SXP-04

[Damien Symonds]

< Go back to the previous step    << Go back to the beginning

Part 1: Screen setup

The SpyderX Pro helps you control the brightness of your screen, but in a kind of unintuitive way. I’ve done some testing and experimentation, and I’ve found that the best approach is to adjust the brightness manually before you start your first ever calibration.

Warm up

Make sure your screen has been turned on for at least half an hour before starting this process.

Light

Make sure you’re in good light. Viewing prints in dim light is a futile exercise. It needs to be bright enough, and white enough. Read this if you haven’t already done so.

Adjust brightness to match prints

Compare your prints to your screen, and adjust the screen’s brightness to get an acceptable match. Remember, don’t hold the print close to the screen – it must be out to the side, so you have to turn your head to compare.

Please don’t agonise over this brightness step. Near enough is good enough.

If you’ve never adjusted the brightness of your screen before, it’s likely to seem horribly dim to you at first. Don’t worry, you’ll be used to it in no time at all, and you’ll wonder how you ever tolerated it so bright before.

Install software >>

[Larese]

On 7/14/2020 at 9:26 AM, Damien Symonds said:

Adjust brightness to match prints

Compare your prints to your screen, and adjust the screen’s brightness to get an acceptable match. Remember, don’t hold the print close to the screen – it must be out to the side, so you have to turn your head to compare.

Please don’t agonise over this brightness step. Near enough is good enough.

If you’ve never adjusted the brightness of your screen before, it’s likely to seem horribly dim to you at first. Don’t worry, you’ll be used to it in no time at all, and you’ll wonder how you ever tolerated it so bright before.

Hi Damien. Me still. We are now reading every single step 1000% and just for clarification - At this step - the brightness we sort of get to an acceptable level but my test print is more yellow at this stage than what's showing up on the screen? We have tried looking at them with the laptop/prints in all kinds of light. the result is the same. 

[Damien Symonds]

8 hours ago, Larese said:

Hi Damien. Me still. We are now reading every single step 1000% and just for clarification - At this step - the brightness we sort of get to an acceptable level but my test print is more yellow at this stage than what's showing up on the screen? We have tried looking at them with the laptop/prints in all kinds of light. the result is the same. 

Which lab are the prints from?

[Larese]

6 hours ago, Damien Symonds said:

Which lab are the prints from?

Atkins? A few people indicated that I should phone them - so will do that on Tuesday. 

[Damien Symonds]

I don't know about that; but you should definitely get some test prints from another lab.

[Larese]

1 minute ago, Damien Symonds said:

I don't know about that; but you should definitely get some test prints from another lab.

thank you! Will do. 

 

[Stephie83]

HI Damien, I am just recalibrating and noticed I have a slightly different menu option on my Mac.  Is it okay for this to be checked "Allow extended dynamic range"? And should I be changing the colour profile to sRGB?

[Damien Symonds]

2 hours ago, Stephie83 said:

Is it okay for this to be checked "Allow extended dynamic range"?

No, definitely turn that off.  Fine for video, bad for photo editing.

2 hours ago, Stephie83 said:

And should I be changing the colour profile to sRGB?

No, the default "Apple Color" is fine.  It will get overridden anyway, once you finish calibrating.

[Stephie83]

Argh for some reason it won't let me switch off and I honestly don't ever recall seeing this check box option before.  Do you have any suggestions ?

[Damien Symonds]

Gosh!

What about if you choose a different Colour Profile?  Is the checkbox tied to that profile somehow?

[Stephie83]

And just like that it has vanished! How strange!