Screen brightness

[mporter012]

I have a mid 2011 macbook air and I'm looking for a rough idea of how bright I should set my monitor? Milford recommends a display brightness of 90-120 cd/m2. Any suggestions?

 

[RalphLambrecht]

I have a mid 2011 macbook air and I'm looking for a rough idea of how bright I should set my monitor? Milford recommends a display brightness of 90-120 cd/m2. Any suggestions?

good question.I wish someone could translate that into a lightmeter reding?

 

[lenny]

It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. I have done the match to a 5000K viewing booth, but I didn't actually like the process. I have an area in my house where I bring my prints to look at - its around 3400-3500K. There are all sorts of theories on this, the whole idea is that you should be able to match on your monitor what your print will ultimately look like. It should save you a test print or two.

I haven't found this to be reliable in any way. There are many other factors. I don't target my prints for 5000K viewing. I find that my eyes change unless I print every day and there is no way to adjust for this.

I would say enjoy yourself. Set the brightness to whatever allows you to see the image well and then look at the print for doing your adjustments. Matching monitor to a print only works if you aren't looking very closely or you have limited the color space so far it doesn't matter.

I do have a calibrated monitor but I don't turn it down so low my eyes have to work to see or turn the lights in my room down; and I do pretty well.

 

[Doyle Thomas]

the basic rule is that if your prints are too dark/light then your monitor is too bright/dim

 

[Chan Tran]

good question.I wish someone could translate that into a lightmeter reding?

I thought you knew! If you were to use a Sekonic spotmeter which has the K factor of 12.5 then

90 Cd/m^2 = EV 9.49 @ISO100
120 Cd/m^2 = EV 9.91 @ISO100

In excel it's =log(L/0.125,2) that is log base 2 of the luminance in cd/m^2 divided by 0.125.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

I thought you knew! If you were to use a Sekonic spotmeter which has the K factor of 12.5 then

90 Cd/m^2 = EV 9.49 @ISO100
120 Cd/m^2 = EV 9.91 @ISO100

In excel it's =log(L/0.125,2) that is log base 2 of the luminance in cd/m^2 divided by 0.125.

thanks for the reply;
I settled on the following equation(already published in WBM)L=K/ASA*2^EV;
This gives me a target value for EV around 1.3 to get~100cd/m^2

 

[Chan Tran]

thanks for the reply;
I settled on the following equation(already published in WBM)L=K/ASA*2^EV;
This gives me a target value for EV around 1.3 to get~100cd/m^2

Your formula is correct but somehow your calculation isn't.

K/ASA= 12.5/100 = 0.125

2^EV = 2 ^1.3 = 2.46

K/ASA * 2^1.3 - 0.3078

Using your formula you should get EV 9.64 @ ASA 100.

2^9.64= 798

0.125 * 798= 99.7

 

[RalphLambrecht]

good question.I wish someone could translate that into a lightmeter reding?

I came up with an EV of 10.3 at 100ISO but that seems rather dim to me.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Your formula is correct but somehow your calculation isn't.

K/ASA= 12.5/100 = 0.125

2^EV = 2 ^1.3 = 2.46

K/ASA * 2^1.3 - 0.3078

Using your formula you should get EV 9.64 @ ASA 100.

2^9.64= 798

0.125 * 798= 99.7

I shall investigate;I can't even get my screen that bright. nor would I want to;My prints ae too dark as it is.

 

[Chan Tran]

I shall investigate;I can't even get my screen that bright. nor would I want to;My prints ae too dark as it is.

We do need to look into this. Which of the color calibrator probe do you use to calibrate your screen?

 

[RalphLambrecht]

We do need to look into this. Which of the color calibrator probe do you use to calibrate your screen?

That's possibly my issue already.I only use the internal Mac calibration and its defaults;not very sophisticated but other than the prints consistently being a bit on the dark order.However,the color calibration is very good, better than what it was with the Spider I used once.That was a mess.

 

[Chan Tran]

Ralph can you do me a favor? With your monitor calibrated for 100Cd/m^2 white point can you take a spot meter reading of the screen displaying a white image (255,255,255). Please also let me know the K factor of your meter. I think you have the Pentax and it's calibrated to a K14 I think.

 

[Chan Tran]

My screens which were calibrated using the spyder and NEC Spectraview read 8.9 which is about 2/3 stop lower than I expected of 9.5 for 100cd/m^2. It doesn't look too dark to me. But still I suspect the spyder is not accurate.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

My screens which were calibrated using the spyder and NEC Spectraview read 8.9 which is about 2/3 stop lower than I expected of 9.5 for 100cd/m^2. It doesn't look too dark to me. But still I suspect the spyder is not accurate.

I've gone to simply lighten the image a tad just before printing

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Ralph can you do me a favor? With your monitor calibrated for 100Cd/m^2 white point can you take a spot meter reading of the screen displaying a white image (255,255,255). Please also let me know the K factor of your meter. I think you have the Pentax and it's calibrated to a K14 I think.

Sure;my Minolta meter(K=12?)reads 8.4 @ 100 ISO

 

[Chan Tran]

Minolta's are K14 and I have the Minolta flash meter VI. So your screen is somewhat darker than mine. Using your formula your screen is only 47 Cd/m^2 and mine is 63 Cd/m^2 and both fall short of the 100 Cd/m^2 target. I think the Minolta meter is calibrated with a light source of 4700K but since we have a screen of 5000K it should not differ that much.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

I got plenty f room to still brighten my screen and reach 100 cd/m^2 but I'm hesitant to do so because it may make my problem worse;prints are already too dark as it is.