But I changed all my computers within the last two weeks and found that the manual adjusting one could do in Apple Control Panels did no longer result in the right colors. Laptops has long been too yellow in color, but now all the screens with Mac OS 10.5 was simply far off. Too blue, too red and too closed in the shadows.
So I got me a Pantone GreytagMacbeth Eye-One Display II screen calibrator. That's such an eye device you suck onto your screen and then software runs a series of tests and colors to determine what the right color profile is for your screen and computer.
It's like a walk in the park and suddenly I see colors. I see colors! It is such a relief to KNOW that the colors you are watching are correct and standard set. You can actually adjust what you see towards what you want it to look like, knowing that it’s the actual picture and not your screen, you’re adjusting.
I've been accustomed to adjusting colors on laptops knowing the extra yellow in the photos were not real but just a screen thing on Mac laptops.
Another thing that has been bugging me is that screens (and traffic lights and car lights and other light signals) has become increasingly bright in the last 10-20 years. It's like someone has determined that we become less and less able to see, why they have simply turned it up. More brake lights on cars, and brighter too.
Where will it end? One big red glowing car?
That has been hurting my eyes too. Yet, when you get used to strong light from screens, you tend to want it that way. If you turn it down, you feel like it's too dark or you are missing something.
Personally, I have that experienced that annoying thing lately that my eyesight is worsening. It’s when I’m reading; I can’t read those ingredients on chewing gum easily anymore. My eyes literarily hurt from it and the letters on the paper jumps. So I stay away from chewing gum, fearing it might be a conspiracy, but for sure knowing there’s way too many E-numbers in it anyways ;-)
I got told it's perfectly normal around my age that this happens, but I kind of disagree because I feel there are numerous reasons that contribute to this: When I shoot a lot and look through the viewfinder, it makes my eyesight worsening in the hours after. If I get too little sleep, that worsens my eyesight too. If I read a good book too throughout an evening, that too worsens my eyesight.
But taking B1 vitamins improve it (as B1 is also known for improving night sight if anyone of you have trouble with that).
Very bright screens helps you read, but do they also hurt your eyes in a way so that you will need more and more light, and eventually screen/reading glasses?
I often wonder if those very bright screens are in reality ruining my sight. I did fine with the old screens that seem dark and dim now…
Anyhow, this
miracle device, my Pantone Eye-One turns out to recommend my LCD screens' luminance to 140 cd/m2.
In reality that means that an iMac screen, like those the new ones has, has to be turned down to
6 clicks (the damn thing goes from 0 to 16 clicks where 16 is full brightness).
But only 6 clicks feel great for working with pictures and stuff. Either in the evening but also in daylight. I have very big windows (and a great view) which I have to use blinds on to reduce the light and reflections. You can't work with computer screens in sunlight. Just not.
So 6 clicis it is. That is 145 cd/m2 luminence which is 5 above the recommended 140 cd/m2.
When reading the text on web pages somehow the letters look too grayish, like watermarks somehow, so I might turn up to 7 or 8 clicks when reading texts as that increases the contrast.
On my non-LCD screen (I have a LaCie on another machine to run my scanner) I had to turn brightness down to 0 (zero) to reach the recommended luminance of 100 cd/m2 for taht type of non-LCD screens. It was on 56 before which didn't seem that bright compared to the new LCD's but somehow felt wrong. Now it feels just right.
From 56 down to 0. I would never have guessed had I not had this
miracle device that can measure the actual luminance cd/m2.
My laptop also got a fine tune. The right luminance on a laptop LCD is 90 cd/m2 which in a MacBook is 9 clicks out of 16.
9 Clicks is about luminance 96 cd/m2 whereas 16 clicks is 185 cd/m2. No wonder my eyes has been hurting so much. I really really really can't figure out why I haven't spotted before that viewing a movie on my laptop, lighting up the screen 100% with 16 clicks was an over-exposure.
DVD's look awesome at 96 cd/m2 and washed-out at 185.
Luminance is not just theory. It's standards set by the ISO (International Standardization Organization) as to how you work best and most safe. They somehow knew all along that 185 cd/m2 would ruin my day. Now I know too.
Also, actually, ISO has set standards for color temperature and the amount of light in your workspace for different types of work. The little miracle instrument Eye-One can actually measure the light in the room too, both color and amount and tell if it's within range or not (it actually gives you the exact amount and temperature).
Besides safety and health, color temperature in the room also influence your sight; how you can judge colors on the screen as your eyes adjust any temperature of light towards daylight. So warm yellow light make your eyes fetch the internal blue filter - and what does that do you your eyesight. It of course makes you see colder colors on your monitor. - To some degree (as the eyes adjust incredible fast).
Color temperature is "Kelvin" or "K," named after Mr. Kelvin of UK who discovered that light had temperature, hence a color. Cold light is blue, hot is red, daylight (6500 K) is white.
Colors, color temperature, gamma and luminance are tricky things. Because you easily get used to wrong colors. Your screen may seem too yellow, too warm, but after 5 or 10 minutes you have adjusted to thinking the colors and the world look like that.
You don't notice anymore.
So that brings us back to the big headache: What is the right colors then? Because you can’t judge them anymore, given all the bad adjustments, wrong luminance, etc…
Gamma on Mac is, by default, that means when you get the machine,
gamme1.8. But PC's are by default
gamma 2.2.
Gamma is some radiation-mathematic stuff. What a word to use. In real life the difference between gamma setting 1.8 and 2.2 is like changing the light bulbs from 60W to 40W. That is the definition we'll stick to here.
That mans that when you adjust a photo on your Mac with your 60W light bulb and you think that it looks pretty damn cool now and then post it, the PC-users with their 40W light bulb will tell you that you are one lousy photographer because your photos are too dark.
Which is true, looking at their screen.
Television screns are even darker, so if you work with video on your screen and want it to look good on a telvision, you must use Gamma 2.5. But that's a different story.
So
a pro screen should always be set at gamma 2.2. Even a non-pro scren because you look at so many photos throughout a day on your screen. And all of them are most likely made for gamma 2.2 viewing. Don't know why Apple thinks otherwise. Also my Pantone Eye-One sets it to 2.2, of course.
Anyhow, I thought you should know. There's a lot of theory and science behind color management, but in reality all you need to is to buy a
Pantone Huey Pro for 100$ or so, or the 'expensive' one I got for 180$ ( in UK about 200 Pounds) and run it. Really, don't speculate about all that underlying technology and philosophy.
What you get is certainty that your colors smoke and are right on.
I’m so delighted about colors. I really am.You know this feeling, you listen to a piece of music and it’s almost like an old friend. It’s so true and right in some sense it just feels like it was always there, always meant to be. And now someone put it onto a record.
Or listening to some well set-up hi-fi equipment where you can hear what coffee the sound technician are drinking and when a bicycle goes down the street outside the studio. There’s some recognition of true sound, true tones, the exactness of how it really is.
Leica glass is the hi-fi of the photo world, the glasses that always gets all the details and tones correct. Even many think it’s a matter of sharpnes, it’s not. It’s the correctness with which it dublicate things. Clarity, tones, temperature, all.
Yummy!
Same with colors. Looking at correct, well tempered, correctly lid colors and correct contrast is like heaven.
[
Anything else? Yes, get plenty of RAM. Stuff all you can into your computer, it’s low prices these days for RAM and RAM is the most effective piece of gear to speed up your old or new computer. Runs like butter with lots of RAM.]
In few days I'll report from Copenhagen Fashion Week, the autumn and winther collection that was presented few days ago. Princess Mary, naked men and all. Stay tuned for that...
