how do you check your monitor calibration?

[ronocnikral]

just curious how many were actually doing this. we are kicking around the idea of ordering a macbeth color checker. for now, we just use printed ones we have laying around from our printers. also, do you check the black point? or do you just wing it assuming the calibration is correct?

[billbunton]

I use real hardware designed for monitor calibration -- I1 display 2 or I1 pro, along with Color Eyes Display software.

[ronocnikral]

right, we use an eye-one 2 also. but do you just assume it is correct after it runs? how do you know it is accurate?

ronocnikral added 5 Minutes and 28 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

soft proofing being another option to check. or sending a print to the lab and comparing how it comes back.

[JohnT]

After the initial calibration using the Spyder2PRO, I ordered a test print from the lab. It was very close, requiring only a minor adjustment in monitor brightness. Now, when I recalibrate on a monthly basis, I no longer order test prints. It's worked for me so far, but YMMV.

[Charles Putnam]

You might also want to look at the Xrite Color Munki as it not only calibrates monitors, but also creates printer profiles.

http://www.xrite.com/product_overview.aspx?ID=1115

[billbunton]

Originally Posted by ronocnikral

right, we use an eye-one 2 also. but do you just assume it is correct after it runs? how do you know it is accurate?

soft proofing being another option to check. or sending a print to the lab and comparing how it comes back.

Well, I have CEDPRO set to automatically validate the profile after creating it. I've also found over the years that softproofing shows me pretty much exactly the colors I'm going to actually get off my printer. So I'm pretty confident it's accurate.

[ronocnikral]

Originally Posted by billbunton

Well, I have CEDPRO set to automatically validate the profile after creating it. I've also found over the years that softproofing shows me pretty much exactly the colors I'm going to actually get off my printer. So I'm pretty confident it's accurate.

Thanks for sharing bill. Cedpro is $$$$. I'm trying to find a solution that doesn't involve spending more money. A silly goal with this silly habit i call photography.

Just to share what I poorly conveyed earlier. From Fraser's book,

The two most common problems with monitor calibration are incorrect black-point setting and posterization caused by trying to apply a gamma that's too far away from the monitor's native gamma for the 8-bit tables in the video card to handle.

Fraser goes on to explain a couple of check's one can do in photoshop. The first being a check of the black-point in photoshop. Here is a good web page already setup for the black-point check. We can see a difference at about step 3 with both our HP monitor and on my macbook pro.

The second being a check of the gamma, again using photoshop. Setting up a white to black gradient flipped on the bottom. Then checking for any banding. Some is expected in the 3/4 tones, but if you see bands all across the entire range, than you must play with the gamma to get it more accurate. Better explanation than my rambling.

The rest is the profiling and the user has very little control over the accuracy of that as long as the black-point and gamma are calibrated correctly. But, my original question asked how people check their profile. We have been using a printed off macbeth color checker laying around and we have a conversation with our lab each time we have something printed. Since starting color mgmt (and purchasing a proper monitor), our lab hasn't had to do any color correction.

So, I guess the original question stands, what do you do to check your monitors profile (not that there is a correct answer as color mgmt can be very subjective)? AND, have you used the black-point and gamma tests above? If so, do you feel they help? We most definitely do. And maybe one day we will get to the point where we will be confident enough to tell our printer to turn off their color mgmt...