Calibrate monitor with separate RGB controls?
I've searched through the forums and the Internet (the whole "Google is your friend" thing) and I cannot find any resources on how to calibrate screens with independent Red, Green and Blue controls!
My old 15 inch LCD has separate controls for brightness, contrast, red, green and blue. While Panther's built in calibrator and SuperCal gets you to set the brightness and contrast levels in the beginning, none of these tells you how to adjust the RGB settings!
So, what do I do with these? Do, I just set them all to 50%? Does it matter? Since the aim of the calibration is to adjust the monitor inputs to compensate for deficiencies in the display?
It's very frustrating to keep getting a yellow tinge in my prints at the photo store because my monitor (or their printer, or both) is not calibrated right.
The store is using a Fuji Frontier 350 and printing onto Silver Halide chemical processed paper, while I'm using a Radeon Mac Edition video card connected to an Acer FP563 via VGA cable.
Thanks in advance.
My old 15 inch LCD has separate controls for brightness, contrast, red, green and blue. While Panther's built in calibrator and SuperCal gets you to set the brightness and contrast levels in the beginning, none of these tells you how to adjust the RGB settings!
So, what do I do with these? Do, I just set them all to 50%? Does it matter? Since the aim of the calibration is to adjust the monitor inputs to compensate for deficiencies in the display?
It's very frustrating to keep getting a yellow tinge in my prints at the photo store because my monitor (or their printer, or both) is not calibrated right.
The store is using a Fuji Frontier 350 and printing onto Silver Halide chemical processed paper, while I'm using a Radeon Mac Edition video card connected to an Acer FP563 via VGA cable.
Thanks in advance.
Comments
I tried adjusting the monitor to match the prints I got from the store and the rest of my UI elements look too yellow. So, I'm inclined to think that either they're printer is not calibrated, or there's been double correction at some stage.
I'll try sending the same files to another store to print for comparison.
And you are really expecting color correctness from an Acer monitor?
For my working space, I used Adobe RGB 1998. I start off with Canon RAW files and do edits in Photoshop CS (8-bit color, instead of 16-bit). I then save a JPEG with the Adobe RGB 1998 ICC profile embedded. This is what I give them to print.
I've specifically told them NOT to do any more post processing on my images, ie, NO auto levels or anything like that - I know some print shops do that by default. I have asked them for their printer ICC profile to do soft proofs on screen in Photoshop, but they have not given it to me. Will try pushing them a bit more. Will also try another shop for comparison. This one uses Fuji, I might try a Kodak store instead.
And no, I have not run a color-bars test. How do I go about doing that?
My Acer (now BenQ) LCD was one of the better ones in its time (I was told) some years ago, but of course, technology has improved tremendously since. I'm not closed to the idea of getting another monitor, but would rather try to make the most of existing hardware.
Thanks for all your feedback so far.
JPEG is not a good format for color accuracy. TIFF is the standard to use.
Print houses generally do everything in CMYK, specifically SWAP (in the US), and you could be seeing a conversion problem there. You will need to ask them what they are using, and possibly get detail s about their RIPs.
It also sounds like you are printing from a photo lab, they don't generally concern themselves with color-correctness... just "how good it looks". The two concepts are miles apart.
Acer has never been a high-quality brand, and never will. Apple, LeCei, and the like are the high-quality monitors. They will cost more.
Oh... and do you have color management turned on in Photoshop? It is off by default.
Ok, TIFFs it is from now on. And yes, color management is turned on in Photoshop.
"Worst" case is I might have to get another monitor. My Sawtooth doesn't support ADC, something about no power in the AGP bus. So, I'm stuck with DVI or VGA screens for now. A DVI-ADC converter costs A$200, on top of the educational A$1100 for the Apple 17 inch. But I'm a bit hesitant to buy Apple displays now that people are talking about display updates (for a long time now). I'd probably wait and see how the new displays are, and probably get a good deal on old stock Apple LCDs too! I am attracted though to the Sony Clearbrite LCDs. Any thoughts on those?
Still, back to the original question - assuming it is a good monitor, what do you do with the separate RGB controls? Or do good monitors NOT have separate RGB controls?
Originally posted by drumsticks
Actually, I'm getting more and more dissatisfied with them. I'll try another photo lab with the same files and see what I get.
Try Costco.
// Wait for laughing to end...
Seriously!
They have advanced printers and they are often calibrated. You can even download the calibrated profiles specific to each printer HERE and embed them into your files. Make sure you choose "no color adjustment".
EDIT: Just saw you were in Australia but there are still some profiles for some shops.
Still, back to the original question - assuming it is a good monitor, what do you do with the separate RGB controls? Or do good monitors NOT have separate RGB controls?
The short answer is you have already calibrated that, you just don't know you did. When you run SuperCAL, one test makes you match the 2 shades of each color. That is adjusting for imbalanced in your RGB conrols.
There are a couple things fishy about what you are saying. I can't help to thing you are pointing out problems with your current monitor to help justify your purchase of a new one. Maybe I am just not following your logic. A monitor calibrater will show you exactly what you need to do to get the best color from your monitor. They only cost $100. If I am reading your post right, you would rater buy a much more expensive monitor than calibrate the one you have. Note: You will still have to calibrate the expensive monitor to get accurate colors; default profiles suck. As for ADC vs. VGA: technically there is some degradation of the signal, but unless you are in a studio with controlled lighting and very expensive equipment, you won't notice.
I have a 5-year old monitor (a cheap "Y2K compliant" 19" iiyama with separate RGB controls) and I calibrated by eye it until I bought the Spyder in January. I'll be darn; that monitor became the nicest thing to look at overnight. Your prints are only as good as your weakest link. Try to optimize the system you have.
Originally posted by Ebby
The short answer is you have already calibrated that, you just don't know you did. When you run SuperCAL, one test makes you match the 2 shades of each color. That is adjusting for imbalanced in your RGB conrols.
Bingo! This was exactly the answer I wanted to hear. That it doesn't matter what the settings on the monitor is because we are already compensating in software.
I can't help to thing you are pointing out problems with your current monitor to help justify your purchase of a new one.
Well, I do want higher resolution than the 1024x768 that I'm getting now. At the same time, I'm actually hesitant to spend more, even if it might sound to you that I wanted to. I wrote in my earlier posts that I wanted to make the most of the existing system.
Thanks for all your help!