A Beginner’s Guide to Display CalibrationThis guide is work in progress. I will update with pictures as time goes by, please be patient.What is Calibration?Calibrate - To check, adjust, or determine by comparison with a standard (the graduations of a quantitative measuring instrument)
Calibration - The act or process of calibrating or the state of being calibrated.
Display calibration is centred on calibration of your display to standards.
Movie studios/directors adhere to standards when mastering movies/films.
One key feature of the standards for movies (colour) is the white point. The reference white point is defined as D65 for both North American and European standards. The white point refers to an x,y coordinate of 0.3127, 0.329 in the CIE Chromacity chart. CIE(Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage) is the international body responsible for the measurement of color.
6500K however, is a measure of the correlated colour temperature (CCT) of the white. Where D65 specifically targets a white point, the colour temperature is slightly misleading. It is possible to have a white that is 6500K in colour temperature (as it depends on whether the red and the blue channels primarily) but not hitting D65 white. For all practical purposes, D65 is a better representation of calibrating to a standard as if you do hit the 0.3127, 0.329, you automatically hit 6500K CCT.
The different standards that are available out there are:
· ITU-R Recommendation BT.709 (“Rec. 709”) – the standard for both North American and European high definition television - HD
· ITU-R Recommendation BT.601 (“Rec. 601”) and SMPTE-C – the standard for NTSC 480i/60Hz standard definition television (SMPTE-C has supplanted Rec. 601), and
· PAL/SECAM – the standard defined by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) for 576i/50Hz standard definition television.
Once a display is calibrated to these standards (or as close to these standards as your display will allow) you do not need to wonder if the picture is accurate and tweak your settings for every movie. If your post calibration results are good, the pictures that you are viewing are as close to what the director intended for you to see.