Help required for Calibration of my Dell 27" Ultra Sharp Monitor

[AnnieP]

HELP -

I have been PP on my Dell US27 monitor (which I love) since I bought it 6 months ago. I had the settings to sRGB, and printed some photos professionally for the first time yesterday and they are nothing like my screen, they are dark and flat, and horrible.

how on earth do I calibrate this monitor (I naively thought it was self calibrating)?

I've tried to research it, but I am getting confused with the conflicting advice.

Ideas please!!

This shows two of my photos - one on screen, and one printed.....

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[ROA44]

Not fully up to speed with calibration all I can offer is are you trying to calibrate, manually or do you have calibration device eg. Spyder which has can do it automatically with software there is info on the AP site just do a search and you'll find it.

[agb]

You will need to purchase a calibration device, such as the eye1pro and this article might help.

http://damiensymonds.blogspot.com.au/2010/09/all-about-monitor-calibration.html

[ricmcd]

I use 2 dell U2711 monitors and regularly calibrate them with a spyder and get a great job with ease, highly recommend the Spyder

The main problem I had was brightness not so much colour, and looking at your examples you could have the same issues , given that a monitor is back lit and a print is front lit by what ever light is available there will always be a difference.

If your monitor is set over bright you will post process thinking that is normal and that will result in a flat lifeless image.

Most good print labs will let you look at images on their fully calibrated monitors before printing , well worth doing if you think your monitor is out.

[ROA44]

I will stand corrected on this, but from what I've heard when the monitor has been calibrated the appearance of the screen may not appear as bright but apparently this is normal but should be a more correct balance.

[arthurking83]

You can download a calibration profile if you want to try that Annie .. but the easiest way to calibrate, now that you have a print as a reference .. is simply using the print.

Remember that calibration is a relative thing.
The idea of calibration is that 'We' all have our monitors set up to display in the same manner .. so that we each see the same thing.

That is, you, me, the printer person .. etc. So if you post an image online, we with our calibrated screens are seeing the image in the same way .. colour contrast brightness etc.

If your major priority is to calibrate the screen to match the printers output(whether that printer is an external company, or your own home printer) then adjusting the screen to match your print will help you to see what you print .. but in the future of course.

I've done this myself.
Adjusted the screen to suit a low quality(but still acceptable) print even tho I have a Spyder to calibrate the screen. Once that was done, I recalibrated the screen again with the Spyder and the next, larger and more important, print I made(for a pressie) looks close to a perfect match on screen and on print.

ALSO!!! make sure that whatever program you're using to view the image is colour profile aware too. That is, it's colour managed and it can read the screen profile for your OS environment.
I've never used Windows Media thingo to view images so I can't tell 'ya if it displays images as accurately as it should.
Try a few other image viewing software to be sure that the image on screen is that actual image too(just to be sure).

Either your editing software or a good quality image browser. Freebie image browsers that work well are: FSViewer, IrfanView, XnView, your Canon software .. etc.(my preference is to use FSViewer)

[agb]

If you have not got a calibration device and you want a profile for the dell try here.
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/icc_profiles.htm

[ricktas]

for 'perfect' results you need to both calibrate your monitor using a hardware calibration device and also use a printer calibrator to create a printer profile for using with your printer and your papers.

hardware screen calibrators: http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?91096-Monitor-Calibration-Devices

But it depends on how much you want to spend : http://spyder.datacolor.com/portfolio-view/spyderstudio/

[AnnieP]

Thank you everyone for your replies. I have ordered a Spyder4 Pro which I hope will do the job! I don't print many of my photos so at the moment I use an external printing company to print for me.

I'll let you know how I go!

[ricktas]

Thank you everyone for your replies. I have ordered a Spyder4 Pro which I hope will do the job! I don't print many of my photos so at the moment I use an external printing company to print for me.

I'll let you know how I go!

Once you get your screen calibrated, talk to your printer, find out from them what they like as the optimum settings for files. They are the professional printers and should be able to advise you on what file settings allow them to produce the very best results.

[Mark L]

Does the "external printing company" have a good reputation? Just a thought.

[AnnieP]

Thanks Rick I will ask them what settings they like.

Mark, the company were recommended by a few photography friends... so will give them another shot once I get organised!

[milesy]

Great response there Arthur ... I think a lot of people get lost in this and think just because they 'calibrate' their screen against a device such as a spyder etc that everything should be perfect ... Well the reality is that unless we all ( including the printers) have all calibrated everything ( screens and printers ) to that same standard there will always be differences


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