diY calibration
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wad
Aug 5, 2014, 12:51:05 PM8/5/14
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One issue with calibrating your panel using Windows is that it relies
on your monitor having on-board brightness or contrast controls. If
yours doesn’t, then your graphics driver software will undoubtedly be
able to adjust these settings itself, and usually do plent y more besides.
For instance, the Nvidia Control Panel includes an option called Digital Vibrance that’ll increase color saturation in a more subtle fashion
than a traditional saturation slider. This can make a game like Far Cry
3 look ultra-luscious, but remember that the effect is completely fake
and isn’t really what monitor calibration is all about.
Returning to the task of tweaking brightness and contrast, you’ll
still need some form of sample image to know how far to adjust
things, and to be honest, shots of semi-naked celebs probably aren’t
your best bet here. Instead, it’s time to turn to the (almost as enticing)
grayscale chart. These visual benchmarks tend to be used for printer
calibration, but they work just as well for set ting up a monitor. A quick
Google search should deliver the goods, but make sure you download
a chart with at least 20 steps of gray, ranging from pure white to pure
black. The objective here is to get every stage on the scale to display
clearly, from a crisp white to a deep, inky black. Pay close attention
at these extremes, because a monitor with its brightness cranked to
the max will often merge the lightest grays into white, and do the opposite when set too dimly. Most half-decent monitors should be able
to display this many shades of gray separately, but if yours can’t then
try to strike a balance between displaying as many light and dark
shades as possible.
on your monitor having on-board brightness or contrast controls. If
yours doesn’t, then your graphics driver software will undoubtedly be
able to adjust these settings itself, and usually do plent y more besides.
For instance, the Nvidia Control Panel includes an option called Digital Vibrance that’ll increase color saturation in a more subtle fashion
than a traditional saturation slider. This can make a game like Far Cry
3 look ultra-luscious, but remember that the effect is completely fake
and isn’t really what monitor calibration is all about.
Returning to the task of tweaking brightness and contrast, you’ll
still need some form of sample image to know how far to adjust
things, and to be honest, shots of semi-naked celebs probably aren’t
your best bet here. Instead, it’s time to turn to the (almost as enticing)
grayscale chart. These visual benchmarks tend to be used for printer
calibration, but they work just as well for set ting up a monitor. A quick
Google search should deliver the goods, but make sure you download
a chart with at least 20 steps of gray, ranging from pure white to pure
black. The objective here is to get every stage on the scale to display
clearly, from a crisp white to a deep, inky black. Pay close attention
at these extremes, because a monitor with its brightness cranked to
the max will often merge the lightest grays into white, and do the opposite when set too dimly. Most half-decent monitors should be able
to display this many shades of gray separately, but if yours can’t then
try to strike a balance between displaying as many light and dark
shades as possible.
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