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Author Topic: Adjusting contrast on Apple Cinema Display  (Read 10398 times)

NigelC

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Adjusting contrast on Apple Cinema Display
« on: March 01, 2009, 06:20:19 am »

To profile monitor with Huey Pro, there is a screen that needs access to contrast adjustment, which I do not have with my ACD 23"; I understand if the ACD is connected to an Apple machine, this can be set from the computer. Mine is a Vista 64 PC with a nVidia 9800GT graphics card. Is there a work around? - apparently there is an ACD driver that might work with 32 bit Vista, so that doesn't help.
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Damo77

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Adjusting contrast on Apple Cinema Display
« Reply #1 on: March 01, 2009, 11:26:40 pm »

No, the Contrast is fixed.  ACDs are good monitors, so the contrast will be at a desirable level anyway.

Perhaps you mean Brightness?
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Damien

NigelC

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Adjusting contrast on Apple Cinema Display
« Reply #2 on: March 02, 2009, 02:56:40 am »

Quote from: Damo77
No, the Contrast is fixed.  ACDs are good monitors, so the contrast will be at a desirable level anyway.

Perhaps you mean Brightness?

No, Brightness can be adjusted on the monitor itself. The Huey pro software has an intial screen that asks can you distinguish a number of shadow and highlight rings - if I want to make them more distinct, I would have to adjust contrast - there is no such adjustment on the monitor - I may not therefore be getting the most out of the profiler
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Damo77

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Adjusting contrast on Apple Cinema Display
« Reply #3 on: March 02, 2009, 03:58:42 am »

Then Brightness is all you have.  I've calibrated ACDs connected to Macs several times, and ever adjusted the Contrast.  Even if it is available on the computer (I've never seen it), it would merely be a video card LUT adjustment, and as such should be avoided.

Look, I wasn't being flippant or dismissive.  The ACDs are good monitors, so their contrast will be absolutely fine.  Just adjust the Brightness to get a luminance that suits you, and you'll have a satisfactory result.
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Damien

digitaldog

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Adjusting contrast on Apple Cinema Display
« Reply #4 on: March 02, 2009, 09:12:01 am »

In order to affect contrast, you have to have control over both black and white settings which as mentioned above is not an option on this (and for reality many LCDs). There might be a control called "contrast" but its not affecting the contrast in anything like an optimal way until you have full control over setting both black and white (as is done in high bit, internally in my NEC).

As to "the contrast is fine", the idea here is to set the contrast as closely as possible to the print you'll view while soft proofing. Considering most LCDs are a good 500-800:1 contrast ratio or more, and that the best print might be 250:1, maybe a tad more, having control over contrast ratio is a very useful function.
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jjlphoto

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Adjusting contrast on Apple Cinema Display
« Reply #5 on: March 02, 2009, 09:47:30 am »

When flat panels had contrast ranges around 400:1, and your cal/profiling package had a contrast step, you could simply skip it (because as mentioned, few monitors had a contrast control of any sort)

Now with monitor specs touting absurd 800:1 and higher contrast ratios, I don't know what to think. Are they really that high, or is it marketing hype? Seems most monitors now are going the way of glitzy schmaltz super duper high contrast, leaving but a mere few left for actual professional graphics work.
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digitaldog

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Adjusting contrast on Apple Cinema Display
« Reply #6 on: March 02, 2009, 09:52:22 am »

They are that high, and higher. Not at all ideal for the work we do. For watching video and such, great.
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Gigapixel

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Adjusting contrast on Apple Cinema Display
« Reply #7 on: March 02, 2009, 10:56:12 am »

Apple Cinema Displays are digitally driven (DVI) and therefore need no "contrast" setting, which in many LCDs is a strange mix of brightness and gamma. Only LCDs with analog inputs require such a contrast setting to be adjusted to the difference in voltage outputs by the graphic card.
The only meaningful settings on a purely digitally driven display like the ACD would be brightness (intensitiy of CCFL), color temperature and gamma. Since the color temperature of CCFLs is more or less fixed (it might slightly vary with intensity), the most important setting other than brightness would be the gamma, which the ACD is also lacking. But a software calibration around the native values of the panel (6500K, Gamma 2.2) requires a (CCFL intensity) brightness setting to achieve good results at a specific  target brightness without restricting the color space significantly.
« Last Edit: March 02, 2009, 10:59:51 am by Gigapixel »
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