Monitors

[andy-xr]

I've had an ongoing battle with display colours over the last few months, became more obvious when I started using studio lighting and shooting portraits.

If anything's going online I already know that it should be in sRGB, and other than a couple of ProPhoto mistakes for the most part thats how I've been editing, using CaptureNX/PSE or one of the many other programs I've trialled. Sometimes I get it right, but it's more of a lottery.

I've recently added a Spyder 3 which has opened my eyes a bit to how much of a problem I have. Skin tones need hue'ing past the point of what I'd usually accept. On my screen they look too yellow, on others they're about right.

My greys are a little green after calibration, and reds/pinks are far too saturated. I dont have a profile option in the monitor, it's fairly simple and an eBuyer special

I think from what I've read I have a wide gamut display, which to me means a bit of an issue as I can never quite get it consistent, or right.

Am I on the right path?

If so, I'm guessing this monitor will need rehoming to the loft, so any suggestions for a more normal monitor? I'd prefer TFT, 24" and under £500

Edited by andy-xr on Sunday 19th April 14:08

Edited by andy-xr on Sunday 19th April 14:09

[SamHH]

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[andy-xr]

Cheers Sam, however I'm looking at those and wondering if I'll have the same problem, ie great for video, crap for photo editing

I'm also still VGA although have the option of DVI

Do I want a 72% monitor? Everything seems to be 110% which is whats making me think my problem might be

Edited by andy-xr on Sunday 19th April 14:36

[SamHH]

Have a look on the website I mentioned on that thread, TFT Central. They don't have many reviews but they do seem to be very detailed and place a lot of importance on photo editing abilities. I'm using a small, old CRT, so I don't have any first hand experience to offer. One thing that I have gathered from reading reviews and other articles is that for the best suitability for photo editiing you really want a TFT that uses MV or IPS technology or a variant of one of those, rather than the TN design that is cheaper and more common.

What do the percentages you're talking about mean?

Edited by SamHH on Sunday 19th April 15:02

[Cabinet Enforcer]

andy-xr said:

Do I want a 72% monitor? Everything seems to be 110% which is whats making me think my problem might be

If you have a cheap monitor, it will be a 72% gamut. You really do want a wide gamut(110% though that depends on the standard used) monitor, the idea is that they can display more colours, this is always a good thing.

From your first post, it seems that you think your colours are wrong after profiling, that isn't how it is supposed to work!! The software adjusts the output of your graphics card, so the monitor doesn't need any built in profiling options. It does sound like you need to go through monitor profiling again, virtually any monitor should be able to manage a reasonably accurate grey.

Edited by Cabinet Enforcer on Sunday 19th April 16:15

[andy-xr]

Yeah, the colours were really wrong before calibration, better after but still not right.

Out of the box the reds and blues were way too much, no matter what I did with profiles or spaces. The reds are still way out now after calibration, and thats having been through it 4 or 5 times

I dont seem to be able to change anything on the monitor itself other than the usual brightness/contrast etc, it's set to 6500 and my other choices are warm and cool

I dont know if I do want a wide gamut (or not, sounds painful). From the limited amount that I've read what that suggests is the monitor will over compensate for working in sRGB and I'll have too much colour when I'm editing. Happy to be wrong though if someone can correct me

I'm guessing this problem is worse because it's a cheap TN monitor really

Edited by andy-xr on Sunday 19th April 16:19

[_dobbo_]

Agree with what CE says above - if it's a cheap monitor it is unlikely to be a wide gamut one - they cost way more on the whole.

Can't really advise if you've calibrated it and are still having problems, I've not really come across that before - maybe post some examples?

[andy-xr]

_dobbo_ said:

Agree with what CE says above - if it's a cheap monitor it is unlikely to be a wide gamut one - they cost way more on the whole.

Can't really advise if you've calibrated it and are still having problems, I've not really come across that before - maybe post some examples?

I can post photos and tell you how I'm seeing them between the two? I'll compare a laptop against the offending monitor, the laptop's been calibrated with the Spyder as well, and is pretty much what I'm used to seeing on other monitors too.



On a laptop the red in "Carlube" is about right. On the desktop monitor it's very saturated and bright. Stand out shouty bright.



On the desktop monitor, there's a red'dish hue around the eyes (same as the hairline) on the laptop while it's still there, it's not as heavy




On the laptop, the roses at top right are a little washed out, but they're very vibrant on the desktop monitor, almost to the point where they're falling off the screen and lacking a little in definition but very vibrant

Lastly,



Desktop - about perfect. Laptop; yellow

Think I'll start shopping for the HP recommended on the other thread, seems to fit the requirements



ETA - it's not a graphics card issue either really, plugging in an old 19" TFT and the colours wind back a bit

Edited by andy-xr on Sunday 19th April 19:07

[_dobbo_]

Admittedly I haven't calibrated my monitor for a good while, but I'm much closer to you desktop descriptions than your laptop ones, if that helps.... wonder what everyone else sees?

[horacethefrog]

I'm puzzled - you say you've calibrated the monitor several times and then say that you don't have any adjustments on the monitor besides brightness, contrast and colour temperature. So how have you adjusted it in order to calibrate it?

[andy-xr]

horacethefrog said:

I'm puzzled - you say you've calibrated the monitor several times and then say that you don't have any adjustments on the monitor besides brightness, contrast and colour temperature. So how have you adjusted it in order to calibrate it?

I used hardware calibrator



I'm wondering if this might be graphics card related, as it's running a fairly standard onboard one. Doesnt make sense why it's just this monitor though

Determined to get to the bottom of it!

Edited by andy-xr on Sunday 19th April 21:21

[horacethefrog]

andy-xr said:

I used hardware calibrator

Yup, I get that, you mentioned earlier that you'd used a Spyder 3, but my question was how can you calibrate the monitor properly if there's no RGB adjustment on it?