Should you calibrate a monitor differently for different room lighting conditions?
Asked 12/18/2018
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I'm calibrating an Eizo FlexScan EV2736 with an Eizo EX2 colorimeter. Should I make separate monitor profiles for different ambient lighting situations, such as one with the room lights on and another with the lights off? Or is it better to use a single calibration and only adjust screen brightness depending on the room?
When I calibrate with the room light on, the result looks very warm and quite different from the monitor's sRGB mode, so I'm not sure whether the calibration is correct or whether ambient light is affecting the measurement.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
7y ago
2 Answers
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Do you mean that the calibrated result is different depending on whether you calibrate with the ambient light on and off? That is, if you create two profiles in these two conditions and then compare them (either by observing the correction curves in the software or by switching between them quickly while looking at a test photo), they happen to be different?
If so, this is a measurement problem: probably the ambient light leaks into the sensor. The sensor should be placed right against the screen surface without gaps (but without pressing it so as not to distort the image/colours). The sensor should measure the light from the monitor, and it doesn't depend on the ambient light.
If you can't eliminate the gaps, you should do the calibration in darkness. If you say that your result is very different to the built-in sRGB, you should try it just to see if it has an effect. (Eizo's factory settings can be trusted, in general).
If, on the other hand, you are saying that the same calibration looks different with different lighting, this is perception problem. Objectively, the image on the screen is the same.
(Some monitors have an ambient light sensor and a function to self-adjust, but usually they are supposed to adjust only the brightness/contrast, without affecting colours. But in a professional environment, this feature is not used, and generally shouldn't be relied upon).
You should certainly not try to tweak the profile "to taste". What's the point of calibration then? Instead, you should adjust the environment. This doesn't only concern the ambient environment. Strive to use neutral grey colours for the windows and other GUI elements; this way your eyes will adjust better to the on-screen environment (which we know is stable after calibration). Trust more what you see on the screen than what you see around you. (Once you confirm the calibration works properly, of course).
Originally by user74236. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user74236
7y ago
0
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In general, use one profile for a self-lit display like an LCD monitor. Ambient light usually doesn’t change the monitor’s actual color output; it mostly changes how your eyes perceive it.
The ideal approach is a consistent editing environment: keep room lighting stable and calibrate to a target white point appropriate for that environment (commonly D65, sometimes D55). If your room lighting changes a lot, your perception will change too, so color judgments become less reliable.
If calibrating with the room lights on gives a very different, warmer result, that suggests a measurement issue rather than a need for multiple profiles. The colorimeter should sit flush against the screen so ambient light can’t leak into the sensor. If that’s hard to achieve, calibrate in a dark room.
You can adjust monitor brightness for comfort in different viewing conditions, but frequent separate profiles for light-on/light-off is usually not necessary. For best consistency, do final color-critical edits only when your ambient lighting is controlled and repeatable.
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