Have I bought the wrong monitor profile package?

Quick question, I have spent hours reading everything that is available on this colour management forum and have come o an overall impression that I really need to lower my luminanve values to about 90/100 candelars per square metre. Now, I have unfortunately committed myself to the spyder3 pro. this seems like a big mistake since it does not allow you to change the luminance value numerically, only by a silly meaningless horizontal bar.

This is bad news for accuracy right? Should I invest in eye one display and sell the spyder on a carboot sale? Or are there any suggestions?

Thankyou

Chris.

Chris,

I personally think a luminance of approximately 90 cd/m2 is generally about tight, but that depends on a lot of factors, including ambient lighting, viewing lights, etc.

Rather than look at different packages at this point, try the following. First, bring up blank document in Photoshop and fill it with pure white (255, 255, 255). Now, take a sheet of white paper and put it under the light that you use to evaluate prints. The approximate brightness of the PS image on screen should be relatively close to what you see under your viewing light. If your screen image is too bright, then use the monitor controls to lower the luminance. Get them in the same ballpark, but don't obsess over it.

Now, calibrate your monitor and try setting the color of your white point at about 5500K or so. I would also use a gamma of 2.2 if the software gives you a choice.

Then compare some prints to your monitor preview. When you do this, make sure you are have the soft proof preview of the image on your screen. For example, if printing on Epson Enhanced Matte using Relative Colorimetric rendering and BPC, make sure you have that specific soft proof invoked on screen. Then look at the match and see how it looks. If it looks great, you're done.

If you would like to read more on this subject, read the following article.

<http://www.dinagraphics.com/userfiles/Creating%20Monitor%20and%20Printer%20Profiles.pdf>

Lou

Lou i will try out your suggestions. Thankyou for the link. Will post on this later.

I jut did a fresh calibration at 6500 2.2 and set the luminance slider when asked to just a titch below the midpoint on Spyder'smoving horizontal bar.

I printed out my photo and I am so fed up with this who;e business after almost 2 months of trying to get it right!!!!!!!!!!!??????????!??? The photo looks good, but the screen's version is much warmer and yellower. My ambient light conditions are UNAVOIDABLE - big window, cloudy, no direct light on the screen, the room is generally a bit duller at this moment. kept lights off during re-calibration and printing and viweing. Viewed photo in natural light by computer. Screen is 120 degrees away from window.

Calibration software tells me (AFTER 3 minutes) ambient light level high. Needs adjustment to Very High. UUGGHHGGUU!!!! Is this because I did not for the first time keep to the rules? I should have set the luminance bar to the middle and not to just below the middle?

Thanks chris

Chris,

If your calibration software allows it, ignore its suggestions for white point, luminance, etc. If your print looks too yellow in comparison to your monitor, then you need to add more yellow to your monitor (ie, your monitor is actually set too blue). If your prints look very dark compared to your monitor, your monitor luminance is probably set too high. These comparisons assume, of course, you are printing with an accurate printer profile. It also assumes you have a decent monitor and viewing your prints under appropriate lighting (light level and color). Laptops monitors can be calibrated, but they generally will not give you the results you can get from a good stand alone monitor.

Read the link I gave you and it will explain the whole thing, hopefully in a clear manner. It explains why I calibrate my LCD monitor to 5200K, 2.2 gamma and 90 cd/m2. Those settings are about perfect for my system, lighting, etc. Your settings may vary somewhat, but give them a try as a start.

Let the software do what it does best, read and report back colors it reads, and build a profile. Again, IGNORE its suggestions (if it will let you).

Lou

Hi Lou,

Very grateful for your persistence here. I read that link that you gave me this morning. I re-calibrated my monitor as follows:

D5800

this is ALL that spyder3 pro allows you to do. It's a useless piece of software despite ALL the INDEPENDENT reviews.

My pictures are too yellow, they are too dark compared with monitor.

PROBLEM lies with spyder because IF you accept its suggested readings of 6500 after it has measured the ambient light then you get the opprtunity to adjust the luminance (not by numerics but by a bar). IF however, you stick to your preference of 5800, then it does not allow you to adjust luminance at all.!!!!! The only choices you get are:

gamma native, 1.8 2.2 2.4
Kelvin presets of 5000, 5800, 6500

So obviously 5000 is too low. I can not adjust luminance DURING calibration. Would adjusting the luminance after calibration have an undesired effect?

I can not buy 5000 bulbs, I have no cellar or dark corner and I work with an apple IMAC LCD. My prints are close to the test prints. The greys and blacks have improved greatly they are more like the test print - muddy, that is good believe it or not.. the oranges are more orange and less red now. The blues are slightly more lighter, like the test print, colours are slightly improved BUT there is more saturation on screen than in the printouts. there is an overall improvement EXCEPT that my shadow detail on the prints is still being lost a bit.

thanking you for your help Lou, any comments?

Chris

Chris,

Why don't you try one of the other monitor profile packages that work with the Spyder 3 pro. You could try basICColor's display V4. They offer a 14 day trial that you can download from their site and see if you get better results. I believe the website is www.basiccolor.de.

JD

Chris,

First, do not assume 5000K is too low. That has been the standard white point setting used in the graphic arts industry for years. Try it, you might be surprised. If your prints are yellow compared to your monitor, moving to 5000K might be just about right. I have always found that a color temp between 5000-5500K was about right, and at least on my systems, closer to 5000K was a better match.

If you view under incandescent light, you definitely want to be closer to 5000K. If your prints are dark overall compared to your monitor, then your monitor is too bright, your viewing lights too dim, or a combination of the two. You can try lowering the luminance after calibration, but I suspect that will render the calibration and profile inaccurate, but try it anyway. What have you got to lose?

I'm not familiar with spyder3, so I can't help you much on the specifics of that package. Try using the 5000K preset. Then, visually adjust the brightness of your monitor so it approximates the brightness of a sheet of white paper viewed under your normal viewing/inspections conditions. Then, recalibrate, leaving the white preset to 5000K and luminance set to where it was, if that is possible with this software. See what happens.

Lou

Hi, JD, I had a quick look at the website. As much as I am tempted to try free download I am always suspicious. I can not be sure that it won't interfere with some software already installed. plus i never know what else is being downloaded even if I do keep an eye on the IP transfer processess. It is tempting, but this package is unknown to most professionals that i can gather. Pity.

Lou, i will try out the 5000 though I am going to be very surprised if it works. Plus I have been reading articles about pushing the white point further and further away from monitor's native. I have also been shaken by peoples' comments about this 5200 k settings and the effects that has on colour shifts on the monitor leading to undesired things. I really have no time for statistics mathematics and algebra so please don't ask me to quote. It is an overall impression that us non techs can hope to achieve in order to make decisions.

Anyway i will try the 5000 this evening when it is darker!!!

Best regards

chris.