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Archive 2015 · Help Selecting Screen Calibration Tool

  
 
planalpha
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Help Selecting Screen Calibration Tool


Experts-
I need to get a screen calibration tool and could use some help from you all. I know there are some earlier threads but technology changes so fast I thought I'd ask for the current status of these tools.

I mostly shoot portraits and do all of my post in LR5 on my MacBook Pro (Retina display). The color rendition is not bad, but the luminance is very difficult to get right when sending images out to be printed.

A trusted friend of mine used the Xrite i1 and loved it until they dropped support of it and it seems the the successive product line isn't as good. He used the SpyderPro4 and hated it since the calibration software requires *you* to tell it what kelvin setting to use for white. Providing that information was expected from the device so what's the point of having it? He just went back to the default profile that came with the Mac.

So with that, what would be your suggestions for a good calibration tool for a Mac? And if you have any suggestions on how to better utilize the above tools please advise.

Thank you in advance!



Mar 07, 2015 at 09:59 AM
howardm4
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Help Selecting Screen Calibration Tool


The current XRite i1Display Pro (approx $250) is miles ahead of their previous i1Display2 so I have no idea where you're getting your information from.

And, laptop displays are notorious for being marginal (even the Retina) for critical work. The luminance problem is a function of you setting the target luminance for the laptop too high.

Read this....

http://luminous-landscape.com/why-are-my-prints-too-dark/



Mar 07, 2015 at 10:17 AM
planalpha
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Help Selecting Screen Calibration Tool


howardm4 wrote:
The current XRite i1Display Pro (approx $250) is miles ahead of their previous i1Display2 so I have no idea where you're getting your information from.

And, laptop displays are notorious for being marginal (even the Retina) for critical work. The luminance problem is a function of you setting the target luminance for the laptop too high.

Read this....

http://luminous-landscape.com/why-are-my-prints-too-dark/


Thanks for the info! Does the i1 set the luminance for you as well as the color?



Mar 07, 2015 at 10:27 AM
howardm4
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Help Selecting Screen Calibration Tool


Will have to let someone else answer that as I do not have that device. Generally, you tell the software what your 'target' luminance is and it walks you through setting the display brightness manually until you get what you want. In general, you do not really want it to set the luminance because it'll do it by lowering the slope of the RGB channels which can cause issues w/ fine gradients.

The correct luminance is based on the space you're working in and also where/how the images will be displayed (on screen? printed on paper? if paper, the room brightness, etc etc)



Mar 07, 2015 at 10:36 AM
patrick04
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Help Selecting Screen Calibration Tool


I am a screen calibration newbie and I've only used my XRite i1Display Pro a few times so far, so take what I have to say with a large grain of salt.

First of all, I think it's a great device. The before & after colors on my monitors are noticeably different, so I assume it is doing its job. Calibration is quick - the actual measurements only take 2 minutes. Yes, it will set the luminance to any value you pick, but it recommends using the menu on your monitor to get as close as possible using the brightness controls. Then it will fine-tune the luminance for you to get to the desired level.

The only negative is the software. It is not very intuitive and somewhat daunting at first. After I calibrated my monitor the first time, I wasn't even sure that I had done it properly. The software works fine, and I'm sure it's great for experts, but expect to be frustrated the first few times you use it until you get comfortable with it.

ETA: I used it on my MacBook Pro (non-retina; 2011 model) and it worked fine. However, the colors and apparent brightness of the image change sharply with viewing angle on my MacBook, so I'm not sure how helpful calibration is for it. I mostly use the calibration for my external monitors.



Mar 07, 2015 at 10:45 AM
gdanmitchell
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Help Selecting Screen Calibration Tool


I have also used the i1 and agree that it works well but the software interface is far from intuitive.

More recently I've been using the ColorMunki device, but that does more than you want, also profiling papers and more.

Dan



Mar 07, 2015 at 01:43 PM
MDelinquento
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Help Selecting Screen Calibration Tool


patrick04 wrote:
[deleted]]
The only negative is the software. It is not very intuitive and somewhat daunting at first.


That was my same reaction.
I ended up installing Argyll CMS and the dispcalGUI front end. A year later and I'm still happy with my choice. The tool is much easier to use and the results serve me well. Highly recommended.

M



Mar 08, 2015 at 03:41 PM
planalpha
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Help Selecting Screen Calibration Tool


Wow, my head is spinning. What a can of worms, albeit, a good one.
So here's a quick update with where I am with this, but I recognize I'm still far from done.
A friend gave me his i1 Display and I found that the software wasn't capable of running on my MacBook Pro since it was too old and the company abandoned the device. I threw it in a box and forgot about it. After reading MDelinquento's post about Argyll/dispcalGUI I discovered that it DID support my old i1 Display and I gave it a whirl and sure enough, it works and I created my first profile.
I'm still having some issues with my screen's brightness and the photos being too dark, and I'm really not sure how to fix it. I've read the link HowardM4 posted and the documentation for the software, but I have to admit, I'm pretty much lost at this point and in information overload. I guess I was hoping that this process would yield a calibration profile that when selected would produce images that printed properly (not too dark). Perhaps that is naive and I soft of understand the issue enough to know it's not going to be that easy. What I have been doing is setting my display's brightness level down 3 "clicks" and setting the exposure setting in Lightroom to the point where it looks "good" which as you probably already have guessed leads to prints that are still too dark or blown out. I'd love to have a setting that when used will set the brightness of my display to a point where my exposure setting in Lightroom is "accurate." Accurate meaning that when the image is sent to the lab for printing that the print's "brightness" looks acceptable in most settings, tall order and very open to interpretation I know, but the way I've been doing it is so far off the prints look bad in any lighting condition. The colors have been better than expected, but they're generally too dark.
So with that, any idea on how to get a steady value? Or am I going about this completely the wrong way?

Thank you all for the help! It's been invaluable.



Mar 10, 2015 at 09:23 AM
howardm4
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Help Selecting Screen Calibration Tool


when dispcalGUI asks (or there is a box) for display luminance, select something lower than what you are currently specifying. Most people start at something like 120cd/m2 and that is realistically too bright for many/most users. I personally use something like 85-95.

Thought experiment: bring the laptop near a fairly bright desklamp or where a bright day can shine on the *print*. I'd wager that the print that was 'too dark' is now 'not too bad'. Therefore, display brightness, your perception of it drives what you consider correct 'exposure' in Lightroom



Mar 10, 2015 at 11:10 AM
Peter Figen
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Help Selecting Screen Calibration Tool


"The only negative is the software. It is not very intuitive and somewhat daunting at first. After I calibrated my monitor the first time, I wasn't even sure that I had done it properly. The software works fine, and I'm sure it's great for experts, but expect to be frustrated the first few times you use it until you get comfortable with it."

X-Rite has their own way of doing things which often makes little or no sense if you're not one of their engineers, but once you get past that, the software and hardware does do a pretty good job. Having calibrated a bunch of MacBookPros and an assortment of other screens with the i1Display Pro, the best advice I have is to use the largest patch number option, which takes a couple of minutes longer to read, but makes a much smoother and better gray balanced calibration than the default option.

Secondly, that this is crucial! You absolutely have to change the default profile version from v4 to v2. If you don't, it can cause all kinds of havoc in apps that don't understand v4 profiles. This should never have been a default setting but X-rite apparently fell for the latest is best line of reasoning, which is most definitely is not in this case. I always name the profile with the parameters and the date to make it that much easier to make sure that everything is using the latest one I've made.


"ETA: I used it on my MacBook Pro (non-retina; 2011 model) and it worked fine. However, the colors and apparent brightness of the image change sharply with viewing angle on my MacBook, so I'm not sure how helpful calibration is for it. I mostly use the calibration for my external monitors."

Calibration and profiling are great for laptops. You just have to remember to keep you eyes as close to the center axis of the screen as you can. If you do that, a calibrated MBP can be surprisingly good with color.



Mar 10, 2015 at 07:09 PM
ruben_f
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Help Selecting Screen Calibration Tool


I also get the best results with a deep dispcalGUI calibration 3-4 times a year.
Doing that with a Spyder4.



Mar 11, 2015 at 04:37 AM
howardm4
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Help Selecting Screen Calibration Tool


getting your luminance under control is job #1. you need to consider how bright it is where you plan on displaying the print. in a perfect world, your 'proofing' area would be vaguely close in brightness to that and the calibrated display luminance would also be reasonably close. I'm not a fan of the whole 'adjust for ambient' idea and prefer to control my editing space.

Set the white level to 110 and start there



Mar 11, 2015 at 02:54 PM
dgdg
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Help Selecting Screen Calibration Tool


gdanmitchell wrote:
I have also used the i1 and agree that it works well but the software interface is far from intuitive.

Dan


I agree. I'm happy with the i1, but for a bit more confidence I did contact their email support for basic calibration workflow settings. They were very responsive.
Having a stock of images already processed with a calibrated monitor as a reference, I'm confident with my current processing using the i1.

David




Mar 12, 2015 at 11:02 AM
patrick04
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Help Selecting Screen Calibration Tool


Based on responses in this thread, I thought I would try out displaycalGUI with my i1 Display Pro, but I'm not having good luck so far. After installing the software (on 64-bit Windows 7) and trying to run the calibration, I get the following error message:

Error - new_disprd() failed with 'Instrument Access Failed'

Does anyone know what this means or how to fix it? I assume it means that displaycalGUI can't find the x1 hardware, but I have no idea why that would be…

ETA: I discovered that the x1 software didn't recognize the hardware either, so I reinstalled the x1 software and now it recognizes the hardware. I'll reinstall the displaycalGUI next and see what happens.



Mar 15, 2015 at 11:53 AM
planalpha
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Help Selecting Screen Calibration Tool


patrick04 wrote:
Based on responses in this thread, I thought I would try out displaycalGUI with my i1 Display Pro, but I'm not having good luck so far. After installing the software (on 64-bit Windows 7) and trying to run the calibration, I get the following error message:

Error - new_disprd() failed with 'Instrument Access Failed'

Does anyone know what this means or how to fix it? I assume it means that displaycalGUI can't find the x1 hardware, but I have no idea why that would be…

ETA: I discovered that the x1 software didn't recognize the hardware either, so I reinstalled the x1 software
...Show more

Just wondering how this worked out for you?
The person I referenced in my initial post started using displaycalGUI and now really loves his SpyderPro. He also mentioned that it and his 1i both produced very similar and good results.

Good luck.



Mar 25, 2015 at 09:36 AM
planalpha
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Help Selecting Screen Calibration Tool


Just as a follow up, I have created a couple of profiles that seem to look very good on my screen. I now have much more shadow detail than I did before and the colors look accurate as well. I haven't sent anything off to the printers yet, but I'll report back how that goes when I do.

Thanks again to you all for the excellent guidance! Love this place.



Mar 25, 2015 at 09:38 AM





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