Calibrating monitors - the best approach?

[Redstone]

Hi folks,

I currently shoot on film, scan the negs, process in photoshop/lightroom using an lcd screen and print through my friendly online digital lab. The trouble is that the prints that come back are never quite the same as what I see on my monitor. Either the lab is to blame or it's that my monitor is not calibrated correctly. I strongly suspect the latter...

I'd like to get some ideas from people about how you handle screen calibration for accurate colour and tone. I'm aware that there are hardware/software bundles on the market for doing this. Has anyone had any experiences with using them? Are they worth the investment? If not, what are the alternatives?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts...

[nikonhswebmaster]

Screen calibration is easy if you are trying to match your own printer.

This may sound a bit flip, but basically make a print, and match your monitor to it. There are images you can download from the web to help you with this. Adobe has one called Ole No Moire.tif. She has been around for a long time, and was designed for CMYK, but she still does a good job.

Calibration is only difficult for those printing on someone else's system. Then of course your entire workflow must macth and be calibrated for that printer, pretty problematic without Colorsync.

http://www.fin-print.co.uk/templates/OleNoMoireJPEG.jpg

Nice hat eh?

__

[Henk]

Hi,

If you print, you should certainly calibrate your monitor with an eye device !
I use a spider pro. My online lab also provides their ICC profiles for their different
papers. That way i get VERY good results (practicaly WYSIWYG).

Before, when I did not use color management, I had the same problem as you have now. Unless you are extremely lucky, you will not get far if you don't use
color management. I learned all about it here : www.drycreekphoto.com (http://www.drycreekphoto.com)

[nikonhswebmaster]

Hi,

If you print, you should certainly calibrate your monitor with an eye device !
I use a spider pro. My online lab also provides their ICC profiles for their different
papers. That way i get VERY good results (practicaly WYSIWYG).

Before, when I did not use color management, I had the same problem as you have now. Unless you are extremely lucky, you will not get far if you don't use
color management. I learned all about it here : www.drycreekphoto.com (http://www.drycreekphoto.com)

If you are printing to an online lab, printing books, you name it, you will need to calibrate to a standard profile that you and the lab agree on. And in the end you will still have to make adjustments after you get proofs back from them the first time.

As noted on the above referenced page "Monitor profiles tell your operating system (if you are using a Mac + OS/X), or image editor how to display the picture accurately."

But no matter what you do, no matter how accurate your calibration, even if you work in a windowless room, your monitor hooded from outside light, you will still sooner or later have to match it to a proof you get back from the lab's printer. So even with the best tools you will ultimately have to make some subjective judgments about setting up your monitor.

However if you stick with one online lab, or your own printer, you will finally get it right, unless something changes.

I can still remember a beautiful full page blue ad I helped lay out for Shutterbug, which when the issue appeared came out in magenta. The client liked it, so is still using magenta.

[Steve Litt]

I use colorvision spyder 2 express-cuts out the guess work. and saves ink and paper.

Regards
Steve

[nikonhswebmaster]

I print to an HP 130, simply using Apple calibration, and let HP manage the ink, and my prints match my monitor perfectly. After all it is just one printer, and once it works it works. I have a monitor profile that matches the printer, and another monitor profile I use for web images. Really trivial setup when using an Apple monitor.