Weekly Poll: Do you calibrate your monitor?

[embrodak]

Originally Posted by Nicole

Yep, looks really, really red on my monitor too It'd be interesting to see how much difference calibrating your monitor looks (if you decide to do a re-edit )

Thanks for the suggestion! I edited my post with the "before/after" pic.

[daft_biker]

Originally Posted by dimitrz

Voted No.

Me too....too lazy

Originally Posted by dimitrz

Oh yes.... one thing I have found out through experience is that any kind of editing is best done using a CRT monitor on a desktop rather than a LCD one on a laptop due to the fact that a slight change in monitor position of a LCD changes the image perspective

I also prefer CRT for image editing but it's due to the colours changing when not viewing a LCD straight on. There are no drawing (or perspective) errors on LCD.....there are on CRT tho!!! If you have a LCD move your head up and down so you see the monitor from different angles while looking at the below picture:


You should see the colours change significantly Unless I can be bothered to calibrate my seating position I don't think there's a great deal of point getting too geeky calibrating the colours on the LCD...mine is adjusted to taste rather than calibrated.

[djcassar]

Sitting slightly higher, moved your chair left or right, time of day, length of time the monitor has been on, what lights are turned on, age of monitor... All these factors will affect what you see on your LCD monitor so why hold your trust in a calibration.

I don't think theres anything wrong with calibrating your monitor, expecially so if you print but if thats the case it's probably more important you calibrate your printer than monitor.

You get use to what you see on your monitor and how what you see comes out in print. So I certainly don't consider it as important as what it's been blown out to be.

[dimitrz]

Originally Posted by daft_biker

Me too....too lazy
Unless I can be bothered to calibrate my seating position I don't think there's a great deal of point getting too geeky calibrating the colours on the LCD...mine is adjusted to taste rather than calibrated.

LOL - you are right though

[sk66]

One of the main things that made me ask the question is that we are sharing our pictures here, online. Since few are calibrating their monitors, few are seeing the same image I'm posting. That kind of sucks....

I'm also looking at getting a museum showing and a book made which will probably involve a premium printing service; I want my pictures to come out right. (that's all "just talk" right now, but in progress)

[Nicole]

Originally Posted by embrodak

Thanks for the suggestion! I edited my post with the "before/after" pic.

Oh my gosh, that's quite the difference! I can see why you'd be shocked with how the print came out.

[embrodak]

Originally Posted by Nicole

Oh my gosh, that's quite the difference! I can see why you'd be shocked with how the print came out.

I KNOW!! I can never use my laptop for editing again... :: sigh :: On a less histrionic note, I tend to edit preliminarily on my laptop and make final fixes on my work computer which has a monitor that makes me salivate. Too bad I can't steal it...

[wulf]

Only roughly, using tools like the scale at the end of most pages at dpreview.com. Because my primary output medium is web design, I find it useful to regularly view my work on a number of different systems - monitors, operating systems and software - to be confident that I am getting results that work in a range of situations.

It would be a different matter if I had any call to be designing for print in any way.

Wulf

[Teewinot]

Yes, I calibrate. I use Spyder2Express.

[Hekate]

The color gamut of RGB is wider than CMYK, so there is no need to go by what you see on your screen.
I use the curves pallet, take samples and color correct using math. I figure out the brightness of my paper (usually I use 242) and the for black I use 13 (about 95%) because no printer prints 100%. I view the histogram so I know what I need to do, and what to expect. I export it into a tiff, and print, and see what I like/don't like. Usually, I get what I want. If not, I have to change my numbers, or paper.