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

[scrapulous]

I set the white point to 6500, since that's what the labs I used said to do. I will try a different one and see what happens. If I can figure out how. I'm about to throw this thing away and use my old CRT. I don't know why this is so hard!

 

[bryphotoguy]

Your iMac screen turns yellow if you look at it from an angle, right? If you look at it from an angle, does that match your print?

(These questions aren't suggesting you do this to fix your problem, I am just trying to understand.)

 

[scrapulous]

No, it doesn't match my print from any angle.

 

[bryphotoguy]

Which do you like better, the screen or the print?

 

[scrapulous]

The screen is better.

 

[bryphotoguy]

hmmm... I don't know how to go from here. See if you can change the color temperature to 5500 or something. This should make it more yellow.

Or, go back to the saved digital image and make it more yellow to make it match the print. Say you had to add 5 points yellow. Try adding 5 point blue to the print and take it back to the lab. See if this gets you where you want to be.

Or, find a lab that gets you a print you like. If you like the monitor better, you should be looking to get something to match that, not the other way around, right?

 

[scrapulous]

I don't think it's possible to find a lab whose prints will match the monitor, because I think the problem is the monitor isn't showing me the correct colors. I still think it's the monitor that's off, since two different labs printed the photos exactly the same.

I wonder if my monitor is defective.

 

[bryphotoguy]

I don't think it's possible to find a lab whose prints will match the monitor, because I think the problem is the monitor isn't showing me the correct colors. I still think it's the monitor that's off, since two different labs printed the photos exactly the same.

I wonder if my monitor is defective.

I wouldn't say the monitor is defective. The 20" Ai iMac isn't good for color correction. The TN inside that machine isn't designed for color accuracy.

Can you hook up your old CRT and see if that renders colors better? Does your lab have a monitor you can look at before it prints? I am trying to find a solution to see if you can look at a different monitor and see if it matches the print or the monitor.

I haven't run into this issue before to really help much further. Your monitor is calibrated and you're using the labs color spaces and everything. It should "just work" so I don't know where to go from here. Sorry.

 

[scrapulous]

That's okay. I appreciate all your help and the time you spent on this.

 

[Blizare]

I can maybe make a few suggestions. I've used a spyder and brought it back and bought a $210 huey pro.

By the sounds of it, I would be simply turning down my brightness controls and try and match the prints that are coming from the printer.

With the huey and adjusting the brightness I'm sure you could get close.

Or make an action for photoshop to adjust the contrast in the images 5 points or so.

Thats all you can do.