Monitor

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rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Lou Jost wrote:Rik, do you mean that you don't bother to calibrate or profile your monitor?
Correct -- no ColorMunki, no Spyder.

Mind you, I'm not philosophically opposed to monitor calibration. I just think it's way oversold, and I don't expect people looking at my photos to have done it.

What I do instead is just make sure that my monitors are adjusted to pass the commonly recommended and eminently practical brightness/contrast tests, for example at http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/contrast.php.

I also check, when preparing an image for public display, that it looks OK on some range of monitors that might be found "in the wild". This week, that's my 5K iMac, these Dell P2415Q, and an old Lenovo laptop. If what I want to show can be seen on all those screens then life is good. If it can't, typically because the darks are blocking up, then I have to consider altering the image in some way that probably lowers the impact on good displays, but then works OK even on lesser ones.

This whole approach no doubt has its roots in my focus on transmitting information, not artistry. I really have no idea whether anybody else's eyes see "yellow" exactly the same way that mine do, so I don't worry much about whether the yellow of their monitor-plus-environment is exactly the same as mine.

--Rik

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

My perspective is influenced by the need to publish my images (typically for scientific purposes or for science popularization) without being able to see proof copies. Colors can be way off with careless color management. Good presses do color manage their workflow so I should too. One less thing to go wrong.

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Post by ray_parkhurst »

I can't guarantee what others will see, if their monitors are color-correct, etc. All I can really do is to make sure my images are objectively balanced, and hope that most folks looking at my images care enough to ensure their monitors are not way off.

Most of the problems I've seen with monitors can be solved with simple settings changes, which makes things viewable without too being too far from what I see on my monitor.

Problem I'm seeing is most folks are now viewing everything on their cellphones, and every model seems to look different, there is very little if any adjustability, etc. Luckily the resolution is very high, so the images tend to look "better" than on a 2K or lower desktop monitor, but I have no idea if the colors are correct.

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Lou Jost wrote:Good presses do color manage their workflow so I should too.
Agreed. And then the key thing should be a carefully calibrated local printer, so that you can see what a paper version of your images will look like. A well calibrated monitor, in a stable and appropriate environment, can surely help with getting the paper proof to look right. But relying on even an excellent light-emitting monitor to accurately predict the appearance of light-absorbing paper strikes me as taking an unnecessary risk.

--Rik

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

Yes, I agree, a hardcopy test print from a profiled monitor and printer is very useful.

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