The least you need to know:

To start with we need something for a base line. Actually, any picture will work. But depending on the picture, results will vary. If you don’t remember anything else about calibrating, remember this: print a picture on your printer and then adjust you monitor until it look as as bad as the picture. Done.

That’s all there is to it. But like most things in life, easier said that done. Right?

A little theory:

Before I go any farther let me explain why the above explanation works. If you adjust you monitors setting so that it looks like the printed picture, theoretically any changes you make to the picture’s color setting in the computer will be reflected the next time you print the photo again. I say theoretically, because even though this basically works in practice, without a dedicated hardware calibration system it’s still somewhat of an art and takes practice to really SEE the the colors and shades on your screen the way they really are. Our eyes are amazing instruments that can adjust in the blink of an eye (ha ha…good pun james). So calibration takes training too. Don’t get frustrated if at first you don’t succeed.

I’ll get to the meat of calibrating in a moment, but first, let me talk a little more about monitors. All monitors are not created equal. Sometimes we buy a monitor because it has an astronomical contrast ratio and it’s super bright, thinking that more is better. And for some application it is. For example…gaming. A bright monitor with a high contrast ration mean that you can see all the details in the shadows if you want to, and the black can be very black. But the high contrast ratios can also make calibration a headache, because that contrast doesn’t work on paper, or on every monitors. So you have to reign in the contrast and brightness.

Another aspect that needs to be considered concerning monitors are various default setting. The Asus monitor I work on at work has 5 modes: Standard, Theater, Game, Night View and Scenery. I’m going to say as a general rule that you should use Standard mode. But you are welcome to play with the various modes to see what works best. I would think you should especially want to stear away from modes like game modes. These modes, as I said before, play with the brightness and contrast so that you can see into details in the shadows.

One more thing, it would be best to have the monitor in a place where there is consistence lighting, and little of it. In other words, in front of windows or beside windows is not a great place. The ambient light in the room will effect how you see the colors on the screen.

Down to details:

In order to give ourselves the best chance for success possible, we need a picture that shows a very wide range of colors. We want something that shows true white, true black and many shades of gray in between. We want to see what to see some detail in shadows and detail in highlights. Sounds like a tall order. Well I have just the thing.

For that I suggest getting this picture made available by the wonderful and talented Ann Torrence. Download it to your computer and print it out at on your printer at the best quality you have available. Alternately, you can have it printed at you favorite photo lab, or even view it a different monitor that you want to match. The idea is that you want to have two items to compare, the before and the after.

Now the fun part. ( I say that with sarcasm in my voice.) We need to adjust the monitor to look like the picture. This will take some trial and error. For one thing, there is light emitting from the monitor that is not emitting from the picture so a little bit of this is subjective.

What do you see:

Study the picture. Both in the print version and on the screen.

• Can you see a clear delineation of each step of the gray bar on the left hand side? You should.
• Look into the shadows. Under the stone arch and the pant leg of the cowboy. How much detail can you see in the shadows?
• Look at the basic colors, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, Red, Blue. Do they look accurate or are they shifted? (this takes practice.)
• Look at the skin tones. Do they look correct?
• Look at the highlights. Is there detail in the highlights or is it blown out? As far as I can see there are really no highlight that are blown out. Even the light above the hair has some detail. There are a couple of specular highlight…the catch lights in the eyes and one spot on the Ferris wheel.

Adjusting the contrast and brightness of your monitor you can fix most of these problems. It takes trial and error, but eventually you will come up with setting that seem about right. You might also need to adjust the RGB levels to account for color shift. Again, it’s a matter of just trial and error until you can match the computer screen to the target.

A lot of monitors now days are too bright. So the brightness needs to be turned way down. I have the brightness on my Asus turned down to 50% and It still might be a bit too bright. Usually this doesn’t apply to laptop monitors that have to run on batteries.

Well that’s about it:

I’m no expert. This is just what has worked for me. I even purchased a hardware calibrator, and after I did. I have still used these methods to make small adjustment.

Let me know if this helps, or if I’ve missed something. I’m happy to revisit this subject, to go into further detail or correct errors I may have made.

Then again…sometimes I don’t agree, and it’s frustrating to say the least.

Especially when the reason doesn’t make sense. Just today I received a rejection for the photo shown in this post. The rejection notice stated, “We could not find a clear center focal point for this file.” I understand what those word mean, but I don’t feel like they apply to this photo. I see the focal point…it’s the boy!

Additionally the email said, “We found the overall composition of this file’s lighting could be improved.” So now the composition needs help too. I’m an artist. I know about composition!

I’m not saying that this is the greatest photo ever taken. In fact, it may have very limited application as a piece of stock photography. But what if someone is looking for a photo of a boy emerging from water and they can’t find one on iStock because this photo was rejected!?!

Okay…calm down James…

Let’s read the rejection email again.

We could not find a clear center focal point for this file.

For more information about iStock Focus Standards, please see:

http://www.istockphoto.com/tutorial_2.1_focus.php

We found the overall composition of this file’s lighting could be improved. Technical aspects that can affect the overall quality of lighting are: flat/dull colors, blown-out highlights, harsh reflection, shadows or lens flares. These can all limit the usefulness of a file.

For more information on iStock Lighting Standards, please see:

http://www.istockphoto.com/tutorial_2.2_lighting.php

Wait a second. Maybe I jumped too quickly to conclusions. When it said focus, I thought it was talking about the main subject of the photo. Clearly the link takes me to a page that talks about focus, as in tack sharp. When I look closely at the photo, it is kind of hard to find one area that is without a doubt in focus. Maybe the screener has something there.

Okay, well, what about the composition? The composition isn’t great, but it’s a stock photo not a fine work of art.

Oh, I didn’t notice that at first, it says “composition of…lighting”. Yeah. I can see that. The photo is a little flat. When I look at the histogram, I see a bell shaped curve without anything in the shadows. That’s kind of dull. Still, if it had been tack sharp…who knows, maybe that wouldn’t have been the worst sin.

I guess I better read more carefully next time I get a rejection…which could be any minute now.

Wreck at Bunbeg Beach by Kristina_CH

I was off to a really good start. I produced 4 podcasts in 4 weeks. I was submitting to iStock and everything was going swimmingly. And then it all came to an abrupt halt. What happen?

Too much, to fast. A common theme in my life. I started out at a breakneck speed, and just didn’t have the energy to continue at that pace. So, instead of recognizing my limits and backing off, I crashed and burned.

Well, I’m back…sort of. I haven’t given up on the podcast, but I have no plans for one at the moment. For now, my goal is to continue with the spirit and theme of MicrostockU, which is to document my adventure into the work of microstock in hopes of helping others.

So check back once in a while and see what’s happening, and I’ll do my best to watch the direction of the wind, set the sails and try to avoid crashing, while documenting my voyage into microstock.

Blue-Eyed Cat by Nicolesy

This week’s main event is an interview with iStock contributor Nicolesy. This was a fun interview, and I’m sure that you will enjoy listening. Listen in as she talks about how she got  started with iStock, what camera equipment she would want if stranded on a desert island and advice for new microStockers.

Links

• Photo from iStock: Blue-Eyed Cat by Nicolesy
• Nicolesy Photography
• White Seamless Tutorial by Zack Arias
• Mileta’s blog about iStock
• This Week in Photography (TWiP)

Subscribe now to my rss podcast feed or with iTunes

End of the Line by dynacam

Rejection is a fact of life; our lives can sometimes feel like a country song cliche.

In this episode I talk about the first photos I submitted to iStock. Listen in to find out what happened. I’ll give you a hint, they weren’t accepted.

Subscribe now to my rss podcast feed or with iTunes

Links

• Photo from iStock: End of the Line by dynacam
• iStock audio

My First Submissions

Sun Face Close-up

Glowing Lanterns at Night

Please feel free to contact me if you have anything to add to the content of this episode, or if you have questions about the process that I did not cover.

Mentioned Links:

• How to Contribute and Sell Stock at iStock
• iStockphoto Photography Standards: Lighting
• Digital Photography 1 on 1 by Mark Wallace from Snapfactory
• Training by Joe McNally on Kelby Training

Subscribe now to my rss podcast feed or with iTunes

My Application Photos

Here are the photos I used for the iStock application process. Listen to the podcast to hear what I have to say about each.

couple.jpg

face.jpg

lanterns.jpg

LanternsAtNight.jpg

ChristSorrows.jpg

I’m happy to say that microStockU has already been added to iTunes. So be sure to subscribe using iTunes, or a podcatcher of your choice so you don’t miss a single episode.

Mentioned Links:

• iStock
• despair.com
  

Subscribe now to my rss podcast feed or with iTunes