Quick & Easy monitor calibration advice?

mikeyw

mikeyw

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Guys,

I've recently taken delivery of a lovely 22" widescreen LCD monitor.

I noticed in the monitor set up there was an option to set it to RGB which i assume is one of the standards the monitor manufacturers are working to, doing this has left quite a dark image but the colours seems ok (i guess they should !)

Having used this setting I believe i'm quite limited for what i can change but brightness and contrast etc can be adjusted.

2 things :-

1) Is the RGB setting a good choice ? - surely any standards help with something as painful to get right
2) Any quick tips on getting the contrast / brightness to a correct level ?

I'm not really looking to purchase one of those calibration tools but just wondered if there were some basic rule of thumb techniques that work well enough ?

tia,
Mike.
 
There isn't really a fool-proof way of calibrating a monitor without using a calibration tool. There are websites that give you test images which you can use to calibrate by sight alone, but it's a most subjective method and all sorts of things can can affect the outcome; the ambient light in the room, for instance. People also make the mistake of thinking that a calibration tool is a waste of money as you'll only have to use it once, when, in fact, it's good to recalibrate your screens on at least a monthly basis; it makes all the difference if you want to get prints back from the chemists looking the way you saw them on your screen. Bear in mind that such a tool doesn't simply fiddle with the colour/contrast/brightness controls of the monitor, but actually writes a colour profile that is used by your PC/laptop's GPU, therefore provides a much wider latitude for adjustment. I use Spyder 3 Pro, which you can get for about £90, and am quite happy to pay that to take the guesswork out of post processing; unless you shoot in jpeg only and don't do any PP, a calibration tool is a must, I'm afraid. :thumbs:
 
I can't afford a calibrator either, but I used the test patterns and guidance here to set mine up. Works for me, and I have not had any complaints about my image colours/exposure from using the settings, but then again, I don't know anybody with a calibrated monitor who could advise me otherwise... :D
 
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