Zwitterion
17th September 2008, 12:52
Which test images do you use, do you calibrate at all, tips and trick one should be aware of, etc...
I've noticed that many monitors are not calibrated at all, especially in overlay mode, which in its standard setting often is way too dark.
I've settled for this way:
1) Darken the room, leaving the monitor on for an hour or so before calibration in order to reach full brightness.
2) Set all brightness/contrast/gamma values to default.
3) Then calibrate brightness and contrast with this (http://www.photofriday.com/calibrate.php) picture. I've turned it into a .mkv here (http://www.mediafire.com/?xncswxt0tj1) to calibrate both overlay and Haali's renderer in MPC. The advantage is that I can go fullscreen, so no bright spots distort the result.
4) At last I correct gamma with the test pictures here (http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html) (about half way down). I use a value of 2.2.
5) I may have to do step 3 again after gamma correction.
I realize that this is not perfect as you'd need professional equipment to do it the 'right' way, but for movies and the occasional Gimp it is quite good.
I can't use the monitor controls, though, as they are already maxed out (the monitor is more than 10 years old and survived 3 machines before my current one :p). Monitor controls are preferable to driver controls I guess.
I've noticed that many monitors are not calibrated at all, especially in overlay mode, which in its standard setting often is way too dark.
I've settled for this way:
1) Darken the room, leaving the monitor on for an hour or so before calibration in order to reach full brightness.
2) Set all brightness/contrast/gamma values to default.
3) Then calibrate brightness and contrast with this (http://www.photofriday.com/calibrate.php) picture. I've turned it into a .mkv here (http://www.mediafire.com/?xncswxt0tj1) to calibrate both overlay and Haali's renderer in MPC. The advantage is that I can go fullscreen, so no bright spots distort the result.
4) At last I correct gamma with the test pictures here (http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html) (about half way down). I use a value of 2.2.
5) I may have to do step 3 again after gamma correction.
I realize that this is not perfect as you'd need professional equipment to do it the 'right' way, but for movies and the occasional Gimp it is quite good.
I can't use the monitor controls, though, as they are already maxed out (the monitor is more than 10 years old and survived 3 machines before my current one :p). Monitor controls are preferable to driver controls I guess.