Sorting Out Monitor Calibration

Dave R · 16 Apr 2011, 12:46

Does this image look extremely dark to you?

Music Stand copy by Dave R 1 , on Flickr

I'm trying to straighten out my monitor calibration as it doesn't seem right. Actually, on my Cintiq 21UX, the image is lighter but on my primary one it seems dark. I'm not sure which one needs adjusting though.

Rich O Brien · 16 Apr 2011, 12:58

Checked out on both laptop and desktop. Both looked fine.

Dave R · 16 Apr 2011, 13:02

Thanks Rich. I've made some adjustments and I think it looks better now but I'm still not sure it's right.

Rich O Brien · 16 Apr 2011, 13:07

Why not print a high quality version of the image and use that to calibrate?

Dave R · 16 Apr 2011, 13:12

I could do that if I had a printer. I suppose I could e-mail some images to a print shop for printing.

Rich O Brien · 16 Apr 2011, 13:15

Well I have Adobe Gamma as part of Photoshop but there is also QuickGamma which is free. I haven't tried it though?

Dave R · 16 Apr 2011, 13:16

I'll look into it.

Pixero · 17 Apr 2011, 17:00

If you want to calibrate manually without a calibrator you can make a sample image with a photo which has both light and dark areas and a neutral whitepoint and also some different color squares with some primary colors (that you know how they should look) - both on screen and printed and then compare the two until your settings match fairly well.