Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=107&Form.ShowMessage=1498367

If you have a peice that has a very dark section, how do you know if anyone else can see detail within it or if they are just getting black areas on thier monitor? I ask this because I sent my WIP (see link) to someone and all they can see is black in the foreground to the right of the image. A few people commented that I should lighten up the area to reveal detail... Do you tailor your images to stay away from 'too light' or 'too dark' areas due to differences in monitors? Do you worry about monitor calibration at all?

you do if you have a mac..a pc doesn't do much calibration.. check the monitor calibration by getting into the properties of your screen.. right click on the screen..go to settings.. choose highest quality.. for a mac.. do the color calibration thingummy..shd be int he help section.. I don't have a mac with me..used to do it before on my mac...don't remember where the color settings were. It's a bit more complicated for a mac. I had this problem.. esp since I use a laptop..and I see colors differently everytime I move that damn cover at a certain degree. I did go to the engineers..the toshiba gusy.. asked them to color clibrate,t hinking PCs were like mac..they ain't. Sigh. Difference in montior colors can't be helped.. depends on system to system too..as well as mac or pc, model, etc.

I do worry about monitor calibration, both colour- and lightness-wise. But without expensive software like Colorific or something similar I can only go to some web pages, like these: http://epaperpress.com/monitorcal/ http://www.easyrgb.com/calibrate.php?k0=index.html&k1=0 http://www.jasc.com/monitor1.asp And yes, your image is pretty much too dark in the foreground.

Yeah, Im planning on correcting that. :-) The question becomes, how dark can you go without worrying about differing monitors if you want to still show detail in the darker area and maintain maximum contrast between the light and dark areas of the picture - ala Hildebrant?

Attached Link: http://bryce-alive.net/calibrate/

I certainly keep my monitors calibrated as far as possible, The bryce alive calibration site is the one I use. I tend to go with an image if it works for me attitude, unless I'm planning to go to TV/Video in which case I do tend to stay away from dark areas (poor DVD players will show pixelation) and also bright whites (pure white can cause overload in some tv/video systems - often combined with an audio hiss as the vid circuits overload)

Apple computers when used with apple displays need not be worried about in terms of color correction. PC monitors can display images darker than they are, but on a mac the image will almost always appear as the artist intended (or a little brighter) If you need to measure the display colors, etc. Refer to these Apple support documents: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61202 http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61200 panther (OS 10.3): http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=125090

Don't forget that Bryce has a 'GAMMA' correction button on the render drop-down...

Gog's advise link is probably a good free compromise, but I think it was shadowdragonlord who provided me with a link to that Colorific software - the trial version worked for me, but you have to get used to the new settings afterwards as the screen appears too bright and perhaps slightly hazy at first. I'd say any problem is on their end as it looks about right here, and I'm pretty sure now that my monitor is calibrated close enough to someone else's idea of "ideal" as per the calibration software I used (colorific trial?) to make such a statement. And a quick glance at Bryce alive's calbration scheme confirms that I'm getting as full range as I'm gonna get with this monitor. I can see the brick in the shadow but not the "rockier" one on the ledge in the shadow if that helps. Anyrate best of luck with it. cheers, - TJ

My puter screen has pretty good color and I have tried calibration cards from time to time just to check everything is ok. The main color problems start when it comes to printing 'cos your printer and it's inks will definately be different from what's on your screen. And the best way aroung that is to do a test print like they do with photographs to get the color right. Catlin