Image Print Edit & Calibration

The main reason for calibrating your monitor or display is so they represent a true colour match to what was taken and what should be printed out. In todays digital world image quality and the crispness and colours from an image are everything. 

If you have edited your images and have not got the correct profile setup or your display is showing a slight variation of the colour spectrum to what your image really is then when this goes to print or on the web for all to see there is a good chance that some of your touch up work could be shown. I myself have been having issues with my display setups and below are just a few examples to illustrate what I mean.

 

This is an image that I thought I had edited and cleaned up, as you can see nothing look out of place but once I had printed it out the following happened.

As you can see there are well over a dozen small marks that showed up on the print and this was only down to the fact that my screen was not calibrated correctly. All I have done for this image was to decrease the brightness to highlight the hidden marks.

While working at your computer it is better to work in lower light so you can get to see the full range from the display so light areas are light and dark area show as dark. You displays colour temp should be set to 6500k or sRGB which is equivalent to 6500k, some monitors have a different setting and therefore require calibration.

Luminance –

Luminance is the photometric measure of light that is emitted on you display from a particular area. Luminance is an indicator of how bright a surface will appear and is the brightness from your display.

The above image can come into use if you don’t have expensive hardware to allow you to change your Luminance or Gamma settings. What you would look for it to be able to define between the two tones of the boxes. If you can not see the split in any of the cells in row 2, this indicates a less-than-wonderful monitor, poor calibration, too bright ambient lighting, or a combination

Gamma

Pc users should use a 2.2 gamma and Apple Mac’s users should use a 1.8 gamma, But a 2.2 gamma is the best setting regardless if you are using a PC or MAC.  This is not to say you can’t use a 1.8 gamma option it just that the 2.2 is closer to the native gamma of the majority of displays. You should always have your display set to 6500K as the gamma adjust the midtones levels for your profile and does not impact how light or dark you images will be displayed. Also of interest is that an Adobe RGB gamut is larger than sRGB.

By turning on the gamut warning, we can see any colors that are out of range for the profile we have chosen and compensate or change, profile or color range.

Display colour temperature –

Colour temp should be set to 6500k or sRGB which is equivalent to 6500k, some monitors have a different setting and therefore require calibration, also best to check with either your Display manual or manufacturer's website for more information and details, Some displays have manual controls that allow you to adjust the brightness and contrast and in some cases the RGB color as well.

When you start to calibrate your monitor you will attach a mouse like device that sits on your screen this with the software go through sections of the screen to pin point where the device is sitting and to then go through the process of calibrating you display. You will get to change your Luminance = brightness your Gamma = Contrast and your color temperature of the display which will then be saved as a profile that will better give you close to what you image will look like on screen and on print.