Last night I purchased a new printer and got the GretaMacbeth Eye-One Display 2 Calibration system. I ran it on my monitor last night but things seem to be WORSE than pre-calibration. For one, and I think this is the main issue, the system had me set my contrast at 100%. This means I don't really get a pure black anymore and overall the images I view on the web now have that too much highlight contrast weirdness to them.
So,my question...am I misjudging because I'm viewing web images but I've now calibrated my monitor specifically for photography, or is it bizarre that I set my contrast at 100? Should I be trusting my eyes or the Greta system? Anyone else have any issues like this?
This seems to happen to many folks the first time they run Eye One Display. For anyone to offer any suggestions you will need to provie a lot more in depth info.
What type of display, in what "mode" did you run Eye One, and what targets did you choose? for starters...
So,my question...am I misjudging because I'm viewing web images but I've now calibrated my monitor specifically for photography, or is it bizarre that I set my contrast at 100?
This step is only for the software to "measure" the max contrast that your display is capable of. The software is then supposed to tweak the video LUTs to your targets but if you haven't set any targets.....
Also, do not do ANY kind of color assessment in a web browser. You can however expect images from a competent poster to look good. Most of the images in the "presentation" forums here should be well prepared for web.
Should I be trusting my eyes or the Greta system? Anyone else have any issues like this?
You can trust your eyes to a point, and it sounds like this is not right. There IS the issue of looking at images that were previously edited on an uncalibrated monitor. They will no doubt change, likely for the worst. I would seek out a "test" image from a known source (maybe gretag even includes one) to do any "eyeball" assessment.
I'm using a CRT monitor. I ran Eye One in advanced mode with RGB Control as my monitor allows direct control over RGB. My white point is set at 6500 and my gamma at 2.2., luminance at 100. I follwed the instructions for adjusting contrast and brightness, set the monitor based on the recommendation from Eye One and then adjusted the RBG based on the Eye One sliders until target white point and luminance matched actual.
Regarding 'max contrast' and targets, the Eye One system does not ask for any target contrast, rather it tells you to set contrast to 100, then it runs a diagnostic and asks you to adjust until the Eye One slider is at a zero point. The diagnostic indicated 100 to be the zero point on the slider.
With my monitor contrast at 100, I no longer see any true black - when the Eye One software itself is displaying what I assume should be a black background, the contrast setting is giving it a 'haze' - not pure black. My initial reaction to this is to assume something's wrong, but perhaps my experience is not thorough enough to make this judgement.
So, if I find a test image and I'm still getting what I feel are off contrast and color, should I tweak by eye or should I assume either my monitor is bad or my Greta is bad??
I don't have much experience with CRTs and don't own Eye One so hopefully someone more knowledgeable than I will chime in.
First off (if you're on Windows) did you remove Adobe Gamma from your startup folder?
I use Monaco Optix XR Pro and in that software you set a black luminance target. With Eye One do you not also have to adjust the brightness to achieve an acceptable black level? Sounds like the black point is too high.
It's typical to crank the contrast to 100% and set blackpoint with brightness in the "easy" calibration mode. It seems backwards but that's the way it works. But this sounds like a semi automated mode. I would think there should be a mode where you set both contrast and brightness to user selected targets manually.
So, if I find a test image and I'm still getting what I feel are off contrast and color, should I tweak by eye or should I assume either my monitor is bad or my Greta is bad??
None of the above, I don't think I'd assume anything quite yet. I think you,re just missing something in the procedure. The Eye One will be infinitely better than any eyeballing once you get it sorted out. The Eye One instructions must be exceptionally poor as many seem to have trouble with it at first. I'm sure there is someone here that can offer better help than I with this combo.
If your CRT is old (meaning more than three years) it's possible that it is getting tired but that's entirely dependent on how much and how hard it's been used.
I'm using a CRT monitor. I ran Eye One in advanced mode with RGB Control as my monitor allows direct control over RGB. My white point is set at 6500 and my gamma at 2.2., luminance at 100. I follwed the instructions for adjusting contrast and brightness, set the monitor based on the recommendation from Eye One and then adjusted the RBG based on the Eye One sliders until target white point and luminance matched actual.
So when the software was done did you get the screen with the graph and the profile values. Did it say you hit the targets? What black luminance did it report?
The graph and the profile values at the end said I hit the targets dead on, however, there is no black luminance target value or black luminance report. Just a general luminance value. In the Eye One system you do not (or at least you dont in any place I can find) set a black luminance target. You do adjust the brightness after adjusting the contrast, but it works the same way as the contrast..set it to 100% and then the system takes readings and gives you a recommended setting..in my case it was 75%. There is no target setting for contrast and brightness..the system just tells you to adjust until you've centered a little slider at a zero point.
I did remove the shortcut to adobe gamma from my start up menu. My monitor is about three years old but it's really only gotten a year and a half of use. I went through the Eye One procedure a number of times thinking I'd missed something but I can't see where anything could be hiding. I'm thinking of running another profile on easy mode and toggling back and forth between the two profiles to see which I like.
Thanks for spending time on this with me..I appreciate it. Hopefully someone who's used Eye One can provide additional info.
You do adjust the brightness after adjusting the contrast, but it works the same way as the contrast..set it to 100% and then the system takes readings and gives you a recommended setting..in my case it was 75%.
Again, I have limited experience with CRTs but 75% brightness sounds way high to me. My wife's Sony Trinitron is around 20% on the brightness slider and that gives a .2 cd/m2 black luminance. It just doesn't seem right to me that there's not a way to measure and set the blacks. Is there some kind of pre-calibration option you may be overlooking?
The instructional Flash file I sent you divides the process into the easy and advanced calibration modes. The easy mode starts with setting the light monitor on a black sheet. The advanced mode mentions nothing about this. Maybe the answer is to first run the system through the easy mode and then run the advanced mode? The thing is, with that you still get two separate profiles...I don't see what it would accomplish. This must be some kind of documentation issue.
I just watched the flash movie and it is pretty superficial. I can see how it would confuse people.
Also, the example they gave mixed together calibrating both CRTs and LCDs which could be a little confusing. When you got to the part about setting the luminance did you mess with the brightness on your monitor? What they are talking about in that movie is adjusting the BACKLIGHT on an LCD and that's not same as tweaking the brightness on a CRT. Did you push up the brightness to hit your luminance target by chance? If you did I don't think you should have. They kind of mention in passing that when you are adjusting the individual guns on a CRT that you are also setting the luminance, but I could see how the next instructons for setting brightness on an LCD could confuse someone new to monitor calibration. If setting the individual RGB guns does not achieve your target luminance on a CRT you need to start over with a lower the target luminance, because raising the brightness will adversely affect the brightness setting you made earlier in the calibration.
The black luminance is there by the graph. They just call it minimum luminance instead of black luminance. What did your profile show for minimum luminance?
The other thing I wonder about is the ambient light reading. I think I'd skip that for now.
should be done at factory setting I believe.