Monitor Calibratrion with Adobe Gamma

[Rodger]

Hi,

Of course I want my monitor to show true colors. When I run the Adobe Gamma wizard (on Windows XP), the first step is to "set contrast control to its highest setting." After that you are supposed to adjust the brightness accordingly until a sort of Ad Reinhart graphic of concentric squares appears white, black, and near black.

I find that if I set contrast to 100 (the highest setting), no adjustment of the brightness control can compensate the distortion it causes. I find that balancing brightness and constrast at about 70 each produces the desired effect in the graphic, but that ignores step one in the wizard.

Does anyone have experience with this? Can I safely ignore step one, or am I misjudging the result?

Thanks for your help.

Rodger

[NickLewis]

It's a while since I've used Adobe Gamma, but I think you can safely ignore step 1. The object is to get the desired effects in the graphics, not to slavishly follow a set of instructions that may not work with your piece of kit. I'd back it off from 100 until you can get a satisfactory result.

However, are you using an LCD? I don't believe that Gamma produces reliable results with an LCD.

Nick

[Rodger]

Yes, it is an LCD, a Dell model. By the way, do you, Nick, or does anyone reading know whether it is advisable to load the Adobe color profile in place of the default Dell profile? Am I off topic here?

Thanks,
R

[NickLewis]

You're certainly not off topic, but I don't really know the answer. In principle, the point of running Gamma is that it produces results which are specific to your particular monitor and viewing conditions, rather than the more generic file supplied by Dell.

However, I don't know whether that's the case with an LCD. I don't know whether it's a matter of "Gamma doesn't work with LCDs" or "Gamma may not work with LCDs". Or how to tell......

You'd do better to wait for someone who knows a bit more about Gamma to come along. I went to a hardware calibration solution when I bought an LCD.

Nick

[Codebreaker]

Rodger....

Adobe Gamma with LCDs may or may not work well. Either way its a bit hit and miss as it relies on 'eye-balling the results. I've put some info on my web site about how to use it which may help.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/colin_w/Display%20Setup.htm

It's advisable to use the generic profile for your display as a starting point. Failing that sRGB will be the closest.

Keep in mind one thing about Adobe Gamma....it only calibrates your display. That is it will try to get the Brightness/Contrast/Temperate and Colour Balance as best as it can but it doesn't Profile the display. The Profile is what's used to accurately translate the numbers from one colour space, e.g sRGB of your camera, to the Display, which is via your Monitor Profile. To produce a Monitor Profile you'll need a piece of hardware known as a Colourimeter - which means 'insert money' :)

Colin

[Rodger]

Well, I tweaked the contrast settings and tried to balance the color mix, and in the end I produced a truly unusable screen environment. So I've reset my monitor to factory settings, and that is where I shall leave it until someone shows up with a colorimeter in their pocket.

Thanks to Colin--your website has inviting depth to it. I shall have to explore it further.

R

[Littlefield]

http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html


Roger,
Quick Gamma is a free tool that you can use to calibrate. It is at bottom of this thread.