do you REALLY need to calibrate your monitor?

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In this video I attempt to color calibrate my monitor using the new datacolor SpyderX Elite.

[@canturgan]

I'm looking at your calibrated monitor on my uncalibrated monitor.

[@kevindiaz3459]

How meta

[@kevindiaz3459]

@GameingUboxings+ Aww, did I hurt your insecurity? Enjoy watching Fast and Furious vs the Fourth Reich.

[@gorkyd7912]

I watched it on the same Dell U2718Q monitor he calibrates. Now I need mine calibrated.

[@ScribblebytesWorldwide]

So the tree *would* make a sound.

[@pjdexter168]

haha.... that's what I never understood about calibrating a monitor, so great, it looks calibrated for you maybe, but then it's sent to someone else, or printed using a print shop who's monitor is calibrated differently. It seems totally pointless. I could see this being a thing 20 year ago when monitors looked like shit, but screens now are so bomb looking for almost everything, either Samsung or Apple, that calibrating seems redundant.

[@michelwengler116]

If you print that image now it still might look different. You need to calibrate your printer aswell

[@polyrhythm_I]

And then your eyes. Just to be absolutely sure.

[@EvanSchneider]

Calibrate EVERYTHING

[@FStoppers]

Don’t forget to calibrate the calibrator

[@HesselFolkertsma]

Different profiles for different papers through different printers.

[@RexxReviews]

Fstoppers who calibrates the calibrator calibrator to know that it’s the correct calibration to be calibrating the calibrator

[@benjhaisch]

I love that I was watching a monitor being calibrated but the music told me we were bringing the ring to Mordor.

[@JZStudiosonline]

I'm genuinely impressed that you managed to brick a PC with monitor calibration. That's amazing. Even WinXP had monitor calibration profiles, all you had to do was reset it to the default.

[@SuperEddietv]

I miss XP. Free tools and all.....

[@germardoumediagroup1472]

@@SuperEddietv he has the right to mislead the masses ...some companies need to sell stuff..give the guy a break..we are just idiots using our brains

[@jameschandler4276]

You said that exact same thing about another KZbinr. Do you go around posting the same comment for a bunch of different people?

[@bramVE239]

@@jameschandler4276 hahaha so busted! :p

[@ventilate4267]

all versions of windows do pretty sure all you have to do is reinstall the graphics driver

[@canturgan]

This is like watching ads for 4K TV's on your HD TV and being impressed at how good the image quality is.

[@davidjohansson1416]

Could be legit if bitrate is higher.Maybe commercial is higher bitrate than regular scheduled content. Or could be uncompressed 4.4.4?

[@andrejrockshox]

@@davidjohansson1416 no way. u need 300 MB/s (megaBYTES per second) for 1080p60 uncompressed video.

[@davidjohansson1416]

okey@@andrejrockshox

[@SharpblueCreative]

Welcome to iso gamut calibrated monitor. I work in print and this is actually more important than people think.

[@gorkyd7912]

It's extremely important when the designer(s) or photographers will try to make their designs or photos look good to their eye. If you're a photographer stuck with an uncalibrated monitor, you can also just try to give the photos the best possible dynamic range and then match a known color via numbers. That's why they used to use those 18% gray cards (because good monitors were extremely rare). Take a picture of the card with a known 18% gray and then adjust the photo color so that card reads 18% gray by numbers, and the rest of the photo will be good. So you can get pretty far with just the numbers, and your calibrated monitor should not be causing you to clip any part of the spectrum. I work in print and I've seen some horror stories; i.e the designer works out of his basement with a yellow incandescent light and tries to visually match colors on his 8-year-old CRT monitor to the prints he's holding in his hand.

[@HaroldsMind]

Man I feel your pain from your first scenario! Color Management is a very daunting subject to fully understand. A few pro-tips: Your image will look the same in any application that is color managed and/or uses the ICC color profiles that gets embedded with your image (sRBG, Adobe RGB, P3, etc). Always embedded your color profiles to you images when exporting from Photoshop or other applications. If you have a high gamut monitor (ie: Adobe RGB, P3, etc) don’t use Windows default photo viewer, it is not color managed and won’t use the embedded ICC color profiles from your image (your image will look over saturated), you might not notice this if your monitor is not high gamut. As of now Chrome, Firefox, Safari all support ICC color profiles from images so they’ll look the same in those browsers. Some services (ie: LinkedIn, I believe Twitter as well) will strip out the ICC profile from your images, which is why you might see them differently when uploaded. Facebook coverts your ICC profile to their own version of sRGB, so for the most part they’ll hold up color wise to how they looked.

[@nobodynowhere5213]

Not many people understand color profiles, photography has become so easy that people simply have less and less skills.

[@piyush.ochani]

which image viewers should be used then?

[@nobodynowhere5213]

@@piyush.ochani bridge i think is free

[@WeirdFishStick]

What about about clients that barely can use computers? Should I offer photography and monitor calibration service too so they can see pictures as I intended?

[@HaroldsMind]

@@piyush.ochani I use Bridge. If you have an Adobe CC subscription or older versions of CS you can use that. If you have the Adobe Photography Plan, many other's use Lightroom. There are a few other alternative photo viewers outside Adobe as well that might work well. I haven't personally had any experience with them.

[@Layarion]

Fstoppers...i wished you woulda...Printed something. Just to see if the picture was as bright/dark as on your screen.

[@andrejrockshox]

i doubt it. he would need to calibrate printer too. and there is RGB vs CMYK gammut problem...

[@krane15]

We don't typically view photos through backlight.

"I can't believe technology has improved in the last 10 years"

[@diogopedro1991]

That's my university with 15 years old software and they still think technogoly didn't improve.

[@tonan8888]

You know, when you change or remove words from a quote, it's not a quote anymore. That's not what he said. "I can't believe it, it actually worked! Technology..."

[@gjarnling]

Wait... a professional photographer that doesn’t do color management? 😳🥺

[@jackdumanat49]

idk man... i don't think it's needed too much. Like every screen and device has it's own colour management. Just consider many phones have auto brightness, blue filter and apple's true tone all kinda throws colours to wack. Even with printing, if you use one screen all the time you can estimate and use test prints contact sheets with different settings to get to that decent print. IMO screen calibration is worth it if you collaborate works with other people or work with multiple screens.

[@gjarnling]

wakojako49 If it works for you and you are satisfied, by all means keep on doing it. I do feel inclined to reply tho in case someone else read this. Devices might have different settings, yes. Even if they have the same settings every device is unique. On top of that every device is operated in it’s unique environment. This is an argument for - not against - using color management and standards. If your intent is to publish on social media and your target audience are laymen the impact might be small, yes. But if your intent is either different or wider and/or your target audience is professional than it makes a very big difference. For instance there is no chance an art director would hire someone for final art that doesn’t showcase it in his or her own material. Using the same devices on a daily basis one gets used to them and learn to predict their output, yes. But doing color management and following standards is done with that purpose: Better estimation. Test prints needs to be done anyway but hopefully only once. Doing them again and again will get very expensive quickly. And doing it by yourself is only possible if you actually have access to the equipment - that exact printer - which simply won’t be the case in a professional setting. All business is collaboration, it includes at least two parties. In a photographical setting this is at least the photographer and the client. If you as a photographer do it in your own time for your own sake then color management isn’t necessary. But that isn’t professional photography.

[@janklimek7666]

Gustaf Jarnling gustaf if you are not printing and got retina , why not? :)

[@gjarnling]

Jan Klimek Once again if it works for you under certain circumstances then by all means. In a professional setting, which is the context here, this is not the case. If nothing else simply because you don’t treat either your customer or their target audience with the respect a business agreement deserves, ie making sure you deliver the best result possible regardless of the recipient.

[@MuffFlux]

@@gjarnling Yeah that's wrong. The industry doesn't give a damn about calibration until it comes time to output reliable prints for advertising.

[@Mionwang]

"i hope windows 10 has improved..." No it hasn't. The default windows photos app is still not color managed ie it ignores the color profiles embedded in the photo. I've switched to Adobe bridge as my primary photo viewer. Chrome, Facebook, Instagram etc are color managed but they convert images to srgb which is the internet standard. Also the internet standard white balance is 6500K so calibrating the display to 6500K is crucial.

[@humayunmrd]

Hi, I was thinking the same, because when I calibrate my computer with built-in Pantone sensor on my labtop, the lightroom , chrome and Capture One gets the calibrated profile but not the Windows Photos software and internet explorer. I am going to try Adobe Bridge as well, but just wondering how did it work for this guy? did his colour calibrator did some thing special with Windows software colours?

[@tayl0124]

@@humayunmrd my guess is that he ignored those problems because it was a sponsored video, and isn't the calibrators fault.

[@BeyondSlowMotion]

I swear by Spyder products. Changed my color correction life! Seriously It is one of the first things I do when I get a new screen.

[@polyrhythm_I]

Tfw you calibrate your monitor for the very first time and then realize all these endless hours of staring at your screen have been a complete lie.

[@joselara4392]

Do you recommend calibrating MacBook pros? I have a MacBook pro late 2015, and I hear mixed opinions on whether they need calibrating or not. Might be a good idea since it's a older now.

[@izoyt]

@@joselara4392 actually, macbooks are really bad in this. check some more detailed reviews, which are not that brand based. calibrating (and they are off from the factory) imacs is a mess.

[@Eric-lh6wp]

It would have been interesting to calibrate two identical screens. Each screen with a different Spyder callibrater from the same type and than compare them to see how consistent these callibrators are. I saw such comparison a few years ago. It showed a huge difference in callibration results of two same type Spyder callibrators. After seeing this comparison I stopped thinking of calibrating my screen...

[@rogerman104]

Never knew Tom Brady was a techy photographer.

[@MichaelKire]

My monitor, after a Spyder 5 pro calibration, has a slight green tint to it when i use chrome or other programs. In Lightroom it looks perfect. I've learned to live with it. Also, Spyder should have included those same test images on a piece of paper or cardboard for you to judge.

[@kamizerox]

Lol, I've been annoyed with that color shift on chrome and could not figure out whether it's green or magenta. Now that you mentioned it, I agree it's green. I used my sypder 5 pro on my girlfriend's mac and it seems her chrome still looks close to white.

[@sorenmelchior]

I have been using color calibration software for computers (apple, and PC) since the late 90's with both Xrite, and Datacolor. Both company's have provided excellent quality over the years, and have improved the ease of doing a calibration quite a bit in that timeline. Your description of having different colors on different applications seems like something went very wrong with your calibration process. Because what calibration does is create an ICC profile that gets embedded in your OS (and if you know where to find it, you can delete it without having to do a reinstall). Working properly it should affect all applications on that computer you are working on. Another tip: If you want your prints to match what you see on your monitor, you also need to create printer profiles for your printer paper. And that's for each type of paper you are using on that printer. So say you have a gloss, semi gloss, and luster papers you are using on a printer, then you have to create 3 paper profiles (one for each paper). Now some paper company's offer some baseline paper profiles for printer models on their website. But if you want the most accurate print, you will want to create profiles yourself. I myself currently use Xrite Colormunki system as I can use it for both monitor calibration, and making printer profiles in one unit. So just remember that if your objective is printing, monitor calibration is only half the work.

[@John_Claybrook]

I can use this to calibrate my monitor. Then I download a printer profile for a certain paper from a printing company, say Luster. Everything should look right then if I load that printer profile into photoshop when looking at my photo?

[@cogsincogs]

"I'm pretty good with computers" - says he had to reinstall windows to revert color calibration... guys, ignore this video he has no clue.

[@lulumink0]

Hahahah, that’s true. It’s very easy to erase color profile

[@DeltaModelX]

10 years ago you were in preschool so stay quiet

[@cogsincogs]

@@DeltaModelX just finished uni, but ok. Pleb.

[@DeltaModelX]

@@cogsincogs i said 10 years ago plus you have finished uni but don't know what rounding is?

[@cogsincogs]

@@DeltaModelX yeah, I finished uni then. Dunno how you can defend this video, you must be as dumb as him.

[@HedgehogY2K]

I'm sorry, BRICKING?! Can't you just... Re-calibrate it to default colors? What is this can't restore nonsense? Heck normally your Intel display or Nvidia/AMD graphics driver gives you complete control over your colors. HOW!!! Are you doing this to yourself?

[@AdrianIII]

Clickbait: Of course not, you fool. All those professional photographers/printers are fools.

[@alcurtis93]

Run this again and you'll get a different result. The software is garbage. Download display cal and use the Spyder with that. Sure you've realised all this when trying to calibrate other monitors

[@HEREONOUTBAILEY]

“Lee Morris - Calibrating The World Pt 2” 😂

[@jd927d]

Thank for your video. It looks really good. While you are right about the differences between the programs, with all due respect, I think you're missing the point on calibration. If your reference is accurate, then your end product will be accurate. What's accurate? Whatever you see in your monitor is what you see in print. Only a humble observation.

[@RealHankShill]

Just because you calibrate your monitor does not mean that what you see is how it will print. It means that the monitor is showing you accurate colors to what it is told. Printing uses an entirely different color gamut, with a different process, on a variety of papers. Yes, if you want accurate prints you need to calibrate your monitor. That is just step one though. After that you need to soft proof your file with a profile that is set up for your specific printer, inks, AND SPECIFIC paper. Your computer will use this to show you a representation of what it could look like and will show you which colors you see on your monitor that CANNOT ever be printed on your combination of printer and paper. You can choose how to replace these colors. Point is, calibrating your monitor has little to do with how your print will look. Calibrating your monitor is to make sure that what you see, is what everyone else sees, particularly in color shift, as we all know what tiny color shifts do to the mood of your image.

[@lilblingking1491]

@Phil W Some online companies have profiles on their website that you can download for soft proofing. It's super useful when they do! If you're in the US, try AdoramaPix

[@sethleigh8850]

It's actually frustrating because I'll work on my photos on my calibrated monitor, then send them to other people who of course are using uncalibrated monitors, so I still don't know that they'll see the photos the way I intended them to look. I had this experience recently where I brought a whole CD of images that looked great on a calibrated monitor, and the guy I gave the CD too was looking at them on this god-awful office computer monitor that just looked horrendous. Sigh.

[@RuiPalmeira]

@@sethleigh8850 they don't need to have their monitors calibrated. sure they're "experts" and should have it somewhat at a decent setting, but they won't change your pictures before printing. they'll get them, print them, notify you that the job is done and get on with their lives.

[@nordic5490]

Logan Cressler this video was about calibrating your monitor. There is a separate process to calibrate your printer - if you are one of the few who actually print.

[@sethleigh8850]

@@RuiPalmeira yeah in my case the people with the uncalibrated monitors weren't printing them, they were using them for their own on-screen purposes. My point was that making photos look great on a calibrated monitor only helps you to the fullest if the people looking at your images are doing so on calibrated monitors. It's still better than making images look great on an uncalibrated monitor and then sending them to people looking at them on uncalibrated monitors, unless yours was somehow badly calibrated the same way as everyone else's. In my case I've noticed a lot of cheap desktop monitors tend to be badly calibrated in the "too yellow" direction, while a lot of cheap laptop screens tend toward "too blue." It's just a personal observation from calibrating my own and a few friends' screens, nothing scientific, and my view could be skewed by my small sample size.

[@brentmacgillis1386]

Please don't believe this guy. He's probably wasted tons of money and time hard proofing images. Most professional photographers understand how light works... It's kinda what photography is about 🙄. If you want to do this just buy a calibrator like the one in this video and follow the instructions. Your lighting environment should be 6500k and remain consistent and yes you should recalibrate if your lighting changes or about once every 1-2 months. If you have any questions feel free to mention me and I'll try to answer ASAP.

[@jorismak]

Windows isn't color managed (yes you see the desktop change but that's not all). This means an application must support it. Most web browsers aren't color-managed (I know Firefox is if you turn it on in hidden settings). So you will always see a difference between a program that respects your color profile (like Photoshop) and one that doesn't (Windows Photo viewer for instance). In a (modern) Mac environment, the OS takes care of color management, so most if not all applications are color-managed even if they are not coded for it. A Windows user myself (but had to use Macbooks for a couple of years for work) this is a big advantage.. but I can live with it. I actually use the difference between Photoshop / Affinity Photo and Windows Photo Viewer to to a double-check. I know what I see in Photoshop is 'correct', but I don't want it to look too crazy uncalibrated. I also do some last-minute checks on my mobile phone (which is also way to saturated and has a white-balance way off) just to get a feel of how it looks on different scenarios... that is, if I care (as in, for serious images :P). In music studios this is not that different. They have very special reference speakers (studio monitors) that will produce a sound that is 'true' and helps the mixing engineers locate problems in the sound. But in the end they also test with Apple Earbuds and playing back on car stereo's.. because that is where 99% of music is 'consumed' these days :).

[@telescopicS627]

Color management works fine on Windows 10. It's not the easiest utility, but it works.

[@jorismak]

@@telescopicS627 i didn't say color management doesn't work.. I said Windows itself is not color managed, which is true. The desktop will not honour your display profile (only the gamma ramps that are loaded into your graphics card/onboard graphics). So only color managed applications will truly behave ok with your display profile loaded. For example, Windows photo viewer (the windows7 default viewer app ) will honour your profile, but 'photos' (the new windows10 app style default viewer) will not, and so they will look different (depending on how much calibration your monitor needed). Irfanview for example is not color managed out of the box, but it can be turned on in the settings.

[@telescopicS627]

@@jorismak Maybe we're talking about different things, but that hasn't been my experience at all. In win 10 photos look exactly the same in any app. I calibrate display under advanced settings in color management. You can see the colors change when the profile loads seconds after logging in.

[@kainthjaskaran]

@@telescopicS627 You must not be using a wide colour gamut monitor.

[@MoonLiteNite]

​@@kainthjaskaran You are doing something wrong with windows and your video drivers. You can override settings with AMD and NVIDIA controller panels. Also some programs will take over. Heck even youtube on CHROME and EDGE will take over your colors if you playback with HDR on....

[@oh-totoro]

I have mine calibrated. The colours before calibration were just horrible, with a very strong blue colour cast. I do wonder however, what the point of calibration is, if 99.9% of devices that people view the images on are not colour calibrated. When we edit our images on a colour calibrated system, we aren't going to know how the image looks to 99.9% of people. In fact, wouldn't it be better to edit the images from a non-calibrated system, because at least our final edit will be "accurate" to more people - everybody that owns that particular monitor at least.

[@pelikan88]

You obviously have NO idea what color management is all about?

[@nordic5490]

pelikan88 hardy ha ha. I bought my Dell30" with factory 100% rgb cal, then blew money on a spider, and guess what, the colour beofre and after cal was exactly the same (no surpise) and the bightness changed a small amount. Buy a good monitor and save money on the calibrator.

[@tayl0124]

Monitors need to be calibrated to the lighting conditions in the room in which you use them. Which is why no monitor can truly come calibrated.

[@kwizmon]

Is that a question?

[@dukenu100]

If your own monitor is darker than it should be, other people may see your images too bright; if your monitor is too bright, others might see your images as too dark. Since the average user doesnt' have a calibrated monitor, its almost a waste of time to calibrate your own monitor. You should calibrate, if you are a photographer, to match how prints come out...you have to guess, send a file, print, see how it comes out, then adjust until its pleasant. Only professional photogs printing gigantic prints for show competitions have any use for such technology.

[@JeffCowan]

Lee, I really wanna see the same test, but now for printing. That's the final frontier right there.

[@FStoppers]

Ya that scares me. Patrick did a video on this a year or so ago and it was incredibly complicated.

[@JeffCowan]

@@FStoppers Thanks. I'll look it up.

[@PimpnBass]

I have the studio version of this for doing my monitor and printer and the printing calibration is just amazingly crazy. Makes a world of difference for sure. I completely back the Spyder X calibrator 100%.

[@tayl0124]

@@FStoppers check out ask damien...www.damiensymonds.net/what2buy_cal.html Very knowledgeable.

[@sampol8790]

ia stoped watching because of the stupid hollywood adventure movie music. so annoying

[@chrisg4433]

You can’t Brick your computer lol 🤦🏻‍♂️ It’s not like a phone or Xbox

[@JohnDrummondPhoto]

He actually did, a few months ago. I forget how. He got Dell to fix it after they initially refused to; posted a video about it.

[@jimfeldman4035]

Yeah, you can hose up a BIOS update. That'll brick a lot of laptops and low to mid end motherboards.

[@CaveyMoth]

I installed Norton Antivirus once. My PC ran like a brick after that.

[@hadoukenocx4746]

well all waht you rly have done is change the bright if you lower the bright you dont need this 5 doller cheep spider thing you break your monitor with this cheep thing out of the box the monitor are calibratet for your ips panel by the best way for your monitor you , just need to lower the brightest with no sipder thing just a tip , from a pro.

[@socc3r7k1ng]

Thing is you are calibrating your monitor to display images and videos that will be seen on uncalibrated devices lol.

[@Bobbylopezcreative]

mbickerdike17 while that’s true, starting from a calibrated baseline means that the differences between all those uncalibrated viewers won’t be as drastic as if he were producing them in an uncalibrated set up.

[@tayl0124]

You calibrate first and foremost for print, and secondly for the reasons BLC mentioned.

[@AarronAndersonPhotography]

Man you calibrated wrong if you got different apps lookin different

[@Bpjames]

Does anyone make a computer with a CD rom anymore? I realize it's just "progress", but sometimes I don't appreciate forced obsolecence.

[@susanpratt3290]

There are external CD-ROM drives for those who don’t have a Cd-ROM Drive. I have CD’s that have hardware drivers on them. I also want to burn a backup image of my computer as well in case I need to boot off a cd and do a reinstall. I did get a laptop with a CD-ROM drive.

[@shamrockisland]

You can not brick a computer by colour calibration. Lol. Shilling at its best.

[@GedasSt]

:D :D :D :D :D I Understand problem, what You talk about Your last time. I'm calibrating monitors for photographers over 9 years. Hundreds of different models with maybe 20 different devices. You did almost everything wrong from beginning... "duplicated" monitors :D :D :D :D :D P.S. I still NEVER saw NONE good tutorial about Calibration from A to Z.

[@BertrandVan]

Well maybe do one genius lol

[@GedasSt]

@@BertrandVan I did it. Just on my native language - (lietuvių kalba ) and not on KZbin. I never learn English.

[@justlin_8565]

can i borrow your spyderx? $270 is hella expensive lol

[@dzsemx]

i have 2 things to tell to you: - Many monitors have more than 100% SRGB color space that's why they are too saturated. - Spyder is a POS, the calibration method used is awful. Get an x-rite i1 display pro colorimeter, that is a much more serious tool.

[@amaly76]

Yep

[@andrewmccarty]

I've always heard the same thing, but im curious if the new SpyderX is better now that it has a lens like the X-rite has.

[@ghostapi874]

SpyderX is decently close hardware wise but both x-rite and spyders software is still garbage. It puts to much emphesis on doing the job quick. With either device you should be using something like displaycal and preferable a monitor or display card that skips windows all together.

[@danishiqbal2047]

why is the music like some motivational quotes videos.

[@SAR2467]

been calibrating my monitors for years, not really difficult to do 🤣🤣

[@simonwood8637]

Do you have any go-to guides (video or article/text) you'd recommend I read to learn calibration? I actually am good with computers (in general) but have never touched monitor calibration and not looking to blow $500 on hardware - so I'll likely rent something like a Datacolor Spyder 5 Pro for $30 and try to smash it out in one weekend. But I don't know what I don't know.

[@rasmachris94]

@@simonwood8637 As far as calibration goes it's basically use hardware to detect it digitally or eye-ball it with something like: www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/ And using Nvidia's control panel.

[@TLOH7]

But as I know monitors can be factory reset using its menu.

[@heyjustj]

The part about monitor brightness is probably the most important part of this video. The number of times I've seen images on "infinite white" backgrounds that have terrible masking and eraser marks on them because the editors brightness was WAY too high is astounding. All those artifacts will print out and people will wonder why. For doing video and especially print work calibration is super necessary IMO.

[@heyjustj]

I'm Jack's Nipples yes, or at least less bright that the default on your monitor. Often monitors are setup extra bright to look good in the store, but then it blows out (aka clips) the highlights. The contrast and saturation are also usually boosted up quite a bit.

[@TheUltimateBlooper]

I like my screen bright too, but I'm a pixel peeper and I use tools like...exposure and contrast... to check for such errors in bright areas (as well as for dust spots, etc). I, personally, won't lower my screen brightness and I have my screen calibrated for sRGB using the native screen brightness set to my liking. Beautiful, accurate colors (especially paired ith the x-rite passport calibrator for photos - the skin tones come alive!!!), but nice and bright display. And no errors, because I can use the damn tools at my disposal. I think the brightness thing is more of an issue to those who are fairly new or don't pay attention to detail.

[@heyjustj]

@@TheUltimateBlooper Cranking the levels to the extreme is a great way of seeing those issues. Sort of like doing false colors with video. Usually that's how I show people their monitor settings aren't showing them the full gamut of colors. But I think there is a reason the color calibration tools measure brightness and have you turn down the brightness as one of the steps to calibration. But to each their own, do what works for you.

[@hobbytake2845]

Very hard to believe that you have been working on an uncalibrated monitor. Actually kind ridiculous.

[@cupcakebunnyprod]

Kinda because it doesn't matter too much.

[@FStoppers]

I know right! And so many people ask us "how did you color your footage? It looks great!" Another secret, sometimes we color our footage and sometimes it's just straight out of our camera...sad bear meme -P

[@albertvu06]

I would be curious to see if by calibrating your 2 monitors side by side, you would have the same result on both 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@sethleigh8850]

The only thing that surprises me about this video is to learn that he's been doing fstoppers for so long and this whole time wasn't using calibrated monitors. I use the DataColor Spyder 5 but not their software. Datacolor will sell you different models where the hardware is exactly the same, but the features they unlock in their software are different (you pay more for more software features). The DisplayCal software is freeware, and allows you to do pretty much anything the hardware is capable of. Calibrating my desktop and laptop monitors made a ginormous difference. In my case my main desktop monitor was too yellow, my laptop monitor too blue, but now both are as close to accurate as their LCD panels are capable of. I've calibrated some friends' monitors for them, and especially old laptop monitors typically look way better afterward. The one laptop I calibrated that hardly changed at all was a friend's MacBook Pro, whose retina display was very well calibrated from the factory. I guess those outrageous Apple prices do buy you something.

[@jabezhane]

I have had a few Datacolor screen calibrators over the years (4 and a 6 Elite bought on special offer) and have run through the calibration several times. Strangely it always changes it from a nice neutral colour hue to a overly warm/orange tint which looks horrible. I don't do print so I dont need it but I've always been curious.

[@sethleigh8850]

@@jabezhane I've only got the Datacolor Spyder 5, and I didn't use Datacolor's software for the calibration, so I have no idea how good or accurate it is. Using DisplayCal, I saw huge improvements in my desktop 4K monitor and my laptop monitor, plus a few others I've calibrated for other people. I haven't done photo printing from home before, but I finally took the plunge and a Canon Pixma Pro-100 is waiting for me at home. I'll recalibrate my monitors, make sure I have the right printer profiles for the paper, ink, and printer combo, and see what happens. I'm actually kind of excited, and I do expect that it'll take some testing and experience to get my printer output the way I want it to look, starting from an image on the screen that looks the way I want it. Kind of stoked to get into that.

[@MrTiger0002]

It's not just for photo and printing. Watching youtube or any video is much more enjoyable when calibrated. The older monitors benefit greatly from calibration because it is impossible to manually set RGB to ideal setting because the blue are the first to fade. The calibration gives you many years of life for any monitor unless it is really broken. The basic monitor color calibration priced at $100 range is a great starting point for everyone... Datacolor or x-rite.

[@ae86fujiwara]

What a joke lol, dont do videos like this next time.

[@sentinelsentry4675]

i've use datacolour sypder express for 6 years now .... a very good product

[@qiyuxuan9437]

Did your calibrater degraded yet? The filter inside dont last very long, usually around 3-5 years.

[@avolite719]

Just another ad masquerading as anything actually worth watching.

[@3atmey]

This has always been something that i thought about...after a lot of thinking, i just decided to not calibrate...lets say i calibrate my monitor...to what it should be calibrated to? will the other person on the other side of the globe watch my image on a calibrated screen or not? too complicated high tech shit for me. The only calibration i care about, is when i have to print, that s it for me...i dont care about anything else.

[@andrewmccarty]

I had the same opinion for a long time, but I read something recently that resonated with me. The people sitting at home on their uncalibrated monitors are USED to the way that their screen makes things look. So for all the professional media they watch that was edited with a calibrated monitor, it will look normal for them on their screen because it is what they are used to. But if you don't edit with a calibrated monitor, and in reality it has too much saturation, or a green tint or something, it will look strange to the other person because its different from what they are used to seeing. Does that make sense? So even if the other people don't have calibrated screens, they are used to images looking a certain way on THEIR screen. In order to make it look normal for THEM, you need to calibrate your monitor.

[@PauloParreira]

Still use Spyder Pro 3, unfortunately Datacolor forgot to update the software for Mac. It can calibrate but at the end saving profile is not possible, but if buy a new one it comes with newer software. Had to change to DisplayCal. Thanks Datacolor.

[@andrewmccarty]

You should consider upgrading to the new SpyderX. It's new lens sensor is supposedly wayyyyyy more accurate and a lot closer to the Xrite products.

[@Tomiply]

14:40 - Actually, that's why it's extra importent to have a calibrated display, because if you share an image you edited on a monitor that has a cool temperature, it's going to look even more cool on a "vivid" display that someone else has.

[@krane15]

All you really know is that the original meets standard specifications.

[@johngood8742]

Cheap and inaccurate.

[@warrend98]

The only missing element is a calibration comparison. The calibration is only really helpful if a) it lets side-by-side monitors match each other or b) the monitor matches the printout.

[@tayl0124]

Not calibrated until you get and match prints. Doesn't matter when it was printed as long as it wasn't color corrected by the lab, or the file changed.

[@CaptianBigums]

My right ear is getting raped

[@paulct91]

(Not an insult) but, are you intentionally going for the John Cena look...?

[@lianadrone6791]

I was thinking more of a Kelly Slater look plus the quicksilver hat.. except he's surfing the web not waves...ppshh haha

[@kyriakosmazeris5117]

You dont need all these staff to calibrate your monitor is so easy i did it in halph an hour and its perfect dont fall for this!!

[@Digit0wL]

I'm not falling for your spelling

[@RuddyDelRosario]

I don't use PC but in a Mac It's super easy and works great. Tray a mac. And as a professional photographer, I humbly think that it's very important to have the monitor calibrated.

[@kwizmon]

I agree. Calibration is super important if you're a pro. Although, it doesn't make a difference if it's a mac or pc.

[@thomasaffli9273]

Kick the mac in the trash homie

[@imalexx]

You have Popcorn Time on your desktop... WOW... just like that, for everybody to see that you don't pay for movies... Nice!

[@jsabatier514]

I also use the Spyder calibrator and love it. I can't work on anything not calibrated heck, I even had my work monitor calibrated.

[@eastvanphotography7394]

Over thinking leads to drinking.

[@ScribblebytesWorldwide]

Pour me a stiff one Smitty. 🍻

[@iggytse]

It’s important. We got footage back from a video company. Skin tones looked red. They had just gotten a new monitor and wasn’t calibrated.

[@penkatadrums]

I feel like the preview window after the calibration is a gimmick, because 1. it shows even on the screen recording, which if you think about it doesn't make any sense, and 2. because it looks the same on every calibration, which also doesn't make sense... So the place to look when switching between the profiles would be NOT at the preview pictures, but maybe at your desktop icons or maybe something on the background... At least that is changing too 😅

[@HappyHarryHardon]

Dry Creek Photo has your printer profiles. Always calibrate, color workflow is important and very misunderstood.

[@TheUltimateBlooper]

Short answer: YES Long answer: YES, absolutely. Even for gaming and media. Seriously, most screens are garbage. Having spent so much time on calibrated displays I can instantly tell if a screen is out of whack or not. I use an i1 Display Pro by X-Rite, which to me is a very nice little device and the software is very fast and flexible.

wow, 279,00 euro that's 150,00 euro more then what my monitor costs, haha

[@Ataraxia95]

Are these good if you play a lot of games ?

[@FSXgta]

no, just buy a monitor that comes with a good color accuracy out of the box

[@trypersistence]

I've used the Spyder 5 Pro for a long time. Can't get great prints without a properly calibrated monitor. I have a Dell U2518D, which was very close out of the box, but, as usual, too bright with green and blue tints to maximize brightness. Perfect calibration with the pro.

[@izoyt]

for true identical prints as possible, you need calibrated printer also, and actually, you need different profile for every different paper you use, since it does make difference. same goes if you use different type of ink (let say, other brand or some spacial, waterproof ink), too, but lets leave it there. Few (actually, more then few) years ago i did play with this things, calibrated monitor, calibrated printer and then scan all prints on calibrated scanner (this was all non-pro devices, only 4-color printer etc) and results were night and day, specially when looking ion every different colour channel, where you really can see, how wrong printer work from their factory settings. edit: just found whole thing, if somebody interested, here's the link. it's in Slovenian, but i think you can figure things out www.slo-foto.net/clanki/136/kalibracija-tiskalnikov most important it this proofing (last picture), as mentioned before www.slo-foto.net/slike/clanki/Kalibracija_tiskalnikov/razlika-vse-web-500.jpg left column in printed (and scanned) picture without profile, middle column is reference picture (original photo,non printed) and right column is print with calibration profile. please remember, this is print on low cost, cmyk printer.

[@nordic5490]

Bryan Stewart my factory calibrated Dell 30" was great right out of the box, and the spider did not change the colour at all, only reduced the brightness a little. I recommended to people to buy a good calibrated monitor and save your money on the spider.

[@MuffFlux]

Don't you have to specify that this video is an ad?

[@MoonLiteNite]

Per youtube's rules. He just has to flag it when they upload the video. It is just another box right next to the monetize the video box KZbin doesn't say that he has to verbally tell us, which he did anyways.

[@naughtyskweet6]

So the lesson here is, if you don't have a calibrator, dim your screen a smidge, and don't be afraid of the saturation slider

[@Drrezzin]

Why use a device and not simply bring up something like NTSC color bars and use the monitor's own adjustments that way or use a standard color photo that you know has correct colors and manually adjust using the monitor's own setting controls?

[@germardoumediagroup1472]

yes you need to calibrate it because all your clients have calibrated monitors and they will notice your work as bad also you need to calibrate the monitor on your dslr or mirror-less camera

[@saniwada]

Calibration is important for printing and video work.

[@germardoumediagroup1472]

@@saniwada i never had my work printed ... my clients want there work as quick as possible to post on social media. so i view it first on an ipad iphone and reasonable android .. if the colors look good ..its ready for export no hassle to me : as long it pays my bills and the client is happy my work here is done In the film days my granddad never calibrated his screen , yet his pics look wickedly good up to this day These companies just wanna sell you stuff

[@saniwada]

@@germardoumediagroup1472 your'e workflow is not the same as everyone else's. I'm a hobbyist and even I print my stuff for myself.

[@germardoumediagroup1472]

@@saniwada well it goes to not fix what is not broken

[@formerlydave]

Your audio mix is throwing me off using my headphones. Way stronger on the right ear and it’s distracting. Just FYI sorry to be negative... just trying to let you know

[@davesbrewing]

welcomed to the 19th century, what will be next perhaps horseless carriages or telecommunications. I have been calibrating video screens professionally since 1988 using gels and SMPTE color bars.

[@georgioskonstantinou4226]

Professional photographer amazed by the results of monitor calibration... Professor amazed by the invention of the book...

[@bryanleaman5942]

I had a photo I really liked, but when I got it printed professionally it didn't look the same. I calibrated my Linux PC and now it looks the same onscreen as my printed copy. So basically I'm no longer mis-adjusting color temp and brightness in post.

[@ferrydrums99]

Nice to hear that Bryan. I am also running Linux and I'm looking on how to calibrate my display. Do you mind sharing what software/hardware you used? Thanks!

[@bryanleaman5942]

I used Display Cal v3.2.2 and an older Spyder 2 that I borrowed from my photo club. As I recall I had to find some drivers to install and had to explicitly enable Spyder2 in the software.

[@ferrydrums99]

@@bryanleaman5942 Great, thanks for the information!

[@michaelmarshall1516]

What's with the epic background music? Incredibly inappropriate and annoying. Decent video otherwise.

[@lenzwizard]

Great video but you failed to show how you could undo the process if you don't like it.

[@jimfeldman4035]

It prompts you in the app dialog if you want to save the change

[@LucasJodokast]

He doesnt know how... this guy obviously doesnt know shit about colour calibration or PCs for that matter

[@lenzwizard]

@@jimfeldman4035 but if you "save the change" can you later go back and undo that change?

[@jimfeldman4035]

@@lenzwizard Sure. On windows you have .ICM files. I actually have multiple since I've found what's good for reading isn't the one I want for photo editing You assign the icm to the display. IOWs, I assign one to the laptop and another to the second monitor

[@kwizmon]

@@LucasJodokast he already admitted that about calibration.

[@JonnyPink65]

Great video as always, but in my opinion, the product is a garbage waste of time. The majority of negative reviews from people that have had the experience you had the one time in the past, and what I experienced in December of 2018 are true. I used the Datacolor Spyder 5 PRO..... and it was the biggest waste of time that made everything almost unusable. I wanted to balance my dual 42" studio monitors that I use for both video and photos, with my Dell laptop that I use for video and photos when traveling. The color between all three were soooo off. I could open up a photo on one monitor where it looked OK, slide it to the other and have the skin tones look burned. The laptop just looked dull. I did get everything to balance by uninstalling ALL the Datacolor and using color charts to get back to true color - all three now match..... and NOT with Datacolor Spyder 5 PRO. I personally think it is a terrible product and will never us it again ( I hope I am getting across how bad I think it is!). If they reached out to me, I would tell them only if they want a REALLY bad review. i will be curious to see how long it will take you to uninstall - I hope you do a video on that as well. And for me, since I know that my monitors are bright, I bump up the exposure when sending to print. Works just fine that way!

[@danielflynn1847]

Thanks for the pointed and direct product review. For a sponsored bit it came across as a honest assessment and good information as it relates to your use with reasonable consideration for users not matching your level of production. I was considering this purchase before watching your video, color calibration is a tricky issue, and your approval goes a long way to legitimizing the investment for me even if I’m not working as a professional.

[@asdfhun]

You don't need to recalibrate your monitor every month, we are not using CCFL backlight in monitors anymore (wich ages, and changes it''s color temperature and brightness by the time, contrary to LED backlight). Also instead of calibrating your own monitor, i believe in calibrating it (at least for the first time) by a professional, someone who's not only doing what we've seen in the video, but finetuning it using the monitor's service menu, that's the real sh*t :).

[@nickgoogle4525]

invite someone who knows what he's talking about, when you don't have the knowledge yourself -- one example: brightness (technically correct: luminance) of the monitor should match your ambient viewing conditions. There is no single "correct" monitor brightness as there is no "correct" clothing to go outdoors which would fit to all ambient (temperature / weather) conditions!

[@videolivecontent]

I'm work on 100% brightness, because if you work at low brightness, it will always seem that the photo is not bright enough and you want to clarify it in the editor. But as it turns out later, it was necessary to increase the brightness of the screen.

[@nickgoogle4525]

What one perceives mostly as "brightness" in a picture is the relation of the midtones to the shadows and highlights -- so the "gamma" or gradation. Of course the maximum luminance of the monitor is also important, as our perception is also dependent on the absolute level (see "Stevens effect") -- although with current monitors we're not really getting into that high luminance range anyways. Take a color-matched created print and view it under a standard D50 lighting and then adjust the luminance of the monitor to match the print visually. Take care of creating similiar background conditions (ideally similar gray) for both the picture on the screen and the print. Search for "Fogra Softproof handbook" when you want more info on that matter (the german version is more up to date btw).

[@MikeMaryFitnessDuo]

Windows had nothing to do with it.I use spyder color since 10 years and the process is exactly the same, the software UI didn’t change at all. Probably you were using different profile per software and not using a single profile managed by windows (7 or XP)

[@RomboutVersluijs]

WHen saving images just make sure you save as sRGB, thats one of the main things. BUt i guess you know that already.

[@tayl0124]

Hopefully

[@NXDL25]

Of course prints won't look the same. They're pieces of paper and not monitors with backlights, the white point on your print will look as bright as the light in the room you're in (or the sun if you're outside). Also, you kept comparing the calibration profile you got with your studio lights shining on your and your monitor. You were basically amazed by inaccurate results.

[@robertgrenader858]

Desktop and Laptop displays right out of the box are set up for gaming or browsing web pages. Calibrating your monitor is only relevant for local prints or sending prints to a lab. Also, the various Windows picture apps can screw with image displays. Also, the calibration stays with the video card, not the monitor.

[@gosman949]

not necessarily. Some monitors can be calibrated directly into their LUT system.

[@mrcraggle]

If you're editing, use the right tool for the job. I have a Eizo monitor, I sure hope it's not calibrated for gaming.

[@Smoothblue90]

No. If I use my eyes to edit in Lightroom on one of my laptops, then export .jpg to my Samsung S9, the images look way too saturated. I realize that different phone screens are different. But if I am editing to upload to Instagram, I want my laptop screen to be calibrated to some sort of standard that gives my images the best shot to look the best on the most phones.

[@robertgrenader858]

@@mrcraggle Right out of the box, it probably is. That's what Lee was referring too the bright, blue tones of the OEM settings.

[@airgliderz]

No it's most relevant for good accurate photo editing.

[@aquaticaquatos4792]

You guys have so many awesome photographs yet you choose to use default windows desktop wallpaper. Why? Why don't you guys use your own awesome photographs as wallpapers and customize your PC?

[@virusj216]

the more u look at it... the more u hate it

[@ricecrash5225]

Small tip for some. I work 100% from a laptop and outsource my printing. My print company offers free colour calibration matching their printers. I take my laptop in and they do it, no charge. Of course you can’t do this if your print company isn’t within reach. Maybe check with your print supplier before spending ?

[@Fleet42]

Rice Crash i'd love to know who you use!!

[@frankryan8100]

I wish they would sponsor me... and I'd tear them apart with errors and messages like "SanityCheckLUT Failed 0, 0, 0" and that it can't get the white point right and fault, fault, fault, fault.... doesn't work. Yay. $180 down the tubes...

[@dcallan812]

Im glad that it was not just me it tool AGES to sort back to "normal"

[@mstrainjr]

I thought this video would be a lesson on the importance of color calibration. It was instead a 16-minute ad. It seems to me like you don't know how to properly use a computer. The fact that it was such a disaster just because you changed to color profile is amazing, especially because it's so simple to search Google and figure out how to fix it. Either that or you were exaggerating just to try to make the point that the Spyder X is easy to do.

[@maciekkk123]

Did you print your photos after calibration? How was it comparing to the screen look?

[@janklimek7666]

Nice Cat thats a good question that no one will answer ;/

[@TheRacerRich]

BTW, while at the end Windows Photo Viewer was color calibrated, the current "Photos" in Windows 10 (go check, windows update has deleted your Photo Viewer and you just have Photos now) is not color calibrated. I use a free calibrated viewer called FastPictureViewer.

[@pperentes]

There is a way to add "photo viewer" back to windows 10. But you are right, the photos app in windows 10 does not abide to color calibration.

[@aaronmeyers451]

This is why you need a real monitor like Benq Sw2700pt that is adobe rgb and hardware calibrate a monitor. Color calibrating is mandatory if your client plans on printing your images. Other wise you images can make the overall exposure darker or brighter, and it can also effect the colors. Basically your monitor is not representative of what the colors and brightness levels actually are. This is really noticeable when printing albums or photos.

[@PonteRyuurui]

Get eizo color edge with built in calibrator, and no doubt the best panel for image editing on the market, i love mine. Pricey? Yes heavy as fuck? Yes. Who gives a toss. It’s amazing. It auto calibrates every week at set hour when my pc is off. I don’t have to think about it at all. Also, i stopped watching after you said you tried to reset monitor calibration via system restore, whilst claiming you are pretty good with computers. Come on man.... and image on a calibrated monitor looks different because you are used to monitors with gaming settings on br. At 120 not 90-ish. As a “pro “ you supposed to know this mate.

[@PedroAnastazi]

umm... interesting video but sadly you havent really taken much into consideration when lookin at calibration... considerations being the difference between sRGB vs aRGB vs Print YUV so when I heard you comparing and talking about the differences between your screens and your prints and WHY theyre different, brightness and saturation were just the surface layer of the issue... Youre actually comparing apples to oranges... and tryin to compare the differences without explaining sRGB and Adbobe RGB and print YUV and even REC709 for video, is not only pointless but also somewhat misguides people. You honestly cant simply say the differences are brightness when theyre clearly not.... and your calibration qualifies this misguided idea.. Calibration is imperitive to colour match your work to the print comparison or even screen to screen. If youre working with other photographers or with a print supply company, its not difficult to have an ICC profile sent to you which you can work with. When working pro, youre going to have clients who WILL NOT accept any deviation from the colours they specify. In fact, many companies have standards and some even give you the swatch pantone name number and RGB/YUV mix formula just to ensure there arent any mistakes... I know this might seem a little TOO detailed, but when your client is paying you for accurate colours, then you better get it right else they wont be a customer for long... From there you also jump into FB and again, discussing misguided ideas about compression which could be easily adressed. I know this was a 'sponsored" video, but omitting important information (such as colour space, social media standard guidelines to uploads, format issues etc ) which could have been used to benefit the calibration tool sales, actually compromises the integrity of this particular video and the info therein...it also keeps your viewers in the dark with a mind set on one idea (such as compression or print colour) which is not entirely accurate.. its not completely wrong either... theres just more to the issue than what you touch on... Anyone who creates web based content would (or should) know that there are ways to avoid FB compression algorithms (as in this case) based on frame size, file size and DPI output.. Sadly your video does nothing for your uneducated viewers as again comparing an FB upload as you have causes more confusion, as yes you may have simply uploaded a shot and let FB manage it (which alot of people do) , but you can avoid FBs dirty fingers from muddying up your shot quite easily... if only you told you viewers HOW... There are afew other things you said. but i'll stfu.. .I dont want anyone to get the wrong idea about why i posted... Now im all for info and kudos to you for putting a video together and managing a channel like this, Im not taking anything away from your effort or knowledge here... im simply pointing out that there are MANY more elements involved in colour than what was raised in this video. Nice video either way and some good info about the importance of calibration. Well done.

[@NoRegret08]

It is more Magenta because you should have licked "Standard LED" and not "Wide LED" . Wide Led is for Adobe RGB . I opened a ticket with this issue with technical support and this is what they told me.

[@RobertDuBois]

You're a photographer. I'm sure you can find a better background than the windows logo =p

[@FStoppers]

I love deep blue wallpapers. The windows one is the best!

[@curtis6861]

Always a solid black background so your eyes don't get burnt 😎

[@IraklyShanidze00X]

I remember trying to calibrate a TFT matrix of an IBM laptop in 2003 and being amazed with an atrociously awful job that Spider has done. Yet, undoing it took just a few seconds. Most likely, your spider was much more evil than my spider.