For want of a better phrase, call it the sports-bar syndrome. Yep, every monitor on the wall looks a bit different, yet they're all showing the same game. The football gridiron's too yellow over there, and too red over here. And why is Terry Bradshaw so green? In fact, it's the identical story at the local computer store. What gives? Which monitor's color is right? And more important, how would you know?
To do our jobs with precision, we need accurate and consistent color rendering on our monitors – whether you're an LD working on a light plot or a video editor putting the final touches on the concert's clips. And if the concert includes projection and LED, and if the concert is going to be broadcast, how do you achieve color accuracy for the viewers at home – especially when the cameras are bound to shoot the projection and LED screens?
What Am I Seeing?
Choosing a "reference" monitor isn't the problem. There are literally millions of articles on the subject, covering everything from aspect ratio to native resolution to price. (A Google search on "How to choose the right monitor" yielded more than 164,000,000 hits!) The more correct question should be – for your primary monitor (the trusty one you pack from gig to gig), how do you achieve color accuracy and consistency from job to job?
The biggest mistake we tend to make on this subject is that we tend to compare monitors to monitors – as opposed to understanding "color management" for the monitors we own. We get caught up in the specs when we should really be thinking – "am I really seeing what I think I'm seeing?" – rather than "my pixels are better than your pixels."
Fooled Ya!
Our eyes tend to see what we want to see, and they're easily fooled. Cameras, however, do not work like our eyes. They see what's actually there – whereas our brain interprets the scene. Still not convinced? Take a peek at this famous illusion, called Adelson's Checker Shadow Illusion.
The squares marked A and B in Fig. 2 are bang-on the same shade of gray – but our eyes are totally fooled by the surrounding squares, and the soft shadow from the cylinder. To prove it (even to myself), I used PhotoShop to copy the squares over to the right, and I then deleted all but A and B. I can see Swami Cadena scrambling for PhotoShop at this very moment. (Yes, Paul, we checked for ourselves, and as you already knew, both A and B are a shade that Photoshop calls #787878. Our readers, of course, are free to simply fold the printed paper, or cut the squares from the page, and compare A and B that way. -ed.)
So if our very own bio-optics are easily fooled, what makes us think we can color-correct our reference monitors for accuracy – using our eyes alone? Almost all monitors have built-in adjustments that allow you to "tweak" the color settings, but do any of us know what the heck we're doing when we move those RGB sliders?
Electronics to the Rescue
Fear not – a solution is at hand (and it's not expensive). Regardless of the monitor you own, there are tools available that can provide consistent and accurate color throughout your workflow. In the biz, they're called display calibration devices, and they're available from several prominent companies. Each "package" consists of both hardware and software components, and each provides an objective method of obtaining accurate color – without relying on your eyes.
On the hardware side, each product includes a digital measuring device that rests directly against the face of your monitor during calibration. On the software side, each product creates a system configuration file, essentially a "profile," that works directly with your computer's graphic (or video) driver. In brief, the interactive calibration procedure centers the brightness of your monitor between 0% black and 100% white, ensuring that all steps are visible, then the process evaluates each primary color at different luminance levels. Calibration takes around five minutes (initially), and once complete, the color profile is created and applied each time you fire up your workstation. Voila – consistency! Re-calibration typically takes half as long. As a general rule, the "pros" recommend monthly recalibration for a home studio, and daily recalibration when you're on tour.
Check out two companies for starters, and explore what they have to offer. The first is X-Rite (www.xrite.com). They market three calibration products: the Pantone huey, the i1Display LT and the i1Display 2, retailing for $89, $176 and $259, respectively.
The second company is Datacolor (www.datacolor.com). They also market three products: Spyder3Express, Spyder3Pro and Spyder3Elite, retailing for $89, $169 and $249, respectively. For a modest investment, the resulting precision is worth the price of admission. I'm sure that more expensive calibrators are available, but unless you're shooting for print work in National Geographic, this will provide a great starting point.
The Monitor that Really Matters
If you're the video guy on a broadcast show that includes projection or LED, the monitor that matters is not the one at FOH. If you want your screens to have accurate colors on everyone's home monitors, a few simple steps will help.
Go out to the television remote truck and ask for the video engineer. At the desired color temperature, he's already "chipped" his cameras by pointing them all at a gray-scale chip chart. Using his reference monitor and the RGB controls on each camera, he completely nulled out all the color in the chip chart. In doing so, he's ended up with beautiful gray-scale images on all cameras, perfect whites and blacks, and perfectly matched cameras.
Next, using a video feed from the truck, he needs to bring you his field reference monitor, which he's already calibrated to perfection. Then, he needs to take his best camera and point it at your LED wall (or projection screen). On this screen, you need to display a gray scale test pattern. (Most LED wall digitizers and projectors can generate their own test patterns.)
Now, for the secret sauce, while looking at your screen on his monitor through his prime camera, use the screen's color controls to null out all the color – for a perfect gray scale image with perfect whites, perfect blacks, and all the steps visible in between. Once you've accomplished that, the screen is effectively transparent to the system. When you display a full color image once again, it's beautiful. Repeat for each screen, and call me in the morning.
A Leg Up
Whether you're an LD, a video engineer or a professional photographer, starting with a known calibration on your reference monitor is of prime importance. For the PhotoShop wiz at home, calibrate monthly. For the LD on tour, calibrate daily. And for the video director on tour, keep in mind that the monitor that matters is the reference monitor for the broadcast. Whatever your application, if you strive for consistent "calibrated" color, you'll be happier with the results – and with this knowledge, you'll get a leg up on the other (un-calibrated) guys.
