Basic Monitor Calibration for Photoshop

[Doug Nelson]

This tutorial will provide you with a standard starting point to begin color management. [details]

[Doug Nelson]

I could use some help in translating for the Mac side.

[reimerron]

I'm having a problem with a Samsung 753DF 17" monitor that won't let me decrease the monitor brightness low enough to meet the target level for my Optical Software. All my photos print out too dark unless I lighten them so they look slightly washed out. Is there any way to compensate for this other than to use the faceplate controls on the monitor, like on the back or inside of the monitor? Seems like when I used Adobe profiling, I could get the brightness levels closer. Will this additional brightness throw off my perception of color, so that I'm not seeing what I'm getting colorwise as well as brightnesswise? Thanks!

[Doug Nelson]

Sounds like an OptiCAL problem, rather than a monitor problem. If your monitor is too light, you'll react by making your images darker, so they will print darker.

I do know that some video cards don't support hardware calibration, so you might want to check into that. In the meantime, have you tried the OptiCAL FAQ?

[reimerron]

Doug,

Are you sure? I'm not changing the image at all. It looks right on the monitor. It PRINTS too dark. So I have to lighten it on my monitor so it looks washed out. The Optical software is telling me that my monitor is too bright, so I doubt that it is at fault. I'll check out your Optical link. Thanks!

[1STLITE]

Ok. I went through the tutorial on using the adobe thing to calibrate my monitor. Yeah I know - what took me so long?) Anyways - At the end where it says do not use this setting in Photoshop. I was wondering what setting do you mean? What setting should that be on in Photoshop? Does that mean I surt that color managment off? I am a little confused. Please help. Thanks.

Dawn

[Doug Nelson]

No, I meant don't use your monitor profile (created by Gamma) in Photoshop's color management. There you'd use a colorspace profile, such as AdobeRGB.

[1STLITE]

lol. Ok sorry. Some days I am a little more thick skulled than others. I am still not catching what you mean. After I have done this monitor calibratoin thing with Adobe gamma what do I do when I open Photoshop? Like, exactly - lol - step-by-step. If you could. Please. ?

[Doug Nelson]

Here's step-by-step how to use monitor profiles from within Photoshop:

1. Open Photoshop
2. Edit a photo in Photoshop
3. Save file
4. Close Photoshop

Because the monitor profile loads at computer boot you can't NOT use it. It physically changes how your monitor looks 100% of the time. If you have it set up properly, it's controlling your monitor right now as you read this thread.

Although it is a crucial part of color management (small c, small m) it has nothing to do with Photoshop's Color Management (big c, big m) settings.

[1STLITE]

Thank You thank you - lol. I know you must be wondering just how dense I really am. lol I was confused because I thought you meant to turn off the Adobe Gamma thing in Photoshop, and I was not sure how to do that. lol I dunno. Gimme a break I have had my nephew here for two days straight, not to mention my own two.

Ok. Now I am off to bang my head into a wall.

seriously rolling on the floor here. lol

[KCorner]

emm guys... can you give me that thread which talks about color managment and monitor calibrating

[Cassidy]

Kcorner, start with control panel and then adobe gamma wizard, you should see a difference, but on LCD may appear too bright for general use, maybe tone down a bit for visual acuity, then mind calcs come into play, enough to drive one crazy I reckon

[Doug Nelson]

I merged the two threads, so now there's a link at the top.

[tetsuo]

here is a image to check for your gamma..

try to tune the brightness and contrast UNTIL you can see ALL 26 tones

grayscale taken from dpreview.com

Grayscale