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The operating system knows the monitor profile is there, but not all programs use it.

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If you have a Windows PC however the story is different. It’s one of the reasons that many professional photographers use Apple computers. Every program you use works with the monitor profile and displays accurate colour. The Mac operating system (OS X) works very well with colour. In real life, it’s a little more complex. Once you have calibrated your monitor you can relax, knowing that the colours you see on your screen are as accurate as your monitor can render them. The profile is saved on your hard drive and used by your computer’s operating system to control the way colours are displayed on your monitor. It then compares the colour values recorded by the device, against the true colour values of the colour patches and creates a profile that compensates for the inaccuracies of the monitor. It shows you where to place your device on the screen, then displays a series of colour patches for the device to measure.

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The only way to do it properly is with the correct device.Ĭolorimetric devices are easy to use, and come with software that guides you through the calibration process. Pay no attention to them, their techniques don’t work.

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If you research the topic online you will find articles that tell you how to calibrate your monitor without a colorimetric device. They are called colorimetric devices and connect to your computer via the USB port. The only way to calibrate your monitor accurately is to buy (or borrow) a device that measures the colours emitted by your monitor. If your monitor is uncalibrated (making everything look bluer than what it is) you probably picked Image 2 as the neutrally coloured one. But it’s very difficult to tell on an uncalibrated monitor. If you answered that Image 1 is neutral, you are correct. One is completely neutral in tone, the other isn’t. Take a look at these two black and white images. Regardless, even if monitors were calibrated prior to shipping, you would still need to calibrate your monitor yourself at regular intervals because the colour of monitors drifts over time. Neither of these ideas seems credible to me. Whenever I’ve searched for the answer all I find is vague references to blue computer screens looking better in the shops, or that the blue colour cast suits graphic designers. They still have a colour cast, but it’s not as strong.

The only exception seems to be Apple Mac computers. Most monitors have a strong blue colour cast. When monitors are manufactured, the colour is set incorrectly. If you undertake client work, or sell your photos through stock libraries, it is essential to calibrate your monitor so that you know the colours of your photo are as intended.

If you don’t, the colours in your photos won’t be accurate, and you will never produce a print (or any other form of output, such as a Blurb book) that matches the colours on your screen. If you want to obtain accurate colours in your photos in Lightroom (or indeed any other software), no matter what you may read elsewhere, you need to calibrate your computer monitor.