How to Calibrate a Monitor

IvanV · Dec 1, 2009, 01:48 PM

I'd like to achieve accurate colour reproduction on my monitor. It's a BenQ G2220HDA and I have already messed with it a little, so I'd like to know if what I have done makes sense and to hear additional tips (since I'm neither a photo-editing pro, nor too knowledgeable in these matters, I'm looking for a sort of "for dummies" instructions which would be easy to understand and follow and produce reasonable results).

Out of the box, it produced a bright and vivid picture, but the level of black was much too high so I reduced the brightness all the way down to 45, while leaving contrast at 50. That seemed fine as I achieved a good level of black without noticeable losses of either dark or the bright shades.

The next thing I noticed was that red seemed very bright and green often acquired a yellowish hue. Various instructions often contained a page such as this one, which showed that gamma value for both red and green were too low. Now, the question is how do I fix that? Should I use the colour settings of the monitor or Catalyst Control Center, or a combination of both? Currently I use a combination, I set the colour temperature in the monitor to user mode and set red and green to 80 and blue to 95, while changing gamma to 0.95 (from the default 1.00) for red and green and 1.05 for blue in CCC and the results seem fairly okay.

Does what I have done make sense? Is there a way for me to verify the results without any additional hardware (I have a digital camera, I don't know if it can serve any purpose here)?

mkk · Dec 1, 2009, 06:40 PM

For what little I know you seem on track. Now after having adjusted the colors, is the gamma still good? Monitor Calibration
On these cheap TN panels one can only get a half decent result even with a hardware calibrator dangling in front of the screen, but it's definitely worth doing some adjusting. On all systems it's worth calibrating at least the gamma and I was glad to see Windows 7 coming with native adjustment for that. Use the monitor controls to handle as much as possible though.

IvanV · Dec 1, 2009, 10:38 PM

Thanks, mkk, there's interesting stuff on that web site.

Unfortunately, it's impossible to get good gamma on this monitor.

It's good around the middle, too high near the top and too low near the bottom. Still, it was helpful and I'm relatively satisfied with the end result.

swimtech · Dec 5, 2009, 06:19 PM

What monitor do you have IvanV? Digitalversus has profiles for download for the monitors they review too - but don't know if they specify the monitor's color, brightness, and contrast settings or the input port.

I'll try to figure out something workable using the site you reference (it's the best online site I've found too...) and the procedure in Win7 - something I've been meaning to do for a few months now. The black and white level checks in the monitor portion of Everest can help quite a bit in setting the black levels before color balancing.

If I were doing a calibration without a colorimeter, I'd try to stick with adjustment on the monitor itself - no weird software inconsistencies that way. Doing the setup using both the monitor adjustments and the CCC has got to be a bit tricky - but it's good you're getting a result you like, and is hitting the mark according to the reference you're using.

Dec 1, 2009, 01:48 PM	#1
IvanV HH Assassin Guild Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 5,914 Rep Power: 333 System Specs	How to Calibrate a Monitor I'd like to achieve accurate colour reproduction on my monitor. It's a BenQ G2220HDA and I have already messed with it a little, so I'd like to know if what I have done makes sense and to hear additional tips (since I'm neither a photo-editing pro, nor too knowledgeable in these matters, I'm looking for a sort of "for dummies" instructions which would be easy to understand and follow and produce reasonable results). Out of the box, it produced a bright and vivid picture, but the level of black was much too high so I reduced the brightness all the way down to 45, while leaving contrast at 50. That seemed fine as I achieved a good level of black without noticeable losses of either dark or the bright shades. The next thing I noticed was that red seemed very bright and green often acquired a yellowish hue. Various instructions often contained a page such as this one, which showed that gamma value for both red and green were too low. Now, the question is how do I fix that? Should I use the colour settings of the monitor or Catalyst Control Center, or a combination of both? Currently I use a combination, I set the colour temperature in the monitor to user mode and set red and green to 80 and blue to 95, while changing gamma to 0.95 (from the default 1.00) for red and green and 1.05 for blue in CCC and the results seem fairly okay. Does what I have done make sense? Is there a way for me to verify the results without any additional hardware (I have a digital camera, I don't know if it can serve any purpose here)? __________________ If anyone has Portal 2 and hasn't played the co-op and wants to do me a favour, let me know (PM me or whatever).

Dec 1, 2009, 06:40 PM	#2
mkk Cthulhu/Dagon 2012 Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Gefle, Sweden Posts: 4,490 Rep Power: 132 System Specs	Re: How to Calibrate a Monitor For what little I know you seem on track. Now after having adjusted the colors, is the gamma still good? Monitor Calibration On these cheap TN panels one can only get a half decent result even with a hardware calibrator dangling in front of the screen, but it's definitely worth doing some adjusting. On all systems it's worth calibrating at least the gamma and I was glad to see Windows 7 coming with native adjustment for that. Use the monitor controls to handle as much as possible though.

Dec 1, 2009, 10:38 PM	Thread Starter #3
IvanV HH Assassin Guild Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 5,914 Rep Power: 333 System Specs	Re: How to Calibrate a Monitor Thanks, mkk, there's interesting stuff on that web site. Unfortunately, it's impossible to get good gamma on this monitor. It's good around the middle, too high near the top and too low near the bottom. Still, it was helpful and I'm relatively satisfied with the end result. __________________ If anyone has Portal 2 and hasn't played the co-op and wants to do me a favour, let me know (PM me or whatever).

Dec 5, 2009, 06:19 PM	#4
swimtech HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: North Carolina Posts: 4,040 Rep Power: 124 System Specs	Re: How to Calibrate a Monitor What monitor do you have IvanV? Digitalversus has profiles for download for the monitors they review too - but don't know if they specify the monitor's color, brightness, and contrast settings or the input port. I'll try to figure out something workable using the site you reference (it's the best online site I've found too...) and the procedure in Win7 - something I've been meaning to do for a few months now. The black and white level checks in the monitor portion of Everest can help quite a bit in setting the black levels before color balancing. If I were doing a calibration without a colorimeter, I'd try to stick with adjustment on the monitor itself - no weird software inconsistencies that way. Doing the setup using both the monitor adjustments and the CCC has got to be a bit tricky - but it's good you're getting a result you like, and is hitting the mark according to the reference you're using. __________________ It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.