufficient? Or should they come from my actual camera? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damien Symonds Posted January 24 Author Share Posted January 24 iPhone is fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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