This blog post tells you how you could try and calibrate a monitor.
Please note: The ‘how to’ information is provided with the best of intentions. Please note I’m not stating your monitor will be properly calibrated using the advice on this page or any external page I’ve linked to or indeed the software I refer to. There might be more helpful information elsewhere. I wish you the best with your calibration.
Introduction
I edit a lot of photos and using two monitors I noticed the huge differences in brightness and other aspects of how the images were being displayed on the monitors.
Whilst I can’t adjust how people view my images on their own screens, I want to make sure what I see on both my monitors is calibrated to recommended settings and what I view is similar on both of my screens.
After going through this process, I don’t think one of my monitors is that good for photos and videos, but for other uses I’m happy with it. I simply did my best to match recommended settings.
It was an interesting process to go through and moving forward, I will definitely think more about gamma, contrast and other features, when purchasing hardware.
Here is what I did:
- I checked that both monitors are using the recommended resolution.
- I used the website and advice at: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/
- I adjusted some settings using my monitor’s own settings. i.e. pressing physical buttons.
- I opened NVIDIA Control Panel and used the ‘Adjust desktop color settings’ option under the ‘Display’ menu to make additional tweaks for both of my monitors.
On my secondary monitor, I can’t adjust the gamma options using the monitor’s own settings, so I made the adjustments via the NVIDIA Control Panel.
Additional
I did try the Windows 10 ‘Display Color Calibration’ software, but I didn’t like it and prefer the Lagom LCD monitor test pages for assisting me.
If you want to try the Windows software, then here is how you open the application:
- Click on the search icon (magnifying glass) at the bottom.
- Type Calibrate display color and click on the text to open.
- Move the Display Color Calibration on the monitor you wish to adjust the settings.
- Click ‘Next’ and follow the instructions.
Final thoughts
It took a while to go through the adjustments and to test my results, I made a copy of a photo image and then opened the copy and original on both screens at the same time to compare. I was reasonably satisfied with the result.
I personally think it was important for me to adjust my display settings on one of my PCs and the two connected monitors as I edit photos and videos with that setup.
However on another PC I use, I’m not going to make any adjustment as I don’t edit and I’m content with the settings already.