Sorry if this is out of scope for this forum, but I'm trying to calibrate my monitor prior to working with my photos in PhotoSuite Elements. I'm using the Adobe Gamma to perform this, but am not getting anywhere. The first instruction is to crank the contrast on my monitor all the way up to 100%, then adjust the brightness to a specific point (in my case, brightness had to be adjusted all the way down to around 20%. Then, as I go to set the white-point on the monitor, I'm asked to play with some controls until a blending occurs between some colored boxes and some shaded boxes embedded within the larger boxes. The problem is, I can never get the boxes to blend correctly, and when I adjust them as closely as I can, my monitor output is left looking pretty decent (colorful and crisp) but darker portions of my photos are completely shadowed. Furthermore, the monitor output bears no resemblance to my printer output, which was the whole point of the exercise. Anyone ever run into this problem? If so, how were you able to calibrate your monitor? Any help on this would be much appreciated.

P.S. The Gamma application also doesn't instruct me to modify brightness or contrast after the adjustment is done. Is 100% contrast the nominal setting for my monitor, and should it be left at this setting?

Fist off. Learning about calibration is very frustrating and often opens a can of worms. However with patience and persistence it can be overcome and sort of understood. I say sort of understood because even the so called experts can’t seem to agree about it.

I don’t like using 100% contrast unless it is really necessary. I think Adobe keep the instructions very simplistic so anyone can understand them. Do it this way instead.

1, Make your display a bit smaller than normal so you see a black border all way round the edge.

2, Remove any wallpaper temporarily and make your background plain black.

2, Adjust the contrast so until the border and the background are the same.

Now it is as black as it can be without overdoing it.

To see the gamma boxes blend properly you need to sit well back from the monitor and / or squint. There is a knack to it but practice makes perfect.

Norman Koren has a much better target that you can use with adobe gamma. You can get from www.normankoren.com. Look for an image called “Gamma_black_new.png” I can’t remember exactly where it is so you will have to look around for it.

You said “but darker portions of my photos are completely shadowed”. Are these photos that were prepared before the calibration. If so you are looking at photos that are probably way out of wack.

Note: if your monitor is old and worn then you might not be able to calibrate it properly.

Note: Apparently many LCD screens won’t calibrate properly.

I hope this helps in some way :-)

a question, then. if one is looking to buy a new pc, or just a new monitor, a tubed glass monitor is preferred over LCD? i mean for photo/graphics app's....

At this point in time, yes. The LCDs are getting better but the affordable ones aren’t there yet.

great, thanks :)

many hardware calibrators can very effectively set up your LCD screens and they are getting much cheaper such as the Pantone Huey - hardware calibration will always be easier and more accurate than the software/by eye method. I use Lacie PhotoVision LCD's with Pantone hardware calibration and it holds it's profile as well if not better than a CRT. The best LCD's I have used are Eizo's - but they are silly money for a decent one.

A good primer for color management can be found Here

Thanks for the speedy reply trisbert. Much appreciated!

Calibrators.....

Huey, Eye One, Spyder2....

The Huey above ~ $80 and your choice of sweet LCD monitors;

SAMSUNG 940BX Black 19" 5ms LCD Monitor with Height & Pivot Adjustment $ 275

SAMSUNG 940BF Black 19" 2ms LCD Monitor $ 260 (2ms...insane)

SAMSUNG 920N Black 19" 8ms LCD Monitor $ 200 (whadda bargain)

SAMSUNG 205BW Black 20" 6ms Widescreen LCD Monitor with Height Adjustments $ 295 if ya wanna go Widescreen

Personally I don't think you could go wrong on any of the monitors listed above...and all for less than 3 dead presidents!! 8~O

i've found a good way of calibrating a monitor for printing is to simply print any picture with a good representation of all tonal ranges and colours, then hold it in a light somewhere between the print viewing light, and you're normal computer room's ambient light, and simply adjust through monitor controls until both pictures look as close as possible. this only works if you use 1 printer, but it is totally emperical, and you dont have to think about weird profiles or other weird crap, you just have to know that it works

Uhhh, OK...I guess you could do it that way. However, myself, I rather worry about the weird crappy ICC profiles...even with one printer. That's probably just me thou.

trisbert, what do I do about brightness? Tried your method and although it's closer, my display and my prints are still way off from one another. Most of my photos were uploaded to my computer before calibration, but I haven't changed them in any way. I know the original photo isn't that dark, based on the lighting I had and the way it looked on my digi's lcd screen. I'm still having major problems when adjusting the midtones. When I uncheck the 'single gamma only' box and try adjusting colors, I can never even get them close. The middle box always seems to stand out, whether it's because they're a different shade or for some other reason. It looks much brighter than the outer box to me, so they never even come close to blending. Aaaaaargh!

I looked at your gallery (very nice) and the colours certainly aren’t way out.

When you calibrate with Adobe gamma it starts with your current profile. So I suggest you begin the process by loading the sRGB colour profile. The first step of the wizard has a load button which shows the current profile and allows you to pick the one you want to use. Choose “sRGB Color Space Profile.icm” You could use Adobe RGB (1998) but sRGB is supposed to be closer to the monitor’s native colours. When you get to adjusting the gamma sliders I would normally use the colour sliders but in your case just use the single grey one.

I like to save the new profile with a new name such as aug11-2006.icm. It allows me to go back to the old one if I make a mess of the new one.

Thanks! Looks pretty good now. I think, like you said, I wasn't very far off to begin with. Thanks for the comments as well!

Your welcome. I'm glad it worked out.

I have a Huey and i would suggest them to anyone that is looking in this area. work very well, cheap, easy.