What Blue Gel for Monitor Calibration?

Jack Daniel Stanley

Jack Daniel Stanley

Moderator
Staff member
I can never get the blue gel for monitor calibration trick to work.
I've tried with
Roscoe
  • 3202 - CTB (Daylight)
  • 3204 - 1/2 CTB
  • 3208 - 1/4 CTB
and a random roll of CTB blue that I have laying around doubled over several times but I can never get blue only effect.

Can someone please tell me what to ask for, at B&H for example? The lighting guys there never have any clue when I ask for "you know that gel that you can use if your monitor doesn't have blue punch". Though if no one can answer before I go in to B&H tomorrow I'm going to ask in the DV department this time.


Also it is my understanding now that you put the gel in front of your eyes vs. over the monitor, which makes sense.

Thanks :beer:
 
Last edited:
Jack - I use a Lee 47B filter to calibrate an older (ie. 'cheaper') monitor of mine.
I got the suggestion from this article on Synthetic Aperture's site.

Its not nearly as handy as a 'blue only' function - but its worked well enough.


Here is a link to the Lee filter I got a while back at B&H.
And yes, put the gel over your eye, not over the monitor.
(that becomes painfully clear when you see the size of the filter... unless you have a 2" monitor.
:)



EDITED TO ADD:
Another article I just looked at suggested Roscoe #80 Primary Blue gel as an alternative to the 47B filter.
 
Last edited:
I used to have a Panasonic video monitor with no blue-only setting. I was told to calibrate it with a #47B Deep Blue Wratten filter, which seem to work OK. It was only 3" by 3" so there was no question that you used it over your eye, not over the monitor. I think Kodak and Tiffen are the current manufacturers of these filters.

Kevin
 
thanks for the replies. Here is what I learned / what I did.

First here are my three calibrated monitors:
1196750336.jpg

Clockwise:
L: imac (working in FCP)
R: Vizio HDTV (monitoring HCP)
C: Marshall 7: HDA (double checking calibration / monitoring FCP)
The Marhsall and the HDTV are virtually identical. The imac, only very slightly oranger and brighter than the other two.

Uncalibrated:
1196749955.jpg

I can't even mess up the HDTV as much as it was before I calibrated (this was taken with the calibration turned off). but you can see how much bluer the imac is.

So while you guys were posting here I was out at B&H apparently psychically connected to DVXuser buying what you were suggesting some how ... all of it.

I was originally going to buy just the cheap filter, but I saw the huey pantone pro calibrator on the shelf and could not resist it.

I also bought a Lee polyster 47B (blue) tri-color separating filter for black and white photography:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/102726-REG/LEE_Filters_47BP3_3x3_Clear_Blue_47B.html
I brought my 7" marshall (which has blue punch) with me to B&H so I could try looking through these various filters and comparing the result with the blue punch button. Basically the cheaper polyester filter worked better than the more expensive Tffen circular filter. The lines that are supposed to be blue were equally blue when viewed through either filter but the lines that are supposed to be black were darker with the Lee.

Here is the Marshall partially viewed through the Lee 47B:
1196749932.jpg


Here is picture of the filter and monitor with flash:
1196749903.jpg


So basically there is no way I can afford a quality CRT Video monitor. So I've opted for the VIZIO 20" HDTV LCD . It's much more like a TV than a regular LCD. I know CRT's are supposed to be better but it is close and what puts it over the top for me is the ability to hook its HDMI port up to the DVI-D out of my iMac. Having a digital interface lets the computer calibrate the monitor automatically when used with the huey pantone device. Not possible with my marshall or CRT monitor hooked up though component.

The Vizio is $400. I got it because I have a Vizio 36" and love it. They seem to be a ridiculous quality for the money. The only weird thing is that its native resolution is 1336X768 (as opposed to 1280X720). Apparently the extra is to through away in overscan. But apple does not offer the native resolution. So I had to download this $17 dollar progran which allows you to add monitor resolutions to the OSX. I finally got it into its native resolution (off by 2 pixels wide) and now text is crisp and it doubles nicely as a second computer monitor.

I chose 20" because anything else is to big for sitting so close and when I work with SD it would really look like garbage blown up over a 30" screen.

So the Pantone is the primary calibrator for the primary video monitor the HDTV, and the blue gel is used to double check and compare that, the marshall monitor is also a double check to compare against the HDTV monitor.

I also like that I can see noise better with and LCD. Tube monitors can be to forgiving in that area I think. It also matches my imac with the sliver body and black frame :)
 
Last edited:
I got some PM's asking about this set up this morning.
Just want to be clear - I don't think this is the absolute way to go ... just the best for me in my budget I think for now.
 
You need to be using SMPTE bars with reverse bars in the lower 3rd quarter and pluge at the bottom. These allow for the proper calibration of brightness and contrast prior to that of chrominance and phase.

e
 
Oh yeah absolutely. I send the bars from FCP when editing or the camera when I'm on a shoot.

I was being lazy for the photo and just hit the bar button on the marshall, which are the type shown for some reason.
 
heh, Marshall probabaly didn't want to pay the licence fee for proper SMTPE bars, so they went with full field instead.

- Mikko
 
...they don't really need full SMTPE bars in a monitor's internal generator anyway .. you should always calibrate to the bars generated by the source .. for example the camera. That way you make up for any signal level changes in the cables, etc...


- Mikko
 
Nice thread. I've tried several blue gels with my monster Sony monitor (200 lbs!) with no luck. I'll have to give this set up a go before I give up on it. Thanks for all the info and pics Jack.
 
CALIBRATION DVD with GELS

CALIBRATION DVD with GELS

Here's a new find:
http://www.amazon.com/Pantone-MEU11...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1201539602&sr=8-1
A standard def and hi def combo DVD for calibarting monitors.

It comes with a blue gel and a red and green gel for testing those areas after the blue.

The DVD is long winded and you have to let it play in order and go through the steps. But it can be a help.

Maybe you could rip some of the DVD and bring it into FCP and play it from there. Dunno, but that would be optimal.
 
Isnt' that paint job in your place there from Rekindled? Wasn't Rekindled for Horror Fest... which was like a year and a half ago? :)

Either very lazy, liked the look and decided to keep it, or have a hard time letting go of your work....

Later,
Jason
 
Jason Ramsey said:
Isnt' that paint job in your place there from Rekindled? Wasn't Rekindled for Horror Fest... which was like a year and a half ago? :)

Either very lazy, liked the look and decided to keep it, or have a hard time letting go of your work....

Later,
Jason
Click to expand...
Or smart enough to pick a paint job in the first place that worked for the film and that we could live with afterwards :).

Paint job for Bonehand was still up when Mark Johnson and I painted for Rekindled. Problem with leaving that one up was that it was only one corner and it was painted to look like a run down slum with faux water damage etc.

Knowing I'm too busy to deal with this sort of thing between films, we picked something that actually works for our place but worked for the film too, knowing it wouldn't get painted again until the next film.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top