Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/394837
www.postmagazine.com 40 POST SEPTEMBER 2014 DEAR COLORIST am always happy to hear that someone cares enough to actually set up their monitors correctly. There are two schools of thought on reference monitoring. One group believes you can correct on any type of monitor since that is what the end viewer will be using. The other group, of which I am a member, believes that all working professionals' monitors should be as closely matched to each other as possible. A colorist or client should be able to walk into any profes- sional suite and see the same image. In reality, there are too many places in the path from your color correction suite to the poorly-adjusted, overly-green TV in granny's living room to ever be able to expect a true picture match. However, every show that granny watches should be equally green on her TV. To obtain that level of consistency requires stan- dards. Fortunately, the ITU and SMPTE have created video monitor standards which can be found here: http://stan dards.smpte.org/. That said, what would our industry be without clashing standards? To answer your question, we will stick with US tele- vision delivery. This means ITU-R BT.709. I would say there are three business models involved: the large facility with an engineering staff that handles monitor calibration; the middle-sized facility, like the questioner's, with assorted monitors of varying types and limited resources to get them all matching; and fi nally, there's the individual with just one monitor in his suite. We'll skip the big guys, as they are covered by engineering, and start with the individual. A decent monitor probe and calibra- tion software may be out of the individ- ual colorist's price range. Not to mention the technical savvy to use the tools. Fortunately, there is a lot of information on monitor calibration online, and a quick Google search reveals them. At minimum though, you need a monitor that is ad- justable and has a "blue gun only" mode, which allows you to tune it by eye. I would also recommend at least a yearly visit by a pro- fessional monitor calibrator. Coming back to the original question, how do you get multiple monitors to match? In this case, a decent color calibration probe and some level of calibration software are needed. Here, we use the i1Display Pro by X-rite. While this is an inexpensive profes- sional probe, it has served us well. Our primary color eval- uation monitors are Sony OLEDs. Sony provides free auto calibration software that works with the i1 probe and is simple to run. Bi-annually, we also have a pro- fessional calibrator come in and adjust all the monitors to guarantee accuracy. Outside of the Sony OLEDs, there are other monitors with built-in calibration, like TVLogic, and manufacturers who will recalibrate your monitor for free, like Flanders Scientifi c (you pay the ship- ping). You may also turn to higher-end calibration software, like CalMan from SpectraCal (http://studio.spect racal.com), or go the more technically challenging but free route with HCFR Colormeter software, which is available at Homecinema-fr.com. The bigger issue is getting the non- OLEDs to match. In each suite there are professional plasmas for the client to watch. Part of what makes these monitors "pro" is the increased level of control over adjusting them. Since we use Panasonics (no longer being made) that have an SDI input option, we know we are seeing the same image as the OLED monitors and external scopes. This means that using a black, 50 percent gray & white signal out of our color soft- ware allows us to adjust the plasmas to match the OLEDs in each of these areas. As with the questioner, we have many diff erent models throughout the facility. The consumer-level monitors are the worst, as they lack much individual con- trol. You have to bounce around between various cryptic settings, like "dynamic," "vivid," "standard," or "pro." It takes some fooling around to fi gure out how these relate to gamma and white-point settings. Since these monitors are usually HDMI, you may need an SDI to HDMI converter, depending upon your setup. Some of these converters allow you to add LUTs to adjust the signal to compensate for your monitor's shortcomings. A good example of this is Fujifi lm's IS-mini (www. fujifi lm.com), which is supported by Fuji's cross-platform software. This adds anoth- er layer of complexity and is a case where a professional calibrator can really help. Equally important in this discussion is the area behind the monitor. It needs to be an 18 percent neutral gray, lit by a D65 light at 10 percent of the brightest level the monitor is set for. Also, the entire room should be color neutral and dark so that it doesn't aff ect the colorist's or client's eyes. As for the fi nal part of the question: "to ensure my client is seeing what the fi nished product will ultimately look like" — this is impossible! Once it leaves our room, it is subject to the vagaries of distribution. All we can do is make the image look as perfect as possible in our controlled environment. FACILITY-WIDE MONITOR CALIBRATION I BY TERENCE CURREN FOUNDER ALPHADOGS BURBANK, CA WWW.ALPHADOGS.TV Dear Colorist, I operate a multi-room facility that uses a range of displays from diff erent manufacturers. What is the best way for me to calibrate my monitors for consistency from room to room, and to ensure my client is seeing what the fi nished product will ultimately look like? Tools such as the i1Display Pro from X-rite can help match color on multiple monitors.