Struggling with Calibration

eoren1 · February 15, 2012

The setup:
2011 iMac 27" - MonacoOptix DTP94 - EyeOne Color Eyes Display Pro
Prints from Bayphoto - not color corrected

So I'm trying really hard to calibrate and match my prints. I started off aiming for a luminance of 90 at D65. The deltaE values were great but the prints were too dark. Going down on the monitor brightness to '3 bars' did a better job matching but i was now at 37 cd/m2.

Realized I wasn't truly softproofing so added the Bay profile and used LR 4's new soft proof feature. Redid the calibration at 90 and was a bit too bright. Just did it at '5 bars brightness setting' which equals 71 cd/m2 and I'm close but not quite there yet.

71 seems pretty darn low of a luminance though...

Any thoughts on how to proceed with the calibration? I'm still getting excellent deltaE/max delta E values...

Thanks in advance

eoren1 · February 15, 2012

I have also recalibrated my old NEC Multisync 20WMGX2 ips monitor (that I mostly use in portrait orientation for web browsing) and am finding the same results. Luminance of 90 but still a 1/2 stop lower light in the print.

Newsy · February 15, 2012

Do you edit in a dark room lit only by the monitor or is there some background ambient lighting? If so, how bright?

eoren1 · February 15, 2012

It's a fairly dark room. Right now (3pm) I'm getting some light from this overcast day through two windows that are to the right and left of the monitors/desk. I have a single light in back of me to the right. Using my iPhone's Light Meter app: iso 100 f/2.8 1/10sec exposure on the wall next to the monitor

Newsy · February 15, 2012

I'm not real intimate with the ColorEyes package or the DTP94 sensor.

In fact, I'm a little confused.... I know of the ColorEyes Display Pro software and I know of the DTP94 sensor but I know not of the EyeOne (i1?) ColorEyes Display Pro. Is this the ColorEyes kit where you get the software and an i1 Display puck but are using it with a DTP94 puck that you sourced separately?

I can't help but think the varying light in the room is going to play havoc with your eye's perception of the ambient background light in the room versus the bright backlit torch (Apple 27") in the centre of your vision.

You may want to try putting a little more light onto the area behind the monitor, edit an image, and have it and an un-edited version of it printed for comparison of darkness.

You're not going to be able to match your prints to the monitor unless you radically change the ambient light of the room.

There are some real serious print matchers out there who calibrate their monitor to a white point of 5000K and then use only 5000K lighting in the room. That means blinds over the window.

You may get close using 6500K bulbs but most people find them too cold for everyday use in a room.

What you're trying to do is get the reflected light off the paper of your prints to be at a white point that matches the backlit white point of your monitor. Hard to do and subject to the perceptual vagueness/adaptivity of the human eye.

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eoren1 · February 16, 2012

Thanks Newsy and I'm not sure why I typed EyeOne there... I meant ColorEyes Display Pro.

As for ambient lighting, I understand your point but don't see how that can end up working in any other situation. Let's say I process at 5000K then print and look at it under proper 5000K lights. Now I go to give that print to my customer who hangs it in a fluorescently lit room and it looks 'too dark'. I would rather calibrate and look at prints under 'real world' conditions (granted, I can't mimic everyone's lighting) than an artificial 5000K room.

I feel like I should be able to get closer than a 1/2 stop of light between prints and monitor(s).

Newsy · February 16, 2012

eoren1 wrote: »

Thanks Newsy and I'm not sure why I typed EyeOne there... I meant ColorEyes Display Pro.

As for ambient lighting, I understand your point but don't see how that can end up working in any other situation. Let's say I process at 5000K then print and look at it under proper 5000K lights. Now I go to give that print to my customer who hangs it in a fluorescently lit room and it looks 'too dark'. I would rather calibrate and look at prints under 'real world' conditions (granted, I can't mimic everyone's lighting) than an artificial 5000K room.

I feel like I should be able to get closer than a 1/2 stop of light between prints and monitor(s).

Your argument is very much in the same vein as the point a number of people have made in various forums... "why should I bother to calibrate my monitor for true colors when the clients/my relatives are looking at this on a 10 year old CRT that their gamer son has adjusted for his benefit? I want to edit so it looks good on their monitor!"

That philosophy is a dead end.

What I can address is why your prints dark. That is strictly a relationship between your perception of what levels you're adjusting with software for the image and the balance of the ambient brightness in the room versus the monitor's back lit brightness. You need to brighten up the area in your field of vision so that the brightness from the monitor panel is not so dominant.

With that you're going to have to experiment . You definitely have to control the lighting in your room so that it does not vary greatly - blinds on the windows!

Here's simple eyeball test so it is not particularly accurate but something to try ....

Grab a sheaf of white printer paper (several pages thick) and hold it up next to your monitor while it is displaying a white screen and while the room has its' typical lighting used while you edit. If the paper looks brighter than your monitor, then your monitor is too dark. If the paper is darker, then the monitor is too bright or perhaps you need to increase the ambient lighting of the room. Imho, it is less than ideal to edit in a near pitch black room.

Most LCD monitors have a native color temperature somewhere near 6500K in order to have whites appear like they would in natural sunlight. The paper, in comparison, will appear yellow (about 2800K) under reflective incandescent lighting (per standard "old" style light bulbs) so another trick is to buy some 6000 to 6500K compact fluorescent bulbs for the lighting in your room and use them while attempting this paper method.

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eoren1 · February 16, 2012

Thanks for the reply.

I was actually speaking more towards changing lighting in the room to brighten the prints rather than calibrating the monitor to match others' uncalibrated ones.

With that being said, I now wonder if purchasing a good desktop lamp with a color temp of 6500k might just do the trick. I don't necessarily want to add too many more lights to the room but could confirm with the lamp that prints look good under brighter conditions.

Would that work? Does that make sense?

Thanks again

eoren1 · February 18, 2012

Update:
Newsy was right! The prints were too dark because the room was too dark. I bought 3 Alzo digital 45W 5500K fluorescent bulbs to replace the 13W 3500K Sylvania fluorescents and the prints match perfectly. Only question now is whether I need to calibrate at 5500K.

Struggling with Calibration

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