Monitor calibration - changing viewing conditions.

[spittle]

I work in an office and have some large skylights that let a lot of light in.

The environment is pleasant to work in but depending on the time of day - the brightness of the room varies a lot.

The building is listed and it’s a rental so adding blinds isn’t really an option.

Anyone have a solution for this scenario?

I use a ColorMunki photo and as far as I can tell I’d need to manually create a profile for various ambient lighting conditions (brightnesses) and then apply a different one depending on the time of day.

And do that for each monitor. And redo it every month or so.

[Shadowman]

The ColorMunki can be set to measure the light at different times of the day and make the adjustment automatically.

[Astro]

Could you set up internal screens to soften the changes in the room, and can you reposition your working space so that you could use hooded monitors to limit the effect of direct light?

[tao2]

Hi David,

Ye can buy UV and anti-glare film, to stick to skylights etc. It greatly reduces, reflections and glare.

Here's a couple of addresses...

https://www.windowfilm.co.uk/commercial/glare

https://www.windowfilm.co.uk/buy-onl.../uv-protection

https://www.purlfrost.com/mirror-and...d-window-film/

[DanK]

If your concern is glare, then Robert's suggestions could help, but if it is differences in brightness or color balance, they won't help.

When you say "redo it every month or so," do you mean because of changing light or because of the passage of time? If the latter, you needn't bother. The advice to recalibrate often reflects the old days of CRTs, I believe. I have found the calibration of my monitors to be very stable, and I have read that this is common.

You might try a hood for your monitor. Some color-critical monitors have them. One is made for my NEC, and it is designed so that it should fit most monitors of the same size, but it is ridiculously expensive for what it is: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1416625-REG/nec_hd2pa2427_2nd_generation_display_hood.html.

[Manfred M]

I understand your frustration.

Any professional studio for photo editing or video editing is in a controlled light environment. The rooms are all dimly lit and the walls and work surfaces have neutral colours. In general image editing should be done in a room where the maximum light level is below 70 lux with the computer screen set up to around 100 candela / square meter. My i1 Photo lets me set up my computer screen to the right output level and I use my incident light meter to measure the ambient light conditions in my workspace. Fortunately, my editing area is in an interior basement office, so my lighting is quite consistent.

Have you considered working after sundown when the room is dimly lit?

[spittle]

Hi

Thanks for the replies, my main concern is the variance in brightness throughout the day. From your responses I think I'm going to have to try and block some of the light. And maybe introduce some artificial lighting to regulate the light.

Currently I'm finalising images either end of the day.

Manfred, aren't the 'ideal' conditions for lighting similar to what the media will be viewed under? I'm in Australia and it's very bright a lot of the time.

[Manfred M]

Manfred, aren't the 'ideal' conditions for lighting similar to what the media will be viewed under? I'm in Australia and it's very bright a lot of the time.

That statement is correct if you are printing and assessing the test prints. In fact, ideally you should let the test print dry for a couple of hours before reading the test print, but in practice that is only really necessary when you are working on your final test print.

If you are looking at electronic media, then no, as you likely will not have any control over what device and viewing conditions the image will be seen under.

[spittle]

My clients tend to print books for marketing, but they also use images online.

[Acorn]

Monitor calibration has been a problem for me ever since the introduction of Windows 10. It appears it will only be resolved with a much newer laptop. I have a Spyder 4 Pro that once worked perfectly, but computer technology advances and telephone help from Microsoft reveal that the problem is insurmountable. Essentially, I can no longer adjust the brightness level (needs reducing) and results in prints tending to be a shade darker than I would like. Even reloading of Datacolor’s software fails to solve the problem. But when there were none of the problems described I always calibrated in complete darkness.

[Manfred M]

Monitor calibration has been a problem for me ever since the introduction of Windows 10. It appears it will only be resolved with a much newer laptop. I have a Spyder 4 Pro that once worked perfectly, but computer technology advances and telephone help from Microsoft reveal that the problem is insurmountable. Essentially, I can no longer adjust the brightness level (needs reducing) and results in prints tending to be a shade darker than I would like. Even reloading of Datacolor’s software fails to solve the problem. But when there were none of the problems described I always calibrated in complete darkness.

Barry - if the new laptop is also Windows 10, the underlying issues with the Spyder 4 are going to continue. Datacolor current models are the Spyder 5 and Spyder X. The xRite Colormunki and i1 lines are also current.

I had to replace my ancient i1 with a modern i1 pro a couple of years ago and the new model works well with Windows 10. The old i1 stopped working with Windows 8. Unfortunately the calibration hardware and software are OS specific and upgrades are required from time to time.

[spittle]

What’s the issue with Win10? I’m using an old Colormunki Photo. It’s been pretty good.

I recalibrate from time to time when I think the graphics card driver crashes (or something when one monitor goes black) and it seems to stuff up the calibration.

I use a number of graphics intensive application so have put it down to that.

[Manfred M]

I recalibrate from time to time when I think the graphics card driver crashes (or something when one monitor goes black) and it seems to stuff up the calibration

Just reloading the correct profile does not work? That is strange.

[spittle]

Maybe it does and I just need to try harder to figure out how.

[Manfred M]

Maybe it does and I just need to try harder to figure out how.

In the settings screen, you should be able to reload the correct profile.

[spittle]

It's interesting the colour profile setting wasn't there a couple of days ago (or maybe I somehow missed it?).

Anyway, I woke up my computer this morning after leaving it on overnight, the monitor colours were off, and not matching so I went to the Display screen and could see that the appropriate profile was set for each monitor with the dropdown.

If I changed the profile it didn't do anything - maybe a sign that they're all pretty close? There was even what appeared to be a default windows one in the list and that also looked exactly the same.

If I opened ColorMunki Photo then there weren't any settings there.

A restart fixed the issue, just wondering what the cause may be.

Actually as I type - the issue just occured - now one of my monitors has a green hue.

Weird, any ideas?

[Manfred M]

Actually as I type - the issue just occured - now one of my monitors has a green hue.

Weird, any ideas?

Check the connectors at the video card and at the screen. Also open your case and check to make sure the video card is properly seated. It could be as simple as a poor connection somewhere or some minor corrosion on the contacts. Reseating the connectors and cards would likely resolve that.