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Using a color reference monitor for with Photoshop

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
November 14, 2017
3 replies
6382 views

I have a Blackmagic DeckLink 4K Mini-Monitor outputting to a color calibrated HP Dreamcolor Z32x. This allows for me to send a "clean" video signal to my monitor so that I can see my image without Mac OS doing any calculations or adding any viewing LUTs. The Dreamcolor is purely a reference monitor and is not treated by the OS as an additional monitor.

I primarily work in cinema doing color correction with Da Vinci Resolve and editing with Premiere Pro. In Premiere, I can select my Z32x as a reference monitor for playback.

Is there any way to do this in Photoshop? I'd love to have the UI on one screen while my color-accurate reference monitor displays the image. I see there is an option in Photoshop to Export > Blackmagic Image Export but this only provides a still and I'm not sure if what I'm seeing is color accurate. It is not live updating and is far from ideal.

If no such option exists, I would love to submit a feature request for it.

And, again, if it doesn't exist, how does everyone else maintain color accuracy without a dedicated reference monitor? Any OS will be applying viewing LUTs that make true calibration impossible.

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Correct answer D Fosse

I have a feeling you're in deeper water than you realize here. That's a wide gamut unit. That means you need full color management at all times.

Frankly I don't think your concept of accuracy even applies. Let me just run through the basics.

You calibrate a monitor mainly to set white point and black point, and neutralize color to that white point. A high-end monitor stores all this internally (known as hardware calibration) - consumer models can't, so you need to load it as a look-up table in the video card.

So far color management hasn't entered the picture.

Calibration isn't very accurate. It can't do anything about the position of the primaries, which is what determines how individual colors are reproduced, or the irregular dips and peaks of the tone response curve. So you need an icc profile that describes all this, in detail. This monitor profile is written after the calibration is finished.

A color managed display converts/remaps from the document color space, into the monitor color space, using both profiles. This way the RGB values in the file are accurately represented on screen.

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If what you need is to bypass this whole color management chain, throwing the file's RGB numbers directly on to the screen uncorrected, you can do that with Proof > Monitor RGB. But I would not recommend that!!! It will look completely wrong - and with a wide gamut monitor, that's a recipe for disaster. Other people with other monitors will not see anything remotely like what you're seeing.

R

rg3579

Participating Frequently

You can attach an extra monitor to your system and put a dual window on it.

In photoshop, under the window menu, go to Window>Arrange>New window for "x"

You now have two windows viewing the same file. Place one of these windows on your external monitor that you want to use as a reference monitor, zoom as needed and work off the first window on your working monitor.

N

nickl63167969

Inspiring

The OP is probably aware of this but it isn't what he's asking. He wants to use his setup of a viewing path using BMD hardware that's isn't driven by the operating system's display infrastructure, so there's no chance of any drivers impacting the output at all. Even after calibrating, with the OS driving the displays there is always a chance that something changes and adversely impacts the colour without you realising it (for me, I've 3 monitors and W10 and the Dispcal profile loader sometimes associates calibrations with the wrong monitor so I have to check this each time after powering up). The OP's setup would eliminate such possibilities.

davescm

Community Expert

As far as I am aware - Photoshop's output always uses the OS APIs for display. It is set up to do this as it is a colour managed application and uses the profiles in the OS.

nickl63167969 If you are having problems with the Dispcal loader loading incorrect calibration data to the GPU LUTs then you can set up Windows 10 to load the data within the profiles directly (I do that here on a multi monitor set up). I don't want to divert the OPs thread though so PM me, or start another post, if you want to try it.

Dave

D Fosse

Community Expert

Ah, yes, I misunderstood. Sorry.

But, in all fairness, you didn't make it easier when you said this:

how does everyone else maintain color accuracy without a dedicated reference monitor?

Because in normal Photoshop terms, the answer to that is very straightforward. In the graphics world, a "color reference monitor" is a hardware calibrated Eizo or NEC, run in a color managed environment.

Anyway, I'll go sit over there in the corner now.

D Fosse

Correct answer

Community Expert

I have a feeling you're in deeper water than you realize here. That's a wide gamut unit. That means you need full color management at all times.

Frankly I don't think your concept of accuracy even applies. Let me just run through the basics.

You calibrate a monitor mainly to set white point and black point, and neutralize color to that white point. A high-end monitor stores all this internally (known as hardware calibration) - consumer models can't, so you need to load it as a look-up table in the video card.

So far color management hasn't entered the picture.

Calibration isn't very accurate. It can't do anything about the position of the primaries, which is what determines how individual colors are reproduced, or the irregular dips and peaks of the tone response curve. So you need an icc profile that describes all this, in detail. This monitor profile is written after the calibration is finished.

A color managed display converts/remaps from the document color space, into the monitor color space, using both profiles. This way the RGB values in the file are accurately represented on screen.

---

If what you need is to bypass this whole color management chain, throwing the file's RGB numbers directly on to the screen uncorrected, you can do that with Proof > Monitor RGB. But I would not recommend that!!! It will look completely wrong - and with a wide gamut monitor, that's a recipe for disaster. Other people with other monitors will not see anything remotely like what you're seeing.

benjamind56434044Author

Participating Frequently

I have a feeling you're in deeper water than you realize here. That's a wide gamut unit. That means you need full color management at all times.

Correct, however I'm not using it's wide gamut. It is calibrated to sRGB.

You calibrate a monitor mainly to set white point and black point, and neutralize color to that white point. A high-end monitor stores all this internally (known as hardware calibration) - consumer models can't, so you need to load it as a look-up table in the video card.

Correct, the monitor has been hardware calibrated using a Klein.

Calibration isn't very accurate. It can't do anything about the position of the primaries, which is what determines how individual colors are reproduced, or the irregular dips and peaks of the tone response curve. So you need an icc profile that describes all this, in detail. This monitor profile is written after the calibration is finished.
A color managed display converts/remaps from the document color space, into the monitor color space, using both profiles. This way the RGB values in the file are accurately represented on screen.

The monitor is connected through a Decklink Mini Monitor. It is a reference monitor and is not handled by Mac OS like a regular monitor just plugged into the computer.

D Fosse

Community Expert

OK, if your hp is set to emulate sRGB, these emulations are usually quite good (much better than standard gamut monitors).

So if your signal is sRGB, the monitor should represent it accurately. And if you have hardware calibration, there's no need for any video card LUTs and none will be written. The monitor profile made by the calibrator should also replace the default Mac OS display profile.

If you want to be absolutely certain that no display correction takes place, Proof to Monitor RGB will do that. Then the RGB numbers go straight to the display as they are.

However - there will always be a white point. This is - natively - hugely different between different displays, and this affects the whole visual appearance. White point luminance and color is the main reason for calibration in the first place - all the rest could just as well be handled by the profile.

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