Please help advise a newbie! Colours on monitors and computer info!

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Lozz

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Hi,

I've just started getting into photography and I'm completely stumped at this editing lark.

Please help me!

1) how on earth do you calibrate a monitor?? Am I able to do it without spending over £100 on a specialist calbirating thing or are they worth every penny??

2) In Photoshop there are so many colour settings - which is the best for photo editing to be a) printed and b) to go on the interent?

3) what's the best computer? Mac or PC? I've heard Mac but don't understand why.

thanks!!!
 
Welcome to this friendly forum..!!

Someone will be along soon to answer your questions in more detail soon but a lot on here advise the Spyder (or something like that) for monitor calibration.

The PC vs MAC will definately cause some arguements/discussions and IMO there is not a definate answer. It's like Canon vs Nikon, Porsche vs Ferrari. It's down to personal taste.

I hope you get the answers you are looking for.
 
Yeah I've heard of that Spyder before, if it's the best one then maybe I should get that... but how does it work and what do I do with it??

I see what you mean about the Mac vs PC argument - I suppose you'll get die hard fans of both. I'm used to PCs and the only reason I'd have a preference for one is becaus it's all I've ever used and I'm very familiar with it. But my curiosity with the Mac has been really sparked because I've heard so many rave reviews.

So maybe my question ought to be - what computer do you use and why?
 
If you want to calibrate your monitor you need a calibration device such as the Spyder. Are they worth it? All depends on your needs. If you need to match print to screens then yes. If you only want to look at images on the screen then possibly not. Personally I can't think of not having a calibrated screen,but then a lot of my images go out to repro.

Check out the packages at Colour Confidence.

http://shop.colourconfidence.com/section.php?xSec=10210&jssCart=4c5991c09b7f23a15752c3cd290440e3

Mac or PC. No I'm not going to start that war again. If you want to see what a Mac offers, I'd find your local Apple store go in and try. No hassle from the staff, and most of the machines have programs such as Photoshop on them for you to try. Also take some of your own images to try.

Then if you like what you see, and can afford it ( Mac's aren't cheap) then buy.
 
Lozz said:
Yeah I've heard of that Spyder before, if it's the best one then maybe I should get that... but how does it work and what do I do with it??

I see what you mean about the Mac vs PC argument - I suppose you'll get die hard fans of both. I'm used to PCs and the only reason I'd have a preference for one is becaus it's all I've ever used and I'm very familiar with it. But my curiosity with the Mac has been really sparked because I've heard so many rave reviews.

So maybe my question ought to be - what computer do you use and why?
Click to expand...

Spyder:
Start Software > Plug Spyder Into USB > Place Spider On Marked Out Point On Screen Accompanied By Text "Place Spyder Here" > Press Go And Watch It Work.

Simple as that :)

If you are used to a PC, better sticking with it, also a PC has a lot of 3rd party bits you can buy to go in it and work with it as well as a range of software.

among many other things

A Mac, have used them, dident like the mouse, keys were in different positions, operating system is more "back to basics" but the one I was using crashed all the time.

To me who has grown up with computers, from tape drive days sitting there with no way of taking control and fixing the thing to work properly put a total end to any intrest with one there.

Once upon a time, comparing specifications they had a huge leed, now, pc's are ahead in several ways including speed, usability and price, as well as the ability to upgrade bit by bit to your tastes without having to buy a whole new system.
 
Chappers said:
If you need to match print to screens then yes.
Click to expand...

Can you elaborate on this please.

I have often read about calibrating screens, but not printers which people seem to dowload profiles for. I am obviously missing the connection.

If I calibrated my screen and that generated a profile I could put into my printer, then It would make sense, but as I understand it, that is not the case, calibrating your monitor is a stand alone exercise.

If I had three monitors attached to my pc and calibrated them all, I assume they would all have slightly different colours, if I then printed from the computer three times, each time with a different monitor attached, would I get three different prints?

Confused.....:shrug:
 
The idea of profiling is to make each device independent from each other. So you could print from Monitor 1 to Printer C and get a similar result, if you printed to Printer B or used Monitor 2. In fact in practice it does work very well.

So you need to calibrate and profile your monitor and use a printer program that will support printer profiles, such as Photoshop, or Lightroom.

In the past I've worked with 4 monitors that could output to 6 different printers, and had a very tight match to all of them. Took a bit of work, but not rocket science.

Ideally to get a good match your PP software should allow you to "Soft Proof". In other words allow you to view on the monitor the effect the printer profile will have on the final print.

Have a look at this link for more information on soft proofing

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/soft-proofing.shtml

Hope this helps
 
Chappers said:
The idea of profiling is to make each device independent from each other. So you could print from Monitor 1 to Printer C and get a similar result, if you printed to Printer B or used Monitor 2. In fact in practice it does work very well.

So you need to calibrate and profile your monitor and use a printer program that will support printer profiles, such as Photoshop, or Lightroom.

In the past I've worked with 4 monitors that could output to 6 different printers, and had a very tight match to all of them. Took a bit of work, but not rocket science.

Ideally to get a good match your PP software should allow you to "Soft Proof". In other words allow you to view on the monitor the effect the printer profile will have on the final print.

Have a look at this link for more information on soft proofing

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/soft-proofing.shtml

Hope this helps
Click to expand...

Thanks, I will take a look.
 
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