I am currently running Aperture and Ps on a Macbook with a 20" Cinema monitor hooked up. I have a couple of quick questions and would appreciate feedback.

I've been told a couple of times that my images are a touch dark. What is the best way to calibrate for brightness on Apple monitors?

Secondly, I'm diving in and getting the new 27" iMac in a month or so. Has there been any calibration issues using these led monitors?

Thanks a lot!!!

an image example is below

Unfortunately, LCD displays tend to be too bright. Apple Cinema displays in particular. I've found that I have better luck avoiding too dark prints by keeping my 23" Cinema Display's brightness control (it's really just a backlight control) turned pretty much all the way down. I calibrate the display (Spyder2Pro) with that brightness in that low setting. Then, when I edit my images, I don't end up making them too dark before printing.

It's not that a bright display causes dark prints, per se. Rather, a bright display causes you to edit your prints to be too dark. Here's an article about the subject:

http://www.shutterbug.com/techniques/digital_darkroom/0809prints/

That said, I still sometimes end up with images that print too dark. There are those that feel even the lowest brightness setting on a Cinema Display is too bright. They may have a point. Some folks have tried using a program called Shades in conjunction with their calibration software. I haven't tried it yet, but here's the link:

http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/shades

I'm seriously considering getting a non-Apple display to replace my 23" Cinema Display. PC-compatible displays offer a much wider range of adjustment possibilities.

Mark

the new LED iMac doesn't seem to have the 'can't dial it down enough' problem.

but yes, a too bright monitor will make you edit slightly dark; consider bumping up the exposure .33 stop or so beyond what you think you should or when you calibrate, go w/ a lower luminence value than you have been using

Or use a colour calibrator that actually sets the brightness of your monitor through the graphic card. 120 CD/m2 is a good starting point.

ColourEyes Display Pro will do that for you and is ranked among the best CC software, they can supply the DTP94 puck which is the best even though it is out of retail production. Check them out here: http://www.integrated-color.com/

I have a 3 year old Imac 24" and use Colormunki for calibration. I turn the brightness all the way down and set the profile at the default. The last calibration I did was a few days ago and I did it in the evening (darkened room) and I use 2 layers (folded) black felt that I throw over the display during calibration. You do have to lift the covering to click the next buttons or just peek through on the left side. I got my Imac down to 126 which is pretty good for the Imac. When I print I make the image a little brighter on the screen to compensate and bump brightness up to between 15 & 25, contrast by usually 5. Hope this helps, Barbara

You can tell if the image is too light or too dark by looking at the histogram and/or measuring measuring specific areas with the eyedropper. It doesn't matter how bright or dim or your monitor is, only the numbers matter.

JBPhotog wrote:
Or use a colour calibrator that actually sets the brightness of your monitor through the graphic card. 120 CD/m2 is a good starting point.

ColourEyes Display Pro will do that for you and is ranked among the best CC software, they can supply the DTP94 puck which is the best even though it is out of retail production. Check them out here: http://www.integrated-color.com/

+1 .... brings the Apple monitors inline quite easily ....

I downloaded the demo version of ColorEyes Display Pro and installed it on my Mac Pro. Upon launching it, it asks whether I want to run demo, buy, or activate. When I click demo, the program simply quits. I can't get it to work at all.

I'm running Snow Leopard 10.6.2 so that might be the problem. But now I'd like to just delete everything it installed so there are not conflicts with my Spyder2Pro software. The ColorEyes Display Pro installer installed a LOT of files. How the heck do I get it all off my Mac Pro?

Should have known better than to install it without investigating compatibility with 10.6.2.

Mark

Mark, ColorEyes Display Pro works just fine on my two macs, both running 10.6.2. And it indeed does a terrific job; way better than what was included with my Spyder2Express.

For uninstalling programs I rely on AppZapper. Just drag the whole folder to it and it will get rid of everything, including preferences etc. Or just drag the folder to your recycle bin; as it doesn't run chances are good you don't have any preference files. Note that the program doesn't interfere with your Spyder2Pro software.

Thanks Emile!

Since ColorEyes Display Pro adjust brightness via the video card, perhaps that's what is giving me trouble... I have an XFX 512MB Radeon 4870 video card in my Mac Pro. This is a PC video card that has been flashed with a Mac-compatible ROM to make it work in a Mac Pro. To the system profiler, it looks completely like a Apple 4870. I haven't had any other problems whatsoever with this flashed video card but maybe ColorEyes Display Pro is the first?

Mark

One school of thought is that you want a white screen brightness to be about 90 Cd/m2 to best match your prints (if you are displaying them in good lighting). Another school of thought is that you want it brighter - say 120-170 Cd/m2 - to make your on-screen displays look good and then you just have to brighten your printer output to compensate, either by amending the output file or by applying curves in the printer driver.

If the backlight control cannot give you a sufficiently low level of brightness then you must use video LUT control (look up table) but that reduces the number of distinct brightness levels that can be displayed and so you have a compromise to deal with.

To me 170 Cd/m2 looks great on screen for photos but it makes spreadsheets and other office applications too bright to look at for long. I'm tending towards 140. I also have a well lit wall for displaying my prints. I reckon that as is so often the case there is no single best solution to the problem that works for everyone and every monitor.

If your screen looks too bright then you'll edit the file to compensate and anyone who gets a copy of that file and has a not so bright monitor will think that the file is too dark. This has nothing directly to do with how they appear on your prints but if their system is correctly calibrated and profiled then it is likely that any prints they make will also be dark to match their file copy.

- Alan

I'm still waiting for the folks that make ColorEyes Display Pro to respond to my request for help. I sent a help request early yesterday morning. So far, nada. Even if they can help me to get it working, I have strong hesitation about giving $175 to a company that can't even respond to a help request in 38 hours. At this rate, by the time they respond, my 10-day free trial will be over.

Mark