Color Calibration Questions

[purpledino]

Hi,

I just bought a color calibrator, Spyder2Express, and have a few questions to ask, for those of you who are familiar with Spyder2Express.

1) After calibrating the monitor (LCD), the 'before' and 'after' sample images as shown on by the Spyder program appear to be the same! I do not notice any difference. Anyone has similar experience?

2) The Spyder2 User Manual days this: "Profiling allows you to create an ICC profile that describes the monitor characteristics including: White Point, Tone Response and RGB Primary colors. This profile is then used by ICC-aware applications such as Adobe® Photoshop® so they can display colors as they are intended."

My other question is, what about other ICC-unaware applications (e.g. Paintbrush/ Internet Explorer)? I suppose they do not benefit from calibration?

Thanks.

 

[davidhiten]

One of the main reason for calibration is to keep all monitors in a studio the same so when you run over from an editors desk to the colorist - what you are seeing on both is the same.

Now it sound like you are calibrating one monitor - which is fine - but basically all it is going to do for you is make sure your whites are balanced to the 6500K standard and perhaps apply some adjustments to get this right. Of course there are other subtle changes too but this is the primary one.

In order to see the changes properly you need to be in a room environment that is suitable e.g. darkened area behind the monitor preferably neutral grey, no direct light on the monitor and no color casts from the "electric pink mattress in the corner" . Seriously though big patches of color in the same room as your monitor will change the perception of color.

If the change is so minor that you don't notice it still - it could be that your monitor is so close to the money that there is not alot of change - however as stated previously the real fun is when you put two monitors side by side and if you look carefully you will see that they display the same color differently and this is where the calibration tool is vital.

Cheers,

david

 

[studiofriend]

Another benefit of keeping the ICC profile is for your printer to use them while printing to get minimize error or closest colour from your printer and your monitor