Color managed vs unmanaged: Before and After

[KentDub]

So I finally bit the bullet and got myself a ColorMunki and a Gretag Macbeth Color Checker so I can have a color managed workflow . Does anyone know a way I can do a before/after comparison (preferably with the click of a button) so I can see if my investment was worth it?

[Colin Southern]

Originally Posted by KentDub

So I finally bit the bullet and got myself a ColorMunki and a Gretag Macbeth Color Checker so I can have a color managed workflow . Does anyone know a way I can do a before/after comparison (preferably with the click of a button) so I can see if my investment was worth it?

I don't know about ColorMunki (where oh where do they get these names from), but Spyder software has a before/after button at the end of the profiling procedure. Personally, I just assign the resulting profile as the default system profile - and I do see a small change as it clicks in - you could always do that and then change it for the default profile and look for differences.

[KentDub]

Lol!


So the results: Night and day difference!
I don't think I like the ambient light correction, as I have gotten used to it being super bright, it seems very dim now. Looking at the color bars from the before/after image I definatly have a far better response.

I lost a lot of contrast, which makes my photos look better, but normal programs look worse. I used to run my LCD at 70%, but reset it to 50% for the calibration per the instructions.

It got rid of a slight blue tint the screen had, and greys look much more neutral.

So I'll use it for a bit, I'll have to re-examin my photo library. I always thought my monitor was calibrated pretty well... Maybe it was for office applications - but definatly not for photos! Worth every cent!

[KentDub]

Ugh! I'm going to have to redevelop every one of my photos now -- They're all too dark!

This is going to take a little getting used to... Apparently my quarter tones were rendering nearly black, so that explains my complaints about some photos with crushing blacks... sorry!!!

Apparently this little device has the ability to control my monitor. Before I did the test I had 70% contrast, 100% brightness. (I re-did the test, and I disabled ambient light correction which gave me back some brightness) After, it set it to 50% contrast, 32% brightness.


I've been going through some of the mini competitions and older monthly competitions -- I have to say I am extremely impressed with all of the photos from the members of CiC - they look way better!

So I gotta ask: Has anyone else had such night-day experiences with calibration devices?

[Colin Southern]

Originally Posted by KentDub

So I gotta ask: Has anyone else had such night-day experiences with calibration devices?

To be honest, I hear of similar stories to yours quite often - the big problem of course is until you've been down that path "you don't know what you don't know" (in terms of how things are looking) and I suspect that many people are seeing images far different to how they should look (both in terms of people creating them and others viewing them) - so I think it's a very positive thing that we're raising awareness of the issue here and several have now "bitten the bullet" and bought a colorimeter.

Just a small point to keep in mind ...

"Calibration" and "Profiling" are different things; Calibration is essentially a monitor hardware adjustment to get colour temperature, black, and white points where they should be whereas profiling "picks up the slack" by loading a translation table into your video card. Calibration is important for two reasons: (1) it gives you the best chance of having (sRGB) images view correctly in non-colourmanaged environments (like Internet Explorer) and (2) the closer the calibration the less number of potential levels that are unavailable to the profile to make corrections (in a worst case scenario if the calibration was WAAAY off you could end up with banding issues). In short - if you can adjust the hardware so that the software doesn't have to do anything then it's a good thing