Adjusting Monitors Gamma/contrast etc..

dur23

I recently just got myself a whole new rig. Along with that was Samsung SyncMaster BX2450L LED monitor. I'm having a hard time adjusting contrast and gamma. I obviously can't just prntscrn this problem, because it'll be fine on your end.
The problem i'm having is that the it feels as the though the colors/contrast are TOO good. The low end of the luminosity spectrum is rather rigid. I can see tonnes of banding as colors get closer to black? I've tried the utility that comes with the monitor. But i can't seem to get it right... It's kind of making feel incompetent.
Thanks in advance for the help...

glynnsmith

Buy/borrow/steal a colorimeter/monitor calibrator.

I'f you've a couple of friends that make CG art, you could all band together and get one between you.

AlecMoody

yeah you need a hardware colorimeter. Also in most cases you only degrade image quality by adjusting things on monitor. There is limited internal precision and its all targeted around factory default settings in the most vanilla mode the monitor has.

Also don't use any 'calibration' software tool that involves your eyes or visually matching tones on a screen in any way.

For when you do calibrate/profile you should set a target gamma of 2.2, a luminance in the ballpark of 110-160 cd/m2 (depends on how bright the ambient light is) and most likely a color temp of 6500k.

glynnsmith

Another thing to add is default settings between two of the same monitor might not produce the same image.

I bought two monitors, and with default factory settings, one's a little warmer, and less contrasted.

My calibrator sorted them both to look exactly the same.

AlecMoody

Also, if you are wondering what route to go in terms of buying a hardware solution your best bet is the i1 Display 2 from xrite or the Blue Eye pro from lacie. The huey pantone is kind of junk and I know the older Spyder models were not great either.

dur23

So after much fooling around. I found that the nvidia screen tuner seemed to the best job for me. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not, but i have everything exactly where i want it contrast/gamma/brightness wise.

Thanks glynn and alec.

MattLichy

Yeah, I just use the nvidia settings and monitor settings. I had a guy use one of those machines at Bungie when I was there, and he was surprised, because I had calibrated it almost perfect without anything.

AlecMoody

I think you missed a big point of both Glynn and I's response. You should not be attempting to calibrate (or especially profile) your screen by eye- you need a hardware colorimeter. You are most likely doing more harm than good.

The need to calibrate displays is starting to become a more widespread idea but unfortunately the internet is full of terrible information. Check out the international color consortium website for some good info(the people who designed the whole color management system we all use today).
http://www.color.org/index.xalter