Calibrating Macbook display

[grantsteve]

... a bit off topic I know, but its something I noticed whilst viewing / editing photographs so here goes ...

I think I need to tweak the settings on my Macbook display for two reasons really. Firstly, when I was looking at some of the comp entries at lunchime on my work PC the colours looked really punchy. Looking at the same photograph on my Mac at home the colours are dull and washed out.

Secondly, when I edit photographs (levels, saturation etc.) according to my tastes on my Mac they often come back from the printers way off. I know this could be down to my choice of printer and other variables but (a) I use Photobox and thought they had a good rep for image quality; and (b) I thought that if they image came to them edited then they left it alone and didn't do any adjusting.

Can anyone offer any guidance with this please? ... I'm hoping its going to be as easy as downloading a display profile from Apple

Cheers

[chris1210]

I take it you've used the Apple Display Calibrator in System Prefs?

I must confess that on TFT's at least, i've had very good results using it, and my prints from Photobox edited from RAW in CS2 came back pretty much spot on.

[grantsteve]

I have, but previously only using the basic method. I've just tried the advanced version and it allows a lot more tweaking to suit my eye, and the results seem a bit better.

I guess the TFT at work and the LCD on the Mac could account for a difference too.

Photoshop says the images from my camera (D50) have a sRGB colour profile. Is there anyway I can get my screen to display this accurately (i.e. as the camera has captured it)?

[HCking]

Hi

I use mac displays at work and home (30" + 23" cinema displays) and a macbook and macbook pro.

I would not calibrate your display for sRGB but at the standard for photographic work, their is a lot of discussion as to what to set it too. but the main options are

these are for macs

5000K 1.8gamma 120 luminance for LCD

or

6500K 2.2gamma 120 luminance for LCD

the luminance is 100 for crt

the gamma is also a talking point as the mac gamma used to be 1.8 but all the info i keep finding says use 2.2 as it changed a while ago

our monitors are calibrated 5000K 1.8 at work

I use 6500K 2.2 120 on my mac

i have tried photos calibrated on one system and moved them to the other and you dont see any discernable diffrence, you will if you change profiles on your machine one after the other, as your eyes get used to the differing white balance.

I also use photobox and my prints are spot on using

6500K 2.2 gamma 120 luminance

set it up with the mac utility on advanced you should be fairly close with that.

Mark

[tomson]

I also use 2.2 gamma/ 6500k (on a cinema display, imac and powerbook) and get pretty consistent results.

[grantsteve]

Ok chaps, having read your posts at work I thought it made sense and it would be easy to change the settings when I got home... not the case though

Any chance one of you would be good enough to do me a quick dummies guide?!

I get to the bit where I open up display prefs and choose the colour tab, but then it wants to run me through the calibration thing again. I thought I could enter the settings manually ....?

[HCking]

yes you have to do the full calibration again in advanced mode and put those setting in when it prompts you.

Or if you have a colour calibration system use that with those values.

leave your lcd on for approx 30-45 mins before doing the calibration so the screen has time to get up to its normal working temp.

Then you should be good to go.

[grantsteve]

Cheers ... last question, I hope!

Where do I specify the luminance? I've done WB and gamma and now its on to naming and saving etc. No mention of luminance.

[HCking]

Ah, yes you can't you need an external calibrator to do it, but the factory default brightness setting should be around 120 as that is the standard.