Calibrating Your Monitor: Adorama's Step-By-Step Guide

Calibrating your monitor is an important step to ensure that what you see on your screen accurately reflects the information in the digital file. Adorama offers a range of monitor calibration tools, such as the X-Rite i1Display Pro, which is suitable for all displays, including LED monitors, and comes with advanced software for custom patch sets and basic and advanced controls. The Datacolor SpyderX Pro Color Calibration is another option, which is designed to calibrate a single monitor or colour-match up to four displays. Adorama also provides various calibration kits that include a USB-powered calibration device, software, and colour-checker cards. These kits offer a seamless calibration experience, ensuring your monitor displays accurate and consistent colours.

Calibration tools and software

Adorama offers a range of monitor calibration tools and software, including:

Datacolor SpyderX Series

The SpyderX series by Datacolor offers a range of calibration tools with varying features. The SpyderX Capture Pro Kit, SpyderX Studio, and SpyderX Pro + Cube Kit are some of the options available. These tools help calibrate your monitor for accurate color printing and editing.

Calibrite ColorChecker Series

The Calibrite ColorChecker series offers display calibration solutions, including the ColorChecker Display Plus and the ColorChecker Studio. These tools ensure accurate color representation on your monitor.

X-Rite i1 Series

X-Rite's i1 series includes the i1Basic Pro 3 Plus, i1iO Automated Scanning Table 3, and i1Publish Pro 3 Plus Software Bundle. These tools provide advanced color calibration and management solutions for professionals.

SpectraCal Klein Instruments K-10A Colorimeter

The SpectraCal Klein Instruments K-10A Colorimeter is a high-end color calibration device that ensures accurate color representation on your monitor.

DisplayCAL

DisplayCAL is a free and open-source display calibration software that works with a wide range of measurement instruments. It offers advanced features like verification and reporting functionality and is compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux.

EIZO ColorNavigator

EIZO's ColorNavigator software is designed for use with their ColorEdge monitors. It offers features like device emulation, self-calibration scheduling, and correlation with external sensors for accurate color representation.

Calibration frequency

Monthly Calibration:

Professional colourists and experts recommend calibrating your monitor at least once a month. This helps ensure that your colours remain consistent and accurate, especially as your monitor ages and its colour characteristics change over time. Monthly calibration is particularly important if you work in photography, videography, or any field where colour precision is crucial.

Bi-Monthly Calibration:

Newer monitors may be more stable in terms of colour accuracy, so you can consider calibrating every other month. This extended interval applies more to modern displays with advanced technologies that maintain colour stability.

Calibration on an As-Needed Basis:

If colour accuracy is not a top priority for your work, you can adopt a more flexible approach to calibration. Director and producer Taylor Kavanaugh, for instance, opts to test videos on various devices to ensure there are no drastic issues. This method relies on comparing the content across different screens rather than strictly adhering to a calibration schedule.

Calibration After Major Changes:

Colourist and editor Gerry Holtz suggests that problems often arise when colours are pushed to extremes. If you find yourself making significant colour adjustments, such as crushing the blacks, adding excessive contrast, or oversaturating hues, it's advisable to perform a calibration. This will help you avoid taking your colours too far and ensure they translate well across different devices.

In conclusion, the ideal calibration frequency depends on your specific requirements and the nature of your work. Monthly calibration is recommended for professionals seeking the highest colour accuracy, while others can adjust the interval or rely on comparative testing. Ultimately, calibration ensures that your monitor accurately reflects the information in the digital file, providing consistency between what you see on-screen and the final output.

Calibration components and kits

The Datacolor SpyderX range offers a variety of options, catering to different needs and budgets. The SpyderX Pro is a fast calibration tool with a new lens-based sensor system, ambient light monitoring, and multi-monitor support. The SpyderX Elite offers additional features such as projector profiling and advanced calibration options for video editing. The SpyderX Studio is a comprehensive kit that includes the SpyderX Elite monitor colourimeter, a SpyderPrint spectrocolorimeter, and a SpyderCube for setting white balance and exposure. The SpyderX Capture Pro Kit is another option that can be purchased at a discount.

The Calibrite ColorChecker range also provides a variety of choices. The ColorChecker Studio is an all-in-one device that combines monitor and printer calibration functions, making it larger than a typical monitor calibrator. The ColorChecker Display Pro is designed for image quality purists seeking top-notch calibration and extensive customisation options. The ColorChecker Display Plus is aimed at professionals working with super-bright HD and HDR monitors, offering luminance measurement up to 2000 nits and black current subtraction technology. The ColorChecker Display is another option in this range.

The X-Rite i1Display range includes the i1Display 2, which has Easy and Advanced modes, and the i1Display LT. X-Rite also offers the i1Basic Pro 3 Plus, a spectrophotometer with a 1024x768-pixel resolution or higher, and the i1iO Automated Scanning Table 3 as an optional add-on. Additionally, the i1Basic Pro 3 and i1Publish Pro 3 spectrophotometers can be bundled with the i1iO 3 Automated Chart Reader.

Other options include the SpectraCal Klein Instruments K-10A Colorimeter, the Datacolor Spyder4Pro S4P100 Colorimeter, and the Datacolor Spyder Checkr, which ensures accurate and consistent colour for varied cameras and lighting conditions.

Calibration devices

There are two main brands of calibration devices: Datacolor's Spyder X range and Calibrite's ColorChecker. X-Rite, which owns Calibrite, is another well-known manufacturer of calibration devices.

Datacolor's SpyderX Pro is a good option for most people as it is affordable and offers advanced features like multi-monitor support and light condition detection. The SpyderX Capture bundle includes the Spyder LensCal for lens autofocus, the Spyder Cube to define white and black values, and the Spyder Checkr to aid colour consistency.

Calibrite's Display Pro is a good option if you want to use the same profile across multiple displays. It also assesses the ambient light in your workspace and will measure and adjust your display profile for reduced contrast ratios caused by glare on your screen.

If you're looking for an all-in-one kit, the Datacolor SpyderX Studio gives you some of the best calibration and colour-assessing tools on the market. It will be overwhelming for beginners but perfect for professionals.

For those working with HDR video using the latest super-bright screens, the Calibrite Display Plus HL is a good option. It provides HDR support and the ability to set BT 1886 gamma and suits LCD, mini-LED, and OLED displays, including Apple XDR panels.

The X-Rite i1Display Pro is another popular option that is considered good value for money. It is priced the same as the higher-end Spyders but has a better reputation.

Calibration software

The software simplifies the calibration process so that all you need to do is set up your device and start the program. It's important to use the software that is designed for your specific device for the best results.

DisplayCAL

DisplayCAL is a free, open-source display calibration and profiling solution that focuses on accuracy and versatility. It relies on ArgyllCMS, an advanced, open-source colour management system, to take measurements, create calibrations, and perform other advanced colour-related tasks. DisplayCAL supports a wide range of measurement instruments and offers a variety of options for advanced users, such as verification and reporting functionality.

EIZO ColorNavigator

EIZO ColorNavigator is compatible with a wide range of measurement devices and can be used to calibrate EIZO ColorEdge monitors. It offers preset values for web content, photography, and printing, making it easy for users with limited colour management knowledge to calibrate their monitors. ColorNavigator also includes features such as paper white measurement, post-calibration colour adjustment, device emulation, and recalibration reminders.

Calman

Calman is a comprehensive colour calibration solution offered by Portrait Displays. It includes both professional and consumer software options. The professional software is tailored for calibrating monitors, panels, projectors, and more, while the consumer software is designed for home theatre consumers seeking optimised colour on their displays. Calman also offers AutoCal for select consumer and studio displays, manual calibration workflows, and support for a wide range of measurement devices and video test pattern generators.

Frequently asked questions