I finally got my EyeOne Photo package delivered yesterday from
Chromix via XRite/Gretag. I have an EyeOne Display 2 which I’d
been using to calibrate my LCD display. I work in my studio at night
after work, usually in the dark except for the glow of my LCD.
When doing the EyeOne Match 3.6.1 ambient light check with the
Display 2 in this dark environment, I would consistently get a color
temperature of c. 2000k. When trying out the EyeOne Photo to
calibrate the LCD for the first time this evening, the ambient light
check was giving me wildly different results for each of the several
times I tried to do it–anywhere from 1900k to 24900k. Is this normal
for such an environment, or is something wrong? Is it necessary to
perform an ambient light check at all if I’m working in a dark studio
with the only illumination being the LCD display itself?
(I did follow the instructions to the letter in EyeOne Match, e.g. putting
on the ambient light measuring head and cap when instructed, facing
the EyeOne Photo in the right direction, etc.)
I’ve noticed the same issue before, and not sure what to attribute it to…but I have noticed in the past that color temperature readings tend to be more stable at more optimal luminence readings. At extreme Lux levels (very low or very high) the termperature readings tend to bounce around more, but trying it now, I initially got some wacky readings, but after a while, it seemed to stabalize and I couldn’t reproduce the issue.
The ambient light check is purely to help you guage your lighting conditions, it doesn’t play a role in the calibration (results do not apply a correction in the software) …other than to inform you that you conditions are > or < ideal. If you have no intentions of adjusting you lighting conditions to hit the quality indicators within i1 Match, there’s not really a purpose for performing it, other than informative.
Thanks Michael, I kinda assumed it was something like your explanation. It’s nice to know that the ambient light reading is more for the user’s knowledge than a factor in the actual display profile, although I have known people who creater display profiles for different times of day in their studios – I had it was necessary for their purposes.
Well it would be interesting to track how the lighting changes thoughout the day, but as far as creating different profiles for different times of day reltated to the the ambient light check…its not necessarily the profile that needs changing (or even that it would change at all), but the sorrounding environment that needs to be made more stable. Now, if there is a light booth involved, that could be measured and a profile created based on those ambient conditions (Custom WhitePoint), but again, if those conditions are changing throughout the day, and accuracy is critical, time might be better spent stabalizing the environment (pulling the shades).
The ambient light functionality is only mildly useful considering its based on old ISO spec’s and that as you’ve seen, it reports silly things when it shouldn’t. The display should be the brightest item in your field of view and your proofing box should match. The hardware has useful capabilities but he software, which can and I hope will be updated could provide real useful functionality with respect to calibration. For example, a luminance target value could be generated for the user based on the current ambient light measured.
