Monitor Color Temperature Settings

[ggroess]

In some offline discussion we discovered that there were differing ideas as to what color temperature a monitor should be set to for general use. 
So we decided to put it to a poll. 
If you use a color temperature of "other" please list it out so we can compile a list.

Thanks!

Greg and Mike

[imported_ganna]

Hi, I recently aquire a 23" LG LED (Flatron E2340T) screen> Running it on a 32 bit PC under  Windows XP. I use a Spyder 3 Elite to callibrate. Interesting is, when I choose the screen auto preset of  6500K temperature under the monitor setup, the blacks look dark grey and the colour just looks wrong. When I discard the 6500K autopreset and manually adjust the RGB chanals to "user>colortemp>for 6500K, it looks normal.  Don't know what you think of a LED vs LCD monitor. Once calibrated the images on the LED monitor looks a bit more vibrant and appear to have a slightly higher contrast than the LCD monitor

[ggroess]

Ganna,
I have yet to step into the LED world...LCD is working fine for me so far.

It would not surprise me that the LED looks brighter and more vibrant. The light source is brighter overall and the colors of the screen are more deeply saturated to compensate for the brighter lighting.  A good profile would be very important if you are chasing the colors around.

It makes sense that the 6500K canned profile is off...they are probably using a "default" that is not tuned to the specific LEDs in your monitor rather a general one size fits all solution..

Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

Interesting - I'm still on CRT as my main screen.
I compared it to the modern screens, which give a sharper & brighter image (frequently blowing the top end) - BUT move you head a touch and everything changes.  I thought they were meant to have solved that problem.

[ggroess]

You would think they had solved it but I just like LCD I think they have a ways to go. 
The first LCD's were awful for viewing angle and color consistency. 

Does anyone have a success story with LED they would be willing to share??

Greg

[imported_ganna]

http://www.outdoorphoto.co.za/forums/showthread.php?22435-What-Monitor-for-Photography
Find this relevant and interesting.  My "cheaper" ordinary  LED monitor works fine as long as you stay right in front of it.

[pictus]

Places to check before buying a monitor:
http://tftcentral.co.uk/
http://www.prad.de/en/monitore/reviews.html
http://www.prad.de/new/monitore/testberichte.html (it is the original site in German, but have more models)
To translate use http://translate.google.com

For retouching we must avoid TN panels and go for the IPS family, the reason is that
TN have a very narrow viewing angle, so the colors changes toooo much if not looking strait to the monitor.
About panel technology http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/speccontent.htm#panel%20type

What we see in the reviews is that the new cheap LED/IPS monitors have too much
deviation in the blue and they cover only +- 93% of sRGB :(
The LG Flatron IPS231P looks less worst with no color deviation above 4 after calibration
http://www.prad.de/new/monitore/test/2011/test-lg-ips231p-teil11.html


About monitor Color Temperature...
How White Are Your Whites?
http://www.adobepress.com/articles/article.asp?p=1315593&seqNum=6
Why are my prints too dark?
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/why_are_my_prints_too_dark.shtml 


Some other links I find interesting...
Color Space Workfow Guidelines:
Practical guidelines and references for digital photographers
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/WGuidelines.pdf
Color Spaces: Beyond Adobe RGB
http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles1203/mh1203-1.html
Color Management, Camera Profiles, & Working Spaces
http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/digikam-users/2008-June/005591.html

SRGB x Adobe RGB
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/sRGB-AdobeRGB1998.htm

ProPhoto or ConPhoto ?
http://www.imagescience.com.au/kb/questions/85/January+2005+-+ProPhoto+or+ConPhoto

Channel clipping and posterization (ACE vs CNN)
http://www.naturescapes.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=145577&p=1480953

Soft proofing
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/soft-proofing.htm

Using Printer Profiles with Digital Labs
http://www.drycreekphoto.com/icc/using_printer_profiles.htm

For anyone interested in 10-bit output
http://www.imagescience.com.au/kb/questions/152/10+Bit+Output+Support


BTW, to have the best calibration for a non PRO monitor(hardware internal LUT like NEC PA, Eizo CG)
the best by far is the free and high quality Argyll+dispcallGUI, it does miracles and supports almost
all devices and operational systems,  here I did a simple tutorial
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1006&message=38157360&changemode=1

[ggroess]

Lots of great stuff here...
Still reading some of it thanks!

Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

Hi, I recently aquire a 23" LG led lighting (Flatron E2340T) screen> Running it on a 32 bit PC under  Windows XP. I use a Spyder 3 Elite to callibrate. Interesting is, when I choose the screen auto preset of  6500K temperature under the monitor setup, the blacks look dark grey and the colour just looks wrong. When I discard the 6500K autopreset and manually adjust the RGB chanals to "user>colortemp>for 6500K, it looks normal.  Don't know what you think of a LED vs LCD monitor. Once calibrated the images on the LED monitor looks a bit more vibrant and appear to have a slightly higher contrast than the LCD monitor

I have new LED samsung monitor and I think it is far better than LCD.. ..

[imported_ganna]

I recently bought a Philips LED IPS monitor, still one of the cheaper monitors, but there is a huge improvement, the blacks are more black and the whites white. The distinction between 2% 4%....96% 98% and 100% is easily visible