Calibrating a Monitor

[Darby Edelen]

There are software programs that allow you to calibrate using only your eyes… and seemingly hours of patience. But your mileage may vary.

This is built in to Mac OS X (System Preferences > Display > Color > Calibrate… then choose ‘Expert mode’). I’m not sure if this is available out of the box in Windows but I would guess there are 3rd party options.

If you’re really concerned about color, and you’re doing color correction work you want to be considered professional, then a calibrator is definitely worth the investment.

Darby Edelen

[Christopher Rotter]

I will consider looking into one, as the software calibrators I don’t trust. Unless there is one out there that is superb that I or we just don’t know about.

[Chris Wright]

Before I bought hardware calibrators, I used this free method…the DVD’s came out perfect.

use photoshops’ Adobe gamma in control panel, adjust each red, green, blue, and save the icm file at gamma 1.8(mac) or 2.2(win) gamma, then setup AE with color management.

you need to give your project’s Working Space a color profile in order to use a color managed workflow (this includes simulated outputs). You can do this in Project Settings (cmd-opt-shift-k on Mac, ctrl-alt-shift-k on PC).

Each file has an interpret color management plus AE has blend color, legacy colors, etc. all these plus you need the exact same codec versions on multiple computers.

plus how you are viewing them back out. Quicktime player preferences could be different too. Use your scopes rather. Do a full render-loop, export/import file, with no color changes, there should be no change in gamma. That way tests for a correct color management setup.

[Christopher Rotter]

I’m sorry I don’t quite understand on how to set this up ? Although it appears to be a excellent and free way to get near perfect calibration without the hardware.

[Chris Wright]

Which part are you unclear about? There is an icon in start-control panel called Adobe Gamma. It has an automatic wizard or manual setup for determining true rgb and gamma. When you load or save an icm file in Adobe Gamma program, it applies the color management immediately. Then when AE has SDTV or HDTV in project settings and simulate output, the colors look exactly like they do when you watch them on a dvd player.

[Christopher Rotter]

I don’t have adobe gamma installed. I’m going to have to reinstall and try again, there is one thing
you mention:

“Quicktime player preferences could be different too. Use your scopes rather. Do a full render-loop, export/import file, with no color changes, there should be no change in gamma. That way tests for a correct color management setup.”

What do you mean by a full render-loop, with no color changes ?

[Chris Wright]

There are a lot, and I mean a lot!; of people who use old legacy codecs and inavertently burn in the wrong gamma flag and wreck exports and imports.

Sometimes it’s a codec bug, sometime its AE’s gamma.xml setup incorrectly. And a lot of Ycbcr files need to be interpreted with color management or they look too dark.

Quicktime can write gamma flags in too. Going from program to program only multiplies the problem, so the first step is to see if AE can render out and import back in looking exactly the same. Make sense?

[Christopher Rotter]

I think it makes sense 🙂 Is there an add-on that I could get to install the photoshop gamma control panel separately ?