- Choosing a scanner
- Installing your scanner
- Calibrating your monitor
Calibrating your monitor
Have you ever noticed that images on your computer look lighter or darker than they do on other computers? Before you begin the process of editing your photos, you need to calibrate your monitor to ensure you're seeing the most accurate rendition of what you've scanned. This process is called Gamma correction.
Computer monitors have varying degrees of brightness. Some monitors exaggerate an image's dark tones. You may find that adding brightness to an image only makes it look washed out on another computer. For example, if your image has an RGB colour setting of Red: 100, Green: 50, and Blue: 50, you'd think that every computer would show the red twice as intense as the green and blue, but that is not always the case. Gamma correction compensates for this intensity difference.
Photo editing programs usually offer a calibration feature that allows you to set your monitor to a general darkness and lightness intensity.
Some software packages also offer calibration programs that adjust Gamma by displaying a band that fades from black to white and then prompt you to select certain points along the band. This process shows the software how to manage the lightest, darkest, and midpoint colour ranges when viewing an image.
There is a wide difference between the typical Gamma of a Macintosh monitor and that of a PC monitor. An image created on a PC may look dark on a Mac, and conversely, an image created on a Mac may look too bright on a PC. The typical Gamma correction value for a PC is 2.2, while Macs are usually set at 1.8.
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