I have an NEC 2490WUXI LCD monitor that I calibrate with the Spyder3 Elite. I am very new to calibration in general, but I think that I have a pretty good understanding of the fundamentals.
My question is basically this. Do i set the luminance level to 120 using the controls on the monitor BEFORE running the calibration software and creating a profile, or is this something that calibrating the monitor is supposed to set for me? I know that my monitor should be set to factory default settings before calibration, and that I should choose a white balance of 6500 and gamma of 2.2 in the Spyder menu, but the luminance issue really confuses me. I am unsure of how I am supposed to do this in conjunction with the calibration process. What I do know is that my monitor is currently too bright judging from my prints, even after calibration, so I must have missed a step.
Can someone please advise me as to how and when to properly set the luminance?