Which Monitor Calibration / Profiling Device?

[Antonio Correia]

thanks Colin,
you are clear too
so i can assume that nothing is wrong, in practice, if i let a pro-photographer calibrates my monitor in his room with its light and then use the monitor in my room...
a very cheaper go, since he asks me around 25eur and the spyder 4 pro 130eur
sorry if I bore you...

But Nicola, if I understand you correctly, you are losing money.

If you pay 5 calibrations - say once a month for example - you spend 125 € when the Spyder costs 130 € !

And then ? At the 6.th month ? No calibrator, no money !

I must be mis-understanding you ...
-
Here a pro photographer asked me if I wanted him to lend me his spyder for the calibration of my own monitor at my own home.

Cost ? Free.

[Colin Southern]

Hi Nicola,

I agree with Antonio. And to expand on that a little, when I talked about you "over thinking" it a bit I was assuming that you were talking about the variance that you'd get throughout the day from a single location -- I'd think that the variance you'd get between 2 different locations might make the results a bit more "suspect". Also, it's not the monitor that gets "calibrated" per se - it's the entire video system. So if you're going to take the screen to a pro photographer then you need to take the rest of the system too.

Personally I'd suggest just "sucking it up" (as we say!) and buying one for yourself. Also - from a licencing point of view - I think it's against the terms of the licence to install the software on a PC that you don't own.

[Nicola]

Antonio
you understood me correctly,
I was assuming to calibrate my monitor twice per year... so I 'd have 3 years to spend 125eur... but I was wrong.

and, I've no such friend to borrow it, you are lucky
but, as we use to say... nothing is for free...
just kiding!
ciao

[Nicola]

Hi Nicola,

I agree with Antonio. And to expand on that a little, when I talked about you "over thinking" it a bit I was assuming that you were talking about the variance that you'd get throughout the day from a single location -- I'd think that the variance you'd get between 2 different locations might make the results a bit more "suspect". Also, it's not the monitor that gets "calibrated" per se - it's the entire video system.

thanks Colin
it is what i 've red, and your previous post generated some doubts to me...
do you think there is worth to spend more money for the spyder 4 elite rather than the cheaper pro version?
thanks again
ciao

[Antonio Correia]

Let me try to tell you what is happening with me.
In fact I will never expose. I think. Let's move on then.
With the naissance of Tomas, my last born grand sun I decided to make a book of him every year. What easier than Blurb books ? Good point I thought.
Wrong. I have ordered two books from Blurb in black and white which are two disasters because the black is blue in certain pages and black in others.
I started by blaming Blurb. Wrong again I think.
I wrote them and they told me to read the FM (****ing manual). Not in these terms of course but the final point was this.
I got their icc profile and I am doing two new books in B&W expecting this time they are really black and white.
The same I will apply to my grand sun's book which will be in colour.
In the meantime - the book is for the end of the year - I must order a colour book from them to check out the colours and test their icc profile.
-
So, I started the other way. I started by the end . I started by the final product when I should have from my own monitor.
Let me put things in paragraphs to make everything clear.
1. Calibrate the monitor with any device
2. Open an image and Command + Y (Ctrl+Y) to activate the Prof Setup

In the case Blurb B&W books or any other going through the Custom option
3. Adjust the image to your liking.
4. Activate the Gamut Warning (I changed the colour to red with Command + K) and make the necessary corrections. See here a quick video

5. Save the image to print in that specific printer !

One thing is missing here however.
I am not considering the final output, that is: the paper itself where the image is going to be printed.
It is obvious that it is different to print on canvas or to print on glossy paper.
So, I have to apply the specific profile for that specific paper !

Sophisticated indeed.
This will be the final approach. Then, from monitor to paper everything will be set accordingly and I will be able to get decent and pretty good results.
-
BTW I am planning to get the iDisplay Pro
Click on the image IYP

This post is already a long one and I do not want to be boring but I saw somewhere here about this but - for the moment - this is basically what I have to say.

No, I will not dive in camera calibration.

Thank you for your attention
-
Just a couple of links that may be useful.
Blurb - 1 - 2
-
Re-reading the post I think to myself: Have I been too confusing ?

[Antonio Correia]

Nicola, have a look at this and watch this video

[Nicola]

Hi Antonio,
thank you very much for either the long or the short post!!
it's nice, what you write in the longer one is similar to my experience.
the only different point is that I'm quite satisfied of my prints, never found terrible colour or light shift/cast on them.
anyway, my print shop provides once per month the icc of his printer and papers,
so I wanted to set everything to use all the gears at their best

[Colin Southern]

5. Save the image to print in that specific printer !

One thing is missing here however.
I am not considering the final output, that is: the paper itself where the image is going to be printed.
It is obvious that it is different to print on canvas or to print on glossy paper.
So, I have to apply the specific profile for that specific paper !

Sophisticated indeed.

Hi Antonio,

Close, but I think there is a small but significant error in your thinking.

A profile is essentially a correction table - but in the case of a printer profile, it's only valid for a given printer + ink set + media combination. You don't have 1 profile for the printer and one for the media ... you'd have 1 profile for (eg) an Epson 7800 with Ultrachrome K3 Ink & Jenrite MS1234-610 Canvas media, and a different profile for an Epson 7800 with Ultrachrome K3 Ink & Acme AB4321-610 High-gloss paper etc.

So if Blurb B&W are behaving themselves then they should have a different profile for each media & printer combination, although in reality, the differences may not be great.

Softproofing is needed because of something that most folks just don't think of: Monitors and Printers each display a significantly different gamut of colours; Colours like strong reds are easy for a monitor to reproduce because the monitor has a red LED, whereas a printer doesn't have red ink, so it can struggle with bright reds etc. Not usually an issue with people, but can DEFINITELY be an issue with flowers and other brightly coloured objects.

[Antonio Correia]

Hello Colin,
I do know that it is just one profile for the hole process, from the monitor to the specific paper, for a specific printer.
I have seen the video on post 26.

The guys in Blurb have their own profile which I am about to use. But of course, one can't have the photos printed as exquisite as if their were done with calibration all over the process.

I have bought their "swatch kit" and I can see some variances in brightness and contrast according to their papers.
For example the profile is the same for the cover and for the "inside" of the book. The papers are quite different and so must be the results.

Nothing more normal.

Thank you Colin

[Colin Southern]

I do know that it is just one profile for the hole process, from the monitor to the specific paper, for a specific printer.

Hi Antonio,

I'm a bit confused by that; there are actually two profiles for all of that ... a monitor profile and a printer profile.

I'm sure you realise this -- just wanted to make sure that you're not using a printer profile as a monitor profile (technically it's possible, but you'll get invalid results) (reason I mention it is because it's a fairly common mistake).

[Antonio Correia]

I must confess that I wrote something that I was not thinking at that moment.

Perhaps I was thinking of something else...

Sorry Colin and thank you.

[Antonio Correia]

I found this interesting peace of information.

I started from here !

In Portugal the Color Munkey Photo costs 392,62 € !!!!!!!!!

[Nicola]

I found this interesting peace of information.

I started from here !

In Portugal the Color Monkey Photo costs 392,62 € !!!!!!!!!

dear Antonio
thanks for the link.
I'm learning about colour management from Mauro Boscarol,
he is the first italian who recieved the Adobe Certified Expert and Adobe Product Evangelist.
unfortunately his website is in Italian... don't know how the google translator can work on it...

http://www.boscarol.com/blog/

about color munki photo, also here it's around 380-390 eur

[Antonio Correia]

Thank you Nicola
Nothing like Chrome with automatic translation ! May be not perfect but good enough.

Now, I am slowly changing my mind... I think I am going to get the ColorMunky a printer and paper. More news later on.
I am getting the Epson 3000 which I intend to use with the same paper all the time. Or at least two kind of papers to make everything consistent for a long time.

Next week I am going to Lisbon to see the papers and printer.

More news next week on this matter.

[Nicola]

Thank you Nicola
Nothing like Chrome with automatic translation ! May be not perfect but good enough.

.

de nada!
(if it's a correct translation..)

Now, I am slowly changing my mind... I think I am going to get the ColorMunky a printer and paper. More news later on.
I am getting the Epson 3000 which I intend to use with the same paper all the time. Or at least two kind of paper to make everything consistent for a long time.

Next week I am going to Lisbon to see the papers and printer.

More news next week on this matter.

instead, my way is to go on printing from this company http://www.digitalpix.com/ie/Default.aspx (english and spanish web site available) since it provides the icc profile of every kind of its papaer once per month. they manage some very interesting paper as kodak endura metallic, fuji pearl and fuji silk. these are very powerfull!
so I'm waiting for the delivery of the calibrator I just ordered sunday morning...
let me know where your "colour manaing story" will end to

[Antonio Correia]

Excuse me Nicola, but which monitor calibrator are you getting ?

These days I have been investigating this "thing" of printing and so on.
I arrived to Digigraphie which is very interesting. In Lisbon they have some certified labs. In Italy lots of them ...

As I am very pretentious - am I ? - and I would like to be "recognized" as a photographer I am going to ask how to become a Digigrapher.
I am sure there is some money involved.

More talk/news to come.

[Nicola]

Excuse me Nicola, but which monitor calibrator are you getting ?

These days I have been investigating this "thing" of printing and so on.
I arrived to Digigraphie which is very interesting. In Lisbon they have some certified labs. In Italy lots of them ...

As I am very pretentious - am I ? - and I would like to be "recognized" as a photographer I am going to ask how to become a Digigrapher.
I am sure there is some money involved.

More talk/news to come.

interesting Antonio...
I think the money involved is at least that you need to buy all that certified epson gear, if you want your personal digigraphie mark on your prints. otherwise you have to put the sign of the digigraphie lab that prints your images.
Perhaps it is worth to spend that money if you need something more than the quality of the prints: they offer limited editions, on-line gallery... high quality prints are possible also without digigraphie trademark.

I found in the map of Digigraphie Lab an already known printing service very close to my every-day 10-minutes-long by bike path to office...

ops, I was forgetting..
I haven't had enough time to study all the calibrators, so finally, on sunday, I bought i1 Display Pro from Germany, and yesterday I calibrated my monitor!
why i1 display pro? Boscarol described it quite well, it has a couple of features better than Spyder 4 elite... and you "suggested" it ;-)

ciao
N

[Antonio Correia]

I think Nicola you are referring to the ColorMunkey Photo

and not to the iOne Display Pro as you say,

which is, in my humble opinion, a not so good option for what we want. I mean for me at least.

More news soon after my visit to Lisbon lab

[Antonio Correia]

Nicola, when I saw this I remembered you at once !

Man... the music !!!!!!!

Arturo Piazzolla I suppose.

This has no connection with this thread !!!

[Nicola]

Nicola, when I saw this I remembered you at once !

Man... the music !!!!!!!

Arturo Piazzolla I suppose.

This has no connection with this thread !!!

You saw it too late Antonio... september 2011...
anyway it's quite common to find that kind of trip nearby, if your mouth is watering and the camera is jumping in your bag!

otherwise, you know what to do to have a cheaper and less professional experience like that....