Can I calibrate a monitor for different purposes? I have scanned the archives and have been unable to answer my question. Basically, I would like to calibrate my home office computer...

CanonTom Loc: Birmingham

I have scanned the archives and have been unable to answer my question. Basically, I would like to calibrate my home office computer monitor to the best setting for photography, save that setting and then re-calibrate for normal displaying of business programming, printing of documents, etc. and be able to toggle between them depending on my current need. I have not seen this topic discussed and would like to know if there is a calibration program that you can recommend that will do a great job of both. Thank you in advance. Tom

gerdog

Easiest way to get information like that is a google search, such as "how to calibrate your monitor for image quality" and you will get lots of detailed step-by-step articles. Once you recalibrate, you will likely find that those settings also work fine for all other tasks. But it will then also be easy to go back into the settings and reset to default with 1 click. First article I saw on my google search is here: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-calibrate-your-monitor/. Simple steps to follow, but lots of other articles on the subject to read up on as well.

CanonTom Loc: Birmingham

gerdog wrote:

Easiest way to get information like that is a goog... (show quote)

Thanks Gerdog, I will review your information. I did do a google search but did not see this one. I likely did not use the best key words.....

gerdog

CanonTom wrote:

Thanks Gerdog, I will review your information. I did do a google search but did not see this one. I likely did not use the best key words.....

Your post helped me too. I hadn't even considered playing with those settings on my new laptop here. Thanks.

CanonTom Loc: Birmingham

gerdog wrote:

Your post helped me too. I hadn't even considered playing with those settings on my new laptop here. Thanks.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

CanonTom wrote:

I have scanned the archives and have been unable t... (show quote)

If you calibrate your monitor to be accurate for photography, that should work fine for any other use that doesn't require color accuracy.

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

CanonTom wrote:

I have scanned the archives and have been unable t... (show quote)

I think an important part of the equation is your monitor. I am only familiar with mine which is a ASUS PA248. This one has 6 different settings, one of which I calibrate regularly for photo use and another is set up for day-to-day use. I have that 2nd one set to low brightness to save my eyes. If your monitor has more than one setting you can do something similar

CanonTom Loc: Birmingham

JohnSwanda wrote:

If you calibrate your monitor to be accurate for photography, that should work fine for any other use that doesn't require color accuracy.

Thank you John, I was wondering about that. I tend to keep my desktop monitor rather bright, but prints from it tend to turn out a little bit dark, with too much red (think sunburn on a woman's face). My laptop is not as bright, and although it has not been calibrated either, photos printed from it tend to be very close to that monitor.

CanonTom Loc: Birmingham

Rich1939 wrote:

I think an important part of the equation is your monitor. I am only familiar with mine which is a ASUS PA248. This one has 6 different settings, one of which I calibrate regularly for photo use and another is set up for day-to-day use. I have that 2nd one set to low brightness to save my eyes. If your monitor has more than one setting you can do something similar

Hi Rich and thanks for the response. I need to look and see if mine has that ability. That is spot on as to what I was inquiring. May not be needed, as has been mentioned, but various settings just seems like a great idea to me.

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

CanonTom wrote:

Thank you John, I was wondering about that. I tend to keep my desktop monitor rather bright, but prints from it tend to turn out a little bit dark, with too much red (think sunburn on a woman's face). My laptop is not as bright, and although it has not been calibrated either, photos printed from it tend to be very close to that monitor.

That is interesting. An image file shouldn't be affected by the computer unless each of your computers is using a different program to control your printer.

MichaelH Loc: NorCal via Lansing, MI

CanonTom wrote:

I have scanned the archives and have been unable t... (show quote)

I do not know which calibration hardware you are using so I will just describe what I have done. My thought was that I would calibrate for two situations: printing to a Canon Pro 100 and editing for web uploads. So for printing would require a darkened room and any recommendations from Canon documentation for settings like Gamma and Temperature. The second calibration was for emulating what I thought would be other people's setup - too bright of a monitor and room lights on.

I did both calibrations while set up properly and wrote down the Brightness and Color settings that were arrived at during the calibration and can switch between them in a minute or so. Depending on whether you are on a Mac or Windows PC the process of switching between the monitor profiles is different but easy.

gerdog

One nice tip that I read is to print out a photo, then use it as a reference when you change the calibration of the monitor. When you get the settings to where the image on the computer looks like the print, it should be good. Then your photos will print just like you see them on the monitor.

gerdog

I also read that calibration software does usually reduce the brightness of your screen. Most people adjust their monitor's too bright, which doesn't really reflect how the real world looks. It does mean though that your pictures after editing might look darker on other uncalibrated computer monitors. Your printer will print the photos according to the program used, not according to the monitor settings.

CanonTom Loc: Birmingham

MichaelH wrote:

I do not know which calibration hardware you are u... (show quote)

I like your idea of the two calibrations. I have a Canon Pro 100 as you do. Most of my photos will never be printed but will be viewed on my monitor, or other's monitors, etc. At this point I have not purchased any calibration software but am trying to determine what to buy. Perhaps we should expand this thread to include software recommendation. Since you also have the same printer I have, are you happy with your software for printing and what are you using? Thanks, Tom

MichaelH Loc: NorCal via Lansing, MI

CanonTom wrote:

I like your idea of the two calibrations. I have a Canon Pro 100 as you do. Most of my photos will never be printed but will be viewed on my monitor, or other's monitors, etc. At this point I have not purchased any calibration software but am trying to determine what to buy. Perhaps we should expand this thread to include software recommendation. Since you also have the same printer I have, are you happy with your software for printing and what are you using? Thanks, Tom

This might be a good question to pose in the Advice From The Pros Section. But what I use is an i1 Photographer Kit that is a bundle of the i1Display Pro gadget and a ColorChecker Passport color chart/grey card. These are from x-rite and go on sale periodically at B&H and other stores. It is more capable with newer high color gamut displays than the slightly lesser priced ColorMunki so is more future proof. Look for a sale if you are not in a hurry. In the meantime you can try the viewing of photo next to monitor approach to try to get the print to match.