Apple

Greetings,

I work in black and white so obviously tonal distinction , the local
separation of values along the curve, is crucial to my decision-making
process while editing. I have never managed to work out a good monitor
simulation of tonal response and consequently have always worked by the
numbers, using wedges and proof prints.

I purchased a LaCie 119 simply because of its dynamic range which far
exceeds normal scene brightness. I wanted to see if a larger dynamic range
would reduce the amount of compression necessary to display the full range
of light values and therefore produce a better simulation of the tonal
response of ink and paper on the screen.

I've just used Mabeth EyeOne Match 3 to create a display profile for this
monitor. According to Colorthink this profile believes that my monitor's
range is L*0 to L*100. Am I using cheap profiling software? I noticed this
was a matrix-based display profile, is this standard? Could this problem be
linked to an incompatibility with the LED technology of this monitor ?

This profile passes Bruce Fraser's black point check on page 216 with flying
colours and does reasonably well with the gradient check, but the perplexing
question is, what is it really showing me when it thinks its displaying
L*1? I am not sure how Black Point Compensation could be at play if the
profile's black point is set to L*0.

How can I determine what the real shadow limit of my monitor is so that I
can know whenever it might be higher than the output profile that I'm
looking at and BPC is messing up the curve?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Eugene Appert