C2P - Monitor Calibration Luminance Question

[Kevin_S]

Ok, I finished watching the camera to print video and was going through my monitor calibration and PS color settings to make sure everything was set properly and here's what I found.  Using my eye1 display to calibrate my 22" apple cinema display which I put into service on 8/19/02, I attempted to set the luminace to 110 or 140 as per Michael and Jeff's advice and found that when trying for 110 I could only get max 93.7 cd/m2  and when trying for 140 I could only get 92.4 cd/m2.  I was wondering if this is due to the age of the monitor or something that I might be doing wrong, any advice?  In case it matters, I was calibrating to 6500 and Gama 2.2 on a power max G4 dual 1g machine with 2g ram running OSX 10.4.10.  Thanks.

PS.  I've included screen shots of the calibration results in case they are helpful

Kevin
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[hassiman]

What version of iMatch software are you running?  The latest?  V 3.6.1?

The X-rite support folks said thatwith the i1 Display2  the 23ACD should be set to

6500K

2.2 Gamma

Lum = 120 Candela

R

Ok, I finished watching the camera to print video and was going through my monitor calibration and PS color settings to make sure everything was set properly and here's what I found.  Using my eye1 display to calibrate my 22" apple cinema display which I put into service on 8/19/02, I attempted to set the luminace to 110 or 140 as per Michael and Jeff's advice and found that when trying for 110 I could only get max 93.7 cd/m2  and when trying for 140 I could only get 92.4 cd/m2.  I was wondering if this is due to the age of the monitor or something that I might be doing wrong, any advice?  In case it matters, I was calibrating to 6500 and Gama 2.2 on a power max G4 dual 1g machine with 2g ram running OSX 10.4.10.  Thanks.

PS.  I've included screen shots of the calibration results in case they are helpful

Kevin
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[kaelaria]

What is the brightness set to in the software an on the monitor?

[Kevin_S]

Hassiman, I'm running Eye-One Match 3 version 3.2a with the greytagmacbeth eye-one display 2.

Kaelaria, The LCD monitors brightness is maxed out to get the above mentioned numbers.  The Apple Display only has a slider to control the brightness.

[kaelaria]

Do you have RGB controls?  Set too low perhaps?

[hassiman]

Try downloading the latest iMatch software... you can find it on the Pantone website as X-rite's website has somehow lost the links to their own software ... ( they just redesigned their website ) .  It is version 3.6.1 and it is a marked improvement.

Hassiman, I'm running Eye-One Match 3 version 3.2a with the greytagmacbeth eye-one display 2.

Kaelaria, The LCD monitors brightness is maxed out to get the above mentioned numbers.  The Apple Display only has a slider to control the brightness.
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[Kevin_S]

Hassiman, Thank's I was wondering how to download the new version LOL.

Kaelaria, LCD monitors have seperate RGB controls.

[Nill Toulme]

Unusual that this is the maximum you could achieve on an LCD unless it's on its last legs, but... it's not necessarily not bright enough.  There's no magic about 110-140 cd/m².  Proper luminance depends largely on your work environment's ambient lighting.  I work in a fairly dim room and calibrate mine to 95 cd/m².

Nill
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www.toulme.net

[kaelaria]

Yes I know some have the controls, that's why I asked - I have not used his specific model, I don't know if it has controls or presets (or both).  The point being, you can set them to the correct white balance at different absolute means.  If it's too low, so is output to a degree.

[Schewe]

my 22" apple cinema display which I put into service on 8/19/02, I attempted to set the luminace to 110 or 140 as per Michael and Jeff's advice and found that when trying for 110 I could only get max 93.7 cd/m2 
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Well, you've has a good five year run, but your current display is toast....sorry. LCDs and CRTs have a relatively short life span for color critical purposes...3 years is considered good (and average)...past that they lack the ability to meet luminance requirements (as you've found).

I suppose you can keep working on the current LCD if you calibrate the rest of your viewing environment much darker-dark like to old CRT days. The key is whether or not when the room is dark enough whether or not you can see black as black when running at 92-93.

[Kevin_S]

Nill,

I think this is what has me confused.  I thought the whole point of calibrating the monitor was to have everything uniform and controlled, but by adjusting the luminance by eye or in Michael's words seasoning to taste, just seems very arbitrary.

[Kevin_S]

Jeff,

Yeah I guess I'm just due for a system upgrade, but in the mean time how to I tell if i'm seeing black as true black on this monitor?  My work area is in the basement, so it's pretty dim to begin with.  Also would there be any disadvantage to using this monitor as a 2nd display to use for PS menus in a dual display setup?

Thanks,
Kevin

[Nill Toulme]

Kevin, it is arbitrary in a sense, but it's not like color balance, which approaches a standard.  Luminance depends not only only on ambient lighting, but also on the lighting your prints are going to be viewed in.  It's really just as simple as getting your monitor to match your prints (unlike the rest of the color chain, where you're trying to get your prints to match your monitor).  Assuming an otherwise well-calibrated color-managed environment, if your prints seems dark compared to the image on your monitor, then your monitor is probably set too bright.  

This was rarely much of a problem with CRT's because for the most part they just weren't all that bright to begin with.  It's a significant issue with LCDs though because they tend to be very bright — often way too bright in fact for critical color work at their default settings — because they're mostly designed largely for office type work in typical very brightly lit office environments.

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net

[kaelaria]

It's not arbitrary - it's relative.  If you work in a pitch black room, your luminence is going ot need to be lower than someone working in a sunlit room.  Your eyes compensate and the screen brightness needs to be relative to ambient.  Hense the better calibration tool shaving an ambient light check.  If you want to get technical - YES you can set it to a specific perfect number.  IF everyone was working with the same ambient light level too.

So yes, you season to taste.  View a print in the same lighting as your room and season away.