Monitor calibration, how, how often?

[Downrigger]

I had my monitor (macbook pro/retina) calibrated free yesterday by an X-Rite ("colormunki") representative and the local photo shop.

The result is a display different than what I get with my own calibration (gamma 2.2, D65) in the computer itself. The new calibration gives images a warmer almost suffused light cast (though the color monkey used D65 too), that look to me somehow softer (?), and I guess I can see better gradations in very dark and very light areas. Definitely different. Hard for me to say preferable, or not.

I am told professionals do this as often as monthly. I am interested in opinions as to how to deal with the calibration issue - importance, best methods, frequency of need etc.

[Polar01]

I do mine every 2 weeks as my monitor is 4 years old as it is the electronics that start to go, a new or high end once a month should be fine. Their are some who will to it every day when they are working on a special piece to make sure that there is no change one day to the next. I myself do not have any such pieces like that at this time if every.

Cheers:

Allan

[RustBeltRaw]

Monthly, but with reasonably high-quality displays, that's probably more often than necessary. I just recalibrated last night, and I can't detect a difference between the initial and current cal. On the other hand, the monitor's only 3 months old, so that's to be expected. I use a Spyder4Pro, and my main monitor is the Clevo/Sager 90% NTSC gamut IPS panel built into my laptop. The good news is, it's a great display. The bad news is, I'm still reworking my whole portfolio's color balance.

[Downrigger]

Thanks, Allan & Lex. I guess you are making clear, also, that the Mac's own calibration (in settings,display,color) does not detect/fix its own color and tone management - that effective maintenance of consistent display requires an independent device.

[DanK]

yes, you need an independent device. My experience is that it is not necessary to re-do the calibration often, even though I have a fairly cheap monitor. I do it from time to time to play it safe because it is simple and quick to do once one has the hardware and software, but I rarely see any impact from re-doing it. CRTs were another matter--they had to be recalibrated often, I have read, although I have no experience with them.

[Downrigger]

I do it from time to time to play it safe because it is simple and quick to do once one has the hardware and software, but I rarely see any impact from re-doing it.

Thanks, Dan... I'll probably cave to joining in with this (ritual?) but I'm partly trying to figure out whether this emperor is fully clothed, or not. Especially relative to my fairly new Mac.

[Downrigger]

One more question for anyone who wishes to pitch in and has a Mac - where does the ColorSync utility fit in?

[Mike Buckley]

The default reminder in Spyder4Express is to recalibrate every two weeks. I do and have never noticed a difference between the previous and new calibrations. That's exactly what I want; if I ever notice a difference, that means that I have waited too long to recalibrate.

On my system, the entire calibration process takes less than 3 minutes.

[James G]

I use Spyder4 Pro, and recalibrate every 3 months. I have a dual monitor set up and have not noticed any difference with either screen. Total process takes about 20 mins (got to get it out of the box first )

I also calibrate my laptop, and use Spyder Gallery for my Nexus 7 which I use to remotely control my DSLR.

One point though, after some discussions with DataColor I ignore recommended ambient light calibration and set a monitor brightness of 105 lm/sqm. This ensures that my screen is not significantly brighter than print so I can generally print what I see on screen without need to adjust for print.

[Mike Buckley]

Especially relative to my fairly new Mac.

I don't know about Macs but age has nothing to do with it when using a PC. When calibrating my old computer, calibrating resulted only in a slight change. When I got a new computer, which of course contained a different video card, calibrating made a huge difference and still does. The monitor was the same on both systems.

[James G]

Mark,
I think, rereading your post there may be an 'implied' question that has not really been addressed. I get the impression that you are asking in part if you should consider investing in calibration.
So,

If you do not intend to post images on the web or email them to others, provided you are satisfied with the images on your screen you are good to go... You can even adjust your printer work flow to get acceptable prints from your images.

However, if you wish to have reasonable confidence that what you see on your monitor will be the same on someone else's system, you need to have a common response to colour on both monitors, which implies calibration.

I calibrate my system using Spyder 4 Pro, but I could also use Color Munki (or ColorSync if you are on Mac), since they all enable you to set your monitor so it corresponds to 'universally accepted' standards for RGB.

The thing to remember is that calibration enables you to be confident that a specific red tone for instance will be reproduced similarly on another monitor which has also been calibrated. The same principal also applies when considering translating colour tones on the monitor to colour tones on the printer.

Having calibrated, I think the general consensus is that it will not change much over a relatively long period of time unless the monitor is faulty, ageing, or something else in the system set changes, or the monitor is reset to factory defaults.

Since you had your monitor/MacBook was calibrated recently, you only need to consider the longer term economics/benefits of getting your own device.

I have a couple of mean, stingy, low-budget photo-nut friends who occasionally 'borrow' my Spyder 4 just 'check' their calibration, so... if you can get another free calibration in 3-6 months, or can borrow a calibration device.....

If however you tend towards wanting to have absolute control over all aspects of the workflow, like me and a few others on CiCs, investing in a calibration device is the only way to go..... honest....

[Downrigger]

Big help, James. Thank you.

[jordand]

I bought Spyder 4 about a year ago (approximately 90 euro).When I first installed the software I left the reminder as it was - 2 weeks and when it appears I start the process. It takes about 10 minutes to get the job done.
There’s a huge difference between what I considered “correct” color scheme and what Spyder suggested.
I know I was wrong and many of my photos suffered from mistaken post processing that was actually just a waste of time.
My opinion - it is worth investing some money in a calibration device.

[Colin Southern]

Just don't mix up calibration and profiling -- although they're 2 sides of the same coin, they are different.

Calibrating the display is fine, but you then still need to profile it against your current setup.

I do mine a couple of times a year, if that.

[davidedric]

Just don't mix up calibration and profiling -- although they're 2 sides of the same coin, they are different.

Yes indeed, though my ColorMunki device both profiles and calibrates my display

[ajohnw]

I use a colormunki and did use another make prior to that but found no difference at all but calibrate sRGB and also print sRGB on the few occasions that I do. I've never calibrated the printer, I just assume it should do what it states it does. I can't see any difference from the screen really. At some point I might calibrate the printer. It can be done if there is a scanner about.

It would take me a while to remember what the other make was but my reason for changing was LED monitors. Some calibrators did not work well with them. I assume all have been updated now but they hadn't circa 18 months ago.

Where I did run into problems was the software that came with them. Insufficient colour patches to be sure odd balls hadn't been missed. When I used software with more coverage I found that there were a few one tone in particular. The key to getting that correct was to achieve as precise an equal level of r g and b output as I could before calibration. The software allows for that. They inter react to a certain extent. The actual level has a bearing on how equal they can be.

On colour spaces afraid I feel that there isn't much point in going past sRGB at the moment. For one thing if I posted Adobe RGB images on the web I know that colours could be lost when they are viewed on a sRGB monitor. I also wonder if printers have a 10bit capability. Not something that I have ever looked at.

I also wonder how frequent checks of calibration really need to be. LED's are far more stable than previous back lighting systems.

John
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[Macmahon]

One more question for anyone who wishes to pitch in and has a Mac - where does the ColorSync utility fit in?

Mark
Short answer: Re profiling and reprofiling your monitor: it doesn't.

Colorsync is Mac's name for the ICC colour management system that manages colour translations through the system to keep output colours the same. The utility allows you to assign, change, inspect and repair profiles, but not to create profiles. Profile creation requires measuring the colour response of a device, be it monitor or printer.

Get a colorimeter (ColorMunki Display, i1 Display Pro, or Spyder) and regularly reprofile. That way you'll know you're looking at something approximating standard colours.

If you're into printing, you want a decent colour match between print and screen — do yourself a favour and get a spectrophotometer (Colormunki Photo, i1Pro) that can be used to profile both monitor and printer.

BTW the biggest adjustment you need to make with the iMac is luminance. In the stores they are displayed way too bright: luminance is far too high. If you're looking to match print and screen, depending on your office lighting which will determine the 'brightness' of prints, you'll typically need to dial the iMac luminance back to ~100 cdm2.

Cheers

Tim

[ajohnw]

Mark

If you're into printing, you want a decent colour match between print and screen — do yourself a favour and get a spectrophotometer (Colormunki Photo, i1Pro) that can be used to profile both monitor and printer.


Cheers

Tim

There is another way of calibrating a printer. It involves scanning an accurate colour patch card into a pc. The software knows what the colour ordinates of the card are so when the printer prints the same card and that is scanned into the pc it can calculate a profile to match the printer. The scanners colour error is effectively cancelled out.

The best colour patch cards come with the info needed by the software and have been individually measured with a very high end spectrophotometer. It's also possible to get lower cost ones where say 1 in 10 cards are accurately measured on the basis that the machines that print them do not drift by much and a typical photographer doesn't really need the accuracy obtained by individually measured cards and their equipment couldn't hold it anyway. Some calibrators have come with a card like this but I am not aware of a current one. That card is unlikely to be as accurate as the batch sampled ones anyway. The cards don't last for ever either but life can be prolonged by keeping them in the dark.

The camera can be calibrated the same way by photographing a colour patch card. Some people use flash others take the shot dead on local noon as the colour temperature is more predictable. Adobe's etc profiles are generally based on what one camera gave or provided by the manufacturer on the basis of it being typical. In most cases it seems they are based on the results from one camera as manufacturers don't seem to provide them on their web sites or in their own raw conversion software. Never looked. Maybe some do.

Can't use the same card for both.

John
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[Downrigger]

Help me here: Does the colormunki BOTH calibrate and reprofile? It creates a profile that is in my color display options, and the same file now lives in my colorsync utility. This suggests that both calibration and profiling were done when the X-rite rep demo'd the device on my macBook. Or am I out to lunch?

[Macmahon]

Help me here: Does the colormunki BOTH calibrate and reprofile? It creates a profile that is in my color display options, and the same file now lives in my colorsync utility. This suggests that both calibration and profiling were done when the X-rite rep demo'd the device on my macBook. Or am I out to lunch?

Mark
You're totally not out to lunch!
As you'll have discovered, the iMac doesn't offer a lot of manual calibration options, beyond luminance. The settings you choose while setting up the Colormunki are first applied as calibration, before the patches are generated for measuring. In other words, both steps are carried out consecutively as part one operation.
The ColorMunki s/w automatically sets the generated profile as the default monitor profile as you have seen in the Colorsync utility.
Cheers
Tim