Datacolor User to User Support Group.

Sounds like an ideal digital photo room should have no outsided
windows (the light always varies) and all light in the room should be
consistant and quite dim. This leads to several questions to help
improve my set up.

When real life's limitations gets in the way of a perfect digital dark
room set up how should we prioritize those things we can control?

1. When/under what conditions should we calibrate our monitor? At
night with all lights off and curtins drawn, under low lighting room
light with no light falling directly on the monitor, day time but no
room lights on at all? What if we work both day and night hours?
2.As most of our digital printing rooms will have some lights on when
we work what should be our goals?
- No light falling directly on the monitor screen?
- Fairly dim room lighting?
- Color temp of the room lighting? Similiar to the lighting temp we
expect the prints to be viewed? Use a D50 light for critical color
evaluation? A mix of D50 and standard lamps?
- How long after printing an image should we wait to do a critical
evaluation (ink drying time - min. & ideal). Under lighting conditions
we expect the print to be viewed when shown?
- If we don't know/can't control viewing conditions for the print what
color temp/evaluating method seems to be a good standard to use?
3. How often should we realistically recalibrate our monitors if we
want good consistant color work?
4. What else should I have asked?