Monitor Calibration & Profiling for DUMMIES

Right folks here I go...I know the forum had discussed this subject in great depth already but I am afraid to admit an awful lot of it is way over my head!
So, I hope you dont mind me trying to put forward a few questions I would like to address for the benefit of myself and for the possible other dummies out there!
I have to get this color management sussed as I intend to do a lot of printing and displaying web images now and in the future.

I have a 19" TFT LCD flat screen monitor
I have a Epson photo printer R245, hoping to get A3 at some stage.
I use Windows XP and PS CS2 for post process.

I intend to buy the Pantone Huey I think, if anyone thinks otherwise please say but the Spyder 2 looks a bit complicated for me at this stage.

Q1: I have worked out eventually by going:-
control panel;display;settings;advanced;color management ...that my default monitor profile reads <none>
with the option to add one, which I presume will present itself when I calibrate/profile with Huey, correct?

Q2: Re: Rogers statement about not having conflicting color management with printer and monitor, on my printer preferences under
Advanced/Color Management it gives me a choice of 3: color controls; photo enhance or ICM.
Which one do I choose, if I select ICM it presents a box to check for OFF (no color management).
I am guessing thats the one I should use when I get Hueys profile loaded?
For now do I just leave it on color controls?

Q3: Read that I have to set my monitor back to factory default settings before profiling/calibration, how do I do that?

Q4: Under Epson what does ICM stand for?

These are my main questions for now, can someone confirm or otherwise what I have said is correct?
thanks in anticipation, Lilly

In answer to some of your questions. (assumes use of MS XP or similar)

1. You should be able to download the latest drivers for your monitor which will install the correct ICM pre-set automatically from the manufacturer.
(sometimes thay are good for colour management and sometimes not but are a good base to start from)

2. Leave the printer on ICM but in Adobe Photoshop CS under print with prievew under options colour handling select "Let Printer Determine Colors" and rendering intent "Absolute Colorimetric"

Ensure you have installed the manufacturers printer software which will include (and install) the correct ICM profile for the printer.

The so long as your screen is configured correctly and ambient light is low you should get fairly reproducable prints if you select paper type correctly.
Be aware that differect papers will produce different colours.

3. In the monitors own menu (not on the PC but the monitors own buttons) there should be a reset feature. The manual for the monitor should tell you which one. If not scroll through until you find it.

4. ICM = Image Color Management

To answer point 1) The Huey will replace the current ICM profile with it's corrected version.

Thank you for replies, I unsuccessfully loaded the the updated driver frm SONY, their website is a minefield so I gave up there.
Thinking I shall not worry about finding profile for monitor from them as I am going to order a Huey anyway.

In the meantime for printing I found all those color profile files under C:WINDOWScolor that one can choose from and noticed one that was Adobe RGB1998, should I load that profile for the monitor which does not have a profile yet, as I do work in RGB and let Photoshop decide the color management when I go to print.?

I checked my Epson printer profile and its on AUTO and it reads : E_FICMAHE , what profile is that?

Your monitor will only show sRGB properly and I would imagine that profiling as AdobeRGB would compound any problems you are having. Although AdobeRGB does have a wider gamut (range of colours) prints may end up looking a little flat.

The web can only cope with sRGB, so anything beyond that is wasted.

My advice is don't get over-complicated with these sort of things. The photography itself is more important and taking great images will absorb most of a photographers efforts for a very long time. The theory about using wider colour spaces, and indeed RAW capture, may be very sound indeed, but as I travel around judging competitions I see very little evidence that this is translated into a positive benefit in the final print.

You shouldn't load a standard profile into the monitor

The Adobe and sRGB profiles are "perfect" profiles for reference (for mapping between colourspaces).

FWIW, your monitor is definitely wider than sRGB, but almost certainly not up to Adobe RGB. The video driver profiles should be the ones created by a Spyder/Huey etc.

NOTE: Colour management is tricky

Matt

Thank you John, I understand what you are saying but I do have a problem that I have to sort out otherwise it seems pretty pointless investing all this money on all this digital equipment and computer gear.

For eg. this pic on my screen looks real good, but when I go to print it off from my printer, have also tried on a friends printer and also at a Kodak shop they all consistently come out a lot darker and not the exact hue as represented on my screen after editing in CS2.

I just want to be able to reproduce the print the same as I see it on my screen, nothing else.

It is becoming extremely frustrating for me not to be able to do whatever I need to do to solve this problem, it cant be that difficult can it?

Should I indeed pay for someone to professional profile my monitor and printer?




Lilly

We have three computers here and all three show the same colour, not 100% exactly but very closely and with enough certainty to be able to process images on any of them. We make small mental adjustments depending upon which monitor is in use.

Your picture looks incredibly green to us. I've never, ever seen any sky that colour.

I think first of all I would reset all defaults and then, if a CRT, run Adobe Gamma. Then I would go into the printer driver and reset everything according to the paper in use. I would use highest quality paper, and always the same one. I would use manufacturers original inks.

The, if there was still a problem I would get a Spider or huey or whatever else was appropriate. But it shouldn't be an essential for normal everyday use.

Also check that all the colour spaces are the same. Is the camera set to the same as Photoshop and the printer? Is there a mismatch?

In summary, I would go back to basics, checking every step of the path from image capture to print.

What colour is your seascape on your monitor?

I have often used third party inks and once had a similar problem, but I had mixed different manufacturers (being really penny pinching). In my case the result was extremely yellow.

The fact that you have had the problem on other printers suggests that this is not the problem (unless they use the same third party mix ) but worth checking anyway.

I would suggest you try editing an image on a friends PC where it will presumably print OK on that machine/printer combination. Then transfer that image to your PC (via CD or flash card) and print it on your kit without any changes. If it prints more or less OK then the problem clearly lies in your monitor calibration. If it prints 'orrible then it probably is the printer calibration or inks.

Lilly,

I'd concur with John that your photo looks quite greenish-yellow on my Huey calibrated monitor. You should be able to load the ICC profile independantly of updating the driver (assuming you can find the relevant profile!) that then forms the basis for the profile that the Huey/Spyder will create.

another thing, whenever you update the driver for your graphics card you should update your profile, the profile supplied by the monitor manufacturer is only part of the story.
With a profiling device display2, spyder, huey, etc. will check the entire chain from graphics card to monitor.
For ATI based cards there are the Omega drivers which are modified drivers which focus on image quality instead of gaming speed.
http://www.omegadrivers.net/

Lilly,

For what it's worth, my monitor is calibrated with Spyder 2 and the picture is "greenish yellow".

Mike

What we haven't established so far is what colour it is meant to be?

Why not post a picture of something that we all know the colour of, like maybe a telephone box.

:

Same here.

right....sorry the example was not a particular good one of the beach, just that it was the one that was bothering me..
here we have good 'ol daffs with quite orange centres and a blue purply backdrop, also, perfectly expose exposure wise on my screen,
: are the colors true to you and how is the exposure ...correct or over dark?

Lilly


" class="comment_image" />