contact me
Brightness & Contrast Info
go to my blog
home page

This page has some information on monitor calibration, profiling, colour management, and wide gamut-displays which some people may find useful. I have an extensive list of references at the end which will probably keep you busy for a few weekends!

Table of Contents

A. Monitor Calibration

This section provides a very quick and dirty way to adjust the “brightness” or luminance of the screen/monitor (I will be using the words "screen”, "monitor” and "display" interchangeably here), and was originally put together as some people had reported that my images were too dark; these reports were especially common when CRT monitors ruled the roost in most people’s homes. Today, with LCD-type monitors, these reports are not so common. I think, to a large extent, that this is because modern LCD monitors have crazy high luminance levels set as default (200+ candelas per square metre or cd/m2). Seriously, I have to squint to look at these monitors.

Monitor calibration is more than just about luminance levels; the colours on the screen matter too. The common colour-standard for screens is the so-called “sRGB” standard. The most accurate way to get correct colours and luminance levels is to use a device (e.g. a colorimeter) to measure the light from your monitor allowing you to calibrate and profile your monitor. Two colorimeters that I’ve used are the Datacolor “Spyder3Elite” and the x-rite “i1Display2”. I’ve posted my monitor settings at the bottom of this page. Note that I've set my monitor luminance to 80 cd/m2 which some people may consider too dark; some people recommend 90 cd/m2 or even 120 cd/m2. ISO 3664:2000 allows a monitor luminance from 74 cd/m2 to 100 cd/m2, and the ISO 12646:2004 (which takes printer output into account) allows a monitor luminance from 80 cd/m2 to 120 cd/m2. It all depends.

However, I imagine that you’ve landed on this page because you do not have a hardware device such as a colorimeter and are seeking some help in alternative means of adjusting your monitor. The steps below describe a quick and dirty process for setting the luminance of your monitor. However, I highly recommend that you visit Norman Koren's site and The Lagom LCD monitor test pages as these offer superior methods; if you are going to use those sites please make sure that your web browser zoom settings are at exactly 100%.

OK then, let’s begin! Hopefully your monitor has controls labelled "Contrast" and "Brightness".

Step 1

Ensure that the monitor has been switched on for at least 30 minutes. Also ensure that room-lighting is not too bright.

Step 2

Most monitors today should have a setting that allows you to choose from a number of colour presets; choose “sRGB”. If you do not have such a setting, trying resetting the monitor to it’s default setting; this may or may not help! Once ready, we can proceed to Step 3.

Step 3

FOR CRT MONITORS:

Set the monitor "Contrast" level control to the maximum value. If image distortion occurs or if the screen seems too bright then lower "Contrast" level until the distortion is reduced. Note that CRT monitors can exhibit severe geometric distortion at high "contrast" levels.

FOR LCD MONITORS:

LCD monitors do not suffer from the same contrast-related geometric distortions that CRTs do, so it is very easy to set the "contrast" level too high on LCD monitors. Instead, as a starting point, try going for a "contrast" level that is 30% or 40% of the maximum that your monitor can achieve. This is the hardest and most subjective setting to achieve without a hardware-based calibration device.

Step 4

This step is all about adjusting the black-level. Starting from a "Brightness" level of 0% (i.e. zero) on your monitor controls, increase the monitor "Brightness" level so that you can see all 21 distinct shades in the test bar shown below. The goal is to keep the blackest bar as black as possible (so that blacks appear black on photos) but still be able to differentiate between adjacent bars.

                                         

Not all monitors will be able to pass this test. In particular, unless ambient lighting is very low it may be difficult to differentiate between the two darkest levels. However, with rapid advances in technology, an increasingly growing number of monitors are able to pass this subjective test with ease.

I have found that a number of LCD monitors exhibit quite noticeable colour artefacts such that each greyscale bar appears to have a different tint from other greyscale bars resulting in some looking red, some green, etc. You'll have to decide for yourself if you want to (or even can) rectify this.

If my images still appear dark, then sorry, that's the way that I've done them. I did say that I prefer dark images!

Remember, the steps listed above are quick and dirty.

B. My display settings

If it helps anyone (and each monitor is different and subject to ageing), I use two Dell UltraSharp 3008WFP 30-inch monitors in a dual-monitor configuration on my Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit machine. Each monitor's settings are listed below; these settings are currently suspect as I've just recently switched between colorimeters and the luminance appears much higher than what I've been used to using the previous colorimeter. The colours appear fine but that's another story though!.

Monitor 1 Monitor 2
"Brightness" monitor control 38% 35%
"Contrast" monitor control 50% 50%
"Red" monitor control 75% 75%
"Green" monitor control 71% 71%
"Blue" monitor control 83% 83%
Colour temperature (or "white point") 6500K 6500K
Gamma 2.2 2.2
White level luminance (cd/m2) 80 80
Black level luminance (cd/m2) 0.2 0.2

And here are the monitor results:

Monitor 1Monitor 2


C. Wide-gamut displays (oh woe is me!)

You may have noticed that I use wide-gamut displays. This has caused much woe with regards to seeing the correct (intended) colours on the web; if you use a standard sRGB display then you're lucky! Unless I take particular care on managing my colour workflow I will see colours much more saturated than intended (especially in the reds). Currently, for web browsing, the best colour-managed browser on Windows 7 is Firefox 6.0.2 which I have configured to assume that images without colour profiles are in the sRGB colour space. Explanations can be found here:
  1. The sad state of web browser color management
    http://gearoracle.com/guides/web-browser-color-management-guide/
  2. Color Management and iPhone 4
    http://correctcolor.org/cccommentary/?p=140
  3. Color Management on the Internet
    http://correctcolor.org/cccommentary/?p=88
On Windows 7 and using ICC v2, Google Chrome 13 appears to be completely brain-dead from a colour perspective. Safari 5.1 has a half-arsed implementation in that untagged images are not colour-managed properly (although Safari on Mac OS appears to be fine). Yes, IE9 does have some colour-management, but it assumes that your monitor is sRGB which is useless for those who have non-sRGB monitors (people like me); a real shame and unforgivable after all of Microsoft's claims that IE9 would allow you to see colours correctly. And a real problem for those who care about accurate colour reproduction on the web. Of the main browsers, only Firefox does colour management correctly on Windows 7 but full color management needs to be switched on within Frefox; if you do not have a calibrated and correctly profiled monitor then using full colour management may result in incorrect colours being displayed.

The following images show the relative colour differences and handling of tagged/untagged images between the main browsers on Windows 7 as of September 2011. I think the differences are most evident with the images of the girl; Firefox colours look good but the other browsers show the girl with a ghastly red colour on my wide-gamut monitor. Your mileage may vary. One word of caution; if you view these images in colour-broken browsers such as Chrome with a wide gamut-monitor then the colour saturation is going to be amplified! It's best to view these images in Firefox (with full colour mangement enabled) using a calibrated and profiled monitor but, if that is not possible, you should still be able to see the colour shifts between the browsers and compare.
  1. Untagged image
    Only Firefox shows the untagged image correctly.
    browser screenshots of untagged image
  2. Untagged image
    Only Firefox shows the untagged image correctly.
    browser screenshots of untagged image
  3. Tagged image
    Only Firefox and Safari show the tagged image correctly. The background colour is untagged so all browsers except Firefox have a problem in showing that correctly.
    browser screenshots of tagged image
In some ways I'm lucky that my two monitors have very similar colour responses otherwise my woe will be never-ending in a dual-monitor configuration with each display showing different colours in colour-blind applications. The wide-gamut display certainly helps when I want to take advantage of the large gamut of my printer and be able to "see" most of these colours on my screen.

Although I have Adobe Bridge on my system, I find it too slow so, instead, use Picasa 3 for searching but still edit in Photoshop; Picasa 3 is colour managed but I'm not sure which of my two monitor colour profiles it's using. Although Picasa 3 seems to display tagged JPEG files properly (for example either with sRGB or ProPhoto RGB profiles) the same cannot be said of its handling of PSD files. PSD files tagged with ProPhoto RGB look awful but PSD files in sRGB look fine. I suppose, as free software, that I should consider myself lucky that Picasa can read PSD files and even read my camera's RAW files.

If you find that your wide-gamut monitor is giving you hell and you can't live with it any longer, there are a couple of options besides replacing the monitor! These two options here are about trying to configure the monitor to respond as per a narrow-gamut or sRGB monitor.

Option 1

There may be a colour preset in your monitor controls to select "sRGB" mode. Do that. However, I find that on my monitors that this "sRGB" mode is not really that close to sRGB. But it may work for you.

Option 2

Your graphics driver may have an adjustment to change colours, gamma, etc. On my machine, I can use the "Nvidia Control Panel" to reduce "Digital vibrance" from 50% to 40%. 40% seems a decent match to sRGB; your mileage may vary. It ain't perfect, and I do recognise it as a kludge. Please note that you should have calibrated the display to 6500K and gamma 2.2 before making these adjustments in the "Nvidia Control Panel" or its equivalent. Once this is done, you should then remove the monitor colour profiles or select an sRGB profile in your OS's colour management control panel.

Windows 7 tip: if you're having difficulty locating the Windows "Color Management" control panel or the "Nvidia Control Panel" then use the "Windows Search" tool. "Windows Search" is accessed by either pressing the "Start" button or pressing the Windows key on your keyboard. Then just type "col" or "nv" (without the quotes) and then select. I find I'm using this feature a lot as I just don't want to waste my time memorising where all the software, apps, tools, etc are located.

I'm sure that there may be other options dependent upon your hardware/software configuration. You'll have to decide what works for you. And good luck!

D. References

  1. Making fine prints in your digital darkroom - Monitor calibration and gamma
    http://www.normankoren.com/makingfineprints1A.html
  2. The Lagom LCD monitor test pages
    http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/
  3. Why Are My Prints Too Dark?
    http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/why_are_my_prints_too_dark.shtml
  4. The Darkroom Makes a Comeback
    http://www.creativepro.com/article/the-darkroom-makes-a-comeback
  5. The sad state of web browser color management
    http://gearoracle.com/guides/web-browser-color-management-guide/
  6. Color Management and iPhone 4
    http://correctcolor.org/cccommentary/?p=140
  7. Color Management on the Internet
    http://correctcolor.org/cccommentary/?p=88
  8. Colour management for dodos
    http://dpanswers.com/content/tech_colmgmnt01.php
  9. Deconstructing Chromaticity
    http://www.photo-mark.com/notes/2010/sep/08/deconstructing-chromaticity/
  10. ICC specifications
    http://www.color.org/icc_specs2.xalter
  11. Is your system ICC Version 4 ready?
    http://www.color.org/version4html.xalter
  12. Monitor displays & viewing conditions - ColourStandards
    http://www.colourstandards.com.au/monitor_display.html
  13. Choosing an LCD Monitor for Photo-Editing/Viewing
    http://www.clarkvision.com/photoinfo/choosing_an_LCD_monitor/
  14. Why Use the ProPhoto RGB Color Space?
    http://www.outbackphoto.com/color_management/cm_06/essay.html
  15. Color Working Spaces: ProPhoto RGB vs. Adobe RGB (1998)
    http://codphoto.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/color-spaces/

This page last updated on 11th September 2011 by Kulvinder Singh Matharu

about me