ColorMunki Display Help - Lost detail in dark parts of images / pixelated

[Bucketz1586]

Can anyone help me with this? I calibrated using the instructions on this site (and once using "Easy") and both times it's caused images on my screen to become pixelated. The background photo I have is a default windows photograph and all of the dark parts have lost detail completely. My images in Lightroom all have the same problem. The colored parts of the images don't look sharp at all anymore either. What could I have done wrong? Here's an example... it used to be perfectly sharp. 

 

[Damien Symonds]

Yeah, gosh, that's weird.

Is it the laptop screen?  Or a desktop screen plugged into the laptop?

[Bucketz1586]

It's a brand new HP laptop. Not plugged into anything. I knew something was wrong because when it showed the test images of before and after, one of them looked like a blob of black. lol

Edited December 27, 2016 by Bucketz1586

[Damien Symonds]

What about the Munki?  Is it new too?  Or had you used it successfully on a previous computer?

  On 12/27/2016 at 7:50 AM, Bucketz1586 said:

It's a brand new HP laptop

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It's not a touchscreen one, is it?

[Damien Symonds]

  On 12/27/2016 at 7:29 AM, Bucketz1586 said:

My images in Lightroom all have the same problem.

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Just the images?  What about the Lightroom interface itself?  Sliders and menus and stuff?  Are they ok?

[Bucketz1586]

Brand new, I've never used it before. I installed an update that it needed but that didn't change anything.

[Damien Symonds]

  On 12/27/2016 at 7:52 AM, Bucketz1586 said:

Brand new, I've never used it before. I installed an update that it needed but that didn't change anything.

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Ah crap, that makes it hard to troubleshoot, because we don't know if the problem is the calibrator or the computer.

Do you have another computer in the house you can calibrate with it, to see if the same problem presents?

[Bucketz1586]

Yeah, it just seems to be the images. Everything else in Lightroom looks okay. 

Yes I do. Good idea, I'll try that.

[Damien Symonds]

The problem is the same in Photoshop too, I assume?

[Bucketz1586]

It's definitely the computer. The other laptop looks fine. 

Yep, same thing in Photoshop. 

Edited December 27, 2016 by Bucketz1586

[Damien Symonds]

Ok, may I have a link to the computer's specs?

[Bucketz1586]

This one? 

Windows 10, Version 1607

Edited December 27, 2016 by Bucketz1586

[Damien Symonds]

No, I mean a link to the manufacturer's website, so I can see ALL the specs.

[Bucketz1586]

Ohhh gotcha. Here's the only one I could find for this particular laptop, but I'll keep looking on the HP site. 

http://www.qvc.com/footers/el/pdf/E229953_17inch_Specs.pdf

Edited December 27, 2016 by Bucketz1586

[Bucketz1586]

http://support.hp.com/us-en/product/HP-17-y000-Notebook-PC-series/10862315/model/13386375/document/c05356849/

 

 

Edited December 27, 2016 by Bucketz1586

[Damien Symonds]

Ok, nothing jumps out at me there.

Can you open a photo in Photoshop (any photo, it doesn't really matter) then show me a screenshot of your whole screen, so I can see the issue?

[Bucketz1586]

[Damien Symonds]

So many things to remember when you're installing everything on a new computer.  Don't forget to turn on the document profile.

Also, your image is untagged, that's bad. Always remember to turn on the profile checkbox:

Enough housekeeping ... back to the topic at hand.

Your screenshot looks flawless to me.  What is the problem I should be seeing?

If you zoom in to 100% view, then show me another screenshot, would I see it?

[Bucketz1586]

This is just some sky overlay I just downloaded for free on the internet, I'll turn it on asap, thanks! That is so strange. I opened a few others that look fine, it just seems to be the blacks that are not right. I'll see if I can find another one. 

[Bucketz1586]

[Bucketz1586]

That's a detail shot. Is it possible that it just looks bad on this particular screen? 

[Damien Symonds]

Yes indeed.

Ok, next step.  Can you go to Photoshop's Edit menu, and choose "Assign profile".  From the Profile drop-down menu in that screen, choose the monitor profile you most recently created with your ColorMunki.  Immediately you choose it (as long as the "Preview" checkbox is checked" you should see the image change somewhat.

I need to know if the change makes the problem better, worse, about the same, or absolutely no change.

[Bucketz1586]

Let me do this again.. I took this with my phone of the screen. The same image looks fine when I view it on my phone. 

[Bucketz1586]

I tried that and it made it darker, but still very noticeable. 

[Damien Symonds]

Bugger.

In the ColorMunki's preferences, under "Technology Type", what did you choose?