Altering Brightness
 

Hi folks,

I can alter the contrast, brightness and colours on my monitor but photo's and video's still lack in quality even at max and appear darker thus eliminating a lot of the background detail. This is rather frustrating! I first noticed this when viewing a video on my mates lappie and the background in this video was not black like on my PC and the detail was much better as a result, it didn't look like the video had been shot in the dark!

Does anyone have any suggestions, is there a way of correcting this via internet tools or something?

Cheers,

VFE.

Use something like PaintShop Pro to alter the characteristics of the photo - you can always save it as another name and retain the original if you want to.

Is this for all photos and videos, eg including videos downloaded from websites, or just your own?

Is the monitor CRT or flat-screen? CRTs do change with age sometimes. Professional photographers and the like have their screens professionally calibrated so they know that the colour etc. they see on the screen will be the colour on the paper/film etc.

You could take your screen to a mate (or borrow one and bring it home) and see what difference it makes.

It is the same on all photo's and videos and is a CRT screen.

VFE.

And how old is it/ I have one that is about 6/7 years old that exhibits the symptoms you describe.

My best suggestion is to get on your local branch of http://www.freecycle.org and get a replacement one - there are loads being given away on my local one all the time.

No serviceable items on a CRT monitor in my experience.

Not home serviceable, but eminently workshop serviceable! A lot more so than a flat-screen!

Anyway, you might also consider the driver - nVidia cards have a brightness and contrast setup in Settings/Advanced/GeForce that you can adjust.

Have you tried borrowing a mate's CRT or taking your PC to another CRT?

The answer to all of this lies in the Dragons Den of Colour management. You are like the guy with two wristwatches that can't tell the correct time. A lot of mainstream monitor manufacturers are sending guff out in software form to give you "The Optimum viewing experience" or some other such crap. Every monitor is slightly and in some cases, very different. As an example, go and have a look at the TV section in Currys or some other hellhole. They are all spouting the same rubbish from BBC or whoever, but they all have different colours and some markedly. So. where is the answer? It lies within hardware calibration of the monitor, so that colours are reliable, consistent and accurate.

A sensor is placed upon the screen and the software fires known values of colour and luminence at it. What it sees, it measures and reports back to the software, the difference being supplied to the video card as a calibration curve. It works a treat and like everything else that Conan buys, it halves in price the next day. If you are serious about colour fidelity, it is the way to go. There are various and quite crude applets within most graphics packages. Paintshop Pro was mentioned and most leading programs have some sort of gamma adjustment within. If you are lucky, this might do the trick, but if you still aren't happy, then the hardware calibration route should nail it. PM me if you need any further details.

When it comes to printing, you need the screen to be spot on for the printer to even stand a chance. The cost of photo paper and ink is frightening, so it is an economic choice after only a few months.

Conan

Late edit. Colour profiles supplied with monitors and printers can ba a nightmare. Don't trust them.