Calibrating

[Gray]

Just how important is calibrating? I've never done it, so am I missing out, or is it only something pros really need to do?

I understand that to calibrate a monitor you need some kind of little hardware thingy that you stick on the front of the screen and then you run through some software that sets it up.

As I said, I've never done it, so would I notice a difference if I did? Or is it a waste of money (as some of the equipment I've seen that's recommended is £250+).

Thanks!

 

[cavemanoc]

I actually had a chance to play with one of those little 'hardware thingies' the other day as I picked one up for my Father-in-law. (the Eye-One Display from GretaMach) Very simple to use and did a good job! Would I buy one for myself - no! There are plenty of sites out there that will walk you through what you need to do to calibrate your monitor yourself without forking out £250.

He only needed it as he runs a digital photo processing lab and was fed up with clients complaining that their pictures didn't look as they did on their screens - so now he calibrates them for his clients

Also depends what you want it for - movies require a different setup to photo work and games. Depends how serious you are I guess - what did you want it for?

 

[Greebo]

I would say it depends on the make of your monitor. Take a look at any decent review site such as www.tftcentral.co.uk and see how badly some monitors are with colour matching straight out of the box although some are excellent.

I was lucky with my NEC. ALthough every monitor will be different out of the box, I could really notice the difference downloading the calibrated settings from their site and I am sure they are better than my monitor is out of the box although it won't be a perfect match.

Therefore either borrow a calibrating deivce from somebody (not worth buying unless you colour accruacy is important to your work in which case you will have either not bought a tft screen of bought an Eizo screen, for example, which would have cost you 2 to 3 times the normal price of a Samsung/Dell), find a calbrated colour profile for your monitor and download it or just use a link from the Tft Central site to an online calibration program.

Although not perfect, it's better than not calibrating at all IMO>

 

[Gray]

Also depends what you want it for - movies require a different setup to photo work and games. Depends how serious you are I guess - what did you want it for?

Mainly for making my photo print-outs to look vaguely similar to what they look like on screen. At the moment, my Viewsonic VP930 displays the photos on screen vastly different to how they are printed out.

The problem with calibrating using purely software relies on "guessing", as in "move this slider until the foreground blends into the background" etc. Plus you have to make sure that the light in the room is perfect, and so on.

I just wondered if the "hardware thingy" made it all easier by taking out the guess-work.

Once I've calibrated my monitor, any tips on how to make the photo colours match it? Anyone know of any good comprehensive guides anywhere?

 

[Baddass]

the hardware devices you are referring to are colorimeter's i assume. The thing with doing software based calibration or fiddling with settings in the monitor's OSD is that it only offers you limited adjustments in reality. With a colorimeter, it is mostly automated, and correction is done at a graphics card LUT (look up table) level, and so far more accurate. To get proper accuracy from your screen you'd need a colorimeter really, but to get a comfortable setting for average use, software (free) methods and downloadable profiles are often sufficient

 

[cavemanoc]

Mainly for making my photo print-outs to look vaguely similar to what they look like on screen. At the moment, my Viewsonic VP930 displays the photos on screen vastly different to how they are printed out.

The problem with calibrating using purely software relies on "guessing", as in "move this slider until the foreground blends into the background" etc. Plus you have to make sure that the light in the room is perfect, and so on.

I just wondered if the "hardware thingy" made it all easier by taking out the guess-work.

Once I've calibrated my monitor, any tips on how to make the photo colours match it? Anyone know of any good comprehensive guides anywhere?

The eye-one does exactly what you're looking for (That's why my dad-in-law bought it ) It will calibrate your monitor (and printer if you buy the right package) so you would get the best possible match. The question is 'money?' How much printing do you do, to what quality, and have you exhausted the software/eyeball methods. Bearing in mind how cheaply you can get photos printed professionally online you would need to do a few to cover the outlay on the hardware...

The other thing to take into account is effort. The hardware solution is incredibly easy! Plug it in, click go - job done. I really enjoyed 'testing' his on my 4 monitors - just to make sure it worked - if you are serious about your prints/movies then you need to calibrate your monitors every couple of months as they change over time.

If you do decide to go for it I can pass all the links I found along to you - some good forums out there - but a little difficult to find as it's such a niche market!

 

[Gray]

Those links would be most helpful, yes please.

 

[cavemanoc]

Just a couple I found useful:

Nice forum post that has loads of great links:
Here
The One I got:
Eye-One

Did a google (UK) on "Greta-Macbeth Eye-One" and found a UK supplier at around £150! That's just the scrren calibrator - you should be able to get the extra bits to add in printer calibration if needed.