Monitor Calibration strip

I have adjusted my monitor a few times and currently the right hand side i.e. the whites are very clearly separated and the left hand side, i.e. the blacks are separated but no where near as clearly as the whites.
I have had some feedback on a couple of occasions indicating that my images need a little more something, I am not sure what, but I think that some of my images could be a bit brighter.
My last post - Common Blue after the storm in the Macro section is one image in question. Before I post images I do of course check levels etc and It looks OK to me. So to cut to the chase does anyone think I have too much contrast or too little or too much brightness or too little. I appreciate there has to be a level of subjectivity I am just wondering if I can get my monitor to be a little closer to the setting that more experienced people have. Perhaps another consideration is the quality (or lack of) my monitor it is a Samsung SyncMaster 720N and I think I need to think about upgrading. The system is Dell PC as opposed to Mac.
Any feedback would be welcome

Thanks
Jon

Jonathon, I have a VERY old and cheap monitor but I keep it calibrated and it seems to do a good job for me so don't run right out and buy a new one unless you really feel that is the problem.

When it comes to brightness and contrast it is really a "gray" area (all puns intended!) I downloaded your common blue photo and I did like it with a touch more contrast to the whites so they "popped" more against the blues but it was a very minor adjustment that I made. I wonder if you are utilizing the levels slider in Photoshop? That slider along with the curves adjustment will usually get me where I want to be on an image. Even then, I find if I go back and look at an image 20 minutes after I made it I might get a whole new take on it because I am looking at it with "fresh eyes." You might close your image down, walk away and come back for that second look before posting.

One last trick I use when I don't think my contrast or brightness is quite right is to put the photo in black and white (either desaturate it or change to LAB mode [Image/mode/lab color] and then click on the lightness channel) and look at it there. if it looks wishy washy (that's a technical term you may be unaware of) in B&W, then it probably does need tweaking in the color version.

Let me know if any of that helps!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Julie Kenward

Jonathon, I have a VERY old and cheap monitor but I keep it calibrated and it seems to do a good job for me so don't run right out and buy a new one unless you really feel that is the problem.

When it comes to brightness and contrast it is really a "gray" area (all puns intended!) I downloaded your common blue photo and I did like it with a touch more contrast to the whites so they "popped" more against the blues but it was a very minor adjustment that I made. I wonder if you are utilizing the levels slider in Photoshop? That slider along with the curves adjustment will usually get me where I want to be on an image. Even then, I find if I go back and look at an image 20 minutes after I made it I might get a whole new take on it because I am looking at it with "fresh eyes." You might close your image down, walk away and come back for that second look before posting.

One last trick I use when I don't think my contrast or brightness is quite right is to put the photo in black and white (either desaturate it or change to LAB mode [Image/mode/lab color] and then click on the lightness channel) and look at it there. if it looks wishy washy (that's a technical term you may be unaware of) in B&W, then it probably does need tweaking in the color version.

Let me know if any of that helps!

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Thanks Julie I will have a go at that.
Jon