ambient light adjustment giving me fits

[mstevensphoto]

Hi folks,
   I just upgraded to the color munki and it's the first device that has ambient light adjustment that I've owned. I two computers side by side on my desktop because it's what works in my life. I'm finding that the ambient light adjustment has my editing monitor constantly jumping around and it's really annoying. I've currently got it set to update as needed. For one I'm wounding if the nearby computer glow screws things up and for another I'm wondering if the adjustment is really necessary at all? Does anyone use and like the function? I've never had output problems to date and I'm mostly not having them now, it just seems harder to do my work with things changing all the time. thoughts? ideas? your practices?
many thanks
Mark

[walter.sk]

The preferred way to set up a monitor and viewing area to do the best work in color management is to go for consistency of lighting first.  Light-blocking window shades and a constant-level room light should give you no reason to use the ambient light adjustment.  Otherwise, you have too many unknown variables ranging from brightness to color temperature.

[howardm]

I did not use that when I had a Munki.  Too much 'changing on it's own'.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

It works for me. For a number of different reasons, I do not want to spend my day in a daylight-blocked room with artificial lighting. In your case, move the sensor away from the second monitor, sot that it reacts only to the change in ambient light.

[D Fosse]

Another vote for disabling. You can have daylight as long as it's fairly consistent.

[mstevensphoto]

my office is in the basement with one little window far away from the workstation and the overhead lights always off. although not a dark or neutral setting it is pretty consistent and I've never had problems in the past. I think I'm just going to turn the feature off.

[digitaldog]

The ambient light adjustment is a joke, thought up by maybe someone in marketing or someone who's not dialed into proper color management processes IMHO. Turn it off. Control the ambient lighting.

[Alan Klein]

What is the best ambient lighting to use?  How do you deal with outdoor light?

[mstevensphoto]

the best ambient light would be none, dark room with just your monitor. the second best would just be consistent light that's reasonably neutral (e.g. don't paint your wall fuscia and have a light reflecting that onto your monitor.

[walter.sk]

What is the best ambient lighting to use?  How do you deal with outdoor light?

The problem with outdoor light is that the color temperature and brightness are constantly changing.   The light varies with the time of day, the season, the weather, etc.  I shut it out completely, and have a print viewing box that I have matched in brightness to my monitor.  No more surprises with prints looking different from what I had seen on the monitor.

Yes, I know there are still differences and that softproofing is not perfect, but I am happy with the system and have been doing it this way for years.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

The problem with outdoor light is that the color temperature and brightness are constantly changing. The light varies with the time of day, the season, the weather, etc....

Hence the Colormunki's sensor, which counteracts those changes (plus indoor lighting).

[digitaldog]

Hence the Colormunki's sensor, which counteracts those changes (plus indoor lighting).

Hence, chasing your tail...
It's a silly idea, control the conditions.

[Alan Klein]

So I should do my adjustments at night?

[digitaldog]

So I should do my adjustments at night?

Yes, if you can't control the ambient light.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Hence, chasing your tail...
It's a silly idea, control the conditions.

Nope. I do not want to spend 8-12 hours a day in front of a computer in a pitch-black room. There is a life outside (at least outside my walkout basement with three huge windows). Squirrels, clouds, wind, rain, seasons... I want to see it, not be confined to a solitary, lightless prison hole.

And for what? For a perceived purity of colors!? For a "perfect" print that is "perfect" only under conditions, otherwise non-existing, of a thousand-bucks viewing booth? I've made prints that look good in most reasonable viewing conditions, i.e., art fair booth, home incandescent lighting, daylight, etc., because our eyes (and our clients' eyes) adjust to it.

[digitaldog]

Nope. I do not want to spend 8-12 hours a day in front of a computer in a pitch-black room.

Who said anything about a pitch black room? We're talking about consistency. You don't think your eye keeps adapting to the environment as the ambient conditions change? That's just dumb, get yourself a modern invention called curtains. The ambient light compensation is just a silly non-fix for a broken situation (an editing environment that is changing throughout the day).

And for what? For a perceived purity of colors!? For a "perfect" print that is "perfect" only under conditions, otherwise non-existing, of a thousand-bucks viewing booth? I've made prints that look good in most reasonable viewing conditions, i.e., art fair booth, home incandescent lighting, daylight, etc., because our eyes (and our clients' eyes) adjust to it.

I have no friggin idea what you do or desire and I'm not going down another rabbit hole with you. I'm addressing the OP and hope he doesn't get sucked up into another color management vortex of yours. You want to work in some piss poor condition then expect some silly adjustment to the display to fix it, go ahead. You want to argue that reducing issues that cause you to chace your tail? By all means do so, it's your time, not ours. You want less than ideal (actually piss poor) conditions for your work, it's AOK with me, I'm kind of expecting that kind of mindset at this point.

[Alan Klein]

So why did I buy a NEC with a Spectraview II calibrator?  I could have used all that extra money on a new lens.

[digitaldog]

So why did I buy a NEC with a Spectraview II calibrator?  

I have no idea why you did that. You maybe wanted a tightly calibrated display system to show you what your RGB and CMYK numbers really look like? Don't know. Considering that you did, and assuming you want to use that product to it's fullest, control the ambient conditions around that device. Or don't.

[Alan Klein]

Wouldn't a quick check on how well we adjust colors would be to look at our posted photos.  Leaving aside variances for different monitors, if most people can say your colors look OK, would that be sufficient to say ambient conditions don't seem to effect your adjustment techniques.  I believe my posted photos were adjusted in all kinds of conditions.  Yet as I look at them, they all seem pretty acceptable except for a few that I did a bad job adjusting them but I can see they're bad.  

[digitaldog]

Wouldn't a quick check on how well we adjust colors would be to look at our posted photos.

Ugh? You're talking about images posted to others over the net? You can forget that.

Leaving aside variances for different monitors, if most people can say your colors look OK, would that be sufficient to say ambient conditions don't seem to effect your adjustment techniques.

Color acceptance by committee? By and large, everyone out there in internet land are using differing displays, calibrated to different aim points (or mostly not calibrated at all), with browsers that may or may not be color managed. Talk about aiming for a very broad side of a barn.

I believe my posted photos were adjusted in all kinds of conditions.  Yet as I look at them, they all seem pretty acceptable accept for a few that I did a bad job adjusting them but I can see they're bad.  

Then there's no problem right? They are acceptable to you. How acceptable to anyone else is up to debate. Why don't you go outside in broad daylight, then come into a dark room with the display and see how well that works. Wear sunglasses. But a bright red shirt on, shine a light on it and sit in front of the display. Heck, if you're happy with the images, be happy that you're happy. No issues, no problems. Move on.