Monitor / Printer colour calibration

[stubbsy]

Not sure if this is actually an ABQ, but here goes (prompted by some excellent reading starting at http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/color-management-feeling-lost.html).

1. Do you use software / hardware to calibrate your monitor and ditto for your printer?
2. Do you have any comments on the usefulness of such a practice?
3. Do you have any recommendations on what is best to use and how often it should be done?

I've looked at some of the hardware solutions which seem to START at US$199

TIA

[stubbsy]

Hmmmm.

Does this constitute talking to myself?

Just found a free program called Quick Gamma for setting your monitor gamma and a matching program (also free) called Quick Monitor Profile for creating a monitor profile by reading info from your monitor's firmware.

I've tried it and it's pretty straightforward to use. Click the links above to see more.

Cheers

[sheepie]

...(prompted by some excellent reading starting at http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/color-management-feeling-lost.html).

This is a FANTASTIC link! Thanks for finding it!

[Nnnnsic]

I would imagine Quick Gamma is very similar to the Adobe Gamma Wizard that runs the first time you start Photoshop.

1. Yes... I use a piece of hardware called Pantone ColourPlus which is a monitor profiling spyder. You should use them about once a month (at least) as your monitor's colour temperature generally won't hold for over a month. In regards to a spyder for my printer, I've made a profile that displays my printers colours quite well so I tend to not need the spyder, but nevertheless, printer spyders are generally more expensive than their monitor counterparts and the people who buy them are usually spending more money on their printers than most of us probably ever would.

2. It's incredibly useful. I don't recommend getting any images done through direct printing at a professional photohouse (like PhotoKing) if you've done quite a lot of post-processing on your images without it.
I've had friends that post-processed black and white images on a un-hardware-calibrated monitor only to send them to a photohouse and have the prints come out in every colour but black and white... usually either blue and white or red and white. It is a neccessity, in my honest opinion, if you're planning to get prints done professionally, to utilise both a properly calibrated display device and your photohouses Photoshop profile to achieve the results that you'll really want.

3. Try this place here.
This is the device we use and it's quite handy, the one for $229. I'm sure you'll be able to find it cheaper... I think we got it for around $200, but it's only available for PC's. Quite good, quick, and comes with adapters for both LCD's and CRT's.

[stubbsy]

sheepie. I can't claim to have found the link, you can thank onyx for that. He pointed me at a different link on that site when he politely told me in another post here that my images looked washed out. I then browsed from there!

nnnnsic - thanks for the info - I'm looking at the hardware site now.

Cheers

[johndec]

Maybe I'm missing something, but my rough-as-guts solution to match my printer to my monitor was to print out a test sheet that someone here posted a link to, plus a few pics of my own and fiddle with the monitor until it looked like the prints

Of course I went through all the setups in PS regarding matching printer colour profiles to PS.

Now my prints look like what I see on the screen and all yours look horrible

[Nnnnsic]

Try sending them to a photohouse and see what happens.

Colour calibration is a must have for professional printing.

[johndec]

Try sending them to a photohouse and see what happens.

Colour calibration is a must have for professional printing.

Good point Nnnsic. I can print A4 here and apparently there is some bloke out Belmore way who can do A3+. Just stick the NEF on a USB drive and adjust it there.

If I get good enough to print at larger than A3+, is it OK to PM you and borrow your Spyder?

[Nnnnsic]

You'll have to ask Dad (gstark). It's his.

Depending on if you use a laptop or not, he's been known to bring the spyder to Birddog's place in the past.

[johndec]

Hahahahaha... I was just being a smartarse. I didn't even know you (or at least a blood relative) had one.

But now that I have this bit of information................

[Onyx]

Stubbsy, more reading for you:

http://www.computer-darkroom.com/ps7-colour/ps7_1.htm

It's a little out of date, and perhaps you're not using PS version 7, but it does highlight some factors regarding the various options to do with setting working colourspace, setting up monitors and printers and matching the inbetween factors...

[Raydar]

That's a rippa Onxy

I've known about that one for some time now & had forgotten about it.
The whole site is worth looking over.

Cheers
Ray

[stubbsy]

onyx

Thanks for the link. Like raydar says, an interesting site. MORE stuff to read - when will I get a chance to play with my camera