ASSISTANCE WITH MONITOR CALIBRATION

For what I am seeing and to my eye, 1st = C and close second = D ----- but, I have no idea how true to color any of them are.

My recommendation, and it won't cost a cent = there are downloadable Color Cards that have a whole bunch of colors on the card; you can buy these cards as well.

The color numbers are listed for each color.

There are many ways one can use these cards and the correct color numbers to test various parts of the equation.

One would be to have the printers to print the unadulterated card and then compare the printed card to your original.

In my own opinion, as-delivered desktop monitors are going to be pretty darn close without any calibration.

Laptops are a completely different story; they are like those useless vehicle mirrors that say "things ain't where they look like they are"


Physical storebought color card:

www.amazon.com/Pixel-Perfect-Camera-Colour-Correction/dp/B07VCTWR5Q/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=color+card&qid=1637397732&sr=8-4

Note: every Charlotte K. Lowrie camera book that I have ever bought included a color card almost identical to the one linked to; if you are going to buy a card anyway, buy the book for very little more and get a card in the deal; I have bought second hand books on EBay for $3.99 shipped that still had the card inside.

Downloadable color cards:

cream.sourceforge.net/ColorCard.pdf

All sorts of FREE color and printer checking images:

www.northlight-images.co.uk/printer-test-images/

Here is a really good one:

web.archive.org/web/20160412132148/http://www.colour-science.com/quality%20test%20tools/test%20files/test%20files%20overview.htm

This is confusing me because the exif data (when your images are viewed full size) says the exposure was actually the same for each of the 5 images - f/4, 1/160s.

Are you really asking which image lightness looks the best? - which is actually a totally different question. 

If yes, then the responses you get will depend and vary according to the responders' monitor brightness settings which will all be different.

For example, if someone has a very high monitor brightness setting then the darkest image will probably look the best whereas someone with a low brightness setting might say the lightest image in your set looks best.

And you could easily get selections of any of the images in between the lightest and darkest depending on  the viewer's monitor brightness setting, so I don't see what you are aiming to achieve/deduce from this "survey".

---

Thanks all. I'll read some of caspa 's technical stuff later this evening.

The one sent for printing was C and like all prints is too dark. A,B and D,E were either over or underexposed in ACR. (BTW, the colors on my screen are nearly spot in to the actual quilt.) 


That's because they are the same image with exposures altered in ACR to +/- ½ and 1 full f-stop.

Thanks. It is the brightness that is concerning me. I made a couple of more prints at another lab and will try to go to the city and pick them up today. There might be a brightness issue with the monitor but I think the first lab screwed up and will be doing them again. 

Thanks,  

Clive

I was merely wondering which "exposure" looks "best" to people.  

Yes for sure. Glowing screens are different than a flat piece of paper reflecting light. 

I am 95% sure this is a simple lab error vs a major screen brightness issue. (In addition to a couple of paper prints, and the calendar, I've also made three canvas prints of bears at two different labs and they are "correct.") 

Here is why I asked the question. All prints in the set were equally dark. Cut me some slack here ... this is an (old) cellphone photo of my screen and a print tuck into the screen frame. 
 

That is a good point and exactly right about the difference in where the light is coming from.

Once a person sees images on a monitor, old dull washed-out prints just fail in comparison.