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Question - How Do You Prepare Images for Viewing on Uncalibrated Monitors/Screens
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Jan 4, 2019 09:59:29   #
yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey
 
I'm wondering what adjustments you make (if any) for images posted on the web which will be viewed on monitors that are not calibrated.

I've been converting to sRGB, viewing on an uncalibrated laptop, and making adjustments to more closely match my calibrated desktop monitor.

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Jan 4, 2019 10:22:07   #
gunflint Loc: Rocky Mountain High, Colorado
 
I have been exporting as srgb from LR and it works great for my photos.

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Jan 4, 2019 10:33:25   #
Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan
 
sRGB, 1024 x 768px in size. That's all you can do.

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Jan 4, 2019 10:34:18   #
Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.
 
yssirk123 wrote:
I'm wondering what adjustments you make (if any) for images posted on the web which will be viewed on monitors that are not calibrated.

I've been converting to sRGB, viewing on an uncalibrated laptop, and making adjustments to more closely match my calibrated desktop monitor.


I process on a calibrated monitor, then make a sRGB jpeg for export and let the chips fall where they may.
There is no way you can prepare an image for all the possible variances out there. By starting with a calibrated monitor and exporting as sRGB your image will "be the best it can be".

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Jan 4, 2019 11:05:41   #
amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA
 
Rich1939 wrote:
I process on a calibrated monitor, then make a sRGB jpeg for export and let the chips fall where they may.
There is no way you can prepare an image for all the possible variances out there. By starting with a calibrated monitor and exporting as sRGB your image will "be the best it can be".


Bingo! All you can do is make sure your monitor is as accurate as possible and the images are presented as best possible on it. You have no means of controlling other peoples' monitors.

OTOH, here on UHH and elsewhere I often see images that are almost certainly being post-processed (if at all) on uncalibrated monitors... images that are too dark and/or have skewed colors.

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Jan 5, 2019 05:42:05   #
yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey
 
Thanks everyone for your responses. Looks like sRGB conversion is the best I can do.

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Jan 5, 2019 06:11:08   #
Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)
 
yssirk123 wrote:
I'm wondering what adjustments you make (if any) for images posted on the web which will be viewed on monitors that are not calibrated.

I've been converting to sRGB, viewing on an uncalibrated laptop, and making adjustments to more closely match my calibrated desktop monitor.


The world of imaging (magazines, books, print labs, product literature, brochures, packaging, etc etc etc) all based on an sRGB profile that adheres to Adobe RGB color standards. If your display is profiled to the same standard with a color profiling tool like an Xrite or Datalcolor measurement tool and software, you have to do nothing more than getting to look right on your profiled equipment. Your goal is to get a pepper held in your hand to resemble the one on your screen, and the screen profiling process does that. Better yet, if color is really important to you, then profiling the camera as well, using an Xrite ColorChecker Passport, would be a great idea.

It may not resemble what a person viewing your pepper image on their screen, tv, tablet or phone, but neither will anything else. It's not your problem and there is zero you can do about it anyway.

Regarding image size, your output should match your target. A 1024x768 image will occupy only a small segment of a 4K display which is 4096 x 2304 - 1/3 of the vertical height of the screen and 1/4 of it's width. a 1024 x768 image won't even be full screen on a Google Pixel XL, which has a resolution of 2960 x 1440.

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Jan 5, 2019 06:22:03   #
Bipod
 
yssirk123 wrote:
I'm wondering what adjustments you make (if any) for images posted on the web which will be viewed on monitors that are not calibrated.

I've been converting to sRGB, viewing on an uncalibrated laptop, and making adjustments to more closely match my calibrated desktop monitor.

Convert to B&W.

But even color calibrated monitors are all over the map with respect to
resolution and dyanmic range, so that even won't help much.

You never know how your image file is going to be displayed:
it's hard to find two monitors that are the same--let alone hand-held
devices.

This is a big problem---but not to Joe Consumer -- he could care less.
So it's not a big problem to the industry. Fauxtography is about taking
pictures, not viewing them. The image files will be deleted eventually
anyway, so it really doesn't matter.

"Photograph" used to mean a print: real, tangible, and relatively
permanent---an heirloom or testament. Now it's a bucket of bits.

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Jan 5, 2019 10:27:03   #
burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC
 
yssirk123 wrote:
I'm wondering what adjustments you make (if any) for images posted on the web which will be viewed on monitors that are not calibrated.

I've been converting to sRGB, viewing on an uncalibrated laptop, and making adjustments to more closely match my calibrated desktop monitor.


If you adjust an image to your liking on a properly calibrated (with colorimeter or spectrophotometer and associated software) monitor, then NO additional adjustment is necessary.

Uncalibrated monitors are not your problem. That problem belongs to the owner of the uncalibrated device! You can do nothing about it.

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Jan 5, 2019 11:21:32   #
BebuLamar
 
I notice that in general uncalibrated monitor looks cool or too blue. So I think I would make my images a bit warmer. Also I also notice that they are generally brighter than mine so I would keep my images on the dark side.

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Jan 5, 2019 12:42:18   #
rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona
 
Bill,
I simply get the images to look the way I want on my monitor. Yes, it's calibrated. How it looks to others is their issue. Most folks looking at photographs are aware of the importance of calibration.
--Bob
yssirk123 wrote:
I'm wondering what adjustments you make (if any) for images posted on the web which will be viewed on monitors that are not calibrated.

I've been converting to sRGB, viewing on an uncalibrated laptop, and making adjustments to more closely match my calibrated desktop monitor.

Reply
 
 
Jan 5, 2019 13:12:34   #
bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA
 
yssirk123 wrote:
I'm wondering what adjustments you make (if any) for images posted on the web which will be viewed on monitors that are not calibrated.

I've been converting to sRGB, viewing on an uncalibrated laptop, and making adjustments to more closely match my calibrated desktop monitor.


Consider this too. It is not only calibration that will affect how your pictures will look on other computers. Different computer monitors have different resolutions and color gammets so even if they are calibrated, the match will not be exact. If your photos are posted on a webpage, they will look different. The exact same code that is used to generate a webpage, for example, can look radically different when displayed with different web browsers. The best thing to do is edit on a calibrated monitor and go from there. Most people will not know the difference and those that are critical viewers such as other photographers, will be looking at your photographs on calibrated monitors. The truth is that you are probably your own harshest critic.

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Jan 5, 2019 13:44:03   #
SusanFromVermont Loc: Southwest corner of Vermont
 
yssirk123 wrote:
I'm wondering what adjustments you make (if any) for images posted on the web which will be viewed on monitors that are not calibrated.

I've been converting to sRGB, viewing on an uncalibrated laptop, and making adjustments to more closely match my calibrated desktop monitor.

Why go to the trouble editing on the laptop when you have the calibrated desktop monitor? Besides, there is no guarantee the image would be the same after those adjustments if then viewed on the calibrated monitor. Have you tried this?

My main experience with working with an uncalibrated monitor was that the images were too dark when printed. How they look on the monitor is partly influenced by the monitor screen brightness! That is one of the nice thing about calibration, it will tell you if your monitor is too bright. Apparently we want them bright for regular use [documents, emails, websites, etc.] and then do not lower the brightness when editing photos!

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Jan 5, 2019 15:00:49   #
burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC
 
SusanFromVermont wrote:
Why go to the trouble editing on the laptop when you have the calibrated desktop monitor? Besides, there is no guarantee the image would be the same after those adjustments if then viewed on the calibrated monitor. Have you tried this?

My main experience with working with an uncalibrated monitor was that the images were too dark when printed. How they look on the monitor is partly influenced by the monitor screen brightness! That is one of the nice thing about calibration, it will tell you if your monitor is too bright. Apparently we want them bright for regular use [documents, emails, websites, etc.] and then do not lower the brightness when editing photos!
Why go to the trouble editing on the laptop when y... (show quote)


So true. Most monitors are simply re-purposed screens that would have gone into TV sets otherwise.

The standard color temperature for TV screens is 9300°K! So if your monitor has a 6500K setting, that is closer. Some prefer 5000K, but that works better for pre-press in an offset litho shop. DataColor suggests 5800K in dim room light.

Out of the box, MOST monitors are waaaaaaaay too bright. That is why prints of images adjusted on them come out too dark. The proper brightness level for photo editing is somewhere between 80 and 120 candelas per square meter. A brightness of 105 cd/m^2 is what many photo labs use, because that matches the brightness level PPA uses to judge prints in competition.

If you illuminate a test print in a light box with 5000K fluorescent light (91 CRI or higher), adjust brightness until a gray card placed over an 8x10 print reads EV 9.75 on a hand-held exposure meter (the iPhone app, myLightMeter, works fine for this). That will closely match a monitor set to 105 cd/m^2.

A lot of folks throw up their hands and say, "No one has a calibrated monitor except for a few nit-picky photographers, so why bother?" The answer is that, while most monitors are not calibrated, the vast majority of them are close enough to normal that calibration does matter. And of course, if your image is going to be printed via any means, it needs to be adjusted ONLY on a calibrated monitor, or what you see on screen will not match the resulting prints.

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Jan 5, 2019 16:02:02   #
SusanFromVermont Loc: Southwest corner of Vermont
 
burkphoto wrote:
...A lot of folks throw up their hands and say, "No one has a calibrated monitor except for a few nit-picky photographers, so why bother?" The answer is that, while most monitors are not calibrated, the vast majority of them are close enough to normal that calibration does matter. And of course, if your image is going to be printed via any means, it needs to be adjusted ONLY on a calibrated monitor, or what you see on screen will not match the resulting prints.

For many, it is too much trouble to research this and find out there are monitors that are calibrated when they arrive, although they do need to be adjusted for photography, and then as they get older, calibrated more frequently. Even better, the prices of these have begun to drop! Much more affordable now.

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