I recently upgraded my monitor to an Asus TUF VG32VQ1B, and I'm looking for some advice on color settings for photo editing. I don't have a colorimeter to calibrate it myself, so should I just use the sRGB mode that it has by default? Or are there ways I can tweak the settings without shelling out for a datacolor spyder?
If you don't want to do any kind of calibration, set the monitor to sRGB mode and use a light meter phone app or something similar to set brightness around 120 cd/m2 (nits) if the monitor can even go that low (some gaming monitors don't support brightness levels low enough for calibration). If you're noticing that color accuracy degrades noticeably when you dim the monitor that much, then don't. Also, make sure all gaming-related features are disabled such as the ELMB backlight pulsing and shadow-boosts.
That monitor has a VA panel though and frankly is just not a good choice for any kind of photo editing or color sensitive work. VA panels tend to crush blacks and have poor viewing angles among other things. It is very much a gaming monitor, which I assume is why you bought it in the first place. You can try calibrate it with a colorimeter (X-Rite, Spyder, etc.), that will get you as close as possible within the hardware limitations of the monitor itself. Some VA panels can't even be properly calibrated but I don't know about that model in particular.
If you do any color critical work, look for something that at least has an IPS Panel and then calibrate it with a colorimeter. Calibration is also temporary and needs to be redone regularly.
Thank you, that's very useful information. I did buy it primarily for gaming, I'm a hobby photographer - and a fairly new one at that - so the color accuracy isn't of the utmost importance. But I did want to try to get it as close as possible to being good for photo editing as well. I will try what you said and see what results I can get.
If you do shoot photos, and a geek, and dig into color, you will go crazy not getting a great monitor for color and contrast. Talk about a rabbit hole... but, it really is important to get great photo results.
jmocanu wrote:
Thank you, that's very useful information. I did buy it primarily for gaming, I'm a hobby photographer - and a fairly new one at that - so the color accuracy isn't of the utmost importance. But I did want to try to get it as close as possible to being good for photo editing as well. I will try what you said and see what results I can get.
That's fair.
Asus actually makes some good gaming monitors that have IPS panels which would be better for serving double duty (games + photos). If you're still within the return period it might be something to consider, and that way when you do get around to calibrating it properly with a colorimeter, you will get a better result. If not, then don't worry about it
