I finally tried a proper screen calibrator after using my phone camera for years

I was working on a piece for a local gallery show in Denver and kept thinking the colors looked off on my monitor. For ages, I just used my phone camera on auto white balance to check prints, but the gallery owner pointed out a green tint. I borrowed an X-Rite i1Display Pro from a friend last week and the difference was huge. My old method was basically guessing, but the calibrator gave me exact numbers to match. Has anyone else made a switch like this that fixed their color issues?

3 comments

3 Comments

faith_carter1mo ago

How many prints did you have to redo after seeing the real colors?

reese1241mo ago

Lost count honestly. I think I trashed around 15 prints before I realized my phone was just lying to me about what the colors actually looked like. It was super frustrating because the print would come out looking muddy or way too warm compared to what I saw on the screen. My friend let me borrow his color calibrator for a weekend and that helped a ton, but I still messed up a few more after that because my lighting at home is terrible. Felt like I was just guessing until I got the monitor settings dialed in properly. Solidarity from one frustrated printer to another.

the_susan1mo ago

Wasn't there a whole thing a while back about how phone cameras add their own color tweaks, even on auto? Makes sense that using one as a reference would be a mess. I remember a photographer friend saying his phone made everything way warmer than it really was. Borrowing that tool sounds like the right move, even if it's a pain to set up.