Monitor Calibration

Have you ever returned from the photo lab only to notice that the image looked different on your screen than it does on photo paper?
That is probably because you haven’t calibrated your monitor. You can calibrate your monitor in one of two ways. The first is by adjusting it manually by using your eyes which isn’t always very effective. The second and most reliable way is to use a hardware calibration device which you put over your screen to actually measure the colors. There are many popular brands that don’t cost too much or in some instances you may find someone who has the hardware and is willing to calibrate your monitor for a small fee.

So off you go to re-edit and print another batch. Now you are probably scratching your head and wondering why your colors still don’t match up. That is because you are most likely using a cheap normal everyday screen. The problem with these screens is that they are designed to be cost effective and not color accurate. There are screen which are extremely accurate but they usually cost and arm and a leg. The best screen you can get which will provide more accuracy is the Apple Cinema display.

If you don’t want to spend any more money there is one solution that I have found to work great. I Calibrate my LCD screen and then go to my preferred lab to print out some sample images. It is important to always use the same lab as there are variations between how labs go about printing your images. Now that we have calibrated our screen and with some sample prints we can start adjusting our screen manually with the screens built in controls. I must admit that it isn’t perfect but it sure has improved the accuracy of what I see and what i get in the end by a considerable margin.

Happy shooting