Calibrating your Monitor???

[DBHIII]

I’m curious as to how many of you have calibrated the display on your monitor? I personally have never bothered to do so but now feel the need.

I spent a great deal of time processing the pictures I took at King Ranch. Despite the overcast and constant drizzle (low light) I felt I came up with some pretty good shots. Processed the RAW pics on my laptop (Dell purchased about 6months ago) and displayed them on my TV. They all looked awesome.

So here I am at work (different monitor) looking at the exact same pics on the thread and they are not the same images I had intended to be seen. They all appear to be much darker than that on my laptop. A few are actually way too dark for my liking (on this monitor).

Now I’m wondering if my laptop display is too bright or if my monitor at work is too dark? What have some of you guys done to get properly calibrated?

If you don’t mind, please visit the thread in reference (King Ranch Bucks) and let me know how you see the pics and if you have calibrated your monitor. Keep in mind that the pics were taken on an overcast, light drizzle weekend so they shouldn’t be extremely bright either. I thought I had set the right exposure to bring out the animal without compromising the look or feel of the actual conditions I was in. What do you see in the thread?

Thank you all very much for your help.

-dan3

http://discussions.texasbowhunter.co...d.php?t=189962

[Shane]

Monitor calibration is very important - even more so if you are ordering prints of your pictures and not just looking at them on a monitor.

I used to use QuickGamma. But my new laptop has Windows 7 on it, and it has pretty decent gamma and other adjustments built into the graphics properties controls. I haven't installed QuickGamma on the laptop, and I've had good luck with prints.

One thing about laptop screens is that the brightness and contrast varies a lot depending on the angle between the screen and your eye. I set mine so that I'm looking at it dead center and straight on. I get the graphics properties set for that, and then when I work on photos I try to keep the screen angle straight. As long as I do that, everything works just fine.

[DBHIII]

Thank you Shane, I try to do the same when working on my laptop. I guess I need to get some pics printed to see exactly how they come out. If you don't mind how do you see the pics from my thread on your laptop?
Tks.

[SOLID EAGLE]

I had the same problem working with my laptop. When I got a desktop with a larger monitor, that is always at the same angle, I started getting better results.

[WyoBull]

I use the Spyder 3 to calibrate my monitors. I have a laptop and an external monitor and after I calibrate, they both look the same. I have had good luck with it and it is simple to use.

[DBHIII]

Thanks for the info guys, much appreciated! I've checked on several monitors and think this one at work needs calibrating. Still need to print to see what I get but thanks for the info.

[tommy1005]

if you print go with a company like MPix or full color out of DFW. If you print at walgreens or walmart, no matter how much calibration you do can't help the results.