Pantone Huey Pro Review

[Saphire]

This is all very interesting, before I bought the Huey I thought I had everything set reasonably well but now I know I was well out.
I think it is going to be a while for me to adjust to the new settings. Its the contrast and brightness I am finding hard to adjust to.

[andy153]

Hi Christine - my previous post - now edited has two links to your specific problem - the first includes monitor some settings for you - hope they help.

[Saphire]

Thank you Andy, I will spend some time tomorrow reading all them and see if I can get a better understanding on how the monitor should be set up.

[yelvertoft]

Originally Posted by Saphire

The first macbeth chart on my monitor doesn't look right. the border around all the colors I presume should be black on my monitor its medium grey and it looks like it should have more depth of color and contrast.

The second photo I have added 100% contrast which has made it look good.

Christine,

With both of these images I'd say they are not right. If the bottom left square is supposed to be pure white it's miles out on the first image, looking more like double cream to me. The second image which you say looks "good" it's more like single cream.

The border is distinctly dark grey in both too, but the first image is distinctly lighter than the second with its black point. I'm assuming that the bottom right square is supposed to be black, in the secnd image it's pretty darned close, but the original is distinctly charcoal.

Roski's chart in post number 35 has the white as truly white and the surround looks truly black to me.

As for Mike's comment in post 29, I say a resounding YES. Huey pro makes a HUGE difference to the flat panel screen on my laptop and a major improvement on my VP930 flat screen. At the end of running the calibration sequence, there is a "show corrected" and "show uncorrected" radio button to click. Swapping between these options shows a huge difference with my flat screens.

Just as an aside, you guys are making sure you've removed Adobe Gamma from your startup menus, haven't you?
See this page for imformation on how to do this:
http://support.colourconfidence.com/...id=10&nav=0,11

This is a must if you're running any form of colour calibration software. If you've installed Adobe Photoshop, it's a fair bet you've got Adobe Gamma installed in your startup menu.

Christine, there's a colour checker chart image that comes with Capture One on the install CD, you may find this useful.

Duncan

[Saphire]

Thanks Duncan,

I think I am slowly getting used to the new setting they don't seem quite as bad today. I have just checked the capture 1 color checker and it looks great.
I know the settings must be right because I have two different makes of LCD's set up and calibrated. I opened the same photo on both and they look exactly the same.

[yelvertoft]

Christine, and Mike for that matter,

if you click on the Huey Pro icon in your taskbar on the bottom right of the screen and select "huet PRO preferences" in the settings tab you have the option of showing corrected or uncorrected. If you have a picture such as the Capture One colour checker image, or robski's test chart open, then flicking between these two options will show you just how far out (or otherwise if you're a very lucky person) your screen is both before and after.

If you've been using a "bad" monitor for a while, it does take a bit of getting used to when you've got it right.

I use my laptop together with the VP930 panel in a dual screen setup, I have the opposite ends of the extremes with these two screens where I can get the blacks right on the laptop screen, but the whites are sufferring in the same way you describe, but on the other screen I can get the whites perfect, but the blacks are the same as the nearly blacks. Midtones look identical and there are no colour cast differences between the two. I have to have the contrast set to 0% on the laptop, and the brightness set to 100% on the VP930.

If I view using the "uncorrected" setting, they look hideously different. For me, a hardware based monitor calibration tool is an essential. Without it, as Christine has found, what you think is right is possibly nowhere near right.

D.

[Saphire]

Duncan,
I have just looked at the calibrated and uncorrected and there is a vast difference between the two, although I set my monitor to defaults before I calibrated.
I don't think I was far out with my old settings with the colors but was way out with the brightness and contrast. I know that now because a lot of my photos in my gallery are to bright which makes them look washed out.

I will be going through them all now and putting up corrected versions.

[andy153]

Hi Christine - I've been through some of your gallery and I agree many are bright - but I cannot find any that look washed out and that is one of the things I like about your posts - so please be careful not to over correct - please remember that all our monitors will be slightly different. Good luck.

[Saphire]

Thanks Andy,
I have only done a couple, one close-up of the golden eagle because being bright it was showing artifacts and a couple of the macros, I have decided to leave the rest it would take to long to find the originals and start again.