Seaside Student Biscuits ahoy!

Week 18

Some work!

Well the two crits have been finished off this week so I can now put some of the work I made online. In order, 1 photos from suicidal shoes, and 1 photo from my Gaia project (just the base photo for the front cover without the logo branding for copyright reasons). I have no more projects set untill next year, but I have a large project I'm hoping to complete sometime before the submission date for the next issue of 125 (an on-going challenge with a friend to spur ourselves into creating more work in our free time).

We had a really good showing at the crit, with most coming on leaps and bounds since the technical workshops project. It amazes me I know of not one other University running anything similar to get their students upto a competant technical level. The work created when not having to worry how the camera works was shown to be of a much higher commercial standard (It can't do much for the concept, but the concept can at least be executed better if you know how).

Unfortunately I'm not entirely sure how many of my classmates I'l see before next September, as almost our entire 3rd term is set aside for work placement. Perhaps we can have a good old knees-up in London, as presumably that's where most of us will be.

Week 17

Nothing to see here. Move along.

Week 16

Eizo CG241W Mini-Review

But before I do, I recently discovered a childhood gem, and I do mean a true gem. Watch.

If that isn't the best childhood theme song I really do not know what is. And perhaps if more characters spoke like Pooh Bear rather than the Teletubbies we wouldn't have to keep making exams easier to keep pass rates up (Joking).

So I've had a little time with my new monitor (87 hours according to ColorNavigator) and feel I can now make a few remarks.

It comes in a nice big box with plenty of packaging. Monitors and TV's typically come in boxes designed for medium sized animals from the cretaceous period, and require a good morning set aside simply to get into them. However, they do include pretty much everything. A cable for every connector on the back of the monitor (And not a stingy 2ft one either), loads of manuals, software CD, screen cleaner, and a calibration report from the factory reminding you how much love and care went into making it. I know what you're thinking "But my Dell came with a calibration report". Unfortunately that only really tells you the monitor turns on, not a lot else.

Measured at 25 points across the entire screen for variance in luminosity, colour temperature and gamma.. If anything doesn't make the grade, it's not sold as a ColorEdge monitor, simple.

When you yank it out of the box the stand is already attached (It features no quick release system like my old Dell 24's) and the various cables and boxes all have their own place in the foam. I will take this moment to mention the monitor hood, which comes in each individual piece in a flat pack box, with no obvious way of putting it together. It works, and it's sturdy, but just put the instructions in with them please, it only requires an A4 piece of paper.

On the subject of stand, it's not brilliant. If you start typing with any zeal you can easily make it wobble, and the movements are all pretty stiff with fewer places to grab the screen when the hood is on. You could use a monitor arm, but I would expect the stand to be at least as good as the one on my old Dells.

That's pretty much the last negative, everything from here on in is solid gold. Plugged everything in and booted up into Windows. Ran the auto-installer from the CD and in a matter of minutes ColorNavigator is up and raring to go. It should be noted that you are expected to own a calibration device to use with this monitor, it will not just magically calibrate itself (Though if you're buying one you likely know this already). As I mentioned in an earlier post this program really couldn't be any easier to use if the only button you could press was one that took up the entire screen and said "CALIBRATE MEH!!!". It gives you a list of a couple of presets that are common for what you would use this for. First is Photographic/Graphic design, with targets of 80cd/m2 luminance (brightness), 2.2 gamma and 6500K colour temperature. Second is Printing, with 80cd/m2, 1.8 gamma and 5000k colour temperature. Once you have created a profile for each of these targets, ColorNavigator sits in your tray and the bottom and allows you to switch between them on the fly depending on what you're doing. You can also specify your own target parameters and CN will add these to the list of selectable profiles. So if for example, you have a profile for working in daylight with a higher luminance value (120cd/m2) and one for working at night with a lower one (80cd/m2) it's all too easy to flick between them.

For those of you already familiar with calibrating monitors, you may think 80cd/m2 sounds far too low, as the normal recommended starting point is 120cd/m2. It entirely depends on your working conditions and your print viewing conditions. It won't be the same for everyone, but if you're like me and work in a cave, you may have still found prints coming out too dark even at 120cd/m2. It also becomes problematic for many consumer monitors to achieve good contrast ratios at such a low luminance, where excessive panel blocking is required to hit the target. Sufficed to say the Eizo has no problems. Calibrated to the Photography/Graphic design specs it achieves 80cd/m2, 2.2 gamma, 6500K with an average DeltaE94 of 0.4, black point of 0.09cd/m2 and contrast ratio of nearly 850:1. More importantly, this result is true for the entire screen, and not just the centre (another common problem with some monitors not displaying equal brightness across the panel). Good black points on LCD monitors have always been a major nitpick compared to CRT's of old, and they're still not there yet. However 0.09cd/m2 does result in very black looking blacks, there is no wishy-washy-ness what so ever. Verification in various periods after profiling proved another advantage of monitors like these - They hold the target. The consistency is excellent.

I think that's sufficient coverage of the geeky stuff, so onto my real world experience so far. If you have even a fleeting interest in monitors such as these you may have heard things like "reproduces excellent shadow detail" and "great greyscale rendering", both of which are true. I almost feel inclined to re-develop and re-edit some of my older RAW files, now being able to see the mistakes I previously couldn't. A good monitor is often the last thought in a digital photographers mind, and it's not surprising when you see how much cameras, lenses and lights cost. But just how important is it? Well, for one, I see my work most of all on my monitor. More than in print, more than on other peoples monitors, more than on the back of my camera. Secondly, I edit my work on my monitor. We all know digital systems produce base RAW files that need developing, and you wouldn't develop your film in old developer, would you? Or print in the darkroom with green tinted glasses on? I firmly believe (And honestly not for self-justification purposes) a good monitor is a key asset in a digital arsenal. If you're editing your files on a poor, uncalibrated and/or old monitor you're doing yourself and your work a great disservice. I lost count of how many times I heard 'it didn't print out how it looked on screen' at the last critique. Does that mean I should have bought this screen? Maybe not. But with a 5 year warranty and the safety net of knowing it will be consistent during that time the choice far outweighed buying a couple of cheaper monitors in the interim.

Working in Photoshop has proven especially useful. Making the most minute colour adjustments and being able to see every slightly nuance in tone is fantastic. You're able to see the difference of many little elements building up to a big change.

There isn't a lot more to add without getting very anal. The monitor gives you the confidence to know what you're looking at is correct. It removes the guess work. I can softproof for a multitude of output devices with the best possible idea what I'll be getting back. The amount I'll be saving in paper will pay for the monitor in no time!

I would certainly implore the new photographers and artists of the digital age to invest in a good monitor. It's where we dictate how so much of our work is produced after all!

Week 15.1

As you're well unaware, it was my birthday last Saturday. Now I think I've been rather good this year, finally getting my butt to University and all. And as I'm a little too old to expect my family to pony up with gifts year on year I figured I owed myself something.

So I went and bought an Eizo CG241W. After having two Dells relatively renowned for their editing suitability I simply could not get the colours to match for love nor money. I tried more calibration targets than I care to mention. This lead me to have a bit of a confidence crisis in my previously 'solid' workflow.. If they're both different, which one is right? Or more right at least? Unfortunately one was out of warranty and another not massively far off. A great excuse then, to sell up and buy a good reliable accurate 24".

I may write a mini review on it when I've had a chance to use it properly. But I can say a) The image quality is exceptionally good, and b) ColorNavigator is definitely the easiest calibration software known to mankind. Forget about chimps being able to do it, a Seahorse could master this program.