Not a game. Help needed!
Not a game, not a request for CC, but a request for a favor nonetheless.
Most of my photos look dark on my work computer. One of my monitors is miscalibrated: the one I edit on or the one I am now viewing them on. Past attempts to calibrate were so frustrating that I gave up. So here is my attempt at crowd-sourced calibration.
Please, as many of you as possible, post short answers below. There are two questions, just post "Yes, yes", or "Yes, no" answers.
- Do the following three photos look dark?
- Is your monitor calibrated as far as you know?
tookapic.com/photos/541355 tookapic.com/photos/539493 tookapic.com/photos/533448
Thank you!
ponzu Yes, they look too dark on my home computer (not calibrated). The three shots I linked above look right on this computer, which is where I edit.
Marcin K. I wanted it brighter. It looked so on the camera. It looked OK on the laptop. When I checked on the monitor at work (after upload) -- it was too dark. It looks like the monitor at work is more solid than laptop.
ponzu Everything looks fantastic on an iPhone (even better on an iPad). I'll have to tell you when I am at the computer again. Thanks!
agnieszka bladzik no and no, yet I have struggle as well with colors and light. At home I have lenovo laptop and dell as additional monitor - lenovo is darker and cooler while on dell everything is warmer and more intense. the same with mobile. on my sony all colors are vivid and iphone makes everything brighter
Magda Parkitna No and no.
Rafal
1. it depends of what You want - if there is no additional dark vignetting borders are darker than the centre
2. No
3. No
Magda Korzewska as far as I am concern no and no.
Marta Tomaszewska
No & no (I could check later on on calibrated one, but I suppose it would look like simmilar).
And I've struggled many battles with calibration in various configurations of PCs/laptops and monitors - and I got one clue in the end - the easiest way to check calibration effect is to check how photo looks like on mobile devices
:)
Marta Tomaszewska hmm... maybe my mobiles are nicer :) but when I compared certain photo on my two calibrated monitors (one old and always too yellow) and laptop (always too blue) and asked my friend with also calibrated monitors it revealed that our mobiles can be some kind of "tester" - even when talking about prints.
Paweł Te
1. no
2. yes (I hope so):)
For a long time I was struggling with colors of my photos seen on many different screens, and realised that I need some reliable "starting point" for PP. Some weeks ago decided to buy a basic version of screen calibrator - spyder5, in my opinion very good device which made colors exactly the same on many screens, and most important - appropriate.
Now I'm thinking of camera profiler - eg. x-rite color checker - to make custom camera profile.
Overall, I think color management is important enough in a photographer's work that deserves a separate discussion and thread:)
Nilson Menezes
1. No
2. No, but I can use the different monitors.
Normally what I do is:
a) to take my photos in RAW,
b) process them to transform into jpg (with Silkypix, an excellent Japanese program,
c ) storage them into Dropbox, and
d) see them with an iPad Air (for me a very good monitor).
Recently, I have bought an EyeFi Card and when I finish my "photo session" I transfer from my camera to apps in iPad and I see them (as RAW) immediately.
ponzu I would say that iPad is almost too good as a monitor. It may give you a sense that your photos are better, crisper, brighter, more contrasty than they really are. Then again, what does "really" mean in this context?
For a while, I wanted to ban all viewing of my photos from any device other than iPad. Good luck with that, right?
Nilson Menezes
One day all monitor will be like the Retinas...
This discussion reminds me that when color television system was implemented in the USA in the fifties, the people said on that occasion, NTSC (initials of the system, for National Television System Committee) really means "Never Twice The Same Color"!
ponzu Thanks, Tookapic, I think we have solved one of life's little mysteries. Now I know which monitor to brighten.
ponzu I changed Gamma from 1.0 to 1.1 for now. Not exactly a scientific approach. The photos I linked above now look pretty good. It does feel like the display is not overly bright and sometimes washed out. Guessing I will get used to that. Will try to keep an eye on whether most photos will start looking overexposed to me. Then I will know I took a step in the wrong direction.
ponzu It must mean something else then. Some other gamma. Some other planet. If I were to set gamma to 2.2.... *checking* ... oh boy!
ponzu I'll read the article. The site even looks familiar. The problem is that every time I read in the past about calibration, and attempted to perform it, I walked away from the experience feeling that I accomplished nothing at best, and made things worse at worst. I am always happy to find default settings that make photos look decent. That gives me hope that someone else knew what they were doing.
Satoshi T Great pointed out @lukaszbrozek !
tigg No, No
Damian Cichy
1. No
2. No
Łukasz No & no. I'm on MB Pro with Retina. I also struggle with it since my photos look a bit different on each of my screens. (MB, external display & iPhone/iPad)
ponzu Thank you all who responded. I cannot edit the original post to say we got this figured out, and I don't want to delete it because people started talking about calibration, and that's a good topic.
vera
1. No
2. I don't know...
I just noticed that my photos appear darker (or not exactly darker, the black is a deeper black should I say) on my computer than on my Iphone or Ipad ... So the question of calibration seems to me a good question to answer one of these days!
jokele
1. No
2. Yes (Spyder5)
Jennifer No & yes
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Marcin K. 1. No.
2. No.
Although my monitor is rather dark/with poor contrast calibration. Do you consider following photos as dark:
"$99"
"Backwoods Bastard"
?
EDIT: I consider them as "too dark"