Please help with monitor setup

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stuart
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Hoping someone can help as I'm ready to pull my hair out . Today I got an M1 Mac mini and a new benq ew3270u monitor. This is quite hard to put into words but in the shadows of all the images it looks like they have been brightened . Areas of an image that should be nearly black are not . They look like the camera was set at iso 1000000. The dark areas are too bright , have banding , noise and massive pixels . Benq told me to set the monitor to srgb and it would be ready to go . I've spent 4 hours tonight changing settings with no joy . Can anyone help .
 
I should add that well lit bright shots look fantastic and as they should be .
 
Only a supposition but......

The screen on that monitor is a VA type and the description of its primary usage is gaming with high dynamic range. What you are describing may actually be a characteristic of the VA screen when used in a colour & contrast critical role as photo editing.

Have you tried calibrating it, in case that helps?
 
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Only a supposition but......

The screen on that monitor is a VA type and the description of its primary usage is gaming with high dynamic range. What you are describing may actually be a characteristic of the VA screen when used in a colour & contrast critical role as photo editing.

Have you tried calibrating it, in case that helps?
Yeah the reviews suggested it was good for gaming but I read an equal amount for photo editing . I have a heuy calibration tool and of course the software doesn't work on the silicone chip yet :-( there is loads of settings on the monitor , gaming /photo/standard / srgb etc etc none really help apart from the "photo" one ......it helps the shadows but throws the colours waaaay off
 
Looking at VA vs IPS again (I looked a good while back and avoided VA at the time because it was poorly seen as photo editing screen!).

It's contrast ratio is way too big for editing but great for gaming.

PS I have a BenQ and it is IPS bought primarily for editing.......I never game.

PPS the first calibration tool I had was the Huey Pro and with my then Dell 2209wa IPS it gave me a green colour cast, a known issue it transpired when used with some PC's and screens. I sold it and got a Spyder Elite and all was well.
 
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The dark areas are too bright , have banding , noise and massive pixels .
I should add that well lit bright shots look fantastic and as they should be .

I'd say the first thing to do is make sure that it's the monitor and not your expectations :) If some pictures look great and others don't then it's *possible* that your old monitor hid the problems and the new one highlights them.

As you know, I have this monitor :) Why don't you Dropbox me a couple of images - one that looks good and one that looks bad. I can take a look on my system and take it from there. If the "bad" one looks good on mine then you can replicate my settings. If it still looks bad then you'll have some ammunition to talk to Benq.

BTW have you turned the light sensor OFF?
 
I'd say the first thing to do is make sure that it's the monitor and not your expectations :) If some pictures look great and others don't then it's *possible* that your old monitor hid the problems and the new one highlights them.

As you know, I have this monitor :) Why don't you Dropbox me a couple of images - one that looks good and one that looks bad. I can take a look on my system and take it from there. If the "bad" one looks good on mine then you can replicate my settings. If it still looks bad then you'll have some ammunition to talk to Benq.

BTW have you turned the light sensor OFF?
Thanks for that. The expectations part was something I questioned to myself but the problem images look great on a number of screens I have checked on. The light sensor (B.I) I have turned off. I don't know how scientific it is to do this here but here are a few problem images. As I'm assume its only my screen with the problem you mayn't see what Im seeing here but this first one has a massive pixilated halo around the couples head, the second has something going on in the grooms trousers and the third has banding and pixels all around the right hand side of the big image

IMG_20191221_164041_134 by stuart macrory, on Flickr
4 by stuart macrory, on Flickr
3 by stuart macrory, on Flickr
 
Is there are any chance it could be some fancy self-minded HDR thing in the monitor? If so try disabling just about every "smart" feature and set contrast and brightness to no more than 50...
You obviously want to run it in DCI-P3 color mode, and calibrate perhaps using any other x86_64 based device, then copy over the ICC profile. It will be far better than nothing at all.

I hope this can be normalised to some extent, but really am not too sure how good the VA tech is.
 
Is there are any chance it could be some fancy self-minded HDR thing in the monitor? If so try disabling just about every "smart" feature and set contrast and brightness to no more than 50...
You obviously want to run it in DCI-P3 color mode, and calibrate perhaps using any other x86_64 based device, then copy over the ICC profile. It will be far better than nothing at all.

I hope this can be normalised to some extent, but really am not too sure how good the VA tech is.
Cheers for that . Yeah HDR and backlight is switched off . I'll give the calibration a go . It's like the screen is set to push the blacks to the max regardless of how bad it looks .
 
This guy is a BenQ guru but so far I cannot find anything by him about your EW3270u screen
BenQ Pro Line Displays, SW, PV, PD, Explained & Compared! - YouTube

Most of his videos are about the higher end screen aimed at photo type editing usage. However, he is knowledgeable I raised a question with him a while back that he liaised with BenQ techs about....................so maybe contact him and see if he has any insights to help you?
 
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'k - I think I've got it.

Opened the pics and they looked lovely. Went to check my settings, knocked a button and OMG dreadful.....

Do not under any circumstances use sRGB.

The pictures look nice (but as you say colours are off) in Photo. Looking at my settings, the best results are in Low Blue Light with Low Blue Light (the other button) set to Office. That gives very close to my office standard Dell. AMA is set to premium (which as far as I understand won't make any difference). I have night light (in Windows panel) set to off and HDR off (you possibly don't have these in OS X.

As I've mentioned before, my screen is *not* calibrated. I'm using a good quality DisplayPort cable (this one - in case the new Macs have DP :) iVANKY DisplayPort Cable 165Hz, High Speed DP Cable: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics ) as it gives better performance on my system than HDMI.

1610191040630.png
 
'k - I think I've got it.

Opened the pics and they looked lovely. Went to check my settings, knocked a button and OMG dreadful.....

Do not under any circumstances use sRGB.

The pictures look nice (but as you say colours are off) in Photo. Looking at my settings, the best results are in Low Blue Light with Low Blue Light (the other button) set to Office. That gives very close to my office standard Dell. AMA is set to premium (which as far as I understand won't make any difference). I have night light (in Windows panel) set to off and HDR off (you possibly don't have these in OS X.

As I've mentioned before, my screen is *not* calibrated. I'm using a good quality DisplayPort cable (this one - in case the new Macs have DP :) iVANKY DisplayPort Cable 165Hz, High Speed DP Cable: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics ) as it gives better performance on my system than HDMI.

View attachment 304760
Thanks so much for doing that . Doing as you say has fixed the shadow problem BUT (there's always a but) the colours are quite a bit over saturated for what ever reason and the saturation adjustment is greyed out in your setting. I may invest in a calibration tool . Thank again
 
Thanks so much for doing that . Doing as you say has fixed the shadow problem BUT (there's always a but) the colours are quite a bit over saturated for what ever reason and the saturation adjustment is greyed out in your setting. I may invest in a calibration tool . Thank again

Yes, you'll need to "user" setting to get full control of sat etc.
 
Yes, you'll need to "user" setting to get full control of sat etc.
Ahhh yes got you now ! Sorry I'm a little slow at this sort of stuff lol thanks again . Out of interest do you know what your saturation /contrast is sitting at ? I've the saturation at 35 now which seemed low but looks correct to my untrained eye
 
Ahhh yes got you now ! Sorry I'm a little slow at this sort of stuff lol thanks again . Out of interest do you know what your saturation /contrast is sitting at ? I've the saturation at 35 now which seemed low but looks correct to my untrained eye

I just went into "user" a nd started moving the sliders. Around 50 people look human. At 60+ they are Bob Monkhouse and below 40 they start to look like they are dying. 35 is hideous on mine - but Macs are *very* different in their default settings from PCs.

I would start by opening this image Free Monitor Calibration and Printer Test Image by Digital Masters Australasia and then playing with saturation until they all look human and you can easily tell their ethnicities. Then adjust brightness until you can see all the subtlety of the clothes and skin. Then leave it alone and come back to it another day :)

Also, take care with your viewing angle. Light in the room (from windows or bulbs) can cause all kinds of problems. I've just mounted my Benq on a gas ram and it's an absolute joy.
 
I just went into "user" a nd started moving the sliders. Around 50 people look human. At 60+ they are Bob Monkhouse and below 40 they start to look like they are dying. 35 is hideous on mine - but Macs are *very* different in their default settings from PCs.

I would start by opening this image Free Monitor Calibration and Printer Test Image by Digital Masters Australasia and then playing with saturation until they all look human and you can easily tell their ethnicities. Then adjust brightness until you can see all the subtlety of the clothes and skin. Then leave it alone and come back to it another day :)

Also, take care with your viewing angle. Light in the room (from windows or bulbs) can cause all kinds of problems. I've just mounted my Benq on a gas ram and it's an absolute joy.
Super ! Thanks for that
 
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