Lighting for LCD calibration?
Van Isle
Registered Users Posts: 384 Major grins
Van Isle
Registered Users Posts: 384 Major grins
Comments
Best ambient lighting would be a single soft light directly behind the display.
If it isn't realistic to do this w/ your existing setup. Just find a monitor hood to help keep the light off your screen. You can make one pretty easy on the cheap if your on a budget too.
-Jon
Although, in the case of any Apple laptop like the one being calibrated here, the one kind of lighting to avoid during calibration is...lighting behind the display.
The glowing Apple logo on the back of every Mac laptop's lid is achieved by a cutout with translucent white plastic over it; the laptop's backlight shows through the cutout. If you ever use a Mac laptop in front of a sunny window, you can actually see the apple shape on the front of the screen, because of the sun shining through the cutout on the back of the lid!
Which means, if you have a lamp "directly behind the display" when you calibrate it, and the sensor is also over the cutout, there is a risk of contaminating the readings of the laptop's backlight and coming up with the wrong white balance. I would go with dim room lighting that's not near the LCD.
It's not realistic to use a dim room to calibrate unless your going to be able to always work in the same environment. Pretty tough to see those keys if your in the dark unless your a professional designer and have all your shortcuts down cold.
I consult printing companies on color management as a paying hobby. I'm sure your right about the laptop thing though. None of the professional printers I deal w/ use laptops.
If a light source was behind the MacBook I don't think it would have to be super bright to influence a calibrator. I am more concerned about it being a tungsten bulb that is so yellow that its very presence behind the translucent lid could influence the reading.
Also, I'm not going to claim that a laptop LCD can be calibrated well enough for color-critical work. Simply that a calibrated laptop screen is a whole lot better than an uncalibrated one.
VI
even more difficult. You would need to calibrate your Printer as well. If you
don't calibrate screen and printer getting the colors right will always remain
a trial and error method with each picture u print meaning you'll always be
dissapointed by the results. The cheapest way to get some sort of
matching colors is to buy a pantone huey or a spyder2 express for 100€
to calibate your display and to download a printer icc profile for your printer.
― Edward Weston