Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/01/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I am far from an expert, but just a few thoughts. For years I had a Sony Trinitron 21" CRT that I calibrated with a Colordata Spyder. Of course, it eventually became unreliable, so I got an LCD (Samsung Syncmaster 213T) and it has worked well. One thing I have noticed is that with the factory defaults, you need sunglasses with some of the LCD and LED monitors. The info I have read indicates that in fairly dim light (my room when doing photography), a brightness range of 100-140 works well. My Samsung measures 98. I believe the CRT's like my late Trinitron were around 100. My print viewing light is supposed to be 5,000K, and the native resolution of the Samsung measures 5,240. I could measure the viewing light, but now my prints match the monitor closely enough with accurate paper profiles. There is no way I could do this without the monitor software and hardware. I have to constantly remember the "30-second blink", i.e. look away from the monitor for a little bit. I was working on a print the other night and my wife came in and asked why the subject's skin was reddish...it was, I had just stared at the monitor too long. Having said all that, there is a master printmaker here who is greatly in demand and who does everything by eye - I have no idea how he does it. I wouldn't even try with a laptop unless I had a separate calibrated monitor in a steady lighting environment. Ken On 1/12/2012 6:26 PM, Marty Deveney wrote: >> It may depend on how much training your eyes have had in color work. > I have had a lot of practice, but am just hopeless at it. I > periodically look at a set of Ishihara tests > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishihara_color_test but I am not colour > blind. > >> With 40 years of press proofing in 5,000K light tents and on 5,000K light >> boxes; >> I feel fairly confident in my eyes; though age may remove that confidence >> of youth. > I absolutely do not doubt that, but I am hopeless. > >> I've had three professional monitors complete with their system pucks and >> software. >> I found them only slightly better than a visual calibration. >> It was very difficult to get them adjusted for room conditions. >> They were very sensitive to extraneous light. > The systems I use are totally shielded from extraneous light. The > best ones have a sensor that faces each way so it adjusts the screen > according to the colour of the room light (problematic when you have a > component of daylight, but if you can control the light in your room, > it works well). > >> These were tube monitors so things may have improved in the flat screen >> calibration systems. > I think these systems have got better in a general sense, rather than > in association with a change in dominant monitor technology. > > And to anyone who lacks experience or who finds using the built-in > calibration systems (i.e. in the Apple OS) problematic, I'd strongly > encourage them to get a good calibration device. With your experience > George, well, I would only say 'carry on'. > > Marty > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >