So, in my ongoing goal to start post-processing photos in a color-managed fashion, I've calibrated my monitor using a ColorMunki Display.
However, I have only one monitor that needs to be usable in two situations:
- everyday use, which includes true work-work and some unimportant editing that I often do with my window open, and
- serious editing of images destined for my wall or otherwise important, which I do with the window shades down.
The brightness that I need out of the monitor for these two uses is not the same.
The "standard" calibration, with a gamma of 2.2, white point of D65, and luminance of 120cd/m2 is surprisingly bright and may very well work for situation 1, but it is too bright for situation 2.
So here's my question: With a calibrated monitor, is it ok to simply reduce or increase brightness using the monitor's controls (the buttons at the bottom-right)?
This could take two forms, either the calibration is for situation 2 and I manually increase brightness for situation 1, or vice versa, the calibration is for situation 1 and I reduce the brightness for situation 2.
Obviously, I don't want to lose the characterization element, i.e. the color correction for the monitor, from either, but what I don't know is whether or not changing the brightness will mess up the color correction...?
If so, I suppose I could make two .icm files, one at a cd/m2 compatible with situation 1 and another compatible with situation 2, and then switch back and forth at Control Panel>Color Management>Devices, but that seems like a real pain.
I am of course also open to other tactics!
Thanks in advance and happy shooting to all!
KLE-France
EDIT 1: Thanks to all who are participating. The D50 vs D65 debate (and it's a biggy) for printing seems to be coming up.
Two things:
X-rite itself recommends D65, e.g., this, but there are other arguments elsewhere for D65.
And in any case, on my computer, in my "hanging" lighting, and with the printing services I use (which indicates D65), a D65 white point is what works, as does doing my serious editing in a relatively darkened environment with the screen relatively dim.
So, to keep the post from veering off course, and if I may be so bold, my question isn't about D65 vs D50; there are surely plenty of conversations here on that; my question is whether or not manually increasing or decreasing brightness has an effect on the color correction aspect of monitor calibration.
Thanks! KLE