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As an adjunct to the Tangents blog, the intention with this forum is to answer any questions, and allow a diverse discussion of topics related photography. With that, see it as an open invitation to just climb in and start threads and to respond to any threads.
Best PC monitor for processing photographs
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Edit: ahhh, sorry, I see by not available you actually meant the "purchase is not available" not the actual software download. I shall have a look, see what I can come up with.
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Did you use this link: http://www.necdisplay.com/support-and-services/spectra-view-II/Downloads
So, if on Mac you need the one I circled under Mac or if Windows obviously choose the Windows installer.
Note though, it says "Serial Number Required from Original Purchase" so you need that when installing I presume.
Trev
I see the problem, you are not in the US I take it, since that purchase link only allows purchases within the US/Canada/Latin America, not Europe nor Australia for that matter, damn.
Unfortunately you will have to get software from another source, but pricey, sorry.
You need to look around, here is Australian link: http://www.imagescience.com.au/products/NEC-SpectraView-II-Direct-Hardware-Calibration-System.html
Just found this on dprreview:
We (NEC Display Solutions of America not NEC Europe) have a few authorized resellers that ship international. http://www.neutroncanada.com/prod.cfm/700248/NEC/SVIISOFT/SOFTWARE and http://www.nextwarehouse.com/item/?527587_NEC_SVIISOFT . We have them in stock in California. You may also see if you can contact a frieght fowarder to purchase one the US and foward it to where you live. Where do you live? If you live in Canada or Latin America you shouldn't have an issue buying off our site. But if you are Europe I don't know why they don't sell the software seperate or if they do where they sell it.
Good luck...
Remember, you don't need the DISC, just the purchase so you can get the Serial Number as it's recommended to install the latest version anyway so you can still download the actual software itself.
Edit: Maybe Lou, Matrixphoto, can help out here. He got the software obviously from that purchase link you tried, but he's in Canada. I have sent him an email.
If he agrees, I can give you his email via the 'Inbox' above, only if he agrees of course, and you will need to work things out.
Trev.
Their contact details and phone, email them.
http://www.necdisplay.com/contactus
They also have live chat, get onto them as soon as you can.
You may even be able to purchase with credit card over phone, and then get the Serial Number and download the software.
Simply not good for anyone trying to purchase their products.
Trev.
I emailed Lou, and he said the following:
You have to call their customer service and they will process CC then they will send activation code and you can use download file.
Good luck.
I can see straight away why it's contrasty, you left it at monior default [remember, I don't personally have Spectraview and cannot tell you precisely how to use it] and it's reading 714:1.
You need to put in specific targets manually and let it go from there.
Now here is a link on calibrating with Spectraview.
http://www.imagescience.com.au/kb/questions/142/How+To+Calibrate+An+NEC+Monitor+With+SpectraView+II
Please *read carefully*, everything, as the first part pertains to letting it do it by default, BUT then he goes on to say how to target it specifically and if you compare the end result of his first 'let it go automatically' to his specific targeting, a massive difference.
From this link: A much better way is to use the monitor's flexible hardware to achieve a lower contrast display, so that while we're editing our image we're making all our decisions on a display that is fundamentally much more like the final print.
To achieve this, we need to define a new calibration target. We do this by going to Edit -> Calibration Target.
The actually targeting manually section is almost at the bottom beginning with a line of type in blue: Taking it a step further - defining better calibration targets for print work
For ethical reasons I won't publish his screenshots here.
Waste some paper and print it out, but do make sure you read it all thoroughly, line for line, sorry if I sound pushy but it's important you understand what does what.
Some translations: When setting 'Luminance' that's the monitor's brightness, in the scenario above link I gave he set his to 110 cd/m2 [to suit a specific paper] you can go down further, I set mine around 85, because that is what gives the screen's 'paper brightness look', that is what will resemble the look of photographic paper.
Yours is waaaay high at 390.8 cd/m2
I would try the 100/110 range though first, you need to calibrate, then re-calibrate again 2 or even more times on a new monitor or if not done for a while. Each time you adjust it gets closer to your target. I now set my preferences to alert me to 250 hours.
Adjust, look, edit image, get image printed [at a good lab] and see what the result it like compared to your monitor. It will take a while to adapt, I took a couple of weeks to get used to it around 5-6 years back.
Only did mine again yesterday.
Black Point: How deep the shadows are, and that also combined with the white point determines how much contrast. You want contrast of 220:1 or less. I have mine @ 220 to just offset my Luminance of 85 cd/m2, but that's me. I get perfect results personally with those settings.
White Point: Pretty Obvious. Generally D65 or 6500K to 6000. Depends on your paper, his example was 5800. I set mine to 6500 for normal photographic paper, gloss or matt or metallic.
Gamma: ALWAYS 2.2 Mac or PC
Try again with manually setting each thing.
To get into the manual adjustments you select the 'Edit' button of Menu and select 'Target Calibration', put in values manually.
Once again, read all and see his screenshots, this guy IS the be all, end all color guru.
Trev.
However, you are talking about 'subjective' results here, those are the aimed for and achieved target values, now there is only one thing left to do.
That is to get prints done. I think throughout this whole thread I keep saying that, you need to get prints done, 10x8 and above, to see what you are getting and what you see on the screen.
I would personally send/take the exact same file to at least 2 different labs for starters, since you may see a difference just between the labs let alone the print/s and the screen.
Since you have re-calibrated, what do the shadows, etc. look like on the screen now.
I bet with the contrast now also tuned right down, you are wondering if your photos are flatter than before, which they will look to be, but remember the whole idea in the first place is not to have 'pretty' pictures on screen, it's to get your monitor color corrected, and also to have it resemble photographic paper white/contrast so you can now get the best out of it.
Open up old images you already have got prints for, compare the photo of previously done ones to the previously edited ones on the new monitor, that will also be a good indicator.
You no doubt will see some blocked relevant shadows or blown whites.
Print, reprint and reprint again with various edited images.
Trev.
With the spectra ie software you can do multiple calibrations. So I created multiple calibrations with different settings
So first I adjusted the cd/m and then I adjusted the contrast ratio , I could flip back and forth to compair how the different calibrations to my print.
Lou
Matrix photo
Also, the prints you were comparing to previous, if you have the original RAWs, re-edit a couple, print and see what you get.
Obviously you would need to be happy with the end print quality anyway, no use getting a perfect comparison of screen/print but the prints don't look good to you, too cool or too warm.
Trev.
is the second photo look more correct on ur callibrated monitors ? thanx
The top one is too orange, but there is no 'green' look as you say; you only need to look at his T-shirt to see the color cast also.
The bottom one, you have taken out too much Temp and added *slightly* too much Tint, it's a bit too much magenta, once again the T-shirt I can see a very slight cast in it, a bit too cool.
However, it's now a case of being subjective with the second one, which is much closer to natural. I think your monitor is fine and you are v-e-r-y close, his skin is much better, but it's a simple matter of just adjusting until you are happy.
I would say now you merely get those prints done, you must get prints to see if you are happy.
Do the file again, take out 250 Temp not 550 [from original that is], put Tint +2 you should be pretty much perfect.
How about I do up an image on mine from your RAW.
I left a message in Inbox with my email.
Trev.