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DPChallenge Forums >> Challenge Results >> Bad monitor calibration can hurt your score
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 09/17/2007 03:48:26 AM · #1

This is my entry from the "Candy" challenge, that scored a 5.56. The average from the commenters was 7.25, . This, and the fact I saw my entry during my vacation to Ibiza on an uncalibrated monitor (which was a horrifying experience), led me to the conclusion that it must have been the users with uncalibrated monitors, that have voted my shot low.

I tried to emulate, how the image looked on the uncalibrated monitor, would be sth like this:
[thumb]587657[/thumb]
Well, that would deserve such a score!

Now here's an emulation for those users that don't calibrate their monitors, my entry looked on calibrated monitors about like this:
[thumb]587658[/thumb]
Neat, isn't it? And I guess you would have rated it higher... so please, be fair and check your monitors :-P


09/17/2007 05:07:15 AM · #2
Even more important is to calibrate your own monitor. :) Voters with uncalibrated monitors will even out over all entries, and while we can try to educate people, even if everyone is aware of the importance of calibration, only the keen will actually go ahead and do it. This will always be an issue, particularly for images that sit at one end of the histogram, either high-key or low key, or high contrast, so I try to avoid these types of images.

But, if your own monitor is uncalibrated, then it affects pretty much everyone who votes on your image. I have tried calibrating my monitors, but they require something more serious than simple gamma curves, because they are cheap monitors. I have 2 monitors, and they are fairly well calibrated in terms of equal colour and higlights and dark points, but the colour saturation is far greater on one, and it also has stronger shadow depths. I've tried gamma correction several times, and it still doesn't totally fix it.

I'm never really sure which monitor is more accurate. I end up editing on the light one, but I think my images are probably edited too dark. Darker photos come out really badly in prints, so I think some detailed hardware calibration is needed.

Message edited by author 2007-09-17 05:10:00.
 09/17/2007 05:14:04 AM · #3
Here's my entry to candy...



About the same score, and I think it really suffered for being too dark. My own fault. I did the editing on the lighter of my two monitors, on the limit of dark shadows. On the other monitor, it looks really bad compared to what I intended. Doing it again, I would edit it on my darker monitor, and make it lighter than what I thought was a good idea first time around.

Edit - yep, I just saw this on my laptop, and it is soo waaay darker than what I intended. :(


Message edited by author 2007-09-17 05:14:54.
 09/17/2007 06:02:35 AM · #4
Well since the rest of the entries were also voted on with uncalibrated monitors, I doubt that was the reason your entry scored lower than expected. To me that seems like a 5.8-6.2 shot at best. The technicals are good but it's not the kind that screams difficult nor is there a clever concept to carry the wow factor. The title is cute but I bet that hurt you with some voters who vote down when they suspect you're not taking the challenge seriously, which is what I like to call "woody effect". Or maybe you did get hit with more votes coming from uncalibrated monitors than the rest of the entries. Who knows.
 09/17/2007 07:11:04 AM · #5
Originally posted by yanko:
Well since the rest of the entries were also voted on with uncalibrated monitors, I doubt that was the reason your entry scored lower than expected. To me that seems like a 5.8-6.2 shot at best. The technicals are good but it's not the kind that screams difficult nor is there a clever concept to carry the wow factor. The title is cute but I bet that hurt you with some voters who vote down when they suspect you're not taking the challenge seriously, which is what I like to call "woody effect". Or maybe you did get hit with more votes coming from uncalibrated monitors than the rest of the entries. Who knows.


I appreciate your honesty, Richard, but have to disagree in parts. Surely this is not the best shot, but, as stated in the image details, I expected sth around a 6.2 score (estimation based on experience with other shots of mine). The problem with this shot is not only the high key appearance - the shots only special feature is the decent reflection-, but also the limitation to just one color (read: channel). Very little of the other shots in the challenge have that appearance and so the risk for my shot was much higher to suffer from miscalibration.
 09/17/2007 07:14:46 AM · #6
I voted it a 9. I see the reflection. I don't have a calibrated monitor. I've seen lots of talk about it in the forums and frankly I haven't paid attention to those threads. I really have no idea what calibrating your monitor does. I have no desire to calibrate my monitor because I think I see images just fine. When I look at the bars at the bottom of photos (lighter to darker) I can see them all except the last 2 which blend together. I think that is consistent with what others see. I love your photo but I don't think you can blame low votes on uncalibrated monitors.
 09/17/2007 07:35:58 AM · #7
I have never done anything to my monitor on my laptop but I have noticed that some of my photos do tend to print up darker than I planned. Is there some basics that I should do just via my computer?
 09/17/2007 07:39:40 AM · #8
Originally posted by eyewave:
Originally posted by yanko:
Well since the rest of the entries were also voted on with uncalibrated monitors, I doubt that was the reason your entry scored lower than expected. To me that seems like a 5.8-6.2 shot at best. The technicals are good but it's not the kind that screams difficult nor is there a clever concept to carry the wow factor. The title is cute but I bet that hurt you with some voters who vote down when they suspect you're not taking the challenge seriously, which is what I like to call "woody effect". Or maybe you did get hit with more votes coming from uncalibrated monitors than the rest of the entries. Who knows.


I appreciate your honesty, Richard, but have to disagree in parts. Surely this is not the best shot, but, as stated in the image details, I expected sth around a 6.2 score (estimation based on experience with other shots of mine). The problem with this shot is not only the high key appearance - the shots only special feature is the decent reflection-, but also the limitation to just one color (read: channel). Very little of the other shots in the challenge have that appearance and so the risk for my shot was much higher to suffer from miscalibration.


True. The reflection does add a nice touch and if it wasn't visible might make the rest of the image appear too dull on some screens.
 09/18/2007 04:16:51 PM · #9
I highly suggest anyone viewing and preparing photos for web viewing at least calibrate their monitors via this site
//www.photofriday.com/calibrate.php

It won't calibrate the colors, but one of the things I think about when posting to DPC is how my shot will look on the LCD at work LOL. Are the shadows too dark, highlights too bright, etc. Something that makes a big difference with low key or very high contrast shots.

Message edited by author 2007-09-18 16:17:20.
 09/18/2007 04:30:52 PM · #10
Originally posted by KarenNfld:
When I look at the bars at the bottom of photos (lighter to darker) I can see them all except the last 2 which blend together.


FWIW, on my good monitor, when it is properly calibrated, I can see all the squares distinctly. On my cheapo, uncalibrated work monitor, several squares merge together.

I suspect your situation isn't uncommon though, as I suspect most people are also using uncalibrated monitors or less than ideal contrast/ brightness settings and also see the merging of light and/or dark regions.
 09/18/2007 04:57:55 PM · #11
Originally posted by Techo:
... one of the things I think about when posting to DPC is how my shot will look on the LCD at work LOL. Are the shadows too dark, highlights too bright, etc. Something that makes a big difference with low key or very high contrast shots.


My 24" Dell LCD (DVI) is calibrated and I update calibration fairly regularly. The 15" LCD on my Dell notebook is crap and the analog 19" Dell LCD in the office not a lot better. I *always* view images after post (i.e., pre-challenge and even just pre-posting to web) to see how they look on a crappy screen and an uncalibrated but okay quality screen. Invariably the office 19" is considerably brighter and less contrasty while the notebook is much flatter and less saturated.

I really appreciate that I have these varying reference points and take advantage of seeing what I imagine most viewers see, versus just what I see on my calibrated, higher-end monitor in a low-lit room meant for properly viewing images on a display. :)

All that said, the original appears "fine" on the uncalibrated 19" here at work ... reflection and all. And while I didn't vote that challenge, I'd concur with yanko's feedback and observations.
 09/18/2007 05:02:07 PM · #12
Thank you, Techo. photofriday much better than the bars.
 09/26/2007 03:46:37 AM · #13
Originally posted by yanko:
Well since the rest of the entries were also voted on with uncalibrated monitors, I doubt that was the reason your entry scored lower than expected. To me that seems like a 5.8-6.2 shot at best. The technicals are good but it's not the kind that screams difficult nor is there a clever concept to carry the wow factor. The title is cute but I bet that hurt you with some voters who vote down when they suspect you're not taking the challenge seriously, which is what I like to call "woody effect". Or maybe you did get hit with more votes coming from uncalibrated monitors than the rest of the entries. Who knows.


agreed. the title makes it seem somewhat conceited.
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