(no subject)

[greatbear]

I have a question, directed at those on my list who are graphics professionals or photographers. Do you use a monitor color calibrator, or adjust by eye? If you use a calibrator, what kind do you use? While on my last trip, I had my laptop with me. When I offloaded my pictures to it, I thought I had ruined a large number of them playing with exposure settings. When I got home to my desktop system things looked much better. I still have yet to tweak this new display I got the other day, but it looks good on the old profile.

I am looking for something to help give consistency to the various systems and displays I use. I am also wondering how to best match the screen colors with my printed output. So, I figure I'd turn this into a 'Dear Lazywebs' post and see what you folks have for suggestions. You can even tell me to pound sand if you want.

TIA!

Comments

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

here's the real deal:

Are you going for print?

No: Don't bother calibrating, as everyone's monitor is different. This is nothing you can control.

Yes: Calibrate to the specific profile of the substrate you'll be printing onto with the specific printer you will be using to print. You will need to calibrate all the devices in the chain (scanner, monitor, printer). This is a giant pain in the arse, and often not really worth doing for short-run prints, as you have to do this every month or so to account for drift. Do you wish to continue?

Continue: Get yourself a spider (an optical calibration device), and follow the steps. Always use that profile.

End: Relax and learn to love the bomb.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

I am trying to get consistency among my monitors more than anything else. I figured a spider or a huey would at least make things a bit easier to do this. I know I wont be able to prevent the Mac folks from saying my gamma sucks. My eyes are not what they used to be, and I think I could make use of a mechanical reference. As for printing, it's all casual here at home. I would like to get a decent larger-format printer for the hobby aspects of it, and there is no reason why I cant make things look decent. I am a n00b in many ways, and always like getting suggestions from pros and others as well as experienting on my own.

You da bomb. ;)

[mondragon.livejournal.com]

I think the calibration device will give you what you need.