Message
Re: [colorvision_group] Embarrassing newbie question
2007-06-21 by CDTobie@aol.com
In a message dated 6/20/07 9:15:47 PM, hutchinsgroup@... writes:
A couple of months ago I got Spyder2Express to profile my monitor; I
don't print at home. I thought I was following directions when the
instructions said to have set the monitor at full brightness and
contrast. The resulting prints (from a printer I have a profile for)
were very dark compared to the monitor.
Sounds like you may be using a fairly bright LCD monitor, gloss or luster papers, and fairly dim ambient/viewing conditions...
Obviously there seems to be a need for brightness and contrast
adjustment but I don't know where or when to make it. If I set
brightness and contrast to the way I like it, isn't that completely
subjective which defeats the purpose of profiling? There seems to be
no mechanism in Spyder to control the monitor or to tell me what
brightness and contrast to set.
There is no mechanism for adjusting these settings via the Spyder2express software (and few controls for it in modern LCD monitors, actually). Spyder2 hardware is certainly capable of it, as the ambient light features in Spyder2PRO point out. Express users have to make the decisions about how bright to run their monitors in advance of calibration, and just leave it at that level when running the software. True Hardware-based Contrast is a nonexistant control on most LCDs, as is a true Brightness control; the control marked Brightness is actually Backlight, and that can be preset to the appropriate level for your viewing conditions in advance. Yes, that seems arbitrary, but if you are looking to establish a studio calibration standard, with defined white and black luminance values, that would require Spyder2PRO, not Spyder2express.
Beyond that we could discuss custom print profiling, using softproofing to view your print results, and tuning the softproof side of your custom print profiles. All those items are advanced elements of screen to print matching, but all of them require PrintFIX PRO, not just a monitor calibration tool, so are not relevent here.
The short answer is to dim your backlight to a level that is a reasonable match for your prints under your ambient/viewing light.
C. David Tobie
Product Technology Manager
ColorVision Business Unit
Datacolor Inc.
CDTobie@colorvision.com
www.colorvision.com
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