Can I change a calibrated monitor’s brightness without ruining the calibration?

Question

I use one monitor for two situations: general daytime work and more critical photo editing in a darker room. After calibrating it with a ColorMunki Display, I’m finding that one brightness level doesn’t suit both uses.

If I calibrate the monitor for my critical editing setup, is it okay to later raise or lower the monitor brightness with the monitor’s own controls for less critical work? Or will changing brightness also affect the monitor profile’s color accuracy?

If brightness changes do affect calibration, is the better approach to create separate calibrations/profiles for each viewing condition?

user15871 · Answer

... serious editing of images destined for my wall or otherwise important, which I do with the window shades down.

Part of the entire point of monitor calibration is to equalize, as closely as possible, what you see on screen to what you see in print for the same image. This assumes a well lit environment in which both the monitor and the prints are being viewed. It also requires matching the target monitor characteristics to the ambient lighting present (or, to put it another way, making sure the ambient lighting meets specifications for standard viewing conditions).

Since standard viewing conditions for prints is specified at D50, if your ambient lighting is matched to the D50 standard, then your monitor should also be calibrated for D50 ambient lighting at the appropriate brightness.

There are no real standards for setting a monitor to be used for editing in the dark. But particularly with dim light sources, bluer light sources with higher color temperature (like 6,500K) can cause less than optimal human perception.

... my question is whether or not manually increasing or decreasing brightness has an effect on the color correction aspect of monitor calibration.

As the article about the Kruithof curve linked above indicates, yes it can certainly have an effect, since the same colors at different brightnesses can be perceived as "bluer" when dimmer or "warmer" when brighter by human vision.

Related:
What ambient lighting is appropriate for a room where photos are edited and proofed/printed?
Why don't you need to calibrate a camera's LCD screen?
What's the best light for viewing photos?
What white point temperature should I set my LCD monitor to?
How to select "white point" before calibrating a monitor with Spyder3
What are Color Profiles and where would I find information on using them properly?
What should I consider when designing my physical environment for photo editing?

Can I change a calibrated monitor’s brightness without ruining the calibration?

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