What target settings for LCD monitor calibration?

It works for me. I use it to set the black point of my secondary monitor (that actually can go lower) to the bp of the primary.
That's how I understood the feature to be used. Whatever it does to the LUTs it doesn't hurt so much on the secondary.
Besides, on a different note - what's a desirable black point level anyway? I guess it shall be a little lower than the darkest printed rich black one would encounter? Which would be... an inkjetprint on glossy stock? Offset print? Where would these end up compared to the 0.xy cd/m2 of a monitor?

IF you're convinced it works great.

Andrew,

Things that work fine can hardly be termed science fiction. It's not premature if it works, is it? Do you understand everything about how high frequency waves reach your cell phone and magically turn into a voice? Is that "science fiction?" Must be, if you don't understand it.

JayM asked a specific question about setting the black luminance independently of white luminance, and I gave him a specific and accurate answer to his question. Here's his post:

"JayM - 6:43pm Jan 22, 08 PST (#36 of 43)
With this being the case (no dedicated brightness/contrast controls) how do you calibrate your monitor's white and black luminance points? "

The answer, as stated previously, is either a software solution, a hardware solution, or both, and yes, a high bit, high end monitor with external controls will give better results. I'm not promoting or advocating any particular software or hardware, and certainly not for personal gain, unlike some people who hang out on this forum. Just trying to give accurate, unbiased answers when I have something meaningful to contribute, and learn from others. High end monitors are superior, and if you have unlimited resources, why not? But I doubt it would improve most peoples' results unless their current monitor is substandard or poorly calibrated.

Nothing I stated is inaccurate or misleading. Let's try to answer peoples' questions, which if I recall, is the main purpose of this forum.

Let's move on.

As long as you're happy with the science fiction. Least we forget your own words:

>But some software (ColorEyes and BasicColor come to mind) allows you to set the white and black luminance independently. If you want that type of control, you need to buy the right software, or buy a high end LCD monitor that has more adjustments that are handled outside of the video card.

Do we really need to buy the right software? You seem to correctly imply that a high bit display with internal control is different and I'd agree. Otherwise, I think there's something happening under the hood neither of us fully understand and the recommendation may be premature no?

No need to find out, Andrew. Works just fine as far as I am concerned, and a lot of other professionals as well. Of course it is a tweak to the LUT.

If you spend your days staring at Grainger Rainbows, gray ramps, inspecting for subtle hints of banding, etc, perhaps it is a big deal. For design work, fine art output, lightjet and press work, it works just fine, even on 8-bit displays. Having a perfectly smooth ramp pales in comparison to having well set white and black luminance and a color temp that gives a good color match. Besides, you well know that getting a perfect monitor to print match is not achieveable anyway....RGB vs CMYK, light vs ink, you know the drill.

For those who want the ultimate, high end monitors with external adjustments are the way to go. I have no problem with reaching for perfection, but I doubt it would improve most peoples' results. My monitor to print match is about as good as it gets already.

Egghead discussion over.

Lou

Maybe it's a VooDoo adjustment :)
cvt

>How? I don't know or care, as long as it works and is reasonably accurate. Both ColorEyes and BasicColor allow you to specify separate values for white and black luminance as targets.

I suggest you find out. Think about it; what's there in the black to adjust? You can adjust the luminance yes. If some black is being adjusted, its certainly not a physical adjustment but another LUT tweak. Fine for high bit units, not so hot for those that only provide 8-bit corrections to the LUT.

How do they accomplish this considering there's no control over black (just backlight intensity)?

How? I don't know or care, as long as it works and is reasonably accurate. Both ColorEyes and BasicColor allow you to specify separate values for white and black luminance as targets. I assume the software writes corrections to the vlut to raise the black luminance to the number requested in the software. Of course, it can't give you a lower black luminance than what is displayed, so if black luminance is read as 0.4 cd/m2 during calibration and you ask for 0.25 cd/m2, you are out of luck. Best you can possibly do is the blackest the monitor displays at a given backlight level. I do know that both ColorEyes and BasicColor write a separate black point tag to the profile, (which you can see in ColorThink), which EyeOneMatch and PM5 do not do. Also, they report back the final achieved black luminance at the end of the calibration/profiling process. It usually isn't exactly what you specified, but is usually quite close, and certainly provides more control. Specifying different black luminance values definitely gives a different result, which the software reports, and is also visible in the final display when the profile is activated.

Lou

>But some software (ColorEyes and BasicColor come to mind) allows you to set the white and black luminance independently.

How do they accomplish this considering there's no control over black (just backlight intensity)?

Jay,

I use LCDs with a digital video card. Most LCD monitors, except the higher end units, write adjustments to the video card, even when you are adjusting contrast, color, etc, from the monitor controls. The only real analog control is the backlight brightness. This affects mostly the white luminance, but it also can affect the black point. My digital video card knows that there is only one real analog control, and it disables everything but the brightness during calibration, since all other settings get sent to the video card anyway. So, it takes its lead from the profiling software.

Some software just allows you to set the white luminance, and the black luminance falls where it falls (EyeOne Match, ProfileMaker, and probably quite a few others). But some software (ColorEyes and BasicColor come to mind) allows you to set the white and black luminance independently. If you want that type of control, you need to buy the right software, or buy a high end LCD monitor that has more adjustments that are handled outside of the video card.

Up to this point at least, I am not a big fan of using native settings for either color temp or gamma. I prefer to select my own color temp for a better monitor to print color match. And for gamma, I prefer 2.2 so non color managed applications will render images closer to the original intent (since sRGB is the web standard and is used by the majority of non color managed applications).

Lou