Calibration Picture

[DavidTO]

Just to prove Darryl right, I'm going to ask a color profile/calibration question.

Since Smugmug uses EZ Prints for processing, and EZ Prints offers a calibration print to it's members, how does a Smugmug user get a copy of that print to calibrate his own monitor?

[wxwax]

Is that a good way to calibrate a monitor? Everything I've read suggests you should get good software to do the task. Unfortunately, it ain't cheap. :cry

[DoctorIt]

Just to prove Darryl right, I'm going to ask a color profile/calibration question.

Since Smugmug uses EZ Prints for processing, and EZ Prints offers a calibration print to it's members, how does a Smugmug user get a copy of that print to calibrate his own monitor?I would think that the EZ Prints ICC would be more for reproducing the print on another printer, no? I still get real confused by this, but ICC is based for how your equipment sees color, right? So their ICC would make things look wrong on your screen. Ah, just use the histogram - I've finally started trusting that at least 50%. I hope to be like Neo soon and just see the code. :D

[DavidTO]

Is that a good way to calibrate a monitor? Everything I've read suggests you should get good software to do the task. Unfortunately, it ain't cheap. :cry


Well, I haven't paid for any hardware, but have used the built-in monitor calibration in Mac OSX, and I think I'm pretty close. I would love to be able to chech their calibration print against their image online. Just another way of checking, and ensuring color accuracy.

[DavidTO]

I would think that the EZ Prints ICC would be more for reproducing the print on another printer, no? I still get real confused by this, but ICC is based for how your equipment sees color, right? So their ICC would make things look wrong on your screen. Ah, just use the histogram - I've finally started trusting that at least 50%. I hope to be like Neo soon and just see the code. :D

My understanding is that any color profile is designed for a specific piece of hardware--the ezprints.icc is for their processing hardware, an Epson color profile is for that printer, etc.

[wxwax]

Well, I haven't paid for any hardware, but have used the built-in monitor calibration in Mac OSX, and I think I'm pretty close. I would love to be able to chech their calibration print against their image online. Just another way of checking, and ensuring color accuracy.

I hear that overall color management is one of the inherent strengths of a Mac, so you must be doing something right by using their built-in calibration system. :dunno

[Baldy]

I hear that overall color management is one of the inherent strengths of a Mac, so you must be doing something right by using their built-in calibration system. :dunnoOddly, much as I love the Mac, more of our customers have trouble getting at least exposure right on the Mac than on Windows. The Mac's heritage is CMYK, not RGB, for high-end prepress, and for that it rules. But it comes with its monitor gamma set at 1.8, for example, whereas the web and sRGB standard is 2.2.

[Baldy]

Just to prove Darryl right, I'm going to ask a color profile/calibration question.

Since Smugmug uses EZ Prints for processing, and EZ Prints offers a calibration print to it's members, how does a Smugmug user get a copy of that print to calibrate his own monitor?We want to offer those to our customers free and may be adding them to our shopping cart this Monday.

In the meantime, you can get them through ezprints, http://www.ezprints.com/help/CalibrationHelp.asp , along with ICC profiles and a help section about ICC profiling and soft proofing using Photoshop.

I believe the best monitor calibration is with hardware and like wxwax, I have mixed emotions about calibration prints. The issue with them is they throw back reflected light, unlike your monitor which is feeding you transmitted light. Therefore, the apparent color of the prints to your eye is far more influenced by ambient light than your monitor is.

So the question is, what is the right light to view the calibration prints under? Here's a pretty good reference:

http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html

(We love EZ Prints, but are considering using a more standard calibration print, like they show on that page.)

[DavidTO]

We want to offer those to our customers free and may be adding them to our shopping cart this Monday.

In the meantime, you can get them through ezprints, http://www.ezprints.com/help/CalibrationHelp.asp , along with ICC profiles and a help section about ICC profiling and soft proofing using Photoshop.

I believe the best monitor calibration is with hardware and like wxwax, I have mixed emotions about calibration prints. The issue with them is they throw back reflected light, unlike your monitor which is feeding you transmitted light. Therefore, the apparent color of the prints to your eye is far more influenced by ambient light than your monitor is.

So the question is, what is the right light to view the calibration prints under? Here's a pretty good reference:

http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html

(We love EZ Prints, but are considering using a more standard calibration print, like they show on that page.)

Baldy,

When I've been to that link already, and as far as I can see, you need to be an EZ Prints member to get the picture. That was my original question, not being an EZ Prints member, but a smugmug member, how do I get access to that print?

[Baldy]

Baldy,

When I've been to that link already, and as far as I can see, you need to be an EZ Prints member to get the picture. That was my original question, not being an EZ Prints member, but a smugmug member, how do I get access to that print?Yes, that's messy. We need to fix that but in the meantime just send email to smugmug's help and request a set and they'll be sent.

[zero-zero]

My understanding is that any color profile is designed for a specific piece of hardware--the ezprints.icc is for their processing hardware, an Epson color profile is for that printer, etc.
:nod

[Baldy]

Okay, we added help sections for getting display colors right and another for print color.

http://www.smugmug.com/help/display-color
http://www.smugmug.com/help/print-color

I made new calibration prints. They need one final tweak, which is I didn't allow for the 36-pixel horizontal trim and 34-pixel vertical trim the Fuji Frontiers need on 8x10s, so a small part of the prints get chopped. I will adjust in the next few days.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of color consultants in the industry who've made bold statements 180-degrees opposing each other and have created quite a bit of confusion.

In my opinion, the most damaging are the things Scott Kelby has said without explanation about sRGB, driving a whole lot of people to Adobe 98 who then wonder why their photos look washed out when displayed on the web or printed through printers like Fuji Frontiers, which are ubiquitous.

[PerezDesignGroup]

Just an FYI on my Color Management adventures.

For years I used Adobe gamma but I had a hard time calibrating my Dell 5100 Laptop. Also, the colors on my home LCD just didn't feel right.

I took an adventurous $149 leap towards a ColorVision Spyder and the results weren't that great (http://www.epinions.com/content_144714993284). It had no way of adjusting gamma so my black, white and grey was terribly portrayed on my notebook (it did a decent job on my home LCD).

So I made a rather un-adventurous leap towards ColorWizzard (www.colorwizzard.com (http://www.colorwizzard.com)) the new owners of Colorific and 3Deep. I got the product a few days ago and I was amazed. It is a great calibration tool and it only cost me $30 with shipping included. I'll be writing a more detailed review later but if you're not sure about your monitor's color...this tool may save your day. It comes with a color card (http://www.colorwizzard.com/color/cc1.html)(which also serves as a license/serial key) that changes color in Fluorescent, Tungsten and Daylight. And the program knows what color you should be seeing in the light source you selected so calibrating your monitor is as simple as using your eyes to match up the background to the card. Also, it calibrates R,G and B on 3 variations instead of one.

Just a heads up. I'm glad my notebook is finally producing accurate color and gamma.

[dkapp]

Just an FYI on my Color Management adventures.

For years I used Adobe gamma but I had a hard time calibrating my Dell 5100 Laptop. Also, the colors on my home LCD just didn't feel right.

I took an adventurous $149 leap towards a ColorVision Spyder and the results weren't that great (http://www.epinions.com/content_144714993284). It had no way of adjusting gamma so my black, white and grey was terribly portrayed on my notebook (it did a decent job on my home LCD).

So I made a rather un-adventurous leap towards ColorWizzard (www.colorwizzard.com (http://www.colorwizzard.com)) the new owners of Colorific and 3Deep. I got the product a few days ago and I was amazed. It is a great calibration tool and it only cost me $30 with shipping included. I'll be writing a more detailed review later but if you're not sure about your monitor's color...this tool may save your day. It comes with a color card (http://www.colorwizzard.com/color/cc1.html)(which also serves as a license/serial key) that changes color in Fluorescent, Tungsten and Daylight. And the program knows what color you should be seeing in the light source you selected so calibrating your monitor is as simple as using your eyes to match up the background to the card. Also, it calibrates R,G and B on 3 variations instead of one.

Just a heads up. I'm glad my notebook is finally producing accurate color and gamma.

That software looks great, but its not mac compatible. Does anyone know of something similar for the mac?

Thanks,
Dave

[PerezDesignGroup]

Hey, I promised a full review of ColorWizzard and here it is. Enjoy everyone. Btw, Journal View is best for this one.

http://art.smugmug.com/gallery/150574

[wxwax]

:thumb Excellent review. Thanks for posting this.

[flyingpylon]

ColorWizzard seems to operate exactly like Colorific, with the exception of the LCD tilt angle function. Had you used Colorific previously? Is there any substantial difference between the two?

I used Colorific a few years ago but got frustrated with the whole color calibration thing and gave up on it. Maybe I should take another look.

[PerezDesignGroup]

ColorWizzard seems to operate exactly like Colorific, with the exception of the LCD tilt angle function. Had you used Colorific previously? Is there any substantial difference between the two?

I used Colorific a few years ago but got frustrated with the whole color calibration thing and gave up on it. Maybe I should take another look.It's the same product just slightly inproved from what I understand....see quote from the site below.


The owners of Colorific® and 3Deep® closed the Colorific website on March 20, 2004, ending support and sales of Colorific and 3Deep.

The original Colorific development team has been granted a source code license for the discontinued products, Colorific and 3Deep. With a source code license, we are allowed to improve and update the code but we cannot support, market or use the names of the old products.



Update: I had a laptop display problem but it ended up being my video card and not the Colorwizzard program.

[tmlphoto]

I just got my calibration print from smugmug and I was pleasently surprised to find that the color matching between my monitor and the calibration print were excellent. The only difference I noticed was in the grayscale and the B&W print by Andy Williams. These two items seemed to have a "brownish" tint for lack of a better term. The grayscale on my monitor seemed to be pure black, grey and white. I have also noticed that my black & white prints from ezprints seemed to lack that true black & grey appearance. The output from my uncalibrated ink jet printer seems to be a truer black and white. Does this have to do with using color print paper to print in B&W. Does any lab use different paper for b&w?

[Baldy]

The only difference I noticed was in the grayscale and the B&W print by Andy Williams. These two items seemed to have a "brownish" tint for lack of a better term.That's interesting. When I got mine, I thought it had a bit of a brownish tint as well, although the GretagMacbeth ColorChecker gray scale looked quite gray to my eye.

I showed it to several others who said my eyes must be playing tricks because Andy's shot looked B&W to them.

I'll talk to EZ Prints and see what they say. They have a colorimeter which can provide quantitative values.

[Andy]

That's interesting. When I got mine, I thought it had a bit of a brownish tint as well, although the GretagMacbeth ColorChecker gray scale looked quite gray to my eye.

I showed it to several others who said my eyes must be playing tricks because Andy's shot looked B&W to them.

I'll talk to EZ Prints and see what they say. They have a colorimeter which can provide quantitative values.

the gretagmacbeth gray scale looks very much shades of gray to me. my shot, the umbrella man, does indeed have a 17% luminosity toning layer applied, of guess what - mocha - so there is a very very slight coloring to it.