New here, question about brightness of iMac screen...

Well, it's for my "business," but I'm just starting out and still taking pics of friends mostly to build my portfolio. So the order that came back too dark was photos of my friend's sons. I'm glad I'm learning about this issue now while I'm still working with friends and family!

I showed the prints to my friend and told her I know they are darker than they appear on my screen and that I would have them redone. She is in no particular hurry. I did the shoot for free and gave her a CD. Once I get this all figured out I'll burn her another CD with the corrected images.

I calibrated using display preferences. I will buy a Spyder or something if I need to. I haven't researched which one to get yet.

I started a new thread thinking the tilt thing was separate from the brightness thing, but now I'm realizing it's all interconnected and I should have just kept to one thread.

P.S. Thanks mods for combining the threads!

The basic Spyder2 is nice. I have the middle version, the Spyder2Suite and that's the one I recommend to everyone. It's only $100.
An actual meter like the Spyder might cure all the color and brightness problems you're having.
Macs are great for photography. I wouldn't use the 20" Ai though for color calibration and final output though. That model iMac has a really poor display panel for color accuracy.
I can cetainly go in to more depth with you later today but can't now.

Thanks for your help. I'll look into the Spyder2Suite.

Scrap-
Good. A color calibration meter is a great start to getting repeatable, accurate results. You really need one and I cannot stress that enough. $2000 graphics monitors come with these meters as standard equipment. No monitor is 100% accurate.
I would suggest getting a second monitor for editing photos and inspection before output. The 20" aluminum iMac uses a consumer based LCD panel that is notorious for color shifting and other things. The 20" iMac uses a TN panel which is the cheapest kind of panel put into LCD's these days. All manufacturer's use these types of panels in their budget monitors. This panel is great for lots of other things, just not photography. You need to be using a LCD with a S-IPS panel. These monitors are considerable more expensive but the panel uses wider color spaces like Adobe RGB (instead of sRGB or a CRT or NTSC standard) and the colors are more accurate and true. Unfortunately, these monitors are easily $650+ for a 20" model.
The easy way to tell the difference in person between the two panel types is just by looking at them. If you look at the 20" iMac, the colors shift orange or yellow when you look at the monitor at an angle on the horizontal axis. The screen gets darker or brighter when you look at it from a vertical angle ( part of the issue you're having, right?) The 24" iMac has the S-IPS panel which doesn't see this color shifts or not as harshly. If you're comparing these two types of monitors by looking at their specs, the easiest way to tell the difference is to look at the refresh rate. The refresh rate on a TN panel will be in the 2ms to 5ms range. The refresh rate for an S-IPS panel is around 12ms or slower. (This is the main reason why most manufacturer's don't use these panels more often, other than fact they are expensive.)
Once you have these two things set, you are almost good to go.
I would get as much info from the lab you use. Find out what color spaces, ICC profiles, gamma, and all that jazz that they use for printing. Knowing these things are very critical. If you're working in the sRGB space using gamma 2.2 and they use Adobe RGB and gamma 1.8, your prints will be off every single time even if your monitor is calibrated correctly. You need to find out all of this info and then change your workflow to match theirs. You should be able to choose the color space you use in Photoshop and you can tell the color calibration tool to use either gamma 1.8 or 2.2.
Once you have these things down, you should get accurate or pretty close to accurate results every time.
Things will never be perfect though. You need to realize the monitor uses RGB to display colors and printers will use CMYK. The range of colors each method puts out is different.

Sorry if this is all stuff you know. If it's all new, hope it helps. Let me know if you need anything else.

Thank you VERY much Bry. I did not know *all* of that, only some of it. I do know my lab uses sRGB, so that is the colorspace I use in PS. I need to check into the Gamma part. And of course I need to buy a calibration meter.

I *really* appreciate your help!

scrapulous said:

Thank you VERY much Bry. I did not know *all* of that, only some of it. I do know my lab uses sRGB, so that is the colorspace I use in PS. I need to check into the Gamma part. And of course I need to buy a calibration meter.

I *really* appreciate your help!

Click to expand...

No problem. It sounded like you need some help. I am still learning myself and slowly building my own, personal lab. I just need a nice monitor and a printer. Oh, and the camera. I have yet to buy my own DSLR.

As you can see when playing with the display preferences, the difference between 1.8 and 2.2 does a lot for shadow detail. All of the little details can add up, ya know?

Let us know how your business goes?

So I just read the brochure from my lab, and wouldn't you know they spell out exactly what they use. They use sRGB and Adobe RGB, so either one is acceptable. I just have to make sure that info is embedded in my photos, which I always do. They also use Gamma 2.2, which is what the Spyder2 recommends, so that's good.

Now I'm off to order the Spyder2 and anxiously await its arrival!

if u need to darken your screen (from a little bit to drastically) then google shades for mac. works gr8 on my 24 inch imac, which i found a little dark at night

Anyone use Spyder3? Which controls exist on 20" display?

I have a 20" iMac. I just received my Spyder3 Pro calibrator and it's asking me which controls exist on my display.

Basically, I don't know which buttons to check. I have googled a lot, and apparently what I thought was a brightness control (the sun on my F1 and F2 keys) is actually a backlight control. But in System Preferences it calls it "brightness." So I have no idea what to click now.

Any help out there?

Thanks.

Does Apple actually say which panel is used in the 20" iMac display?

I can't find any info from Apple anywhere about which panel is used in any of their computers. From Google I've found forums posts where users say the 20" uses a TN panel (bad for photo processing) and that the 24" uses an S-IPS panel, but I can't find any confirmation on that.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks.

NOTE: Merged threads for continuity

My most recent questions, for which I started new threads, are not going to be seen if they are stuck at the end of my first post. They are separate questions and will attract the attention of different people.

Maybe someone who doesn't know or care about the brightness problem I'm having will know which buttons to click when I run the Spyder3 program. But that person won't know to open this thread, kwim? It's a separate issue. It was in a different forum for that reason. The brightness thing directly related to my photo editing, hence the "digital photography" forum. The Spyder3 question is about my hardware, hence the hardware forum.

Asking for proof of which panel is used in my iMac is also a hardware question.

I was trying to be as concise as possible with my titles and post content, but I've never been on a forum that merges everything I ask into one big post. Usually follow up questions with a different potential audience get a separate post. Sorry if I'm doing it all wrong.

I think the backlights are what light the entire screen from what I have read about LCD panels.

I don't know where to find documentation about the iMac panels but that's what I heard about the 20" and 24" iMacs. This why I suggested buying a second display with an IPS panel. The 20" iMac isn't accurate enough for professional work. This is also why I wanted to know your level of involvement.

Scrap-
You're right about placement in the forum. However, a lot of background information is needed to answer your questions so it will help people who find this thread help you without starting from the beginning again.

Thanks Bry. So, I clicked backlight only and calibrated. Looks good. Now I have to order photos to see if they match. Wish me luck.

well

Well, I still can't get my screen to match the prints. I have darkened and calibrated, but the prints (from 2 different labs) don't match my screen no matter what I do. And the prints look identical from each lab, so it's not the lab's fault.

What now? I'm so lost...

Create a monitor profile that matches the print.

That's just it - I can't get the screen to match the prints. The prints are all more yellow/golden than the screen. I calibrated twice. It just doesn't match.

What's your white point? Maybe you should switch it to a more yellow tone.