Here’s the scenario:
You’ve been going through all the exercises in my photo lessons. (You have haven’t you? If not, go immediately to the sidebar and Subscribe right now, come on do it!) I’ll wait.
You’ve spent time getting the perfect lighting, perfect white balance, perfect exposure, and best composition, and you are now ready to have a look at the photos on your computer. You load up your photos and open a couple up in your favourite image editing program.
Your heart sinks. Um . . . What happened?
Your photos look nothing like the way they were in your scene. Now it’s true, your mind can probably fill in the blanks and recreate that magical place for you in true colour, but really deep down you know something isn’t quite right.
Enter Monitor Colour Calibration
What is monitor calibration? Well basically, it’s a way of correcting your computer screen’s colour so that what you see is actually how things are supposed to look. Monitor calibration is one part of a colour-managed work flow, but it’s the easiest and most important step to take because it’s how you, the user and editor of your files, see your images.
How-to for Mac OSX: The quick and dirty calibration method
This gives so-so colour calibration, which is better than the factory settings.
Open the System Preferences>Displays>Color Tab>Then hit the Calibrate button. This window should pop up:
Use the expert mode. Go through each of the steps. Here are some numbers to plug in when you get to them:
- Gamma 2.2 (even though it recommends 1.8 for Macs.) This will give richer onscreen contrast.
- Target white point D65 (6500 Kelvin). This is what the pros use.
When you are done you will be prompted to save the profile. I suggest giving it a name with the current date as well. This will help you keep track when you calibrated your monitor last.
So that’s the freebie method, and unfortunately it’s Mac only. If you are a PC user you will have to use the hardware calibration method, which I’m going to talk about next.
The better way to calibrate your monitor – for both Mac and PC
Hardware calibration tools measure the actual colour emitted by your screen and are much more accurate than the eyeball method described above, mostly because we all have different eyeballs. I use a 7-year old EyeOne Display, made by Gretag Macbeth. Due to various mergers and acquisitions since I purchased the product, it’s now called the XRite i1Display LT. This is a great entry level monitor calibration device and costs around $CA 200. Available at Vistek in Calgary, Toronto, or by mail order. B&H is selling it for $US 135! Free US shipping.
These devices last much longer than digital camera bodies, and as long as you keep the software up to date, the hardware will do for years to come. Make sure to click on the XRite link to this product before you buy, as it has some tutorial videos so you get an idea of how it works.
There are other monitor calibration products on the market, but to be honest, I haven’t used them. I’m happy with my i1. I have read some reviews on the Spyder, and they weren’t that favourable, and since I have something that works, I’m not about to buy anything else. I’d rather spend the money on Aperture 3.0 (which I did)!
p.s.
If you are a graphic designer or digital artist, monitor calibration is just as important for you as it is for photographers.
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Hey Marlene!
Thanks for the post. It’s super handy. I’ve done my free cheater calibration now I’ll have to go and purchase the i1
Next question for you… is there a way to calibrate your monitor to a certain printer? For example if I always printed my photos at say London Drugs can I calibrate my monitor to match their stuff so my prints would look exactly the same?
Yes no maybe?
Hello Nikki,
Thank you for your response and question! Your question actually brings up the next logical step in the colour management process — Using printer profiles.
The answer to your question is YES. You wouldn’t actually calibrate your monitor, but you could get a printer profile from London Drugs that would allow you to soft proof what the photo would look like when printed on their system. So that way if their printer had a certain bias, you could correct for it on your end and get perfect prints every time.
With a bit of practice and getting to know your lab, you should be able to find the lab’s bias even without a printer profile. If the lab is using good colour management, then they should have no bias! The lab I use, Technicare, is really tight and consistent with the colour management on their end, on all their printers, so I know that I won’t have a problem. Even if I send a print several months later, the colour will match my original print. One thing I have noticed though is that the dark areas of files, tend to print darker at all photo labs, so be careful with the shadow detail (left side of the histogram). It may need a boost.
For more detailed information check out Scott Kelby’s Photoshop CS4 for Digital Photographers book – Chapter 13, where he outlines step by step printing and colour management in detail.
p.s. I always had more problems getting prints to look good on my home inkjet printer than I did at my lab. When printing at home you really do need to load those printer profiles so that your computer and printer are in sync. It’s just so much easier to send files out to the lab. Better quality, less time futzing with everything. For some people though it’s important to print at home on their high end inkjet printers. Not so much for me. Now I just use a laser printer for my business printing, and send all my photo prints to the lab.
Hey Marlene!
Thanks so much! I really appreciate the info. I am on the waiting list for your photoshop class in September! Hopefully I can make it through. It makes such a big difference having a great instructor. I’m taking a class right now and it’s almost painful how boring it is! So THANKS again!
I can’t believe the Photoshop for photographers course is full already! They just opened up registration last week!
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