On Color Gamuts (from a color-blind birdshooter)

[Romy Ocon]

Hi Gang,

I just finished calibrating my dual display using a Monaco Optix Xrite:

1. Main display - Viewsonic VX2025wm, 1680x1050 res., 16.7m colors, 20.1"

2. Secondary display - Viewsonic VX1940w, 1680x1050 res., 16.7m colors, 19"

6500K temp., Gamma 2.2

White point luminance = about 115 cd/cm^2 for both displays (good for working in moderate-slightly bright ambient light).

According to both my expert color consultants (the domestic boss and the 11-year old birdshooter wannabe), both displays look virtually identical now in all aspects. My previous prints also match well with the LCD version of their digital files.

Also, both displays pass with flying colors (pun intended ;D) the quick tests mentioned in this thread:

birdphotoph.proboards107.com/index.cgi?board=gear&action=display&thread=482


The pixel pitch of the VX2025wm (1680x1050 on a 20.1" diagonal) is already small compared to the 22" versions of the same resolution. But I love the even smaller pitch of the 1940w (1680x1050 on a 19" diagonal) - this can resolve better the fine feather detail.



To guide me in optimizing my PP workflow as far as color reproduction is concerned, I benchmarked the VX2025wm's color gamut vs those of various media:

1. I'm glad to see that my primary display is capable of a bit wider gamut than Apple RGB:





2. Here's how large the gamut of Adobe RGB is compared to my primary monitor's RGB:





3. And here's the gamut of Japan Color 2001 Coated, a paper with one of the larger gamuts available. It's interesting to note how limited the gamut can be in paper prints (book/magazine prints, not photo lab prints). In other words, a good LCD monitor can display some color ranges that can no longer be printed on the best coated papers.





To those who wish to profile their display(s) using any hardware profiler on Windows XP, I highly recommend downloading the Microsoft Color Control Panel Applet (free) for better color management.

Here's the link:

www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/prophoto/colorcontrol.mspx



Romy

[tjparpan]

Another manifestation or Romy's passion for his craft. I'm not at this stage of Color Management yet, but thanks for showing us how it's done!

[Manny Illana]

thanks for the link romy, will test it on my toshiba qosmio laptop which comes with its own color management app.

[reneripr]

This is something that all of us should dominate (including myself ).
Thanks for the explanation and diagrams, it will be very helpful.

Saludos,
Rene

[Romy Ocon]

Mar 17, 2008 3:41:55 GMT Romy Ocon said:

Hi Gang,

I just finished calibrating my dual display using a Monaco Optix Xrite:

1. Main display - Viewsonic VX2025wm, 1680x1050 res., 16.7m colors, 20.1"

2. Secondary display - Viewsonic VX1940w, 1680x1050 res., 16.7m colors, 19"

Uh oh..... dual display trouble!

After initially thinking that I had both LCDs displaying to standard, I noticed that some of my pics weren't displaying correctly in the secondary monitor. It turns out that XP's color management can assign separate color profiles to each monitor only when I have two, separate video cards!

I only have one vcard, with its DVI going to the primary display and the VGA going to the secondary. Both outputs use the same and only one profile.

So I decided to calibrate just the primary monitor and do all my PP there. The secondary, wrongly using the primary's color profile, will just serve as a parking lot for various windows.

So lesson learned, for those who set up dual displays and requires both to be calibrated, you need two video cards, each using a separate color profile.

Romy