Gamma Control - where to get safe and latest freebie
 

The program that is. I'm getting lower and lower on the slider on the NVIDIA menu. I don't get it, it seems to redatumise every reboot. Okay on Hibernate.

I wondered if "Gamma Control" would help, it's got good reviews but the download notes mentioned XP and before! Scrapped that before loading.

One site gives the latest offering - right up to today. But it tells me I'm not connected to the internet. Five minute job has taken an hour and with no results.

I've never fully understood Gamma. I set it to get rid of the milky brightness. Fine, if the slider was ever near the middle.

Also, altering the brightness is tedious. I'd liked to be able to do that on the fly.

Any recommendations?

https://desktopnerds.com/gamma-control-5/

Try this.

Or https://gamma-control.en.uptodown.com/windows

Or https://michelf.ca/projects/gamma-control/

I'm still not quite sure what your problem is though...

Mac

;-)

Hi, Mac. I'm not sure to this day just what the Gamma control is supposed to do. Yes, I've read masses of odds about it but they don't give me an in-depth understanding of the aims.

I more or less have to use the NVIDIA settings as opposed to Let Applications Control etc., at least this allows me to slide the control nearly to the left to get rid of the white mist that destroys colour quality.

It's as though I'm running out of slider control, feeling sure it used to be nearer (a logical) 50% setting. I fear one day this milky fog will be there with the control against the bottom stops though so far I have just a little breathing space.

I've gone through the colour settings on several computers and am always left wanting.

I'll post a picture or two later.

In haste.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.gmf...6559d47caa.jpg
At last I've copied a picture showing the gamma at about 1.4 Ruined.

Aaaagh, no, it's not the picture that's affected but just my viewing of it, so this looks normal now that I've set the NVIDIA back to point five-ish. In other words I can't convey to you what it looks like on my screen.

You haven't posted most of the hardware info anyone would need to help you with this

. . . . . . but if this is Windows bear in mind that windows GUI generally ignores any gamma profile saved in icc monitor files files (and loaded at startup but haphazardly thereafter/at reboot)

In consequence something that looks right in a colour-aware app like photoshop or latest google chrome will look different once saved and viewed /screenshotted in windows picture viewer /as a desktop image etc.
Older browsers ignore color profiles too but most current version have caught up. Few if any browsers display in other than sRGB though which affects images that used wider gamut profiles like Adobe RGB

You can go entirely mad on this but the best 'quick approach' is to re-set your monitor to defaults, gamma 2.2 if possible and to a 'factory preset like 'standard or sRGB' or far far better still, borrow a properly calibrated monitor for an hour.
Remove any 'super duper add in gamma tweak tools
Set all nvidea image and video settings to defaults including monitor's default (native) resolution and output range to full. Then choose the 'use system/app settings' option to take them out of the flow as far as possible for now.
Search Colour Management in Windows, click Profiles and "reset my settings to the system defaults" (unless you've already messed them up :-)
Then in colour management, advanced tab, complete the "Calibrate display" wizard to calibrate the GUI brightness / contrast / Gamma / colour (As you can guess if your monitor is not accurate in the first place this will probably only make things worse as you correct that error with more error)
Now you have the GUI calibrated use the latest version of chrome to view some nice downloadable wallpapers online. They should now look good in chrome.. Save them to desktop and view them again in Photos or save as a background. They should still look good albeit not quite the same
Now open them in Photoshop or similar colour aware programme. They should now look as good as before or even a bit better.
If they are not completely the same (and you have photoshop correctly set to sRGB etc) this is likely because they are now actually being displayed correctly - or if 'worse' you might now be tempted to fiddle a tiny bit with the nvidia settings but remember these might not get reloaded at a reboot / update.
Remember that nvidea has separate page for video settings but it is again often best to leave these to a decent video player app also.

I have to say that if your monitor is poorly calibrated and your reference is a poor set of photos vs test cards /gamma charts you will probably never see a decent image or get it truly right.

Gamma test cards are a very mixed bunch by the way - some don't always work even on a perfectly calibrated pro monitor when viewed other that at 100% pixel size or when downloaded from the web.

Hope that give you some ideas


Just in closing
99.9% of windows users don't worry about gamma because the pictures look ok at system defaults. If they are not 90% right at defaults there is a problem.
Adjusting gamma corrects for slight system or monitor errors. Ideally don't adjust the system if the monitor is the problem (may have no choice on a laptop where limited viewing angle is another issue)
The correct gamma for EVERYTHING on a PC these days is 2.2 /default. It will not need 1.4 or 2.6 to get a good image. If it looks better that way something is very wrong elsewhere in the image chain.
There is lot to get your head around if you don't understand the concept of the image flow through the system to your eyes /printer - It might be faster to buy a pro or semi pro photographer a few bottles and watch then put it right

This might give you a few ideas: http://pcmonitors.info/articles/corr...-and-amd-gpus/

Useful article
 

Gulp. Thanks chaps. One is a bit overawed after reading in. I should stress that I'm way past needing photographic perfection, I'm just hanging on with somewhat variable eyesight having agreed this week with my eye surgeon to stop wasting public money on chasing perfection. Pity, 18 months ago I was 20/20 or better. Gone is the 635 Twin turbo, and gone is my huge hi-fi as my hearing was abruptly destroyed by cochlea hydrops. But I'm living in my old home town with many of my contemporaries falling, or having fallen, off the perch . . . or indeed not able to remember what a perch is.

I've recently been forced to move home - something I'd dreaded and never really thought would happen - and my wonderful old LG went TU just before the move. Prior to that I'd just sold a huge Dell monitor previously owned by a photographer and would have been a reasonable datum on which to base settings. LSS, I'm on a borrowed Dell of modest res, though it has to be said the LG, favoured by me because it could frame at 72, was exactly the same. The NVIDIA cards are somewhat modest, sub two-hundred quid retail. So, maybe time to upgrade card and monitor, well, the latter is a given.

I don't recall the gamma issue with the big Dell, but never used it other than check it out for curiosity. Pity, it may have been quite different.

During all of my last year's efforts the Application's setting has resulted in a whitewashed mess. Switching to NVIDIA at least allowed me to pull the gamma down to point-four to make some normality. The setting quoted above would white-out the picture so I guess it's now: buy a monitor of some worth, use Applications settings and start calibrating from scratch.

I've got a lot to go on for now but a decent monitor is a must. The best I've ever had was in Texas on a big ASUS driven by an ASUS laptop with a bizarrely high resolution when used on its own screen. It was breathtaking, but I've been home over four years now so that's probably way outdated.

I'm puzzled by the references to HDMI, they seem like a veiled criticism of the technology. I'm using DVI / DVLI at the moment. Is there a more up to date interface to aim for?

Much of my time these days is on Quora. I'm astonished at how many of my posts are being re-promulgated. My main aim is to get my model of gravitational inflow across before I pop off, but I fear my zany sense of humour, far from being rejected, is the main reason for my 15 seconds of fame.

Anyway, this has piqued my interest and I will delve into the above posts again in the light of a new day.

Thanks again.

I didn't mention HDMI (Or I don't think I did) although most desktop PC users and gamers will indeed be using that, as most cheap (and some expensive) monitors and TV screens do.

For still-photography purposes most digital Video connection standards are ok. The graphics cards can load some surprisingly different defaults for Display Port , DVI and HDMI but you can work through the card settings and get to the same place.

It sounds as if your eyesight may be another factor and I'm no expert there. I would imagine though that if things look different between screens, screenshots and postings then there is a non eyesight problem to deal with first. After that is done any adjustment to the monitor settings that help you should help with all images and not just some.

HTH

JS67, It was the link I posted that mentions HDMI.

Rivets, there's nothing wrong with HDMI per se, it's just the way configuration is handled by the video drivers that's the issues. Have you tried checking whether you have "full" or "limited" range for the RGB values?

I don't recall that. I'll have a look when time permits. I have little but time, but it seems I can dodder a morning away before I know it. Grandchildren on the beach this PM. A couple of hours of abject boredom mixing with chip-eating Grockles. Mind you, we get a better class of Grockle in Frinton.

Now I shall be thinking of Jane Merrow for the rest of the day.