p.1 #1 · Color calibration options for M2 MacBook Pro
I just upgraded my MacBook Pro to the new M2 MacBook Pro and wanted to know what others are using as a colour calibrate tool on the M1/M2 MacBooks.
For years I used the data Spydwr color 3 and then the i1 display pro to calibrate my MacBooks. Not sure how much actual color calibration was needed, but it definitely helped on having the right brightness settings on the MacBooks, when processing raw files in DPP, and than later in LR.
I ended up not beieng able to use my i1 display a couple of years ago after upgrading my mac OS. I just wanted to get some advice on options for my M2. The sales/genius guy at the Apple Store said that you don’t need to calibrate the MacBook displays because the colour is accurate. He also said the only thing I may want to do is to use the True Tone option in the display settings. However, when Inwas playing around with the settings, I found turning the True Tone option on, made the screen a lot warmer, and the cookies really looked off.
Anyway, I was hoping to get some advice on how to manage colour corrections on the M2 MacBooks using the Ventura Mac OS. I was hoping some one could help me with the following questions:
1) Do the MacBook M2 displays still need to calibrated
2) If so what are the available options for M2 and Ventura Max OS
3) are most that are using the M1/M2 MacBook pros turning on the True Tone display option
4) if colour correction tools/software is not needed, is there any guidance on what brightness settings to use Back when I could use the i1 Display calibration tool, I think I usually ended up having to set the brightness at 6 or 7.
5) is there any other guidance on colour calibration and creating colour profilea for processing Raw files in LR.
Note that I don’t do my own printing, and when I want to print (usually large), I get that done from local labs.
p.1 #2 · Color calibration options for M2 MacBook Pro
Every monitor needs calibrated for a color accurate workflow.
I'm using the i1 Display Pro for my Mac Studio with M1 Ultra. Xrite transferred support to Calibrite and they released updates to make the software compatible with the latest MacOs. If you still have the Display pro I would install v 1.1.4 and try it on the new MacBook: https://calibrite.com/software-downloads/
p.1 #3 · Color calibration options for M2 MacBook Pro
khurram1 wrote:
Anyway, I was hoping to get some advice on how to manage colour corrections on the M2 MacBooks using the Ventura Mac OS. I was hoping some one could help me with the following questions:
1) Do the MacBook M2 displays still need to calibrated
2) If so what are the available options for M2 and Ventura Max OS
3) are most that are using the M1/M2 MacBook pros turning on the True Tone display option
4) if colour correction tools/software is not needed, is there any guidance on what brightness settings to use Back when I could use the i1 Display calibration tool, I think I usually ended up having to set the brightness at 6 or 7.
5) is there any other guidance on colour calibration and creating colour profilea for processing Raw files in LR. ...Show more →
1. Apple claims to individually calibrate M2 MBP (that's Pro, not Air) at the factory, and they're using their best XDR panels. That said, I still wanted to calibrate mine and I'm using Datacolor SpyderXElite. Here's the catch: you can only calibrate the "Apple Display" settings (the first two in the drop-down list). Those are also the only preprogrammed settings that you can adjust display brightness for. For photo editing, they have another setting that's totally locked. So...
2. To calibrate the display, you need to start with one of the Apple Display settings, then run your calibration software, and then use ColorSync Utility or other method to point ColorSync at your profile instead of Apple's. You can find notes from Datacolor about that. I've also read about people using other software and the same procedure (calibrate, then have Displays use your profile). That said, I calibrated my 16" M2 and compared my profile with Apple's—they're virtually identical. For me, the biggest difference between using my profile vs Apple's Photography one is that (as you probably know) your edit results depend on display brightness, and your calibrated profile's running under a setting for which you can change display brightness. If my display is turned up so it's bright enough to use outdoors or in a brightly lit room, the resulting adjustments produce images that are too dark when viewed or printed. However, if I keep the Apple Display intensity as-calibrated (which is about 6 divisions below full intensity) or use the built-in Photography preset, my edits work perfectly. Now I tend to use my calibrated Apple Display setting at full intensity when I'm doing anything other than editing photos/videos, and I change to the appropriate preset when doing those tasks.
3. Absolutely turn off True Tone on any device you want to edit on. True Tone automagically adjusts your display's profile in response to ambient light. That's not what you want if you're working with images. In fact, I've found that I really don't want it any time on any of my Apple devices.
4. I tend to use an Apple Display profile with the intensity set about 2/3 toward Max, and at Max if I'm in bright outdoor lighting. Again, if you're editing photos, I'd suggest using the Photos preset or be very sure that you've set Apple Display intensity back to about 60-70% of max.
5. I can't help with LR, as I'm a Capture One user. What I've described above works quite well with Capture One.
p.1 #4 · Color calibration options for M2 MacBook Pro
Thanks for thr toly and suggestion, but I wish I had asked this question this past Spring! At my wife’s pestering I went through extensive spring cleaning in March and ended up throwing the xrite i1 pro away with a bunch of other stuff that looked to be obsolete or i wa no longer used. Anything that I couldn’t sell or donate was thrown away - including the xrite i1Pro!
If there are calibration softwares that are a compatible again with Mac OS, are the ones from Calibrate the best options to purchase Are there better options I just did a quick look and it looks like there are cheaper Data Colour Spyder options - but I would need to check for Mac OS compatibility.
I know when I upgraded my Max OS a few years ago and was looking for a calibration option, there really weren’t any options. Xrite was in a limbo and datacolor also didn’t have anything compatible. The staff at the Apple Store weren’t very helpful or knowledgeable either. It seems that everytime I’ve asked them about calibration options they’ve always said none are necessary - probably because they don’t sell any themselves. I’m assuming if Calibrate works with the Max OS, others will as well. Any advice on the best cost effective option, if I’m looking for something to calibrate my MacBook Pro every couple of weeks, or monthly I don’t need the continuous monitoring, since I never used that feature on the xRite anyways.
jwpstl wrote:
Every monitor needs calibrated for a color accurate workflow.
I'm using the i1 Display Pro for my Mac Studio with M1 Ultra. Xrite transferred support to Calibrite and they released updates to make the software compatible with the latest MacOs. If you still have the Display pro I would install v 1.1.4 and try it on the new MacBook: https://calibrite.com/software-downloads/
p.1 #5 · Color calibration options for M2 MacBook Pro
Thanks so much for the detailed reply and steps you follow!
My main concern is around display brightness - I could never really see much of a difference between colour accuracy - in spite of the before after photos the xrite profiler showed - but I did use it mainly for brightness.
Thanks also for confirming my own suspicions about using the True Tone setting - all the colours look really off. I’m still getting used to the new operating system, as I hadn’t upgraded to Ventura and I’m coming from the touch bar Intel Mac book pro. I have to leave for a business l trip tomorrow, but will try and read about the colour sync utility, which I haven’t used before.
Abbott Schindl wrote:
1. Apple claims to individually calibrate M2 MBP (that's Pro, not Air) at the factory, and they're using their best XDR panels. That said, I still wanted to calibrate mine and I'm using Datacolor SpyderXElite. Here's the catch: you can only calibrate the "Apple Display" settings (the first two in the drop-down list). Those are also the only preprogrammed settings that you can adjust display brightness for. For photo editing, they have another setting that's totally locked. So...
2. To calibrate the display, you need to start with one of the Apple Display settings, then run your calibration software, and then use ColorSync Utility or other method to point ColorSync at your profile instead of Apple's. You can find notes from Datacolor about that. I've also read about people using other software and the same procedure (calibrate, then have Displays use your profile). That said, I calibrated my 16" M2 and compared my profile with Apple's—they're virtually identical. For me, the biggest difference between using my profile vs Apple's Photography one is that (as you probably know) your edit results depend on display brightness, and your calibrated profile's running under a setting for which you can change display brightness. If my display is turned up so it's bright enough to use outdoors or in a brightly lit room, the resulting adjustments produce images that are too dark when viewed or printed. However, if I keep the Apple Display intensity as-calibrated (which is about 6 divisions below full intensity) or use the built-in Photography preset, my edits work perfectly. Now I tend to use my calibrated Apple Display setting at full intensity when I'm doing anything other than editing photos/videos, and I change to the appropriate preset when doing those tasks.
3. Absolutely turn off True Tone on any device you want to edit on. True Tone automagically adjusts your display's profile in response to ambient light. That's not what you want if you're working with images. In fact, I've found that I really don't want it any time on any of my Apple devices.
4. I tend to use an Apple Display profile with the intensity set about 2/3 toward Max, and at Max if I'm in bright outdoor lighting. Again, if you're editing photos, I'd suggest using the Photos preset or be very sure that you've set Apple Display intensity back to about 60-70% of max.
5. I can't help with LR, as I'm a Capture One user. What I've described above works quite well with Capture One....Show more →
p.1 #6 · Color calibration options for M2 MacBook Pro
Calibration is partly about getting the right colours; it is also about confidence and trust. It is difficult to trust an uncalibrated monitor (with few exceptions, perhaps). I added a 16" MacBook Pro M2 Max last February. At home, it is connected to a BenQ monitor which I calibrated without problems using a Calibrate ColorChecker Display Pro device and Palette Master Element from BenQ. A month ago, I had to calibrate the monitor of the laptop itself, as I was taking it on a two-month trip. Calibrate Profiler from Calibrate works on Mac without problems, and the calibration did not present any difficulties. The only confusing part of the latter was about the product .icc profile. I expected to see this in Settings -> Displays -> Preset, like it was the case with the external BenQ monitor profile. No, the .icc profile for the MacBook monitor wasn't there. To the best of my understanding, this profile is activated (and appears as "Active" in Calibrate Profiler -> Utilities -> Profile Manager. Also, this profile appears as set in ColorSync Utility -> Devices -> Color LCD -> Current Profile. Confusingly, the System Settings -> Displays -> Preset shows Apple XDR Display (P3-1600 nits). Changing this to Photography (P3 - D65) results in 100% brightness, although the colours don't seem to be affected.
In Settings -> Displays, both "Automatically adjust brightness" and "True Tone" are off.
Thus, both software and hardware from Calibrate are an option for calibrating a MacBook Pro M2, however, I have no experience with other calibration devices, and cannot say whether Calibrate is your best choice.
p.1 #7 · Color calibration options for M2 MacBook Pro
It’s more about image brightness. If you edit on too bright a monitor, the resulting image will print dark and look dark on a properly calibrated display. For example, someone I know was editing on a very bright display and the resulting images looked quite dark on mine. She reduced her display brightness and the issue vanished. Similarly, yesterday I did the experiment on my machines: setting my MBP display to its brightest, editing and then looking at the results on my other machine with calibrated displays showed the images to be too dark. Re-editing on my MBP with the correct brightness and viewing on the other machine, the images were fine. And, btw, when I reduced the brightness of the MBP, it turned out that the images consistently needed more exposure/brightness.
p.1 #8 · Color calibration options for M2 MacBook Pro
Abbott Schindl wrote:
It’s more about image brightness. If you edit on too bright a monitor, the resulting image will print dark and look dark on a properly calibrated display. For example, someone I know was editing on a very bright display and the resulting images looked quite dark on mine. She reduced her display brightness and the issue vanished. Similarly, yesterday I did the experiment on my machines: setting my MBP display to its brightest, editing and then looking at the results on my other machine with calibrated displays showed the images to be too dark. Re-editing on my MBP with the correct brightness and viewing on the other machine, the images were fine. And, btw, when I reduced the brightness of the MBP, it turned out that the images consistently needed more exposure/brightness....Show more →
Indeed - what you describe is understandable and could be expected.
Edit: I was involved in a long and useful discussion of the monitor brightness some time ago: https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1772497/0?keyword=brightness#16035133
There were many useful hints and suggestions from some experienced FMers.
p.1 #9 · Color calibration options for M2 MacBook Pro
I have a MacBook Pro M2 Max and haven’t bothered to calibrate the laptop monitor yet since I use an external monitor to edit with. I will calibrate it if I need to edit out in the field. I bought a Dell U3224KB when it was 25% off and used Calibrite PROFILER and a Display Plus HL sensor to calibrate it and it was easy to use and I am happy with the results.
The i1 Display Pro would still work fine but it is discontinued. X-Rite is now partnered with Calibrite and X-Rite has transitioned the photo and video portfolio to Calibrite while still sharing product development resources.
Calibrite has just released the latest line of color calibration devices, Display Plus HL, Display Pro HL and Display SL. The ColorChecker Display Plus, ColorChecker Display Pro and ColorChecker Display are still available but the new devices have the improved sensor. It might take awhile before 3rd party editing programs support the new sensors.
Calibrite also just released the new Calibrite PROFILER Software. It is just as easy to use as SpectraView except it guides you to manually change a few monitor settings while SpectraView does it for me on my PA272W. While I just ran a basic calibration it matches my NEC calibration. Profiler has more advanced features than SpectraView including creating video profiles in addition to photo. I’ll be editing 4K video in addition to stills and that was important to me.
p.1 #10 · Color calibration options for M2 MacBook Pro
Assuming you care about truly accurate color, every display needs calibration, and unfortunately there is no way to calibrate any of Apple's displays properly, including their Studio displays. There is also no way to calibrate their brightness uniformity, which varies from panel to panel. The best you can do is software calibration, which is less accurate, degrades faster than hardware calibration, and is not consistent between systems. Depending on your end use case, this may not matter to you though.
Calibration typically has to be re-done every month or so and ideally on a monitor with a built in LUT. Factory calibration is for the most part just marketing as it is only temporary - even the best monitors with built-in hardware calibration require regular calibration.
Long story short, if you are doing color critical work, your best bet is to buy a proper external monitor (and not one of Apple's). If you don't really care about perfectly accurate colors or are not in an environment where an external monitor is feasible, then software calibrating your Macbook is going to be as good as it gets. One additional caution is that with the extremely glossy screens you will need to be editing in a dark area to avoid reflections, and you will need to make sure your brightness is properly dialed in for such an environment (again, if you care or if your end use requires it). A good brightness target is around 90-120 cd/m2 and if you are editing in the dark to avoid reflections you may want to be on the lower side. You also want to make sure True Tone and anything else that may affect the colors is disabled.
Again, some of this depends on your own tolerances for what is acceptable color and also what your end use is for your work. If you're a hobbyist sharing photos with family, it probably doesn't matter too much either way. If you're big into printing, delivering work to clients, or anything color-critical, I would suggest using a monitor that can be calibrated properly.
p.1 #11 · Color calibration options for M2 MacBook Pro
I semi-attempted to go this route with the 24" LG 4K displays that are (primarily) meant for Apple computer uses and I found the white point was fixed at D65 (per Apple's requirements) and I could only adjust brightness. I suspect all laptops, including Apple ones are similar and don't let you mess with the display's LUT and the only "control" you have is altering the video card's LUT which reduces dynamic range and possibly introduces banding.
So if D65 on your laptop works for you, you're golden. I also believe Apple does uniformity calibration at the factory, my older Macbook Pro LCDs were very even across the screen and I think most laptops these days are similar. Desktop LCDs seem to have much more panel unifomity challenges, maybe not surprising since they're typically much larger.
Also I think it's important to mentally remember the difference between calibration (making something follow a standard, D65, D50, etc) vs. profiling (capturing display gamut, dynamic range, being able to soft-proof, etc)
