Calibration doesn’t work

DN
Posted By
don_nich
May 20, 2004
Views
456
Replies
17
Status
Closed
I have been working with Photoshop for 10 years and I have had very little luck in calibrating a number of different monitors. It appears that no matter what you do with the current OSX calibration software, when you close the window to go back to Photoshop the damn screen changes from the settings you just applied. What causes the screen to change as you leave the calibration software? Info about this is either too technical to understand or useless because of the way the screen seems to arbitrarily change as you move through different software. What is the point of going through 5 stages in Expert Mode when there is no explanation of what the 5 stages are supposed to represent?
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GB
g_ballard
May 20, 2004
Buy a puck, don…

<http://www.gballard.net/nca.html#getagoodscreen>
R
Ram
May 21, 2004
Make sure you don’t have one of the monitors that are incompatible with OS X; Hitachi, for instance.
UB
U.B.
May 21, 2004
Remembers me of my problem ;).
But thats the fact: What´s first the monitor or the OSX-system? Most User have good monitors (perhaps some years old) and want to use them with their new system or Mac.
Do i have to buy completely all new hardware only because i have OSX???
TL
Tim_Lookingbill
May 21, 2004

U.B., I’ve asked that question many a time. My motto now is stick to what’s already working and to heck with keeping up with the tech Jones’s.
DN
don_nich
May 21, 2004
Great. Buy a puck? So what you are saying is that the software solution provided by Apple and Adobe is waste of time. Why do they provide it if it doesn’t or worse, isn’t supposed to, work. I teach Photoshop to a group of post-secondary students and they are told to take calibration very seriously. Then we go to calibrate their Mitisubishi monitors and we get this ridiculous situation where the monitor seems to change not because of the settings we apply but because we move to another settings window. Then when we finish all the settings we applied seem to disappear or revert back to what they were. WHY?
B
Buko
May 21, 2004
try this <http://www.bergdesign.com/supercal/>

if you are reverting to non calibrated profile you must be doing something wrong.

are you saving the profile??

are you giving it a unique name so you can find it??

are you starting with a fresh uncorrupted profile??
R
Ram
May 21, 2004
Don,

Eyeball calibration is certainly better than no calibration at all, so in that sense it is by no means “a waste of time”. Hardware calibration pucks are much better, obviously.

It’s not clear to me what you mean by

the monitor seems to change not because of the settings we apply but because we move to another settings window.

Whatever it is, it sounds like you have other software or workflow problems, or display card issues, or the monitor has some kind of incompatibility, although I haven’t heard that about Mitsubishi monitors.

What you are experiencing is not normal, with or without a puck.

If you can describe it more clearly, and if you give us much more detailed information about your hardware and software (exact versions), perhaps other suggestions will come to mind.
GB
g_ballard
May 21, 2004
So what you are saying is that the software solution provided by Apple
and Adobe is waste of time.

No, I didn’t say that 🙂

Why do they provide it if it doesn’t (work).

It does work, IF you have the knowledge, skill and talent to "play the instrument." From your original post, it appeared it is not working for you, and that you are a pro.

we go to calibrate their Mitisubishi monitors and we get this ridiculous
situation where the monitor seems to change not because of the settings we apply but because we move to another settings window. Then when we finish all the settings we applied seem to disappear…WHY?

I don’t know, maybe you missed something?

In case you missed it on my link 😉 try Ian Lyons’ academic tutorial:

< http://www.computer-darkroom.com/colorsync-display/colorsync _2.htm>
DN
don_nich
May 21, 2004
Go into the OSX display preferences and click on the color section and follow the steps. When you enter the calibration software the screen immeadiately goes to a bright bluish. As you go through the 5 "expert mode" steps, watch the desktop change as you make adjustments. Each click too the next window causes your screen to change. When you are done you give the calibration a name and close the window. If you are running Photoshop you will notice – sometimes but not always – that your screen color changes when click back to the PS document. It appears to lose the settings and go back to a pre-calibration view. Students have asked when it happens – what just happened? I have no answer. Is Photoshop over riding the calibration? If so, why? What can I do to make that calibration stick.
R
Ram
May 21, 2004
the screen immediately goes to a bright bluish.

That means that you’re most likely starting off with a corrupted monitor profile rather than a fresh, canned profile. You’ll never get anywhere near a correct calibration that way.

If you are running Photoshop you will notice – sometimes but not always – that your screen color changes when click back to the PS document. It appears to lose the settings and go back to a pre-calibration view.

Why on Earth are you running Photoshop while you’re calibrating?

When you calibrate you need to take certain precautions, like letting the monitor run for 30 minutes or so so it can stabilize itself (don’t allow it to go to sleep during that period of time), keep ambient light to a minimum, shut down all other applications, etc.
R
Ram
May 21, 2004
The better calibration software like SuperCal, and the one that comes with hardware pucks, even black out your Desktop while you’re calibrating.
B
Buko
May 21, 2004
When you are done you give the calibration a name and close the window.

this is your problem. you need to save before closing the window.
DN
don_nich
May 21, 2004
I have named and saved the calibration. That’s what I mean by closing the window and clicking back to photoshop only to see the screen jump back to what appears to be the pre-calibrated appearance. In the old Adobe Gamma utility the same sort of issue arises. As far as why I am running photoshop while doing a calibration – what if I have a reference print back from a service bureau and am trying to match my screen to the print. How would you suggest I do that without having the file open? Isn’t that the recommended procedure for calibrating to an output device to create a profile for that device?
PH
Paul_Hokanson
May 21, 2004
As far as why I am running photoshop while doing a calibration – what if I have a reference print back from a service bureau and am trying to match my screen to the print. How would you suggest I do that without having the file open?

Don,

That’s a very old school (and flawed) way of color matching and ONLY works if you’re working in a closed loop print shop where all input and output are done in-house.

It’s not the way a device profile is made. Your screen calibrator is creating a profile *for YOUR monitor* that ICC-aware apps like Photoshop will then use to convert your monitor’s characteristics to a pre-selected industry standard RGB formula like AdobeRGB. Once you calibrate your display, and have Photoshop’s color settings setup correctly, all these conversions from your monitor space to Photoshop’s space happen instantly. It’s the only way you can even begin to make visual adjustments on a file.

From there you can soft proof to a device that will be printing your file using a *printer profile* that is either supplied by the manufacturer, or built using specialized software and a densitometer type of device. That is the way to see what your image will look like when its printed using a colormanaged workflow.

What you’re trying to do is not color-management. You’ll have lots of headaches til you do some research and learn the steps to do it right.

G Ballard and Ian Lyons both offer educational links to get you on the right path.
GB
g_ballard
May 21, 2004
why I am running photoshop while doing a calibration – what if I have
a reference print…and am trying to match my screen to the print.

The theory sounds more than fuzzy…do you suppose PS is previewing through what MonitorRGB when you are Profiling, certainly not the good profile (you’re working on)?

This may explain the shift when you save the new?
The proof would be at what point PS picks up the new profile, when the profile is saved, or when PS is restarted?

Further, sounds like you are profiling the screen to match a print — which more than doubles the confusion? This is plain wrong (by the experts I’ve read here)!

I would (again) send you back to <http://www.computer-darkroom.com/home.htm> to get a handle on the basics…how Photoshop 6, 7, 8 CS actually handles color.
R
Ram
May 21, 2004
As far as why I am running Photoshop while doing a calibration – what if I have a reference print back from a service bureau and am trying to match my screen to the print. How would you suggest I do that without having the file open? Isn’t that the recommended procedure for calibrating to an output device to create a profile for that device?

No, absolutely not.

See the two posts above.

Also: Don’t ever embed a monitor profile in an image file.
TL
Tim_Lookingbill
May 22, 2004
If you need a target image to go by use a 21 step grayramp opened in PictureViewer not PS.

<http://www.inkjetmall.com/store/workflow/21stepNew.jpg>

That jpeg has an embedded 2.2 gray gamma profile. You need to view it in a nonCM app that does not adjust the image by reading the profile during calibration.

Neutrality, black point and white point is all you need to be concerned with during calibration. You are trying to put your monitor in the best state it can be put in at the same time describing that state in a profile.

I use SuperCal and get very good results. Better than Apple’s which I suspect has been code tuned for their LCD’s. It now won’t let me pick my own phosphor set because it now reads it from my monitor chip and I can’t override it. Previous versions never did this. I don’t get the best results using it with my CRT, but you might.

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