Anybody else have 2nd thoughts about a wide gamut display?

[Andrews]

I purchased a NEC2690 display with SpectraView software earlier this year after my LaCie Electron Blue CRT displays started showing their age. I don't question that it's a very good, properly calibrated display, and it shows me information in my images that i didn't see before. But that brings up other issues which I never before encountered. With my old monitors, once I tweaked an image, it would look good in e-mails, on the web, in 4 color printing, and on my client's monitors (depending on how far off their's were), and I would get close results from outside labs using their printer profiles.

Now, when I send an image to a client in an e-mail or upload to the web, it's far too saturated. And when a client views an image on their monitors, I sometimes have to explain that the file looks great on my properly calibrated monitor, even if it doesn't look perfect on theirs. (A funny side note, I used to have this issue with transparencies on different light boxes, having to explain that my MacBeth was more accurate that their cheap box). I'm actually feeling the need to drag my images over to view on my MacBook Pro display as a quick check to make sure they aren't too saturated.

So, from a practical standpoint, what good does it do to have all this information available to the photographer if only he can see it, and it doesn't all show in a printed piece, and less importantly on the web or e-mails?

[Henry Goh]

I purchased a NEC2690 display with SpectraView software earlier this year after my LaCie Electron Blue CRT displays started showing their age. I don't question that it's a very good, properly calibrated display, and it shows me information in my images that i didn't see before. But that brings up other issues which I never before encountered. With my old monitors, once I tweaked an image, it would look good in e-mails, on the web, in 4 color printing, and on my client's monitors (depending on how far off their's were), and I would get close results from outside labs using their printer profiles.

Now, when I send an image to a client in an e-mail or upload to the web, it's far too saturated. And when a client views an image on their monitors, I sometimes have to explain that the file looks great on my properly calibrated monitor, even if it doesn't look perfect on theirs. (A funny side note, I used to have this issue with transparencies on different light boxes, having to explain that my MacBeth was more accurate that their cheap box). I'm actually feeling the need to drag my images over to view on my MacBook Pro display as a quick check to make sure they aren't too saturated.

So, from a practical standpoint, what good does it do to have all this information available to the photographer if only he can see it, and it doesn't all show in a printed piece, and less importantly on the web or e-mails?

Andrew,

This may or may not shed some light but last night when I was viewing one of my sRGB tagged file on my Macbook Pro and at the same time on my Dell2408 hooked to a PC, I noticed that the PC version was way more saturated then my Macbook.  On the PC, I was viewing with Google Chrome browser and on the Macbook I was viewing with Safari.  Both computers are calibrated.  I was very surprised until I remembered that Safari is color-aware whereas Google Chrome and Firefox on my Windows machine are not.

Could it be that your clients are viewing your work in a non-color aware monitor, let alone uncalibrated?

[smthopr]

Andrew,

This may or may not shed some light but last night when I was viewing one of my sRGB tagged file on my Macbook Pro and at the same time on my Dell2408 hooked to a PC, I noticed that the PC version was way more saturated then my Macbook.  On the PC, I was viewing with Google Chrome browser and on the Macbook I was viewing with Safari.  Both computers are calibrated.  I was very surprised until I remembered that Safari is color-aware whereas Google Chrome and Firefox on my Windows machine are not.

Could it be that your clients are viewing your work in a non-color aware monitor, let alone uncalibrated?

Henry, you bring up an interesting point.

I recently color adjusted some photos on my macbook pro and put them on my website (sgrb profile).  When I viewed them on my friend's iMac in Safari, they were a bit more saturated than they appear on my macbook pro (glossy LED screen).  My macbook pro is calibrated with an iOne display while the iMac was set to the factory profile.

At the apple store the other day, I checked out the photos on a 23in stand alone apple monitor and they looked somewhere in between the mac book pro and the iMac.

The gamma looked correct in each case:)

Why this happens, I have no idea.  I do believe the Macbook pro is a low saturation display though.  Or is it the iOne display?

Sorry to add more confusion to this, but I'm a little confused myself.

-bruce

[Henry Goh]

Henry, you bring up an interesting point.

I recently color adjusted some photos on my macbook pro and put them on my website (sgrb profile).  When I viewed them on my friend's iMac in Safari, they were a bit more saturated than they appear on my macbook pro (glossy LED screen).  My macbook pro is calibrated with an iOne display while the iMac was set to the factory profile.

At the apple store the other day, I checked out the photos on a 23in stand alone apple monitor and they looked somewhere in between the mac book pro and the iMac.

The gamma looked correct in each case:)

Why this happens, I have no idea.  I do believe the Macbook pro is a low saturation display though.  Or is it the iOne display?

Sorry to add more confusion to this, but I'm a little confused myself.

-bruce

Later today I'm going to re-calibrate both my PC and Macbook Pro.  Both will be at Gamma 2.2.  I'm going to try and get to the bottom of this by viewing the same file in Photoshop on both screens to eliminate browser issues.

BTW factory default Gamma for iMacs are 1.8 so beware.

[Andrews]

Henry,
There's no doubt that very few people other than photographers, pre-press and printing professionals have properly calibrated monitors. I'm constantly dealing with this issue, even with experienced designers and art directors. My experience is that most uncalibrated displays are too bright and too blue. And different web browsers bring up another element.

My main point in this post is that my display shows much more detail than any of my clients ever see in a printed piece or on their screens in either web or e-mails. I feel that I must be very careful in tweaking my images so that the shadow detail that looks good on my display doesn't go dark and muddy in print, and the highlights don't blow out. Of course, this has always been a concern because of the difference in transmitted light versus ink on paper, but it seems more so with a wide gamut display. Same with web and e-mails; images have never looked as good with a limited color space, but it now seems more difficult to get a reasonable looking image.

I would actually like to 'dumb down' the display at times. The closest I've come is viewing the image with Proof Colors on, but I usually don't know in advance which printer a client will use (and neither do they). My ideal would be a generic profile that doesn't change the color balance, but only affects highlight and shadow detail. My next step is to experiment with viewing images under a curves layer with increased contrast.

Has anyone tried experimenting with a custom curve in the SpectaView settings? Could be interesting.

Thanks for your input.