What target settings for LCD monitor calibration?

Murat,

I use Spectraview II on an LCD2190UXi and the native gamma comes pretty close to gamma 2.2 if I am not mistaken. In any case, I don't think you will see any difference with any setting that you choose since SpectraView adjusts the LUT on board your LCD2180WG (and leaves the video card LUT at neutral). The choices, I think, are really for non color-managed situations, e.g., DICOM for medical displays. I leave mine at gamma 2.2 to better match sRGB images on the internet since I don't expect to run into color managed images much.

If you are using a color managed workflow, just pick something and forget it.

Larry

Native anything within calibration tells the software to do no adjustments the video card to correct for that specific current condition.

If native gamma of your particular display happens to be 2.0, the software will leave it as such and write it within the profile so CM apps can adjust previews of images tagged with any given gamma written into their profile.

The issue you'll run into with this approach is nonCM apps are going to display sRGB web color images a bit lighter.

Murat,

Gamma basically establishes the tonality (brightness/darkness) of the midpoint of your tonal scale. Most people recommend a gamma of 2.2 (which is becoming the standard, and is a good choice). Others recommend native gamma (I don't).

I use a gamma of 2.0 on my LCD monitor, which is a little lighter than 2.2, but through trial and error I find it gives me a closer match from monitor to print. I use a special viewing target to help me assess the final calibration, including white luminance, black luminance and gamma. For my setup, I use a white luminance of 85 cd/m2 and a gamma of 2.0. Your system may be a bit different.

For monitor to print matching, I would definitely keep your luminance below 100, and 2.2 is a good overall choice for gamma. I set my monitor to a color temp of 5100K, which is warmer than a lot of people use, but again, it gives me a nearly perfect color match, using industry standard viewing lights.

Lou

Hello Guys,

I'm still confused with this gamma choice in the Spectraview II calibration software. There is also the "Monitor Native Gamma" choice. Is it a good idea to choose this option besides 2.2 or any other gamma choice?

Thank you

Be aware that all LCD front button and/or OSD settings for luminance behave differently among brands and models.

120 cd/m2 can look different from another LCD because some brightness adjustment settings combine both contrast and white brightness like my 2004 20" G5 iMac.

Also the luminance setting for white according to an i1 tech support personnel I spoke with a while back said this number is an average of the entire overall brightness including 1/4 to 3/4 tonal regions of gray which influences the shape of the correction curve i1 creates to achieve a smoothly progressing grayramp within a 2.2 gamma target.

I can sort of confirm this by comparing the differences of my final i1Match correction curve applied to both the iMac's 118 cd/m2, .2BK at 2.2 gamma and my 21" Samsung 1100p CRT's 105 cd/m2, .1BK at 2.2 gamma. Both produce a very straight RGB curve but the iMac is slightly pulled back linearly starting from black point with a slight shephard's hook shaped gradual slope at the 200-255 region.

This suggests that whatever you set your display's black and white points at the software is going to correct according to an internal encoded standard appearance of what a grayramp should look like at any given luminance from black to white.

Follow Lou's direction on setting white making sure whatever settings you adjust on the front panel is enough to get you as close as possible to 2.2 target gamma and is COMFORTABLE looking. Then let the software only adjust for gamma and leave all other custom settings alone. The software will indicate if your front button settings are within specs.

Specs being 2.2 gamma and 6500K color temp. and whatever luminance number is comfortable for you.

Hey Lou

The lowest my monitor would go with brightness set to 0 was 107cdm which I found uncomfortably dim. Looking at the screen now with it set to 120 it is still more gray than white so I'll have to experiment. Great advice - thanks.

Jay,

I'm not sure about other software, but with EyeOne Match and ProfileMaker, if you raise the white luminance, the black tends to follow.

For monitor to print matching, I have always found 120 cd/m2 to be way too high (unless you are using extremely bright viewing lights). I recommend trying a white luminance of 100 or lower, and for my own personal work and setup, I find 85 to 90 to be just about perfect. You want a pure white document displayed in Photoshop to have the same approximate brightness as a sheet of blank paper displayed under your viewing light.

If white luminance is set too high, you will edit more darkness into your files (since the high monitor luminance makes your files bright and washed out looking). These numbers, when sent to the printer will tend to look very dark and muddy, unless you are using a very bright light for evaluation. And if you will display your finished prints under lower lighting, everything will look pretty dark. Everything has to work together.

Give it a try and see what works for you. But if your prints look too dark compared to your monitor, then lower the luminance.

Lou

Thanks Lou. Much appreciated. Is the black level influenced by a higher white target? I run at 110-120 for white luminance.

Jay,

My black luminance usually comes in at 0.2 and I set the white luminance to 85. I am using both EyeOne Match3 and ProfileMaker 5 with my LCD, and neither program lets you set the black luminance, but EyeOne Match3 tells you what it is when your profile is done.

Lou

"I always confirm my white and black luminance"

What is your black luminance value? I'm calibrating with a new Spyder3 Elite and the menu option allows manual input of both white and black luminance. I've found lots of information in this thread and others re: approaches to setting white along with a range of values that seems to run from 85 to 120 depending on ambient light conditions, paper white, and anticipated viewing conditions for the final print. But I have seen nothing about ranges for the black level.

Any input would be much appreciated. Thanks.