SANParks.org Forums

We are being very critical about brand
names and associated equipment, but
how good is your viewing equipment??

I am no pro but can say my screen will
not justify any comment I dare make!!

Don't know if ever anybody took it this
far, but yes!

Good one!

We process our photos using as little adjustments as possible, just making them true to what we showed to the lens. So if you think the photos I post are over- or under coloured your monitor is not properly adjusted, or simply old.

We have an IPS panel (23 inches Dell) which is calibrated every month, so it shows the colours true to life. This is something that say ten years back would cost 2 months salaries or more, but now is available for (converting from euro) R2500 or less. In SA possibly a bit more.

I have seen many photos on the internet, including here, that are oversaturated (too much colour), probably due to the monitor they work on not up to par.

Want to check your monitor? Check the photos here to see if your monitor is good. The landscapes are probably best for trying it out.

Anyone know any good calibration software for windows?

It's more than software, it's hardware as well.
These are the things you need. Well, there are other brands around, but if you look around you'll find that this brand is affordable(-ish) and good.

You need to have the hardware to see the output, and the software to change the settings.
Don't forget that the light around the monitor makes a difference. If you have your curtains closed, lights on, the colour will be different than when you open the curtains and the sun comes streaming in.
The hardware sensor adjusts for that.

Good points. I have PhotoShop (got it for a steal due to my photography class) and I do some color work and retouching. The problem is my monitor! When I take photo's to the college lab to print, I often have to "retweak" so my colors are more true to life. It is easy to overdue it.

I'm finding that I don't like retouching images much, though I still shoot in RAW format.

Remember that the sensors are created and tweaked to show lifelike images.... You do not need to tweak much, just adjust the cases where the camera got the exposure wrong.
I barely do anything to my photos except cropping and adding a little clarity. And I still need to adjust my horizon by 1 to 1.5%. *sigh* I can't get that right!

hmmmm, i wrote an entire post and closed it instead of posting it.

Duques, there is software out there that helps to calibrate a screen so you get a better picture, just cant remember where to find it.

Stark. You may have slight differences in digital and print due to the different colour spaces. Print is CMYK where you probable shooting in Adobe RGB. But other then that, may be the screen

I dont like heavy retouching either, thats why i use lightroom instead of photoshop, Just find it easier to use

Colour-management is an absolute minefield of a subject...

Rule #1 is to never adjust your images unless your screen has been calibrated first. You could well be doing more harm than good by doing so, moreso if you are shooting JPEG rather than RAW. (RAW files can always be recovered to their native state. JPEG files (usually) can't unless you have taken adequate back-up precautions to protect the original image file.) Most screens are set to be very bright, so when you view an image on-screen it looks nice & crisp; but the underlying image is usually a lot darker. There are many tools for calibration. The cheaper ones are basic, the more expensive ones will give you full colour control over your screen & output-printer...

Rule #2 is to set your camera to shoot in sRGB, if you have the option, if you don't sRGB will be the camera's default. IMO you should only shoot AdobeRGB if you're going to use the images for commercial purposes. The AdobeRGB colour-spectrum is greater than sRGB. So if you shoot in AdobeRGB and then print or display on a sRGB device (which all domestic & high-street printers & displays are), you run the risk of having some extremes of colour-range impacted... There's a good example of the various spectra here... http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/repspec/Cie-Chart.png

As for tools; here's a few;
- If you have an Adobe product installed you almost certainly will have the free Adobe gamma function. You can find it via the Control Panel. It's free. Therefore it's basic only.
- A decent entry-level tool for most users is Pantone Huey.
- Next up is Spyder. A very good all-rounder.
- Top of the tree is ColorMunki.
You can read all about basic colour-management and these tools here;
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/arti ... intro.html
and find links in the article.

Good luck...

Great subject! Just another part of photography that I all but forgot about; thanks for the reminder. Which means that it makes no sense showing off the most expensive jewellery on the planet if no-one has the detectors to appreciate it.