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A
Anonymous
October 24, 2011
Question

Using Wide Gamut (Dell u2711) With Lightroom

  • October 24, 2011
  • 4 replies
  • 33437 views

I have just completed an upgrade of my computer system to include 2 Dell U2711 27" monitors.  I am using LR 3.5.  My system is running with Windows 7 64 bit and a ATI Firepro graphics card running the displays. 

Before purchasing these, and listening to the chatter on various forums I was led to belive that I was going to get garish coloration on all applications except Adobe LR and CS5.  This does not seem to be the case.  LR and CS5 are fine and the other applications IE and Windows Office seem to be OK as well.

These displays are calibrated at the factory.

Does anyone have any experience with these and can share any "gotchas" with me.

Henry

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    4 replies

    TheDigitalDog
    TheDigitalDog
    Inspiring
    October 27, 2011

    grandpahenry wrote:

    Does anyone have any experience with these and can share any "gotchas" with me.

    The flash galleries are not color managed so when you move from say Develop to Web, load a Flash web gallery, the previews will be slightly different (as well the resulting flash web gallery you view).

    In terms of LUTs, great when used within the panel itself as a tiny number of displays support (Eizo, NEC SpectraView), not useful when used on the graphic system. Ideally the graphic card LUT is totally linear, the LUT in the panel handles everything.

    Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"
    A
    Anonymous
    November 1, 2011

    I have spoken to 2nd level support both at ATI and Dell and have learned the following:

    1.  The ATI Firepro V5800 does not modify color for data passing through the graphics card.  All color adjustment is through the profiles used with the display.

    2.  With the Dell U2711 any calibration done on the monitor "must" be done using the "custom" preset.  When that is done the resulting profile will only apply to the "custom" preset leaving the other factory supplied presets in tact and will be one I use during photo processing and perhaps all applications depending on how the non-photo applications appear on the display.    

    Just as an aside, I have tested using the factory presets sRGB and Adobe RGB (wide gamut) and find that the resulting display and prints a nearly a match even though I am using a generic PNP driver and no profile at all. .  I am using an Epson 3880, Epson Ink, Epson paper, and Epson ICC profiles.  There is a bit of variance in flesh tones that I have not figured out. One thing that I have noticed that the dark print problem that used to plauge me when using my previous Viewsonic monitors.  I used to have to boost the brightness setting in LR otherwise the prints would be way to dark.  I have not experienced the "garish" results with IE8 and Office 2010 as had been reported in the ether. As I test I installed Firefox 7.1 and did not see a lot of difference in appearance,

    My camera is a Canon 5D Mark II shooting in RAW mode.  I am using the Prophoto as my work space in LR 3.5 and CS5

    I am

    C
    CSS_Simon
    Participating Frequently
    November 1, 2011

    Interesting information, thanks for sharing.

    One experiment you might like to try: measure the factory Adobe RGB and sRGB modes with your Spyder.  I don't know if the supplied software alows you do this (I don't think so), but the "Colorimetre HCFR" software (download link half way down this page: http://www.homecinema-fr.com/colorimetre/index_en.php) works with most colorimeters, and allows you to measure colour space, gamma and so on. 

    Sample display below, and you can also show colour temp, gamma etc:

    http://www.simongarrett.co.uk/CaptureHCFR.JPG

    P
    Panagon-1
    Participant
    October 26, 2011

    Henry, for educational purpose you may want to read the discussion below:

    http://forums.adobe.com/message/3283197#3283197

    C
    CSS_Simon
    Participating Frequently
    October 25, 2011

    Which colour preset mode are you using?  If you are using sRGB then you have effectively set your wide-gamut monitor into a standard-gamut mode. 

    A
    Anonymous
    October 25, 2011

    Thank you for your reply.  My Dell monitors arrived with a color calibration factory report apparently tied to the individual monitor serial number.  I purchased 2 and the test reports list different serial numbers.  Dell used a Minolta Color Analyzer CA210.  I have a Datacolor DC S3SSR100 Spyder 3 Studio SR which I plan to use as soon as I fully understand my use of these new monitors.  These monitors have a number of presets that include sRGB and Adobe RGB. I currently have both monitors set to the Adobe RGB preset.  In fact one of the reasons for choosing the U2711 was the choices of presets.  My original plan was to use the Adobe RGB preset only when doing photo editing and use sRGB when using IE 8 and other non-color aware applications.  But I don't seem to need to switch back and forth. 

    When I was doing the research I was advised that although LR 3 and CS5 were color aware and using ProPhoto as their working space I would be disapointed in the way colors would be displayed for applications such as IE 8 and MS Office.  My Epson 3880 printer is capable of displaying wide gamut.  The colors displayed seem a little different but not "garish" as I was led to believe.  Also my display screen background picture, a 100% quality JPG photo taken with my Canon 5D II does seem OK to me.  I am pleased with the way my photos display in LR and CS5.

    The one thing that I have noticed is that there seems to be no observable, at least to me, of the material displayed when I switch between the sRGB and Adobe RGB presets.  I am using Windows 7 64 Bit. 

    One thing that has me puzzled is that when I display the Windows settings using the "Screen Resolution" the monitor is set to "True Color".  I have seen that setting before on my previous system, XP Pro, and am wondering if I have missed something in my setup process.  When I received the monitors I was told that they are "plug and play" and did not require any special drivers.  I just hooked them up using Display Port cables and they cam right up at the maximum resolution of 2560 x 1440. 

    My questions are:

    1.  Why am I not seeing the disapointing performace that folks warned me about if I used wide gamut displays?

    2.  Have I missed something in my setup? 

    3.  I am assuming that when I calibrate I will have to calibrate the Adobe RGB preset and each other preset if I choose to use any others.

    C
    CSS_Simon
    Participating Frequently
    October 25, 2011

    I'm not quite sure what's going on here!

    However, for accurate colour, especially with a wide-gamut monitor, you really need it calibrated and profiled with a hardware device (Spyder, Eye One, Color Munki...).  I don't think the factory calibrations on the 2711 are terribly accurate (according to

    http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2711.htm), and your own calibration will be better.  From that review, the custom mode is best for that. 

    With the monitor set to any wide-gamut mode (including Custom and Adobe RGB), the monitor will definitely display sRGB images (which most are) in more garish colour when viewed in non-managed applications than in CS5 or LR.  Why?  Because a wide-gamut monitor displays any particular RGB values with more saturated colour, compared to how a normal-gamut monitor would display the same RGB values.  That's what wide-gamut monitors do!  So any non-managed application (such as the Windows desktop and non-managed browsers such as IE - even IE9) will display any image with more saturated colour on a wide-gamut monitor than on a normal-gamut monitor. 

    But if you've calibrated and profiled the monitor (with a hardware device), then there will be an appropriate profile associated with the device in W7 control panel, colour management settings.  Colour managed programs (Lightroom, CS5, Firefox, Safari...) use the profile to map RGB values from whatever colour space they're in (sRGB, Adobe RGB, ProPhoto or whatever) into the monitor's colour space.  So any image will look right on any monitor, provided there is an appropriate profile set (and you're using a colour-managed program to display the image). 

    My suggestion: calibrate and profile the monitor using a hardware device in custom mode.  Use that for photo work.  When you want to use non-managed programs, switch to sRGB mode.  No need to change the profile: non-managed programs ignore it anyway. 

    Sorry if I've misunderstood what you've set, and my comments are thus nonsense in that context!

    ambienttroutmask
    ambienttroutmask
    Participating Frequently
    October 24, 2011

    Factory calibration means that a standard profile will have been supplied with your machine for use by the OS for installation from a disk or just that the monitor has been checked to see that it actually can display a wider gamut than sRGB, it does not mean that the individual monitor has a individual profile created for use by your OS in your viewing conditions (as this would be impossible). The problems with standard calibrations are many

    • Each monitor varies.
    • Viewing conditions also vary.
    • Often these profiles are corrupt.

    It is always best to calibrate your monitor using the appropriate calibration device and to preform the calibration on a regular basis a profile is essential for colour managed applications to work well. For colour managed applications such as LR this is very important and even more so on wide gamut monitors if your output images are to achieve any sort of consistency when viewed on other monitors.

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