Thanks for another informative video. I’ve followed your advice in previous videos and calibrated my BenQ monitor. I then sent (my first) the file to a pro print shop and the results were perfect. Have had some nice comments 👍
There is a television show called Brain Games that presents interesting neurological functions such as "optical illusions" (available at least in iTunes). The first illusion shown on the show (episode one of season one) gives an explanation of the "perceived contrast" described from 7:50 to 9:35. The show's "optical illusion" is very stunning. The neurologist giving the explanation in the show is named Beau Lotto.
Thanks for your common sense approach, especially as I know you are a very experienced professional in printing. Now I am off to calibrate my monitor again!
Glad to help - Some people just make it too difficult ;-) I'm sure some will get sniffy over such imprecision - but the suggestions are not really for them...
Hi Keith! Glad to see you're still around, and still making great content. I really appreciate the tip on how to compare what you have a monitor to a print. Your videos are always a pleasure. Hope all is well.
Thank you for another professional video. Good to know that sound knowledge is also conveyed without 'bells and whistles'! I use a BENQ-SW271 and often edit in black and white. I'm sure you have experience whether in general or only in special cases the implemented black and white display of the BENQ is preferable for editing (for example for a print on glossy vs. art paper). Thank you very much for your feedback. I am still looking forward to your 'show-free' contributions and send my best regards from Italy (Costa dei Trabocchi), Lutz
Thanks. I don't actually use the B&W mode on any of my BenQ monitors other than for quick demos, where it is good. I prefer using the normal calibrated mode - the same as I use when working in colour. In some ways the B&W mode falls a bit into the whistles and bells category ;-) One time I do make use of the ability to set a monitor mode is setting it to REC709 for video editing
Excellent Keith, thank you! How do I change the colour behind the image in photoshop? I have searched the web and TH-cam but cannot find it. Thank you.
I just press F to toggle screen modes The background colour can be changed in the interface tab of the preferences - I use photoshop in a mid grey mode. Years of UI research work before I took up photography have left me with an enduring dislike of editing tools in 'Dark mode' Also 30+ years of using large monitors on Macs has left a dislike of 'full screen mode' for windows... YMMV ;-)
Hi! In the more recent versions of Photoshop you can select between a couple of preconfigured shades for the Standard Screen Mode, Full Screen Mode with Menus, Full Screen, etc. under Edit > Preferences > Interface. BUT, you can give the area around the image any color or shade you like. If you want a specific color/shade just select the Paint Bucket tool and chose the color or gray shade you like, then hold Shift and click on the area around the image to apply that color/shade to it. Should you want to return the shade to any of the "factory presets" just go into the Interface settings again and select the shade you want to apply to each Screen Mode through their respective drop down menus (Note! Sometimes you need to have another tool than the Paint Bucket tool currently selected when you RESTORE these particular setting.). I hope this helps.
Hi Keith, great video. I print using a local and online photo print shops. This means the printers are outside of my control. How should i profile / calibrate for that? Thanks!
Thanks for the video. Should I set the monitor temperature to match the room light temperature? Should I get the room light temperature by Color checker ? Thanks
In general no - lower temperatures do not work so well on most monitors Set it to a standard. I use low temperatures just for shooting videos - I wouldn't want to edit on those screens
Thank you for sharing your knowledge 😊 I’m very new to printing my own photos and I struggle a bit with getting the right colours and brightness on my prints. When you talk about “calibrating your monitor”, do you refer to choosing different values yourself on the monitor, or using an external monitor calibration tool? I’ve tried to calibrate myself, but I don’t think it’s very well done.
It's using a calibrator - there's no reliable way of doing it 'by eye' There might be something of interest here? - covers my videos and articles www.northlight-images.co.uk/category/articles-and-reviews/monitor-calibration/
@@KeithCooper That’s great to know! I’ve been unsure of the need for a calibration tool, but now I feel convinced that there’s no way around it. I’ll dig into your archive, thanks! 😀
Thanks for your honest approach as usual, would you say that the background in photoshop is better using a lighter colour, also the bulb you are using in your computer room should be the same as in my case 6500 ?
I do not have a home printer. I have my images printed by a commercial photo printing house. They recommend the cd/m2 setting of 120 for their purposes. Gamma 2.2 and 6500k. I can only adjust cd/m2 to 123. A small deviation? Anyway, the prints come out close to what I want based on the way I edited the images; not exact, a tad darker. Your thoughts? If I want the prints brighter should I adjust the cd/m2 lower? Many thanks. I appreciate your excellent videos.
120/123 is lost in the accuracy of measurement ;-) Going down to 100 (if the surroundings are not too bright may well give a more consistent match. but with an external print service it's always a bit of an unknown.
@@KeithCooper my monitor has sRGB and Pro RGB. I print just for myself and gift to family members. I have it set to sRGB and things look pretty accurate I was wandering if it is worth bothering with pro rgb? Thank you 🙏
If the results are OK for you, then why change. Sure there are always 'better' ways of doing things, but you can't just change one aspect and expect changes without a look at all of your colour management - that might be far more work than you want...
Thanks, great video! What I‘m still struggling for (as someone who wants to enter printing) on my EIZO 2731 monitor is brightness. What about 120 or 140 candelar? Is this really too bright for printing (if you want your printing results match your screen?). Thank you very much for all your efforts to teach and help people! :) One more question question, if I may. If you turn it to 100 candelar (or even below), isn‘t there a chance that you develop to bright for showing pictures on the web (with people having their iPads, iPhones etc. set to maximum brightness - as I also have all the time?) Or do you change your screen brightness when editing pictures for web publishing?
I have a brightness around 100, BUT the room is quite dim. If I was editing for phones etc, I'd have a separate calibration on my monitor set to 140 or so, which I could use for testing - teh BenQ moniotr I uses allows me to have custom settings, so I have a REC709 one for when I'm editing videos The other thing is to accept that prints will never ever 'match' a screen - appreciating that and having good lighting for print viewing really helps. I cover this in several vdeos in the colour management playlist
@@KeithCooper Thank you Keith, highly appreciated! This was really helpful for my workflow. So I will edit in 140 when publishing on the net and 80 (to get some experience) when printing. Let‘s see how it works out :) Thank you very much again for your support!
Thanks Keith. Very informative. I noticed you using a Mac laptop. I recently replaced mine with the 16-inch Liquid Retina XDR display. I have a Spyder X pro ( which I used for my last laptop). But I can find no information about using it with the newer M1 macs. I don’t know whether to use the laptops default calibration settings ( it has a few profiles - including one supposedly for photos) or to use a profile set by the Spyder. But how to set the Spyder up on the new system - I don’t know. Do you know of any idiots guide to do this ? ( what settings to have the laptop on or off before setting up the Spyder)
The software should work pretty much the same - see the Datacolor site for the latest version and IIRC some notes on 'M' based Macs. Mine is a 2010 model... no chance of a replacement any time soon :-(
Wonderful video as always. Very helpful also. Thank you for that ❤️ I have the i1studio calibrated my screen an I have make a lot of profiles for papers but the only time that my prints are much with my monitor is only if my monitor working with d50 profile. When my monitor is working in d65 my prints especially the portraits is so of that I can't recognize the person in the photo anymore, yellowish like an Indian😂 The strange think is when my monitor is working at d65 (i1studio profile) and print with my Epson L8180 driver profile the colors are close. Apparently the i1studio the printer profiles that makes is only d50 and the driver profiles is like a d65. No option to choose, but when you see printed photos with i1studio profile is absolutely d50. I wish to give me the option to choose like in monitor that i can choose. Anyway, thank you again for all of your advices. George from Greece
Well, my dislike of D50 for monitors is a personal thing - I always say, use what works for you. However the white point of printer profiles has nothing to do with this - that's just a standard for viewing and profile production. I suspect something is wrong somewhere - but if it works!
Hello Keith... Another great video which is very helpful for me as a printing newbie. I just didn't quite understand how you handle it. So on your main monitor there are two profiles...one at 6500k and another at 5000k. If you only edit pictures you choose the 6500k, if you edit pictures for a print you take the 5000k. Did I understand that correctly? Greetings from Germany
Thanks Yes - I actually use 6500K most of the time. I have used 5000K for some editing sessions, but it's been stuff where I was working with commercial printers and it made it easier to match the settings they were using. I find 5000K easily feels a little dim without changing the room lighting a bit. The interesting bit is when I try and do something with the monitor you see in the videos - with it set to 4000K and the video lighting all at ~4000K Looks fine in the videos but really drab to my eyes ;-)
@@KeithCooper I print with a Pro-200, mostly on Hahnemühle paper. For this I use the ICC profile created by Hahnemühle. If I set my Eizo monitor to 5000k, the soft proof looks like the print. Is also because my study is lit with 5000k lamps. But it doesn't bring me much because the picture is ultimately not hung in a room with 5000k lighting. Am I wrong when I say I leave my monitor at 6500k during the proof so that when it is hung on the wall and not illuminated with 5000k lamps, it is closer to my monitor image?
Use what you find works, but I'd say treat soft proofing as an occasional tool, not a regular aspect of your workflow. Yes, habitual use of soft proofing is a bugbear of mine ;-) :-) th-cam.com/video/b72c4tf_NLA/w-d-xo.html The print is NOT the screen and the screen is NOT the print! Of course they look different ;-)
@@KeithCooper I just watched the video and you are of course right. I've already written that all of this is only of limited use if the print ends up hanging in a room with different lighting conditions. I guess I'll have to get a feel for it first 🙈 And if I think the print is great at the end, I've done everything right. Even if it looks different on the monitor😂
220 is very bright If the ambient light is being measured to give this number, then it suggests far too bright a room for good editing (from a tonality POV) It doesn't affect colours so much as potentially give dark prints...
Yes - modern monitors are too bright for photo editing - I pay no attention whatsoever to their maximum settings. 90 to 120 covers what I need. If you need HDR and high brightness for something then go for it, but it's just not relevant for my work.
Thanks for explaining this subject in detail.
Glad it was of interest
Thanks for another informative video. I’ve followed your advice in previous videos and calibrated my BenQ monitor. I then sent (my first) the file to a pro print shop and the results were perfect. Have had some nice comments 👍
That's great - thanks for taking the time to post it.
There is a television show called Brain Games that presents interesting neurological functions such as "optical illusions" (available at least in iTunes). The first illusion shown on the show (episode one of season one) gives an explanation of the "perceived contrast" described from 7:50 to 9:35. The show's "optical illusion" is very stunning. The neurologist giving the explanation in the show is named Beau Lotto.
Thanks for that
Thanks for your common sense approach, especially as I know you are a very experienced professional in printing. Now I am off to calibrate my monitor again!
Glad to help - Some people just make it too difficult ;-)
I'm sure some will get sniffy over such imprecision - but the suggestions are not really for them...
Hi Keith! Glad to see you're still around, and still making great content. I really appreciate the tip on how to compare what you have a monitor to a print. Your videos are always a pleasure. Hope all is well.
Thanks - glad it was of interest.
Thank you for another professional video. Good to know that sound knowledge is also conveyed without 'bells and whistles'!
I use a BENQ-SW271 and often edit in black and white. I'm sure you have experience whether in general or only in special cases the implemented black and white display of the BENQ is preferable for editing (for example for a print on glossy vs. art paper).
Thank you very much for your feedback.
I am still looking forward to your 'show-free' contributions and send my best regards from Italy (Costa dei Trabocchi), Lutz
Thanks.
I don't actually use the B&W mode on any of my BenQ monitors other than for quick demos, where it is good.
I prefer using the normal calibrated mode - the same as I use when working in colour.
In some ways the B&W mode falls a bit into the whistles and bells category ;-)
One time I do make use of the ability to set a monitor mode is setting it to REC709 for video editing
@@KeithCooper I do quite a lot of monochrome, my results are never very like what BenQ shows me.
@@oneeyedphotographer Yes, not part of my B&W workflow
Love your videos
Thanks!
Excellent Keith, thank you! How do I change the colour behind the image in photoshop? I have searched the web and TH-cam but cannot find it. Thank you.
I just press F to toggle screen modes
The background colour can be changed in the interface tab of the preferences - I use photoshop in a mid grey mode.
Years of UI research work before I took up photography have left me with an enduring dislike of editing tools in 'Dark mode'
Also 30+ years of using large monitors on Macs has left a dislike of 'full screen mode' for windows... YMMV ;-)
@@KeithCooper thank you Keith!
Hi! In the more recent versions of Photoshop you can select between a couple of preconfigured shades for the Standard Screen Mode, Full Screen Mode with Menus, Full Screen, etc. under Edit > Preferences > Interface.
BUT, you can give the area around the image any color or shade you like.
If you want a specific color/shade just select the Paint Bucket tool and chose the color or gray shade you like, then hold Shift and click on the area around the image to apply that color/shade to it.
Should you want to return the shade to any of the "factory presets" just go into the Interface settings again and select the shade you want to apply to each Screen Mode through their respective drop down menus (Note! Sometimes you need to have another tool than the Paint Bucket tool currently selected when you RESTORE these particular setting.).
I hope this helps.
Hi Keith, great video. I print using a local and online photo print shops. This means the printers are outside of my control. How should i profile / calibrate for that? Thanks!
This is a tricky one, since good print companies will acknowledge this and offer advice.
I'd at least send them a standard test image...
Thanks for the video. Should I set the monitor temperature to match the room light temperature? Should I get the room light temperature by Color checker ? Thanks
In general no - lower temperatures do not work so well on most monitors
Set it to a standard.
I use low temperatures just for shooting videos - I wouldn't want to edit on those screens
Thank you for sharing your knowledge 😊 I’m very new to printing my own photos and I struggle a bit with getting the right colours and brightness on my prints. When you talk about “calibrating your monitor”, do you refer to choosing different values yourself on the monitor, or using an external monitor calibration tool? I’ve tried to calibrate myself, but I don’t think it’s very well done.
It's using a calibrator - there's no reliable way of doing it 'by eye'
There might be something of interest here? - covers my videos and articles
www.northlight-images.co.uk/category/articles-and-reviews/monitor-calibration/
@@KeithCooper That’s great to know! I’ve been unsure of the need for a calibration tool, but now I feel convinced that there’s no way around it. I’ll dig into your archive, thanks! 😀
Thanks for your honest approach as usual, would you say that the background in photoshop is better using a lighter colour, also the bulb you are using in your computer room should be the same as in my case 6500 ?
I prefer a mid grey
It's an ordinary white lightbulb - just dim enough that it doesn't interfere with my editing.
I do not have a home printer. I have my images printed by a commercial photo printing house. They recommend the cd/m2 setting of 120 for their purposes. Gamma 2.2 and 6500k. I can only adjust cd/m2 to 123. A small deviation? Anyway, the prints come out close to what I want based on the way I edited the images; not exact, a tad darker. Your thoughts? If I want the prints brighter should I adjust the cd/m2 lower? Many thanks. I appreciate your excellent videos.
120/123 is lost in the accuracy of measurement ;-)
Going down to 100 (if the surroundings are not too bright may well give a more consistent match. but with an external print service it's always a bit of an unknown.
Thank you Keith. What about color should we set monitor to sRGB to edit then print in sRGB? Thank you 🙏
Depends on the monitor capabilities
As to sRGB, depends on what you're doing and what the images are for.
@@KeithCooper my monitor has sRGB and Pro RGB. I print just for myself and gift to family members. I have it set to sRGB and things look pretty accurate I was wandering if it is worth bothering with pro rgb? Thank you 🙏
If the results are OK for you, then why change.
Sure there are always 'better' ways of doing things, but you can't just change one aspect and expect changes without a look at all of your colour management - that might be far more work than you want...
@@KeithCooper makes perfect sense. Thank you Keith. 🙏
Thanks, great video! What I‘m still struggling for (as someone who wants to enter printing) on my EIZO 2731 monitor is brightness. What about 120 or 140 candelar? Is this really too bright for printing (if you want your printing results match your screen?). Thank you very much for all your efforts to teach and help people! :) One more question question, if I may. If you turn it to 100 candelar (or even below), isn‘t there a chance that you develop to bright for showing pictures on the web (with people having their iPads, iPhones etc. set to maximum brightness - as I also have all the time?) Or do you change your screen brightness when editing pictures for web publishing?
I have a brightness around 100, BUT the room is quite dim.
If I was editing for phones etc, I'd have a separate calibration on my monitor set to 140 or so, which I could use for testing - teh BenQ moniotr I uses allows me to have custom settings, so I have a REC709 one for when I'm editing videos
The other thing is to accept that prints will never ever 'match' a screen - appreciating that and having good lighting for print viewing really helps. I cover this in several vdeos in the colour management playlist
@@KeithCooper Thank you Keith, highly appreciated! This was really helpful for my workflow. So I will edit in 140 when publishing on the net and 80 (to get some experience) when printing. Let‘s see how it works out :) Thank you very much again for your support!
Thanks Keith. Very informative. I noticed you using a Mac laptop. I recently replaced mine with the 16-inch Liquid Retina XDR display. I have a Spyder X pro ( which I used for my last laptop). But I can find no information about using it with the newer M1 macs. I don’t know whether to use the laptops default calibration settings ( it has a few profiles - including one supposedly for photos) or to use a profile set by the Spyder. But how to set the Spyder up on the new system - I don’t know. Do you know of any idiots guide to do this ? ( what settings to have the laptop on or off before setting up the Spyder)
The software should work pretty much the same - see the Datacolor site for the latest version and IIRC some notes on 'M' based Macs. Mine is a 2010 model... no chance of a replacement any time soon :-(
Wonderful video as always.
Very helpful also. Thank you for that ❤️
I have the i1studio calibrated my screen an I have make a lot of profiles for papers but the only time that my prints are much with my monitor is only if my monitor working with d50 profile. When my monitor is working in d65 my prints especially the portraits is so of that I can't recognize the person in the photo anymore, yellowish like an Indian😂
The strange think is when my monitor is working at d65 (i1studio profile) and print with my Epson L8180 driver profile the colors are close. Apparently the i1studio the printer profiles that makes is only d50 and the driver profiles is like a d65. No option to choose, but when you see printed photos with i1studio profile is absolutely d50. I wish to give me the option to choose like in monitor that i can choose.
Anyway, thank you again for all of your advices.
George from Greece
Well, my dislike of D50 for monitors is a personal thing - I always say, use what works for you.
However the white point of printer profiles has nothing to do with this - that's just a standard for viewing and profile production. I suspect something is wrong somewhere - but if it works!
Hello Keith...
Another great video which is very helpful for me as a printing newbie. I just didn't quite understand how you handle it. So on your main monitor there are two profiles...one at 6500k and another at 5000k. If you only edit pictures you choose the 6500k, if you edit pictures for a print you take the 5000k. Did I understand that correctly?
Greetings from Germany
Thanks
Yes - I actually use 6500K most of the time.
I have used 5000K for some editing sessions, but it's been stuff where I was working with commercial printers and it made it easier to match the settings they were using.
I find 5000K easily feels a little dim without changing the room lighting a bit.
The interesting bit is when I try and do something with the monitor you see in the videos - with it set to 4000K and the video lighting all at ~4000K Looks fine in the videos but really drab to my eyes ;-)
@@KeithCooper I print with a Pro-200, mostly on Hahnemühle paper. For this I use the ICC profile created by Hahnemühle. If I set my Eizo monitor to 5000k, the soft proof looks like the print. Is also because my study is lit with 5000k lamps. But it doesn't bring me much because the picture is ultimately not hung in a room with 5000k lighting. Am I wrong when I say I leave my monitor at 6500k during the proof so that when it is hung on the wall and not illuminated with 5000k lamps, it is closer to my monitor image?
Use what you find works, but I'd say treat soft proofing as an occasional tool, not a regular aspect of your workflow.
Yes, habitual use of soft proofing is a bugbear of mine ;-) :-)
th-cam.com/video/b72c4tf_NLA/w-d-xo.html
The print is NOT the screen and the screen is NOT the print! Of course they look different ;-)
@@KeithCooper I just watched the video and you are of course right. I've already written that all of this is only of limited use if the print ends up hanging in a room with different lighting conditions.
I guess I'll have to get a feel for it first 🙈 And if I think the print is great at the end, I've done everything right. Even if it looks different on the monitor😂
When I calibrate my monitor the software is asking me set set my brightness to 220 cdm. You recommend 90/100 cdm. Wouldn't that throw off my colors?
220 is very bright
If the ambient light is being measured to give this number, then it suggests far too bright a room for good editing (from a tonality POV)
It doesn't affect colours so much as potentially give dark prints...
90 candles is 90 nits? my monitor has 300 nits, would that mean using it at 90 nits, i.e. 35...40% brightness? thanks
Yes - modern monitors are too bright for photo editing - I pay no attention whatsoever to their maximum settings. 90 to 120 covers what I need.
If you need HDR and high brightness for something then go for it, but it's just not relevant for my work.