I need opinions, please

[Terri French]

I own two computers--an hp desktop with lcd monitor and an hp laptop with lcd monitor. My laptop is less than one year old. If I look at these pictures on my laptop, the skin tones seems very accurate, but on my desktop monitor they have quite a yellow tint. They also look fairly yellow on my monitor at work--but it is 6 years old and seems to be having problems. I am wondering how the skin tones look to you. None of these monitors are calibrated, but when I look at your pictures on my laptop, they seem to be very good. Can I calibrate a laptop and lcd monitor. If so is there a fairly inexpensive method you can recommend?

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My girls are all tan with quite olive complexions.

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All of these were with auto white balance and I usually don't change it at all in the raw conversions.

 

[sbuttrick]

Terri,
You should calibrate your monitors if you want to be sure that you are looking at the true colors and density of the image. I have an Apple Powerbook with a LCD screen and your photos look good on my screen. There are several calibration device companies to choose from. I use Monoco, but Colorvision, and Gretag MacBeth also have good calibration equipment. Once you have the equipment it's pretty easy to calibrate your monitor.

 

[Ken-L]

They look good on my LCD screen......
before you buy any calibration equipment you might try going to this web page and playing with your adjustments: http://members.aol.com/wa8lmf/screencal/coreltstcard.htm

You may find that you need a new monitor right away.....

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[jfrancis]

They look fine on my Samsung 192N LCD monitor. I calibrate it using the ColorPlus system (around $99).

 

[gbenic]

I disagree (somewhat). The second baby has quite a yellow tint to his skin near the hair line. The others are fine. I have a ViewSonic CRT that is not calibrated.

I just checked on my wife's brand-new (today) Samsung LCD and the second baby has a slight yellow tint and the others are fine.

I am sure that it is a calibration issue for each of us.

Okay, I just checked it on my Dell laptop (LCD) and everything looks great. This color difference thing is a PITA!

 

[Retief]

Terri, I use a Colorvision Spyder which works well with both CRT and LCD, and it is pretty darned idiot-proof as well :wink: . As has been noted, calibration makes a world of difference and there are a number of systems that will do so at a reasonable cost.

 

[gbenic]

I did the Ken-L link. Setting my brightness and contrast helped a lot. Since I had to return the 80-200/2.8 (it had serious issues), I think that I will purchase some calibration stuff with the money. That and NC should be a good investment.

 

[Ken-L]

I did the Ken-L link. Setting my brightness and contrast helped a lot. Since I had to return the 80-200/2.8 (it had serious issues), I think that I will purchase some calibration stuff with the money. That and NC should be a good investment.

What were the issues with the 80-200/2.8? I have not heard anything about that lens. It seems that some may see it as a replacment/alternative for the 70-200VR....

 

[gbenic]

What were the issues with the 80-200/2.8?

It was an older push-pull lens. The previous owner worked for a newspaper and beat the heck out of it. Everytime I put it on my D70, more "stuff" would fall out of it and I needed to clean my mirror and focusing "thing". Also, the coating looked pretty bad on the camera end and there was something inside of the glass that created a blurred spot on my images. The auto-focus was rough but that wasn't too important as I would use manual focus anyway. There is nothing wrong with that series of lenses, just the used one that I bought.

 

[RFCGRAPHICS]

Hi Terri

If you can swing $60, J&R is has the GRETAG MACBETH Eye-One Display 1 . It is last years model but for the money it does a great job. On my calibrated monitors I can see the yellow tinge you are talking about.

http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4027168

I purchased this recently and calibrated my laptop. You can download the Eye-One Match 3.0 software update for free from its website.

It recieved some decent reviews and it worked well on my end.

http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/monitor_calibration_tools.htm

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00CgT6&unified_p=1


Regards

RFC

 

[jgrove]

Wow the first picture is superb well done, a 1st class shot, i love the reflection in the eyes.

 

[JeffKohn]

On first glance, the second shot looks yellowish, but on closer inspection it may just be the overall coloring of the scene, the skin tones and eye whites actually look OK if you isolate them. The rest look fine. Any monitor that shows a yellow cast on that first shot is definitely out of whack (great shot BTW).


PS - I'm viewiong on a 22" NEC CRT that is regularly hardware-calibrated.

 

[Terri French]

I was out last evening--at work today. Just had time to look at all the wonderful replies. It's interesting how many different ideas I got here and how many different opinions as to the color of my images. I decided that I could swing $60 and just ordered the eye one display one that RFC suggested. For peace of mind I will calibrate my laptop. I really think the display is a bit on the blue side, but it is the computer I love to use. I can't find any way to adjust the colors manually. I even tried tech support and they said that the only adjustment is brightness.

I appreciate you all very much. Hope some of the rest of you were able to benefit from this post as well.

Thanks again to all.

 

[heiko]

Hi Terri,

Please post us your results with the EyeOne calibration device. I'm also considering this as one option (yet another item on the "to buy" list, after decent tripod, continous ink system, and lenses, of course).

Regards,