Easy Monitor Calibration For Photography On A Budget

Calibrating your monitor is essential for photographers to ensure that the images they produce are as accurate as possible. Without calibration, you may end up with inconsistent results, with colours appearing differently on other screens or in print form. Calibration ensures that the colours, brightness, contrast, and vibrancy of your monitor are true to life. While calibrating your monitor may seem daunting, there are a variety of methods to choose from, ranging from free built-in software tools to more advanced hardware devices.

Calibration vs profiling

Calibration and profiling are two key processes in colour management that are often confused with each other. Calibration sets the device into its best native state using its hardware controls. This involves changing various physical parameters on your monitor, such as brightness, and creating a Look-Up Table (LUT). The LUT takes an input value and converts it into a new value that compensates for that particular monitor's characteristics.

Profiling, on the other hand, is the process of measuring and fixing any remaining inaccuracies in the device's colour output by modifying the signal going into the device. It involves measuring the imperfections in the monitor and creating a "filter" that compensates for those imperfections. This is done by using a hardware device, often referred to as a "puck" (a Colorimeter or Spectrophotometer), that hangs over the monitor screen and reads several sets of red, green, blue and grey patches generated by the profiling software. The differences between the colours the monitor displays in its native state and the true colours of the patches are used to create a monitor profile, which will cause the monitor to display colours more accurately.

The objective of calibration and profiling is to ensure consistent colour reproduction from capture to output. While calibration gets the monitor into a desirable and well-defined state, profiling further improves the accuracy of colour reproduction by characterising the monitor's calibrated state using a colour profile. This colour profile is a very accurate description of a device, usually in table form, that maps input signals to the real colours produced.

Both calibration and profiling are important for monitor colour accuracy. Colour management works best when both processes are performed – first, a calibration is completed, and then a profile is made of the device in its calibrated state.

Adjusting brightness and contrast

Before you begin, make sure your display has been given at least 10-15 minutes to warm up.

Mid-tones

Having well-calibrated mid-tones is often the highest priority goal. A well-calibrated monitor should depict the central square as being the same shade as the solid outer portion when viewed out of focus or at a distance. The leftmost and rightmost squares should also appear darker and lighter than the solid grey, respectively. If your monitor is set to gamma 2.2, and the central square is lighter or darker than the outer grey region, your display is likely depicting images lighter or darker than intended. This will also have a noticeable impact on your prints.

If you are using an LCD monitor, first set your display to its default contrast (this will likely be either 100% or 50%), then adjust the brightness until the central square blends in. If you are using a CRT monitor, set it to maximum contrast. For both CRT and LCD displays, make sure that these are set to gamma 2.2 if available (most current displays come with this as the native setting).

Note: Increasing the brightness of your display too much can shorten its usable lifespan. You will likely not need to have your display at its maximum brightness if the room isn't too bright, if the display isn't back-lit (such as in front of a window) and if the display isn't too old.

Highlight and Shadow Detail

If you've followed the previous calibration, now your mid-tones will be roughly reproduced at the shade intended. However, it may also mean that the shadows and highlights will appear too bright or dark, or vice versa. You should be able to distinguish the eight shades in each of the two images below.

The two adjacent shaded bands at each outer edge of this page should be just barely distinguishable. Otherwise, you've likely reached the limit of what brightness/contrast adjustments alone can achieve. Alternatively, if maximal shadow and highlight detail are more important than mid-tone lightness, you can ignore the mid-tone image. In that case, first use brightness to control shadow detail and then use contrast to control highlight detail (in that order). When brightness is too high, solid black will appear grey, but when it's too low, shadow clipping will make several of the darker eight shades appear the same.

Calibration devices

Datacolor SpyderX Pro

The SpyderX Pro is an easy-to-use product that comes with two fixed calibration settings, perfect for non-professional photographers and designers. It is also compatible with both desktop and laptop screens.

Calibrite ColorChecker Display Pro

The Calibrite ColorChecker Display Pro is compact, self-sufficient, and highly portable. It plugs directly into your computer's USB port, and you can also see the before and after results of your calibration.

X-Rite i1 Display PRO

The X-Rite i1 Display Pro is handy for creatives who use a laptop or desktop along with projector screens. It uses the same profile across displays and assesses the ambient light in the room to ensure your project always looks its best on the screen.

Datacolor SpyderX Studio

The SpyderX Studio from Datacolor comes with the SpyderX Elite monitor colourimeter, a SpyderPrint spectrocolourimeter to check your printouts, and the SpyderCube to calibrate raw images.

Calibrite ColorChecker Studio

The Calibrite ColorChecker Studio is a similar calibration tool to the Calibrite ColorChecker Display Pro. However, while they offer nearly the same features, the Studio lacks ambient light monitoring, which is important for designers working in an office.

X-Rite i1Display Studio

The X-Rite i1Display Studio is a very similar calibration tool to the X-Rite i1 Display Pro. However, while they offer nearly the same features, the Studio lacks ambient light monitoring, which can be crucial for designers working in an office.

Built-in and online calibration tools

If you're looking for a quick, cheap, and easy way to calibrate your monitor, you can use the built-in calibration tools on Windows and Mac computers. These tools are free to use and can help you adjust your monitor's colour, brightness, contrast, and vibrancy to ensure they are true to life. The specific steps to access these tools will depend on your operating system and version:

Windows 10:

Right-click on the desktop, select Display Settings from the drop-down menu, then scroll down to Color Calibration under the Related Settings menu. This will open a calibration tool that will guide you through adjusting the gamma, brightness, contrast, and colour.

Windows 11:

Type "Calibrate" into the Windows search bar and select "Calibrate display colour" from the results. Follow the on-screen instructions to adjust your display's gamma, brightness, contrast, and colour balance settings.

MacOS:

Go to System Preferences > Displays > Colour > Calibration. This will open a tool that guides you through calibrating your monitor by adjusting the white point and, depending on your display type, other settings such as gamma and contrast.

While built-in calibration tools are a good first step, they have their limitations. The adjustments you can make are restricted by the display type and model, and the accuracy of the calibration depends on your colour perception.

If you want to try a different method, there are also several free online calibration tools available. These can provide more precise or customised calibration than built-in utilities, but they still rely on your interpretation of colours and contrast. Here are some options to try:

• Photo Friday: A simple one-page tool to adjust your monitor's brightness and contrast using grayscale tones.
• Lagom LCD Monitor Test Pages: A comprehensive set of test patterns to check and adjust your monitor's settings, including brightness, contrast, sharpness, and response times.
• Online Monitor Test: A range of interactive tests to fix your screen colours, including brightness, contrast, colour range, and homogeneity.
• W4zt Screen Colour Test: A simple webpage with colour gradients and grayscale colour boxes for quick comparisons, along with a gamma test.
• FlatPanels.DK: A test screen that shows various shades of grey to help you see how well your monitor can differentiate between similar shades.
• DryCreekPhoto.com: A simple test to check if your monitor's black point is set correctly and to find the minimum shadow level it can display.

Hardware calibration

Monitor calibrators are placed on your screen and, using accompanying software, will display a selection of colours for the calibrator to analyse. The device will then detect any discrepancies, and your computer will be programmed to compensate for them.

Monitor calibrators are especially useful if you use an inkjet printer and want "what-you-see-is-what-you-get" results. They are also vital if you are a professional or semi-professional photographer shooting colour-critical subjects, such as products or fashion.

There are a variety of monitor calibrators on the market, ranging from budget options to premium, professional-level calibrators. Here are some of the best options:

• Datacolor SpyderX Pro: This calibrator is fast, with a calibration time of under two minutes, and offers features like ambient light monitoring and multi-monitor support.
• Calibrite ColorChecker Studio: This is an all-in-one device that can calibrate both a monitor and a printer.
• Datacolor SpyderX Elite: This calibrator offers advanced features such as the ability to calibrate to colour space standards like sRGB, Adobe RGB, NTSC, and Rec 709.
• Datacolor Spyder X2 Ultra: This calibrator provides excellent calibration accuracy and supports high-brightness monitors.
• Calibrite ColorChecker Display Pro: This calibrator is designed for image quality purists who want top-notch calibration as quickly as possible.
• Datacolor SpyderX Studio: This is a large collection of gear, including a monitor colorimeter, a separate spectrocolorimeter for assessing printed output, and a small SpyderCube to help set the white balance, exposure, black level, and brightness.
• Calibrite ColorChecker Display Plus: This calibrator is aimed at professional filmmakers, editors, colourists, and photographers using super-bright HD and HDR monitors. It can measure luminance/brightness levels up to 2000 nits.
• X-Rite i1Basic Pro 3 Plus: This calibration kit offers excellent precision and video support, and can calibrate unlimited monitors.
• Wacom Color Manager: This calibrator is specifically designed for Wacom devices, such as the Cintiq 27QHD Creative Pen Display, and can also be used with other monitors and mobile devices.

While hardware calibration provides more accurate results than manual calibration, it is important to note that no amount of calibration can make a mediocre monitor into a dream display. Therefore, it is crucial to invest in a high-quality monitor, especially if you are a professional photographer or editor.

Frequently asked questions