Online Magazine
Recent Posts
- Safeguard your Cellphone Photos
- Black & White to Color – Instantly
- Wearing Many Hats
- Video Roundup
- Rescuing Your Blurry Pictures
- Showing Their Age
- What is Your Angle?
- Panorama Photos
- Humorous Photos
- Close Ups
- Fisheye Pictures
- Photo Antiquities
- Printing Big
- Appreciating Scale
- Celebrity Sightings
Tags
More Places to Go
- Free "How-To" Books “How To” books for popular cameras 0
- Vist Us on Facebook keep in touch with us on Facebook 2
Archives
- July 2023 (1)
- March 2023 (2)
- February 2023 (1)
- December 2022 (1)
- October 2022 (1)
- September 2022 (8)
- August 2022 (9)
- July 2022 (1)
- June 2022 (1)
- June 2021 (1)
- May 2021 (1)
- March 2021 (5)
- February 2021 (4)
- January 2021 (2)
- April 2019 (1)
- March 2019 (1)
- February 2019 (1)
- October 2018 (2)
- April 2018 (1)
- March 2018 (4)
- February 2018 (1)
- November 2017 (1)
- August 2017 (1)
- June 2017 (1)
- April 2017 (1)
- March 2017 (5)
- February 2017 (2)
- January 2017 (1)
- October 2016 (1)
- September 2016 (1)
- August 2016 (1)
- July 2016 (1)
- May 2016 (1)
- April 2016 (1)
- March 2016 (2)
- February 2016 (1)
- January 2016 (2)
- December 2015 (1)
- November 2015 (1)
- October 2015 (3)
- April 2015 (1)
- March 2015 (5)
- February 2015 (1)
- January 2015 (4)
- December 2014 (2)
- November 2014 (5)
- October 2014 (2)
- September 2014 (1)
- August 2014 (2)
- July 2014 (1)
- May 2014 (1)
- April 2014 (5)
- March 2014 (5)
- December 2013 (2)
- November 2013 (18)
- October 2013 (1)
- September 2013 (1)
- August 2013 (1)
- July 2013 (1)
- June 2013 (3)
- May 2013 (1)
- April 2013 (2)
- March 2013 (1)
- February 2013 (1)
- January 2013 (1)
- December 2012 (1)
- November 2012 (2)
- October 2012 (2)
- September 2012 (5)
- August 2012 (2)
- July 2012 (1)
- June 2012 (1)
- May 2012 (1)
- April 2012 (4)
- March 2012 (1)
- February 2012 (1)
- January 2012 (3)
- December 2011 (1)
- November 2011 (3)
- October 2011 (1)
- September 2011 (2)
- August 2011 (2)
- June 2011 (3)
- May 2011 (4)
- April 2011 (8)
- March 2011 (8)
- February 2011 (10)
- January 2011 (6)
- December 2010 (11)
- November 2010 (14)
- October 2010 (6)
- September 2010 (12)
- August 2010 (2)
- July 2010 (4)
- June 2010 (3)
- May 2010 (1)
- April 2010 (1)
- March 2010 (2)
- February 2010 (1)
- January 2010 (1)
- December 2009 (1)
- November 2009 (2)
- October 2009 (2)
- September 2009 (1)
- August 2009 (3)
- July 2009 (2)
- June 2009 (1)
- May 2009 (2)
- April 2009 (1)
- March 2009 (2)
- February 2009 (1)
- January 2009 (3)
Do you trust your monitor?
26th January 2011
Color Calibration with the Pantone Huey Pro
As photographers, we spend an extraordinary amount of time fretting over color. We carefully tweak the camera settings and adjust the white balance, ISO, raw quality, exposure, noise level and sharpness to produce magnificent color in the captured image. Afterwards, we transfer the digital film to our computerized darkroom for further processing with a goal of reproducing the colors as true to life as possible.
So why are we surprised (read: disappointed) when a prized photo looks so different from our mind’s eye view of the original scene? After all, haven’t we set the camera for the best color?
The reason may well be that the true color of the photo has been inexplicably changed by the computer monitor.
- There are two main factors affecting the color of the image on your monitor.
- One of these is the ability of the electronics to deliver and display consistent color to the screen. As its components age, the image will undoubtedly vary. A tired monitor can degrade your images.
- The second is the presence of ambient room light. Sunlight from a nearby window or from an overhead room light can add a color cast to the displayed image.
Let me explain why I decided to investigate this topic.
My computer setup includes dual monitors. I notice that the same image looks differently on each of the two monitors. To “fix” this, I can adjust the contrast, brightness and saturation of each monitor to try to produce identical displays. If I “develop” the photo using editing software (e.g. Photoshop, Lightroom, iPhoto, Picassa), the edited image will now match on the two different monitors, but how can I be confident that the color will be acceptable when I print the photograph? The short answer is that I can’t be confident that the color will print correctly.
For many photographs, color accuracy may not be of utmost importance. Rather, the expression on a face or the emotion of the moment are reasons enough to record the event. However for some photographs, it’s essential that the color displayed on the monitor matches the color print. After all, you wouldn’t want the bride’s gown to have a blue cast.
Since I’m heavily involved with viewing photographs on a day to day basis I want some assurance that unwanted color variation is not going to be a factor when it is printed.
To help solve this issue, I turned to the XRite Company. Coincidentally, their worldwide headquarters is located about a mile-and-a-half from our offices in Grand Rapids. I fired off an email to their sales office and they agreed to send me a review unit of their Pantone Huey Pro to test. Simply put, the Huey Pro has two jobs to fill: to calibrate the monitor so that it displays “industry standard” colors and to automatically adjust the color of the display depending on changes to the ambient room light. |
With calibration done, the Huey Pro just sits next to my monitor and works quietly behind the scenes. While viewing an image, if it detects a change in the ambient room light, it automatically adjusts the monitor to display the standard colors. The software is smart; it automatically adjusts the color for either of my dual monitors.
Two weeks from now (the duration is user-adjustable) the Huey Pro software will remind me to recalibrate my monitor. Otherwise, I hardly know that it’s there. But I can rest assured, it is faithfully working on my behalf.
How does it work?
Look at the two images below. On the left is a photo as displayed on a monitor without any color correction. On the right is the same photo as displayed on a monitor that has been automatically color corrected by the Huey Pro. The Huey Pro has adjusted the display for both the monitor characteristics and the ambient light.
You can see a significant variation between the two photos. If I rely on the lefthand photo as a proof for subsequent prints then they’ll have a bluish cast. If I rely on the righthand photo as a proof, my prints will be much warmer.
After examining a few dozen similar before and after images such as the ones above, I was surprised at the large variation between the uncorrected and corrected image. So I’m sold on the need to color correct my images.
For me, the Huey Pro provides a very easy way for me to achieve color accuracy. And for $95 (street price), it’s also an affordable way.
I’ve been using the Huey Pro for about two months now on a PC running Windows 7. While it’s also usable for the Mac computers, I haven’t yet installed it on one of our iMacs. I’ll do so shortly and report back soon.
Written by Arnie Lee
NOTE:
Pantone is a wholly owned subsidiary of XRite Incorporated. Pantone is one of the creators of color standards for the printing and computer industry for many years.
XRite provided the Pantone Huey Pro to us for 90 days for this review. Stay Focused has no other connection to XRite. At the completion of the review, we decided to purchase the Huey Pro based on our findings.
The Pantone Huey Pro User’s Guide has a detailed description for printing images based on monitor color corrected photographs. When sending photos to a commercial lab for printing, the information provided by the Huey Pro should be sufficient to insure accurate color matching.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Stay Focused Press, simplephototips. simplephototips said: Do you trust your monitor?: Color Calibration with the Pantone Huey Pro As photographers, we spend an extraordin… http://bit.ly/gCDcmC […]
Pingback by Tweets that mention Pantone Huey Pro User's Review | Stay Focused Press -- Topsy.com — January 26, 2011 @ 9:58 pm