Calibrating my monitor

[zmikers]

I am having a really hard time calibrating my monitor. I calibrated it using various software to where I thought it was perfect. My photos looked right, compared to the lcd on my camera and all other photos on this forum look the way they should too. So I thought, "great, I've finally done it." Then I made some prints and they turned out really dark and the colours in the prints did not have any pop to them like on my monitor. Could this be that my monitor is not calibrated properly still or should I try and develop from another shop? I don't know what to do.

I would like someone who has a calibrated monitor to look at this image. Does this image look dark to you, because it looks ok on my computer but it printed really dark.

[XOO]

Sure looks dark to me. Generally, I don't mess with the monitor (calibrate). The acid tests are the prints. What I did with an old analog monitor, I printed out the photos or had WalMart do them, then I adjusted my monitor to the prints. With my LCD monitor I left it at the default value I received it in.

[AdamW]

Looks pretty dark to me on my MacBook Pro. I use the default factory monitor settings and that seems to work better than when I tried a Huey or the software/eyeball method. (I still use softproofing with MPIX's ICC profiles when preparing pictures for them to print.)

I'm still trying to get better than "okay" results with my new Epson R800, but then I haven't had much time in the past few days to really sit and figure the ins and outs.

[zmikers]

Well amazingly enough I set my computer's colour back to the factory default and it is the closest match to my professional prints. LOL I guess they are right when they say, "if it's not broke then don't fix it." Thanks for the imput guys. Now I'm just worried that everything I've posted on this forum has looked like crap to everyone else :p

[AdamW]

Well amazingly enough I set my computer's colour back to the factory default and it is the closest match to my professional prints. LOL I guess they are right when they say, "if it's not broke then don't fix it." Thanks for the imput guys. Now I'm just worried that everything I've posted on this forum has looked like crap to everyone else :p

Yeah, well, we've been meaning to say something.....;)

Actually, other stuff you've posted has looked good. Certainly nothing as off as the sample in this thread. Had you made any changes recently?

I'm finding that Apple laptops are pretty accurate out of the box, and I think that newer monitors in general are more accurate than older models, but that lcds are often too bright at factory settings.

[zmikers]

Yeah, well, we've been meaning to say something.....;)

Actually, other stuff you've posted has looked good. Certainly nothing as off as the sample in this thread. Had you made any changes recently?

I'm finding that Apple laptops are pretty accurate out of the box, and I think that newer monitors in general are more accurate than older models, but that lcds are often too bright at factory settings.

LOL - Well thanks for the help. Really! You are right about this image being darker than the rest, it was the most extreme and that's why I posted it. But everything was a little dark. I've set everything back to factory settings, checked out a few prints I had made at the local shop and compared them. I picked three images with very different colour schemes. I think it's as close as it's ever going to be but still not 100% perfect. How does it look now?

[D Thompson]

Here is a link http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html#TestPrint to a site where you can d/l a test image. Scroll down till you see test images. I print it and then try to get my lcd as close as possible. It seems to work fairly well as most of the time prints are fairly close to what's on screen.

[zmikers]

Here is a link http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html#TestPrint to a site where you can d/l a test image. Scroll down till you see test images. I print it and then try to get my lcd as close as possible. It seems to work fairly well as most of the time prints are fairly close to what's on screen.

Excellent. Cheers for the link!

[AdamW]

The new version looks fine.


Are the waves supposed to be purple?:p

[Visual Reality]

Test images are about the best you can do until you spend $60 on a Spyder2Express.

It did wonders for my 24" BenQ LCD, and my girlfriend's Dell Laptop LCD.

[Nickcanada]

The new version looks fine.


Are the waves supposed to be purple?:p


Damn! They aren't purple on my screen! My stupid monitor! *SMASH.... BANG....BOOM* There that's better!

[zmikers]

The new version looks fine.


Are the waves supposed to be purple?:p

Purple? Ur monitor must be screwed up m8, they're pink with yellow polk-a-dots!:p LOL

Thanks for the help everyone!

[AdamW]

Damn! They aren't purple on my screen! My stupid monitor! *SMASH.... BANG....BOOM* There that's better!

"Honey, can we buy a 30 inch studio monitor? This one seems to be broken..."