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11-21-2017, 07:30 AM   #1
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Calibration on new monitor

Hi guys.

I just got a new viewsonic 32 inch monitor with super wide gamut. 87% Adobe rgb.

Out of box it looked good and similar to my macbook air.

My mac is calibrated with a spyder express and prints usually come back pretty accurate except a few where darks seem way off. But for the most park the calibrated macbook air and work flow to print have yielded satisfactory results.

The new monitor with the default settings looks good. I decided to calibrate it anyways because I want accurate colours and the profile it made is very very saturated and much darker darks compared to the default profile and very different to my mac.

Since the new monitor has much higher levels of colour reproduction I want to trust it more than my macbook screen but the difference is quite big.

Have I calibrated it fine and that is to be expected with a new monitor like this? Should I edit new photos on the new screen and send to print to find out if it's good or not.

And when I calibrate it, should I have the mode set to srdg mode and srgb colour profile with reduced brightness for the calibration. Or should I calibrate it off the standard default settings with max brightness (out of box basically)

Should I be worried there's a big difference between the mac and monitor or do I just need my eyes to adjust. And to trust the new calibrated monitor?

Thank you

11-21-2017, 09:33 AM   #2
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You have not indicated which version of Spyder Express you are using.
My version 4 has settings for which color gamut you are using and also measures ambient light to determine the correct brightness. If you are not using version 4 I suggest acquiring at least that version, if not the improved 5, before trusting the calibration.
QuoteOriginally posted by following.eric Quote
Hi guys.

I just got a new viewsonic 32 inch monitor with super wide gamut. 87% Adobe rgb.

Out of box it looked good and similar to my macbook air.

My mac is calibrated with a spyder express and prints usually come back pretty accurate except a few where darks seem way off. But for the most park the calibrated macbook air and work flow to print have yielded satisfactory results.

The new monitor with the default settings looks good. I decided to calibrate it anyways because I want accurate colours and the profile it made is very very saturated and much darker darks compared to the default profile and very different to my mac.

Since the new monitor has much higher levels of colour reproduction I want to trust it more than my macbook screen but the difference is quite big.

Have I calibrated it fine and that is to be expected with a new monitor like this? Should I edit new photos on the new screen and send to print to find out if it's good or not.

And when I calibrate it, should I have the mode set to srdg mode and srgb colour profile with reduced brightness for the calibration. Or should I calibrate it off the standard default settings with max brightness (out of box basically)

Should I be worried there's a big difference between the mac and monitor or do I just need my eyes to adjust. And to trust the new calibrated monitor?

Thank you
11-21-2017, 10:24 AM   #3
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Also make sure you have no direct room light shining on the screen. A subdued ambient lighting is best for profiling the monitor. Also having your monitor brightness up at maxium is probably not the best way to start from. Check with the Spyder instructions. I use a Spyder as hardware, but use the screen manufacturers own calibration software (Eizo) which can adjust monitor brightness during the process. I think I start with about 50% brightness.

You have a AdobeRGB monitor so calibrate to that, not a sRGB display.
11-21-2017, 10:36 AM - 1 Like   #4
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When you ‘calibrate’ a monitor you are actually aiming to do several things.

The first being to set your monitor to a known standard for example white point D65, gamma 2.2 and luminosity 110 cd/m2 (will vary with editing conditions). The second being the creation of an ICC monitor profile that actually describes your monitors condition to enable colour savvy applications to display your image data correctly in spite of the fact that your monitor may be off from your required standards.

You cannot calibrate to sRGB or Adobe RGB as these are synthetic spaces.

The whole point of calibration is to enable you to view your images very close to how others will see them on their calibrated displays and in the case of sending to print (using the correct paper profile and soft proofing) that you get a very close screen and print match

Without any familiarity on my part with your monitor you should not be setting the limited sRGB gamut but using the monitors native gamut and adjusting as advised by your calibration software to get close to your required standards

Monitor brightness levels should be adjusted to enable a screen to print match and this will vary with the level of ambient light in your editing environment and may be somewhere in the region of 90 - 140 cd/m2 going from a dark environment to a much lighter. Take any recommended brightness settings with a large pinch of salt until you have proved such in a screen to print match

You may find it helpful to study the settings and recommendations shown on the Lagom site
LCD monitor test images

It is rare to find any monitor that will be close to the required brightness for your editing environment straight out of the box, most defaulting to far too high a level.

11-21-2017, 10:42 AM   #5
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The Spyder software, depending which version you have (regular, pro, elite) has an option to calibrate multiple monitors to match each other.


QuoteOriginally posted by following.eric Quote
And when I calibrate it, should I have the mode set to srdg mode and srgb colour profile with reduced brightness for the calibration. Or should I calibrate it off the standard default settings with max brightness (out of box basically)
Yo should probably calibrate it with reduced brightness. If your final output is prints, the on-screen adjustment will more closely resemble the print if the brightness is lower.

QuoteOriginally posted by following.eric Quote
My mac is calibrated with a spyder express and prints usually come back pretty accurate except a few where darks seem way off.
Maybe that one is also calibrated at a too-bright setting?
11-21-2017, 02:02 PM   #6
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QuoteOriginally posted by davidreilly3207 Quote
You have not indicated which version of Spyder Express you are using.
My version 4 has settings for which color gamut you are using and also measures ambient light to determine the correct brightness. If you are not using version 4 I suggest acquiring at least that version, if not the improved 5, before trusting the calibration.
Spyder 5 Express

I may have got it sorted. I lowered the brightness, set it to native colour and lowered the brightness and recalibrated. Did the same with my macbook lowering the brightness and recalibrating and it appears to be fine. Both appear to look similar with maybe just a little more saturation on the newer larger screen.

Either way seeing old pics at 2k on 32inchs looks amazing and colour rendition seems nice.

Next step will be to run some prints from edits on the monitor to compare.
11-22-2017, 05:36 AM   #7
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The brightness should be set to the one you'll be working with.
As someone said, they're usually too bright out of the box (mine was at 100%), so you'll probably have to decrease it to a comfortable level.
The contrast, color, etc., of a monitor varies with the brightness, so choose that and let the calibration do the rest.
Also let the monitor on for about 30 minutes before calibrating.

11-22-2017, 11:44 AM   #8
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QuoteOriginally posted by dafbp Quote
The brightness should be set to the one you'll be working with.
As someone said, they're usually too bright out of the box (mine was at 100%), so you'll probably have to decrease it to a comfortable level.
The contrast, color, etc., of a monitor varies with the brightness, so choose that and let the calibration do the rest.
Also let the monitor on for about 30 minutes before calibrating.
do you also need to let the monitor warmup before editing?

although my mac and screen now look more similar. The external monitor still seems bit more saturated versus the mac screen and some colours look more pungent. Like green seems to me more green on the external monitor.

I am not sure if it maters until I get prints back to see how it is.

I think I just figured out of the box the monitor calibrated with the spyder5 express would just look as it looks compared to my mac.
11-22-2017, 01:56 PM   #9
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Spyder suggests monitor be on for 30 minutes before calibrating.
Over saturation may be caused by brightness set a bit too low.
The upgrade to Pro version software, which measures ambient light to determine correct brightness range with the same sensor you have, is 79.99 and in my opinion would be worth the money.
QuoteOriginally posted by following.eric Quote
do you also need to let the monitor warmup before editing?

although my mac and screen now look more similar. The external monitor still seems bit more saturated versus the mac screen and some colours look more pungent. Like green seems to me more green on the external monitor.

I am not sure if it maters until I get prints back to see how it is.

I think I just figured out of the box the monitor calibrated with the spyder5 express would just look as it looks compared to my mac.
11-22-2017, 02:19 PM   #10
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The increase in saturation is not really that surprising IF your monitor is wider gamut than your iMac AND your image file contains these more saturated colours - simply put you were not seeing them before as your old screen limited by its own gamut. This assumes you are comparing in a colour managed application such as Photoshop or Lightroom.
11-22-2017, 03:57 PM   #11
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QuoteOriginally posted by TonyW Quote
The increase in saturation is not really that surprising IF your monitor is wider gamut than your iMac AND your image file contains these more saturated colours - simply put you were not seeing them before as your old screen limited by its own gamut. This assumes you are comparing in a colour managed application such as Photoshop or Lightroom.
ya I was comparing images in lightroom.

I find when I view images, previously saved jpeg on the new monitors they looks great and the colours and everything looks great. In lightroom when I am working on new edits the colours and saturationg do seem a it more and certain colours look slightly different compared to the mac. On lightroom you have the two screen option. So if I am editing on the new wide gamut screen and i display the same image on the imac there is quite a difference. greens are different and saturation is different, slight change in tone as well.

I thought once monitors were calibrated they would display the same.

i just read on datacolors website about why monitors side by side dont look the same, and they say it is normal because our brain perceives colours different is the brightness or luminance of a monitor is different. Say the only true test is to not compare them side by side but to allow your eyes to adjust to a monitor and to the view the image once you have adjusted your eyes. If comparing side by side your brain will naturally create a difference.

My thinking is edit on the new screen, that is calibrated and only look at the new screen, save a few edits and later on view them on the mac once my eyes have adjusted and dont have the comparison and see if I am seeing the same difference or edit off the new screen, send for prints and compare the prints to the monitor.

so far I am pretty happy with over all image quality. Going from an 11 inch macbook air screen to a 32 inch wide gamut 2k monitor is quite the change
11-22-2017, 06:12 PM   #12
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QuoteOriginally posted by following.eric Quote
I find when I view images, previously saved jpeg on the new monitors they looks great and the colours and everything looks great. In lightroom when I am working on new edits the colours and saturationg do seem a it more and certain colours look slightly different compared to the mac
QuoteOriginally posted by following.eric Quote
I thought once monitors were calibrated they would display the same.
You also need to take into account the colour space profile of the files you are viewing, and whether whatever you are viewing them on is colour managed. Do the jpeg files have an embedded colour profile attached ?

Lightroom has a default colour space of Adobe RGB 1998 in the library and ProPhoto in the editor, but it will honour and display correctly any file that is tagged with a colour profile. Untagged files will be displayed differently.
When you work on a new edit from a RAW file for example, you may see much richer colours because of the Wide gamut editing working space (ProPhoto) and the wide gamut of your monitor (Adobe RGB 1998). But if that file is saved as a jpeg with sRGB colour space you may lose some vibrancy.

Do you have Lightroom on your mac too ? If not, are you viewing the file in a colour managed application ?

Last edited by pschlute; 11-22-2017 at 06:20 PM.
11-23-2017, 01:27 AM   #13
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QuoteOriginally posted by pschlute Quote
You also need to take into account the colour space profile of the files you are viewing, and whether whatever you are viewing them on is colour managed. Do the jpeg files have an embedded colour profile attached ?

Lightroom has a default colour space of Adobe RGB 1998 in the library and ProPhoto in the editor, but it will honour and display correctly any file that is tagged with a colour profile. Untagged files will be displayed differently.
When you work on a new edit from a RAW file for example, you may see much richer colours because of the Wide gamut editing working space (ProPhoto) and the wide gamut of your monitor (Adobe RGB 1998). But if that file is saved as a jpeg with sRGB colour space you may lose some vibrancy.

Do you have Lightroom on your mac too ? If not, are you viewing the file in a colour managed application ?
ya I run lightroom on my mac and when I edit I just drag the program over to the second screen and edit from there.

Does make sense that the adobe rgb in lightroom on a wide gamut would look difference than my mac. If lets say I am editing a file on the external monitor and I drag the porgram back to the macbook the colours, blacks, and hues change. I suppose that would make sense given the lack of gamut.

I did look at images later on, after my eyes had adjusted and when viewing the photos on the mac without the external monitor to compare, I did notice an increase in saturation and similar colours to what I was viewing before. I think not comparing the two will be a must when editing and second allow my eyes to adjust before I switch monitors.
11-23-2017, 01:41 AM - 2 Likes   #14
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A wide gamut implies wider than "regular", at least by the name. So it is not a complete surprise that something might look different on that monitor than another monitor. In general, each display device, monitor, MacBook, printer, will all have a different color response from each other. On each device, it will be (theoretically) displayed as well as it can be, given the parameters of that device. The information in the image is no doubt more than can be rendered by any one of these device. In order to get the exact same image on each device, that image would have use the least common denominator of the color space that is common to all the devices (which is not really the desired effect, unless you explicitly want that).
11-23-2017, 02:09 AM   #15
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QuoteOriginally posted by following.eric Quote
Does make sense that the adobe rgb in lightroom on a wide gamut would look difference than my mac. If lets say I am editing a file on the external monitor and I drag the porgram back to the macbook the colours, blacks, and hues change. I suppose that would make sense given the lack of gamut.
That would be true for any untagged file or for any AdobeRGB tagged file. If you have a sRGB tagged file you should notice less difference.
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