Calibration Question. Pros?

The23rdman

The23rdman

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Dean
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I'm considering a Spyder Pro. Now, I've read a bit on these and people seem to rate them, but I also need something that's going to calibrate screen brightness, gamma and contrast as it's these over colour I have an issue with. This is especially important for printing for clients.

Is this covered by the SpyderPro or do I need additional/better software/hardware?
 
Spyder3 Pro will calibrate colours and brightness, actually it just measures brightness and you make the changes manually which I suspect is the same for all calibrators. It also measures the black & white points which again you adjust to meet the target and re-measure until it's in the right spot.

As for gamma, from what I remember you pick the most suitable and stick to it, it's not something you calibrate.

Word of warning though, if you've got a low end monitor like mine then once you move past colour calibration into the important stuff then everything else becomes a compromise.

I can't get black and white points exactly where the Spyder points them, I have to favour one over the other visually and leave the other to the histogram/levels dialogue.

Denyerec knows all about this shizzle, he's down with colour management so hopefully he'll see this thread and chip in.

Hope you don't mind me answering - what with me not being a Pro and all.
 
I am not entirely sure about the Spyder Pro, but if you are talking about Monitor calibration only, the EyeOne2 will (& I assume the Spyder Pro as Spder 2 did) will calibrate the colour of your monitor so it is consistant, the gama you set usually 2.2 (even on the new Imacs). This is the first stage. I then do a print and adjust the monitor brightness to match. With the EyeOne I then set the luminace (Brightness) to the same level in my case 80 and recheck the monitor brightness matches my test print. A little trial & error but once you know this figure I get a consistant print matching the screen.

If you are also talking about the print colours matching the screen neither the Spyder Pro or EyeOne will calibrate the printer you need either printer calibration software or additional hardware/different software. Colour Minki will do both or you use the generic ICC printer profiles.

Hope that was useful
 
Thanks guys, very useful. I'm not printing at home so testing brightness with my printer may be a bit of a long-winded process. If anyone who uses DSCL can chip in and tell me how they got on calibrating for them I'd appreciate it. I am specifically talking brightness and contrast here as I realise I need to use their profiles.
 
The only thing I don't like about the Spyder which Peter#s EyeOne seems to do is to be able to manually set the desired brightness level. The Spyder recomends that you set it to a target of about 170cd/m^2 but I've been recommended 120-130 and Peter uses 80.

The Spyder will however tell you what your brightness level is so you could do what Peter does and adjust your screen to the print and then make a note of the measured brightness level for future reference.
 
Okay, so what I'm understanding is that unlike colours there isn't a standard calibration for brightness and contrast? It's dependant on the printer, ambient light etc?
 
That's my understanding too. Brightness is a physical measure of how bright your monitor is but if you're trying to match it to a print's brightness then different printers/papers/inks may be different.

The contrast depends on the monitor I think. The spyder measures a black and white square on the screen to see if white is white and black is black. I adjust the brightness to get the white to its target and contrast to get the black to its black target (or vice-versa, haven't done it in a few weeks). The problem with my monitor is it has a pretty lame contrast ratio, so if I get white to be pure white then I can't get black to be pure black and vice versa, that's where better monitors come into play.
 
The23rdman said:
Okay, so what I'm understanding is that unlike colours there isn't a standard calibration for brightness and contrast? It's dependant on the printer, ambient light etc?
Click to expand...

In my exprience this is correct, there well maybe for more expensive kit but certainly not for the equipment we are talking about here.
 
Thank you both again. I'll go ahead and buy one now.
 
There is a desired luminance level for white, at a given colour temperature. There's also a desired luminance level for black (It's, well, black...) however with some crapper TFT monitors, due to the way they work, sometimes if you boost your white output the black creeps up as light bleeds though the polarising mask. That's why Kev can't get this black AND white point into spec, because as he pushes the white point up, more and more light leaks through the blacks.

Ambient light, some calibrators will tell you to adjust your environment, others will attempt to sample ambient light and adjust on the fly. Because I do all my editing after dark in my office, the lighting is constant. It's important to fit 6500K bulbs in your editing space, not dingy "warm" ones. It won't alter the calibrator's performance, but it will throw your own eyes out as you adjust for your warmer surroundings.

Once your monitor is profiled, it means that ICC profiles like sRGB now have a standard, known place to move from. The same is true of soft-proof profiles for paper too, allowing you to at least to some degree get a clue of what will or won't reproduce. It's all very approximate when it comes to paper simulation though, as obviously paper is reflective, not emissive, etc etc.

Whatever you spend on a calibrator, it won't help you much if your monitor is garbage. Even if you have a great monitor that you believe to be calibrated, learning to use the Info palette to check your image numbers is good practice anyway and helps avoid disappointment further down the line when you get your prints back.
 
Denyerec said:
Ambient light, some calibrators will tell you to adjust your environment, others will attempt to sample ambient light and adjust on the fly. Because I do all my editing after dark in my office, the lighting is constant. It's important to fit 6500K bulbs in your editing space, not dingy "warm" ones. It won't alter the calibrator's performance, but it will throw your own eyes out as you adjust for your warmer surroundings.


learning to use the Info palette to check your image numbers is good practice anyway and helps avoid disappointment further down the line when you get your prints back.
Click to expand...

Some excellent advise there
 
I use the eye-one, and as Kev-M say the main reason I got over the spyder was it will measure the brightness of my monitor to get a more accurate reading.

I was surprised at how low I had to turn my Mac down to get the recommended 120 setting. I too use a daylight bulb which although not cheap compared to normal ones is a million times better (which I could afford them throughput the house)

As I understand it the hardware part of the calibration units are more or less all the same, the differences come in the software supplied.
 
When it comes to indoor illumination, I use these:
http://www.bltdirect.com/product.php?pid=5558&cat=&nm=Energy+Saving+Spiral+30+watt+Daylight+BC

Cheapest way I've found of lighting up the office properly. Bear in mind that if you do use these that the room WILL look very odd as you move from the orangey lounge to the bluish office :) They are awesome though, it's like a small sun indoors.

One reason for overbright monitors as-shipped is that as the tubes get older, their output diminishes. My Eizo when new ran at 16% brightness, it's now at 26% after a couple of years. A couple more and I would expect to see that up at 50% odd. How this will be with LED monitors, should they ever hit the market in a colour-critical application, remains to be seen.

There are some cheapish lower power daylights on that site too, but I've never been much of a fan of "Mood" lighting so tend to stick to the higher output units.
 
Really good point about daylight bulbs. I've a few knocking around the house. I'll be sure to use one in the office.
 
Thanks for the link on the Daylight bulbs just ordered a few for my study & also found some other bulbs I had been looking for.
 
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