Colour Calibration

[groberts]

Following the complete meltdown of my main / processing laptop I've just acquired a replacement running Windows 11 and am struggling to get the 'correct' colours for images. 

I've been using the Windows' Colour Calibration process accessed via the Control Panel to adjust Gamma, Brightness, Contrast and the one that's causing me a headache which is the adjustment of Red-Green-Blue levels to achive a neutral outcome.  At first the result doesn't look too bad after tweaking these colour levels a few times but when I look at terrestrial photos I can't seem to get rid of residual green and / or yellow hues that seem to linger.  Looking at my astrohotography images, which I was hitherto happy with they look all over the place, especially the sky colour which I'd processed to something that previously looked OK with a decent black point (and still does on another back-up laptop) but not on the new laptop.  

I would appreciate any guidance on how to deal with this issue i.e. colour calibration on a computer not each image, preferably not too complicated and / or is there a better / foolproof technique or software available that might help?

Graham       

[Alien 13]

To be honest you cant do better than get a Spyder or similar calibrator...I use an old Spyder 5 on my laptop and it guarantees correct colour balance as well a properly defining the black and white points, this ensures that any image posted anywhere is correct even if the laptop has a limited colour gamut range which most do.

Alan

Edited October 25, 2021 by Alien 13

[vlaiv]

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1506566-REG/x_rite_eodisstu_i1display_studio.html

[groberts]

OK thanks  Alan but what is a Spider, what does it do, how does it do it + where  do I get them? 

Graham

[ONIKKINEN]

An easy, but not cheap method would be to buy a calibrated monitor and hook it up to the laptop. Mine has an sRGB mode built in. 

Whether its accurate or not i dont know.

[vlaiv]

2 minutes ago, groberts said:

OK thanks  Alan but what is a Spider, what does it do, how does it do it + where  do I get them? 

Graham

There is a link to similar product that I posted, and by some accounts - a better one (more precise).

It is used by placing it on computer screen in certain way and then software is run (you get license with hardware bit) and it tells you how to adjust your computer screen and creates color profile for accurate color reproduction.

Have a look at this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwI61SR-ua0

 

[Alien 13]

12 minutes ago, groberts said:

OK thanks  Alan but what is a Spider, what does it do, how does it do it + where  do I get them? 

Graham

Basically what these calibrators do is measure the response of your display at various levels then create a new ICC profile that  corrects for any errors and is stored on your computer. This is a fully automatic process with most calibrators.

There are lots of these devices around but this is the new Spyder version here

Alan

Edited October 25, 2021 by Alien 13

[groberts]

Many thanks guys, pity it looks like more costs but I guess that's inevitable. 

Have watched videos on both and, of course, they do a very similar thing.  Would be interested in the first hand experience of any others who use either of these or alternative techniques before I proceed.

Graham  

[Jonk]

2 hours ago, vlaiv said:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1506566-REG/x_rite_eodisstu_i1display_studio.html

+1

I have one and it's good.

[DaveS]

Have a look at This Page from Wex Photo Video. Plenty to choose from, just select how much.

[Dr_Ju_ju]

Going back to the 1970's, 80's & 90's, when I used to work for a broadcasting organisation, designing / building studios etc., on buying monitors, especially grade 1's, almost all testing was done with test card F (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_BBC_test_cards).

Granted at the time, the screens were all thermionic tube based, and at a much lower resolution etc., but the later test cards W / X  still work well....

[BCN_Sean]

Have a look at DisplayCAL; might seem a bit odd recommending a software package before the hardware, but get a look at the list of compatible hardware for it as a lot of hardware that has been obsoleted by manufacturer (software support mainly) still works well with it and some of the meters can be picked up for junk value.  The meter I use on my machines, I paid a pint of ale for about 10 years ago.

[tomato]

+1 for DisplayCAL, I use it with the Spyder 5 Express, in preference to the software bundled with the device.