Guys Im a newbie here, pti s field ng photography. I would like to ask lng kng pano icalibrate yng monitor kofor correct color, brightnes, cntrast etc...Im using an IBM thinkpad R50e.

Kc When I downloaded my pics from my 30D e ok nmn yng color and exposure, pero nung pinadevelop ko n s fuji e naging dark yng mga output. So im thingking bk may mali s monitor ko..

Example, I have one portrait na when I check on my monitor e nakikita p yng strands ng hair nung model, pero nung pinadevelop ko e parang dark shadow n lng sya plus naging mapula yng color n kinalabasan. Wala akong ginawang adjustment from PS, direct from camera lng. I also told fuji n do not make adjustments. I am assuming n calibrated ang equipments ng fuji kc s tingin ko dpat lng d b?

So Im thinking may problem b monitor ko? Pno b icalibrate ito? Is there an easy, inexpensive way of doing this.?thanks a lot..

the second issue had some tips regarding color management. you might want to check it out there. i'm pretty much sure that either nick or louie will reply to you immediately when they see this.

also, moved your thread to the proper category, under digital printing and color management.

ooops..sorry.. thanks anyway..:)

Also try to read this thread (http://www.digitalphotographer.com.ph/forum/showthread.php?t=61&highlight=monitor+calibration) for reference.

Ryan,

First thanks for joining the forum. We are glad to have you here. Second, please avoid writing like you are sending a text message. Not everyone here can understand those abbreviations.

I'll take a crack at your probllem. First you will need to calibrate your monitor. You can do this by eye (better than nothing) through Adobe Gamma since you are on Windows. Or you can buy a colorimeter such as a Spyder to calibrate your monitor to a standard.

First I would like to say that there are no assurances that your Fuji lab is calibrated to a standard. Ask them if they have icc profiles for their machines. Those icc profiles are also only good if they are consistent with their chemical ratios (Louie A. if you read this correct me if I am wrong).

So lets tackle your first problem of your prints being too dark when they come back from the lab. You need to first check how bright your monitor is when you saw your image. Too bright monitor=dark prints, Too dark monitor=light prints. Laptops are more or less calibrated to a luminance of 120 cd/m2. If you edit in a bright environment then you need a brighther screen. You'll only be able to know this though if you have a Spyder or other colorimeter. If you edit in a bright environment then you need a brighther screen. And if in a dark environment, then you need a darker screen

As for the red portrait, I suggest you re-open the file in photoshop and take the eyedropper (set it to 5 point sample) to the areas that look red and get either a RGB or CMYK reading at the info palette. If you can, post readings here of the skin tones, especially those of chin, neck and maybe forehead. Avoid areas that have makeup. If the numbers read a lot of red or magenta on the areas that you sampled but the monitor doesn't show it, then that means your monitor is off and that the Fuji is correct.

Let us know your findings. And let us know if none of this makes any sense to you.:)

hey nick, any way we can 'eye'-calibrate our macs? :D got the same problem with ryan, my prints are all darker. I'm using an Acer 19" wxga lcd.

Dex, you're Mac mini right? Go to System Preferences> Displays > Color > Calibrate

Follow the Advanced process. Suggest you first try D65 White and 2.2 Gamma. Its nearly becoming the standard. The profile will be saved as the default. Double check this against your old profile to see the changes.

If you pics still turn out too dark compared to monitor then I suggest looking at the luminance setting again. You may need to be brighter.

thanks Nick! :D will try it out when i get home. :D

Sir nick thanks for the advice. Sorry for my style of writing, got used to texting kasi e :Grin:


Im interested in your advice of calibrating my monitor but how do I go about it? What's adobe gamma? How to use it? sorry for being ignorant :(. Also how much does spider cost and how does it work?

I checked the brightness setting of my monitor and it was on the brightest setting. I remember setting it this way before coz our office is well lit so the monitor appears darker. Now, I made the brightness setting darker (made four levels down, there is 7 levels only for brightness setting) and yes the picture became darker but how come I can still see the details in the hair of model in the picture while in the printout it is all black, it became one with the shadow area of the portrait, no more details.

I took your advice and made a sample reading of the picture. Here it is:

Chin R - 141 C - 33%
G - 82 M - 64%
B - 62 Y - 75%
K - 25%

Forehead R - 185 C - 27%
G - 138 M - 48%
B - 123 Y - 49%
K - 2%

From this data there is indeed more red,magenta about the same with yellow. Actually the picture viewed from my monitor indeed has a reddish tone to it but in the printout its more saturated..:Thinking:

Ryan,

I haven't used Windows for some time and off the top of my head I can't remember how to find Adobe Gamma. I'll go to the old computer later and look for the settings. You can try doing a Help search to speed things up.

You can also set the luminance manually like you did on your monitor. Now you say you can still see the details of the hair in the monitor but not in the print out. This is what you call Printer Black Point and every printer has one. Give me another reading (RGB) of the Hair and also the background behind it. If these are only a few points away from each other, that means that you are at the Printer's Black Point so that the hair and background become one. If the values are very close together then you have an idea what your printers black point is and you can base your edits around this. I can explain to incorporate this in your next edits.

Your skin readings look correct although they are just a bit high on the magenta. The Cyan values look okay so that means you don't have a red bias but more a magenta bias. I'd tweak this slightly by going to SELECTIVE COLOR > Reds > Magenta maybe -10. Click Relative rather than Absolute. This should reduce the Magenta in the skin tones slightly. Experiment with the amounts.

Keep us posted.

@nick

i use an ibook, which profile do i choose for calibrating? help!

Din,

The most reliable method is to buy something like a Spyder. I'll PM you about this. If not, go to Apple > System Preferences > Displays > Color > Calibrate. Use the Advanced functions. I like setting to D65 / Gamma 2.2 but you can experiment.

@nick...

i just did what you suggested... parang same lang...i guess my mac is calibrated nicely... ;-)

many thanks!

Thanks nick, nice info on the printer black point..

Anyway the background you ask me to get a reading is it the shadow area near the hair? Coz the background of the portrait is actually gray (white in actual)..If it's the shadow then the readings are really much the same on the CMYK readings..So probably that's the answer to my problem. But is there a way to get around this?

I found the adobe gamma, but has not yet tried to calibrate my monitor, Its asking me to adjust the contrast and right now I dont know how to adjust it. All i can see on my keyboard is the luminance adjustment..:Dum:

Ryan,
Maybe you can provide us a link to your picture. I was assuming that the background and hair of the portrait were both black and you wanted to see separation from hair to background. The reading for black point should be done in RGB not CMYK.

Many LCD do not have a contrast adjustment. You will have to skip that part.

Hi nick please try this link..hope it works:)

In my monitor i can still see the hair strands. I dont know if you can also see it in your monitor. There's still a little separation between the shadows on the cheek and the hair. But sa printout its all black, it appears as shadow na lang.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ryejb/album?.dir=/94b1scd&.src=ph&.tok=pht9rWFBSaI.uHQY

Ryan,

I just dragged the file into Photoshop. It didn't have an embedded profile so I assigned it with sRGB. Now looking at the "numbers" your skin tones are definitely red. That means the Fuji printer is correct. To fix I suggest adding a Selective Color Layer>Reds> Cyan +10/Magenta -12/Yellow +5.

Now for the hair and the cheek. You can see the hair although vaguely against the cheek in Photoshop. But the RGB numbers of the cheek shadow average around 5 while the hair is around 8/9. This goes back to printer black point. Most printers cannot show shadow detail below 15 and anything less will print pure black.

You can attempt to open the shadows in Photoshop but you may get problems with noise. If the hair detail is very important to you then try to do it but for this image I would advise against it cause it doesn't look like there is much detail there to start with.

My advice in taking photos is to try and keep important image information between 15 (shadows) and 245 (highlights). Remember that anything less than 15 will print pure black and anything more than 245 will print pure white. For most commercial printers 15-245 is a safe range. Better inkjets can extend this range maybe to 10-250 with proper profiling. These are numbers you should consider when taking photos and editing pictures.

Great!! Thanks a lot nick! you've answered all of my questions. It's really enlightening :)

Im not really concerned about the details in the hair, i was just wondering why it came out that way in the printout, sort of puzzled :Thinking:.

The adjustments that you ask me to do in the photoshop, this is just to correct the redness for this particular picture right and does not necessarily apply to other images. Am i correct?

Also since the printout came out more red than what I see on my monitor, and you said that the fuji might be correct, then i need to calibrate my monitor..:( Otherwise I will always be surprised with the output of the printer.

Now i have a good idea of the printer black point and know what to expect and perhaps how to go around it. Thanks a lot!!

Dex, you're Mac mini right? Go to System Preferences> Displays > Color > Calibrate

Follow the Advanced process. Suggest you first try D65 White and 2.2 Gamma. Its nearly becoming the standard. The profile will be saved as the default. Double check this against your old profile to see the changes.

If you pics still turn out too dark compared to monitor then I suggest looking at the luminance setting again. You may need to be brighter.

thanks on this nick! it helped a whole lot. :D

dex