Quick and dirty monitor "calibration"

© 2009 Simon Hucko

We've all been there - working on a computer that isn't ours, trying to look at pictures, and wondering why shadows look like bottomless pits, or why all of the highlights suddenly look blown out. There are a lot of bad uncalibrated monitors out there, especially old CRT units that have been sitting at the local public library for the last 7 years.

Well, photofriday.com has a page that gives you an easy way to check brightness levels of the monitor you're working on. Note: this will NOT help with color calibration, or truly "calibrate" the monitor, but it will help you get it to a normal state of brightness and contrast for better image viewing.

My suggestion is to e-mail yourself the link to a searchable webmail account (ie gmail) so that you can find it whenever you need to.

~S