Monitor Calibration

mata.morrison

mata.morrison

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Matthew
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Hi all, just calibrated my monitor today with a Spyder 4 Pro, it made very slight changes to the screen which I expected. However I had ordered Prints from DSCL 2 weeks ago and they came back a noticeable shade darker than on screen.

I thought after calibrating I would see a big difference in the screen being darker but there hasn't been much.

Am I expecting too much from this? Does this sound normal? I have ordered a calibration print from Photobox so will have to compare what I now have with that and see, but I don't think if I sent for a print to DSCL after calibrating I will see much difference in the image being as bright as it should be :(

Glad I'm just borrowing the Spyder and never bought it... just incase.
 
You need to contact DSCL and get them to send you the paper profile they use for there printing
 
Do you have your monitor brightness turned up all the way?

I might be wrong but I'm pretty sure that the spyder software asks you to set it for around a mid way value - at least I do when I calibrate and edit photos for printing and I've only had this habit since getting a spyder. So I can only presume it has come as a result from that. My prints come out fine no matter where I go generally.
 
raymond bradshaw said:
You need to contact DSCL and get them to send you the paper profile they use for there printing
Click to expand...

I have the profile, but when exported from Lightroom there was not much difference in the images at all. The only slight difference was it was boosting saturation slightly, nothing brightness-wise.

faddius said:
Do you have your monitor brightness turned up all the way?

I might be wrong but I'm pretty sure that the spyder software asks you to set it for around a mid way value - at least I do when I calibrate and edit photos for printing and I've only had this habit since getting a spyder. So I can only presume it has come as a result from that. My prints come out fine no matter where I go generally.
Click to expand...

No I don't have it set at high, yes during calibration it asked to turn it down so it is not at around 61 on the scale of brightness. Just find it uite strange, will have to do another run of prints and see how they come out.
 
The calibration software may save a monitor profile under a different name, if the PC is still loading the old profile rather than the new that could also be why you haven't noticed any difference.
 
Hmm ok didn't think of that, is there any way to check? In the Spyder Utility it does say this '18/10/2012 18:42 - The calibration data from the profile was SUCCESSFULLY LOADED into the video card'

So I'm guess it is in use?
 
Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Display >Screen Resolution

Click on the Advanced Settings link.

Click Colour Management to check which profile is in use.
 
I had the exact same problem a few weeks back with DSLColorlabs. There is 2 things you need to do, first of all download the profile for the paper they are printed onto then convert your image with that profile (there s tutorials in the site now to do it) also when uploading the images make sure to select do not auto correct. The colour images I sent were fine but the black and white were underexposed after I followed the above they printed fine.
 
To be honest all this colour management stuff tends to be over exaggerated , there are so many variables between you tacking your shot and then a lab producing a print the exactly the same as your screen is asking an awful lot . I went down that root when i first started
and gave it up in the end because i was,n,t getting consistent results no mater what i tried
In the end i brought my own large format printer [ Epsom 7890 ] throw a way all the gizmos and done it all by eye like the old pro printers used to do it , now i get perfect prints every time and i have,n,t even calibrated my screen .
 
I completely see what your saying about getting it exact, I'm not after that at all. There was quite a difference in brightness of prints to the point quite a bit of detail was lost. Most of my stuff is at night time, so that really does have a bearing on what you see on the print as quite a but of the original could be quite dark, then add in a bit more darkness from the print and you lose quite a bit :(

So how about if I take a print I have got from DSCL and then get that image on my screen, then adjust the brightness/contrast so that it matches the print I have. Will that then solve my issues? I think In theory it would as to get the same brightness in the original image I would have to up the exposure in LR and then when it gets printed it will have that boost of exposure in it?
 
mata.morrison said:
I completely see what your saying about getting it exact, I'm not after that at all. There was quite a difference in brightness of prints to the point quite a bit of detail was lost. Most of my stuff is at night time, so that really does have a bearing on what you see on the print as quite a but of the original could be quite dark, then add in a bit more darkness from the print and you lose quite a bit :(

So how about if I take a print I have got from DSCL and then get that image on my screen, then adjust the brightness/contrast so that it matches the print I have. Will that then solve my issues? I think In theory it would as to get the same brightness in the original image I would have to up the exposure in LR and then when it gets printed it will have that boost of exposure in it?
Click to expand...

Loads of things are worth trying , you may have more luck than i did , i think i tried them all . Two of my biggest problems were brightness and colours they often came back about a stop under exposed so i over exposed them my end and tried again , some times they would come back correct other times even worse .
The trouble is with these labs is it can depend what printer they use [ as they have several ] and what technician or operator is on duty on what machine as they all have there own little quarks . If you are very fussy about your printing its best to get to know your own printer and do your own . Or if you can afford it go to a high end printing compony and let them solve the issues for you , be prepared for some very high costs . DSCL are a great lab for what they charge and are extremely helpful , but honestly at those prices you have got to expect pot luck
 
Hard copies of photos I would expect to be a little darker because a monitor is backlite and hard copies are not.

Have to mention that since having a dell IPS monitor a lot of calibration problems just don't occur and if they do the self calibration in the dell IPS monitor sorts them out.

This is the one I use and well worth the money. Completely different way of screen display check out on you-tube

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&sku=320-2807

Bazza
 
One thing I found was the angle of viewing the screen, obviously the calibration equipment sits flush centre screen but if you're sat in front of it higher it seems brighter and lower/darker, or maybe that's just my cheap screen?

Dear Santa...haha
 
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