Colour calibration issue with Benq SW271 hardware calibration in LR develop module

[bigtench]

Having purchased a BENQ SW271 monitor with built in hardware calibration I find that I cannot use this feature due to a problem in LR develop module.

When this monitor is calibrated with its own software to use the inbuilt calibration it generates what I assume is a 'flat' profile for Windows which ensures the GPU is sending correct data that is then calibrated in monitor. This works fine until you have GPU acceleration enabled in LR and enter the develop module. The colours then change dramatically from the view in Library module. It appears like in develop LR uses some other inbuilt profile rather than the Windows loaded one.

To avoid this (and carry on using the GPU acceleration) I have to set the BENQ to its AdobeRGB profile (rather than the s/w calibrated profile) and use a 'normal' calibration in Windows.

Is there a way to use the BENQ inbuilt calibration? After all I paid a premium for this feature! 

[Ian Lyons]

Bugs and irregular behaviour such as you describe are best raised on the application specific feedback forum.at https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/categories/photoshop_family_photoshop_lightroom?

[Per Berntsen]

First of all, make sure your graphics driver is up to date, this could be caused by a bug in the GPU driver.

If that doesn't help, you probably have a defective or incompatible monitor profile.

There have been several reports of the Benq software creating buggy profiles.

As troubleshooting, try setting the monitor profile to Adobe RGB (not the Adobe RGB setting on the monitor, set that to Calibrated, or whatever Benq calls it before changing the monitor profile).

Press the Windows key + R, type colorcpl in the box and press Enter.

Add the Adobe RGB profile and set it as Default. You must restart Lightroom to make it aware of the new monitor profile.

(the screenshot uses sRGB, but you should use Adobe RGB since you have a wide gamut monitor)

If this fixes the issue, try recalibrating, making sure to create a version 2 (not version 4), matrix based (not table based) profile. Also make sure that you are using the latest version of the Benq software.

[bigtench]

So following the guidelines in this post https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic/library-and-develop-windows-display-different-colou... by Simon_G_E_Garrett went some way to curing the issue. In summay I used Palette Master (v1.3.7) in Advanced mode with Display Settings D65, Panel Native, Luminace 120, Gamma 2.2, Blackpoint Relative (important otherwise profile seems very black heavy) and Measurement page set to Profile Distribution System Level checked, v2, Matrix, large patch set.

I am not sure which actual settings make it work but it does!

[Rick Baumhauer]

Just a quick "thank you" for this - I've been fighting with Palette Master for over a year. Despite not changine any settings that I could discern, all calibrations since Feb 2019 left me with interface elements that should be neutral with a dingy yellow cast instead. Switching from Adobe RGB to Panel Native finally cured it (I didn't have to go with Blackpoint Relative on my Mac).

[D Fosse]

Yes, the BenQ software is buggy and we've seen a lot of similar issues in the Lr/PS forums.

Bigtench, this isn't as complicated as you think. There is nothing special about a profile for a hardware calibrated unit with an internal LUT. It is still a description of the monitor's response in a certain state, just like any icc profile is a description of a color space. That's the part the BenQ software doesn't seem to get right.

The profile doesn't need to contain calibration tables for the video card, because this has been communicated directly to the monitor LUT. The calibration tables aren't part of the profile as such, they are just stored there for convenience.

[D Fosse]

"I am not sure which actual settings make it work but it does!"

Most likely matrix as opposed to LUT, and/or v2 as opposed to v4. The safe options are always matrix and version 2. There's nothing in the v4 specification that PS or Lr can't handle correctly, but some calibration software botch this and don't write the profiles correctly.

"Blackpoint Relative (important otherwise profile seems very black heavy)"

This is an interesting point, and it took me a while to figure out what this is. Eizo Colornavigator has a similar setting, and a similar result (excessive black clipping). It turns out that this is intended for software that doesn't have what is known as Black Point Compensation. The problem is that any properly color managed software will have this built in, and it is supposed to be always on. It remaps the black point to a destination that may have a very different (lighter) black point, with a soft taper instead of hard clipping. If you look in Photoshop's Color Settings you'll see a checkbox for this. It should normally always be checked.

And in the calibration software it should always be off, because the application will do it anyway.

[bigtench]

If I leave Blackpoint relative off my desktop looks horrible. LR and PS look fine with this setting enabled.

[D Fosse]

OK; I'm only familiar with how it looks in Colornavigator. Apparently it's the opposite here. In any case, whatever looks right is right.