Need your input on monitor settings

Mr. 2H2O

Hey y'all (yup, I live in the South),
I have my monitor manually calibrated to my print lab so when I do my edits, I see on my screen almost 100% accurately what the print will become for color gamma, saturation, contrast, etc.

I both print photos and publish on the web not for printing. I find that when I edit on my computer, then publish to the web, the piccies look too bright and not enough contrast when I look at them on screens that are not my own home computer. Prints tend to have a wider dymanic range than an LCD monitor and color gamma on lcd tends to be averaged.

I don't have the ability in my hardware to make two monitor profiles. Therefore, when I have a gallery slated for web publishing, I've just used the luminance histrogram to push the light just up below the right side and push the left just touching the left side.

Do any of you have the same struggle or is my situation just weird?

- Mike

arodney

Mr. 2H2O wrote:

Hey y'all (yup, I live in the South),
I have my monitor manually calibrated to my print lab so when I do my edits, I see on my screen almost 100% accurately what the print will become for color gamma, saturation, contrast, etc.

You did this how? You calibrated and profiled your display using an instrument and you're soft proofing use the lab's output profile?

I both print photos and publish on the web not for printing. I find that when I edit on my computer, then publish to the web, the piccies look too bright and not enough contrast when I look at them on screens that are not my own home computer.

With the expectation of about one web browser, none are supporting color management so its not surprising they don't match. Plus a printer and an emissive display are way different, a soft proof of the print and a soft proof (in a color managed web browser) wouldn't match anyway.

Prints tend to have a wider dymanic range than an LCD monitor and color gamma on lcd tends to be averaged.

Just the opposite. A modern display should be able to produce a dynamic range of 500:1 on up (note the marketing of displays where they lead you to believe higher is better, 3000:1 yada yada). The best you'll get off a print is maybe 300:1, more like 250:1. That's why when you properly soft proof using a profile and set Photoshop to simulate black ink and paper white, the preview dulls down so. This is producing a soft proof of both the color gamut and dynamic range.

I don't have the ability in my hardware to make two monitor profiles.

Well then forget it, that's key. Without calibration and a profile, you're basically guessing and hoping here.

Mr. 2H2O

Andrew - thanks, what you told me makes a lot of sense.

I was able to find a little corner of my monitor driver software that allows me to save profiles so now I can have the two settings I need.

- Mike