Steer out of the Mist - The case forMonitor Calibration

Steer out of the Mist - The case forMonitor Calibration

Foggy weather is not great for driving. You struggle to make out where your car is heading and you're never really sure of what lies ahead. And the light from your headlamps bounces back and obscures the view.

It would be even worse if your income depended on driving your car straight along, faultlessly following the center line and still you had to be able to move at something approaching the legal limit.

Trying to edit your photos on an uncalibrated monitor is a little like trying to drive through fog. You can carry out all the adjustments you want but you'll never be sure of what the final result will be because you simply have no benchmark against which to judge it.

If your monitor has been set too dark, you'll generally brighten up the photographs too much so that they end up overexposed - you will lose all detail in the highlights. Naturally, the opposite applies if the monitor is excessively bright. If the pictures come back from the printers, or are seen on a different, correctly adjusted screen, all shadow detail will be obliterated and you will be left with large areas of unattractive black where there should be depth and body.

Color inaccuracy is something else which you really should remember. This can be a result of the lighting not matching the white balance setting on your camera or the automatic white balance has perhaps been fooled by a large expanse of color in the image.

But it needn't be so. It is simple to correctly calibrate a modern monitor, using one of the many different monitor calibrators which are available, such as the Datacolor Spyder 3 Express, Eye One Display 2 or ColorMunki Photo. These calibrators are fantastically easy to use, you just have to plug it in, modulate the lighting in the studio or room and fire up the software. The unit will monitor the ambient lighting in the room, setting the contrast and brightness on your screen and also check for color balance to ensure precise results.

The more sophisticated units will even stand on the worktop, periodically monitoring the light levels and warning you or adjusting the display as necessary.

Don't assume your eyes can do the work. You will be astounded at just how tolerant the human eye is to color cast and inaccuracies. While you work on your image, your brain will adapt to and compensate for the monitor but when your print is delivered, it will all look just

wrong. And you can't put back detail that plain isn't there in the print.

Get a monitor calibrator and don't let fate take the lead any more. Steer that "car" where YOU need it to go!

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