Checking monitor calibration

[tipsinartok]

Hope this is the right forum. I just used a free program (I think it was called Monitor Calibration Wizard) to calibrate my monitor. Everything looks really dark to me now though. I can't decide if I did the calibration wrong and should redo it, or if it's right and I have to get used to it.

I was wondering if anyone with a properly calibrated monitor would mind looking at my website (http://momentcaptured.ca/) and let me know if the brown bar across the bottom and top stand out or if they blend into the background. Pre-calibration they were very clear and easy to see, now I can barely make them out. I'm not looking for critique on the site itself, that is something I threw together in about 30 minutes just playing around with colour and style and pictures (and it's not done right now anyway), just curious how the brown bar looks.

Thanks!

[arodney]

Are you using an instrument to conduct the calibration and build a display profile?

This might help:
http://www.ppmag.com/reviews/200412_rodneycm.pdf

[BobbyMarshall]

Yes, the brownish bars are definitely are separated from the black background.

I just got myself an eyeone display 2, calibrator. I don't plan on doing any printing at home for sale anytime in the immediate future, so I did not need calibrators that also did printer, and scanner calibration, etc.

Before I got the calibrator I used http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/ there are many separate tests here, the intro page for the tests is where the link starts. If you are using a LCD display, I highly recomend that manual calibration site..

This manual calibration seemed to work the best for me, until I got the eyeone, then I really noticed a difference in my color correction, mainly the contrast of the darker colors blending togather in the past. which seems like similar to what you are having.