Why Calibrate Your Monitor?

"Christopher Campbell" wrote in message
e.com...
The thread on the Spyder got me to wondering, why calibrate your monitor
at
all? No matter what I do, the picture on the monitor is not going to match
the print. The print, for one thing, is not backlit, which seems to me to
be
a major change right there. And if I am just going to show the picture on
the
web, I have no control over others' monitors. For all I know, skin tones
on
others' monitors come out different shades of green.

And, heck, if you are not doing the printing yourself, you really have no
control at all.


If someone doesn't like the way it comes out on their end they can tweak it
and print again. I tell people just to send me the image straight from the
camera. I'm not interested in hand holding anymore. So, I guess I agree with
you 100%.

I figure if any adjustment requires more or less than 5 points up or down in
Photoshop, chuck the image. It's not your problem their camera sucks.

Christopher Campbell wrote:
The thread on the Spyder got me to wondering, why calibrate your monitor at
all? No matter what I do, the picture on the monitor is not going to match
the print. The print, for one thing, is not backlit, which seems to me to be
a major change right there. And if I am just going to show the picture on the
web, I have no control over others' monitors. For all I know, skin tones on
others' monitors come out different shades of green.

And, heck, if you are not doing the printing yourself, you really have no
control at all.


I calibrate my monitor and my prints very closely match what I view on
my monitor. As for what others may or may not chose to do with their
equipment is not something for me to be concerned about. Even if others
calibrate their monitors using whatever calibration tool they chose to
use, that doesn't mean picture coloration seen will be the same on
different equipment. I calibrate my monitor to a color temperature of
6500K using Gretamacbeth (Eye-One Display 2) while someone else may
calibrate their monitor to say 5000K, which is the norm that Spyder
uses. As for generally correcting and printing my pic's to have them
printed and be seen at what I think is the correct color temperature for
scenes I photograph, be the scenes cool or warm, I haven't encountered
any problems using 6500k as the norm for my color temperature calibration.

My point being, The calibration I do, using the calibration tool I chose
to use suitable to my environment, is specifically for my benefit, not
for the benefit of others. However, if you don't calibrate your
equipment, you would be correct in saying the prints you produce will
not reflect what work you have done as seen on your monitor. As for the
difference in backlight, though the print will not be backlit, by
calibrating your equipment the print will generally resemble your
finishing work as seen on the monitor. It works for me.

BTW, I almost forgot to mention when calibrating equipment, you should
also allow the calibrating tool to test and offset light being used in
the room.