3 Replies Latest reply: Jun 30, 2010 3:47 PM by M_in_Adelaide RSS

    Calibrating LCD Monitor with Adobe Gamma

    emoglotz Community Member

      I am trying to use Adobe Gamma (supplied with Photoshop Elements 6) to calibrate my LCD monitor.  When I tried to adjust the brightness control (after setting the contrast control at max as instructed in the Wizard) to make the center box as dark as possible, I got essentially no change in the center box.  Also, could not adjust the slider on the gamma setting to get the center box to fade into the patterned frame as instructed in the Wizard.

       

      Any suggestions??

       

      Thanks.

        • 1. Re: Calibrating LCD Monitor with Adobe Gamma
          Barbara B. CommunityMVP

          Adobe gamma was never intended for LCD monitors and adobe stopped including it with PSE 7 and recent versions of Photoshop. You should check to see if your video driver includes a calibration utility. That would be much better, if it does.

          • 2. Re: Calibrating LCD Monitor with Adobe Gamma
            1stOscar Community Member

            I recently upgraded to PSCS2 and changed from a CRT to LCD monitor with a VGA input.

            Monitor control adjustments available to the VGA input are set as follows:-

            Contrast 0-100, Set to 50: Brightness 0-100, Set to 50: ColorTemp-Normal, Warm, Cold, Set to Normal: DNR- Off, Low, Mid, High, Set to Mid: Sharpness- Normal, Sharp, Sharpest, Set Normal                                                                                                                                                        

            Adobe gamma loader was still in my Windows XP3 Start Up folder as it happens. Windows had installed the new LCD monitor’s default profile viz. grundig.icm (sRGBIEC61966-2.1).

            OK, so that’s my monitor profile that Photoshop will use by default.  I checked the Adobe Gamma  utility out of interest although  I know its not designed for LCD monitors and without making any changes the following values  had been automatically loaded:- sRGBIEC61966-2.1 loaded profile: Brightness and Contrast box (non adjustable)  but looked  OK: Phosphors HDTV (CCIR709): Gamma Windows Default 2.20 (Single Gamma adjustment N/A): Hardware White Point -Custom- Neutral Gray was accurate: White Point- Same as Hardware.

            At these settings the screen display colour balance looks very accurate to my eye.

            So these are the default values of my monitor profile which Photoshop will use whether the Adobe Gamma loader is running or not.  I would doubt if I could further improve on this.

            I would add that if you are running an Epson Printer and a Digital camera that supports PIM and you install the Print Image Matching plugin you are likely to improve your screen to print match as you can utilise Epson 2001RGB Color space which is rather better suited  that say Adobe RGB 1998.

            • 3. Re: Calibrating LCD Monitor with Adobe Gamma
              M_in_Adelaide Community Member

              Gamma adjustment was associated with the physics of an electron beam hitting a phosphor screen (a CRT) and adjusting a non linear term given the Greek symbol "gamma". Unless the software is leveraging off the word "Gamma" it doesn't relate to an LCD screen.

              I have a high res Samsung monitor and it's supplied calibration software does nothing for me. Likewise the inbuilt Windows (7) calibration does nothing for me. If your calibration is way off maybe they have some effect. Also, LCD monitors (unlike TV sets) are quite sensitive to angle of viewing.

              It appears that if you are serious about calibrating your monitor you should be using one of the hardware devices.

               

              Be carefull of the ICC profile(*.icm) that comes with your monitor. Sometimes windows load will it for you. On many occasions these profiles when set as default will cause the image in  the PSE (PSE8 in my case) EDITOR to look poor. Change to sRGB IEC61966-2.1 and set as default. Do this using color management under Windows 7. If it doesn't work for you reset your manufacturer profile back as the default. Of course proper hardware calibration should be better particularly if your using high quality home printing.

               

              I prefer relatively low cost chemical printing because you can get some excellent results but the machine processes are beyond your control and it involves some trial and error. Here all I need is a perceptually "good" and consistent screen image.