# Colour difference



## arunr (Sep 23, 2014)

Hi All,

Greetings! This is my first post here. I have been Windows Lightroom user for sometime and just few months back switched to Retina Macbook Pro 15. I use Lightroom 5.3 on retina mbp to edit the raw(CR2) images. I noticed the colour difference in edited images that are moved to desktop and other laptops. In Retina mbp the edited image appears perfect and clean but the same image moved to pc shows difference in colours(ie, washed out colours). I always export the image file in sRGB format as recommended for web upload but that didn't help. I never had this kind of problem with Windows laptop before. Is the Retina display not good for image editing? Do I have to tweak any settings in my Retina display to get the desired output? Need your help please.

Thanks,
Arun


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 23, 2014)

Hi Arun, welcome to the forum!  How are you calibrating your monitors?


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## arunr (Sep 24, 2014)

Victoria Bampton said:


> Hi Arun, welcome to the forum!  How are you calibrating your monitors?



Hi Victoria, Thanks for the reply. Do I have to calibrate the monitor for sure? I'm new to this so please guide me. Do I have to get calibration kit to do this? This will not work without calibration? I am asking because I read the reviews saying that Retina MBP doesn't require any calibration. FYI, I edit directly in rMBP display and didn't use any external monitor. Previously I used dell insipiron laptop and never done calibration, pictures edited were same but this is not the case with retina MBP. Kindly advise me. Thanks in advance for your help.


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 24, 2014)

Have you ever gone into a TV shop and looked at all the different TV's - some are lighter, some are darker, some have slightly different colors... the same happens with computer monitors.

The idea behind calibrating your monitor is to standardize it - so the same photo looks the same on each monitor.  So yes, it's a fairly essential tool and well worth the cash.  

FWIW, I have 2 retina MBPs and neither of them match my perfectly calibrated high end monitor without calibration.

That said, there could be something else going on here.  When you say the pictures edited were the same on the dell laptop, can you explain more?  You were viewing them on multiple computers and they all looked the same?  Or you were just viewing them in different programs on the same computer?


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## arunr (Sep 24, 2014)

Thanks for the reply. I got the point now. I have not done this before  so do you mind advice me how to calibrate my display? Your help is much  appreciated.


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## clee01l (Sep 24, 2014)

arunr said:


> Thanks for the reply. I got the point now. I have not done this before  so do you mind advice me how to calibrate my display? Your help is much  appreciated.


The most accurate method is to use dedicated software and hardware .  The software sends a color signal to the display and the hardware measures the color value that it receives from the screen.  If the software sends a red (255,0,0) signal and the calibration tool measures (240, 12, 10) the software can generates a corrected color signal so that the screen emits the best approximation of the color sent.  Spyder and Display1Pro are examples of color calibrating software and hardware.  The better tools will continuously monitor the ambient light in the room and adjust the color brightness automatically. Color calibrating software and hardware can be an expensive addition to your image processing workflow, but it will be money well spent if you want the best color representation for your work. 

If you can't see purchasing color calibrating software and hardware immediately, you can use the software built into OSX. In System Preferences, you can use the color tab on the display applet.  There the calibration os only as good as the tool used to measure the color coming from the display. That tool is your eye. Since everyone sees colors differently, the result is subjective.


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