CCDM-19

[Damien Symonds]

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Colour not right

I know I’ve said this before, but I have to hammer it home again. NEVER underestimate the effect your surrounding light has on the way your photos appear. You’re on this page because your screen and prints differ in colour. Before proceeding, I need you to make a frank appraisal of the light in your room. If it’s too yellow (which is the most common problem) it will make your prints appear yellow, and therefore cause you to conclude that your screen’s calibration is too cold.

If you think, or even suspect, that your light is the culprit, take steps to rectify it. Get whiter bulbs if you can, or at least try assessing your prints in daylight. I would hate to be wasting your time with all of these calibration adjustments if the calibration wasn’t actually the problem.

If you’re sure the light is ok, read on …

What setting to choose

Since your screen itself doesn’t give you any flexibility, this is the only avenue available to us – the white temperature targets of the i1 itself. Remember how we chose “Native” the first time? Did you write down your Native result from your first calibration?  I hope you did, because you need it now.

This gets a tiny bit confusing.  The White Point targets are listed as "D" values - from D50 to D75.  But your calibration result was given as a "K" result - remember how mine was 6657K? Well, you simply divide the K value by 100 to get the D value.  My 6657K screen is roughly D66.  If your screen was 8193K, that would mean roughly D82.  I hope you get the idea.

So figure out the "D" value of your screen, then ...

• If your screen needs to be cooler to match your prints, choose the next highest D target.
• If your screen needs to be warmer to match your prints, choose the next lowest D target.
• (Or if you screen needs to be a lot warmer, maybe choose an even lower target.)

So if, for example, my D66 screen was too cold, I'd choose the D55 target for my next calibration.

I hope this makes sense!  Please comment below if you need assistance.

With your new target chosen, press Next to continue.

Re-calibrate >>