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Is your monitor calibrated ?
For most people the answer is no. Monitor calibration is a process that requires 2 things.
1). You must have a high quality monitor that can display a complete tonal range and has the ability to adjust
the RGB levels indepedently.
2.) You must have a calibration device. This is a piece of hardware that attaches to your monitor and will run through
a series of tests where the gamma level, brightness, contrast, white and black values, midtones and color gamut
will be adjust on your monitor. A ICC profile is created that will alter your monitors display so that you will have
a way of accurately viewing images.
This creates a standard for graphics professionals. The image editing workstation is calibrated to the same standard
as the professional lab. This way when editing an image you can be confident in the output you will receive from
you lab.
Without this balance between graphic editing and the lab there would be no consistency.
This creates a problem
Consumer grade monitors look great. In fact it's really amazing how much cheaper LCD's are these days. But
for viewing images edited on a calibrated monitor there is a problem. Most monitors and very bright and have
a lot of contrast. This is great for text, web surfing, games... But not for accurately judging the look of an image
that is calibrated for a lab.
So knowing that the average person has no need for a $1000.00 - $4000.00 professional monitor or $100.00's
for calibration devices I am putting a very simple way of judging the gamma and brightness level of you monitor.
Things to consider
Most monitors are too bright and the ambient color in the room affects how your display looks.
It is not possible to adjust the colors for accuracy without a monitor calibration hardware device but you can
get your brightness and contrast levels fairly close.
This is called an 8 bit step wedge. You should be able to see every distinct tone from purc white to pure black.
I take NO responsibility if you mess up your monitors display.
You should see pure black on the left and pure white on the right
Here is a link to an astronomy website that has instructions
For most people the answer is no. Monitor calibration is a process that requires 2 things.
1). You must have a high quality monitor that can display a complete tonal range and has the ability to adjust
the RGB levels indepedently.
2.) You must have a calibration device. This is a piece of hardware that attaches to your monitor and will run through
a series of tests where the gamma level, brightness, contrast, white and black values, midtones and color gamut
will be adjust on your monitor. A ICC profile is created that will alter your monitors display so that you will have
a way of accurately viewing images.
This creates a standard for graphics professionals. The image editing workstation is calibrated to the same standard
as the professional lab. This way when editing an image you can be confident in the output you will receive from
you lab.
Without this balance between graphic editing and the lab there would be no consistency.
This creates a problem
Consumer grade monitors look great. In fact it's really amazing how much cheaper LCD's are these days. But
for viewing images edited on a calibrated monitor there is a problem. Most monitors and very bright and have
a lot of contrast. This is great for text, web surfing, games... But not for accurately judging the look of an image
that is calibrated for a lab.
So knowing that the average person has no need for a $1000.00 - $4000.00 professional monitor or $100.00's
for calibration devices I am putting a very simple way of judging the gamma and brightness level of you monitor.
Things to consider
Most monitors are too bright and the ambient color in the room affects how your display looks.
It is not possible to adjust the colors for accuracy without a monitor calibration hardware device but you can
get your brightness and contrast levels fairly close.
This is called an 8 bit step wedge. You should be able to see every distinct tone from purc white to pure black.
I take NO responsibility if you mess up your monitors display.
You should see pure black on the left and pure white on the right
Here is a link to an astronomy website that has instructions