Nill, Mark,
I just did my first calibration a couple of hours ago, but was confused as to which "target" model to use ("L" D65 ??) or whether I should create my own (6500, 2.2 gamma). I was a little concerned that the preset targets have "intensity" set to "maximum possible". I was concerned that the screen would be too bright. Do you create your own targets ? What settings did you use ?
Any help or tips appreciated.
Tony
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Tony, there is a nest of questions here. Firstly, I use ColorEyes Display (Integrated Color Corporation) software with an Monaco Optix XR. This software along with the video card andmonitor are all DDC enabled, so there is not much I need to set. To the extent your package works similarly to mine, the following may be useful. No guarantees!
The procedure I'm using, following the advice of Integrated Color Corp, is to first reset the monitor to its default values using the reset control on the monitor front panel. I assume your monitor has this too. The software takes care of resetting the video card before it does anything else - the user does not see this.
ColorEyes Display with DDC only requires the user to give it three parameters: white point, gamma and luminance. For white point the recommendation is to use 6500 degrees K, because this setting corresponds best with how prints view under Solux D50 illumination (don't ask me why, but it's true!).
(Diversion: you should have a D50 source of illumination in your work area for viewing the prints - either a lamp or a fixture. This is obtainable from
www.solux.net, the website of Tailored Lighting in Rochester New York - there may be other suppliers - I use them and they are good.)
For gamma, they recommend and I use their L* setting, but if your package doesn't have that, use 2.2.
For luminance - and this is the trickiest part - don't use a setting such as "maximum" if your software offers you that. It is too bright for the LCDs and papers we are normally using (especially if matte or other such Fine Art papers). I set mine to 110 cd/M2. This will make the screen look rather dull, but that may be exactly what you want - unless you find your prints are coming out consistently brighter than what you see on the screen (means this setting is making you over-compensate brightness in Photoshop). Then you will want to re-calibrate using a higher value of cd/M2, which would induce you to do less brigtening of the image in Photoshop. I found the key thing in using an LCD successfully was not the color calibration/profiling, which these packages and monitors manage well, but getting the brightness tamed to match the printer. This is where playing with the luminance setting until you have confidence in the predictability of the result could be required. It took me several iterations (which just means redoing the profile at different luminance values and testing the results with prints). While it takes some time, the psychic advantage of it is that you get to use your profiling package repeatedly, which almost makes it seem as if the expenditure was worthwhile!
Good luck with it.