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Monitor Mode for Daz (or 3D in general) work?

vijayasimhabrvijayasimhabr Posts: 204
in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

For my main Daz work, I use a "BenQ BL2420PT (23.8 inch) IPS Designer Monitor for Photo Editing" Monitor. Of course, I know it is not the ideal "Photography" monitor, but that is the best monitor I could afford. Fortunately, when I am doing Photo Editing on Photoshop, I use my iMac or the iPad which have better displays.

However, I want to harness the power of the RTX 3060 on my windows machine, to which the above monitor is plugged. I cannot (or dont want to) use Daz with my iMac. So, this monitor (and I assume all BENQ monitors have the same options) has multiple display settings. For example, there is a setting called "Low Blue Light" which I use when I am working at night. It hurts my eyes less. Currently, when I am working on 3D, I end up using an option called "CAD/CAM" which appears to be the closest I can get to a display that is comparable for 3D iimages and photography on my iMac/iPad. There is an option called sRGB, which appears to be a more 'white washed' version of CAD/CAM option, which I use when I am forced to use the windows machine for Photoshop. I usually end up toggling between 'CAD/CAM' mode and 'sRGB' mode when working on Daz, especially when I am previewing IRay before hitting the Render button.

1. I understand that I eventually will have to spring on a proper Adobe RGB BenQ monitor, but till then, are these the 'display' options that work well with Daz?
2. Further, there is another mode called 'Photo Mode'. I dont know if BENQ made a mistake but this mode makes the entire screen Blueish. Why would 'blue' make sense for photo editing?
3. Lastly, is there anything else I can do, with my current monitor, settings wise, to make the visuals better, till I grab a newer, Adobe RGB certified monitor?

[I understand not everybody uses BENQ monitors, but, I am hoping these settings are same across monitors. At this point, any advice would be useful to me]

Comments

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,739
    edited August 2021

    Have you looked at getting a calibration tool, such as a Spyder or ColorMunki?

    Post edited by Richard Haseltine on
  • vijayasimhabrvijayasimhabr Posts: 204

    I keep running into these gadgets (like on Photoshop forums) as recommendations. Yeah, it looks like I have to buy them. There seems to be no other way around this. 

    It's true what folks say. Having a hobby (any hobby) is expensive, he he :P

    These things are not made locally in India, so they cost an incredible amoutn of money. I have added it to my shopping list. Perhaps, next year, I will buy them. 

    Thank you, as always, Richard.

  • OmnifluxOmniflux Posts: 377

    Have you installed the color profile for your monitor? It is available here https://www.benq.eu/en-eu/support/downloads-faq/products/monitor/bl2420pt/software-driver.html

    It is listed as WHQL Driver.

  • prixatprixat Posts: 1,588

    I use a slightly older BenQ at work. There is really no choice, it has to be that sRGB mode if your using it for colour accurate work.

    Those other modes will all have an effect on the colour. I'm not sure what CAD/CAM mode actually does but it looks just like slightly higher contrast.

    If you don't have a calibration tool, you can still get quite close manually, there are websites that will guide you through the adjustments required.

     

  • richardandtracyrichardandtracy Posts: 5,660
    edited August 2021

    This may sound a bit off track, but you'll see why I mention it in the end.

    I have written a program for the creation of cross stitch charts from digital images. There is a 'standard' set of RGB values used for the thread colours from the DMC manufacturer that seems to be tracable back to an unofficial release by the manufacturer and became available in about 2002-2003, and these colours are used by almost every conversion program I could find. After a while using those 'standard' colours for my stitched images, I came to the conclusion that, while they looked OK on screen, they are wrong and in some thread colours they are badly wrong. As a result my stitched images with 80+ colours were not as close to photographic realism as they should have been.

    Now, I have no fancy monitor calibration, and have no idea how I would do it. Instead, what I did was to get a thread sampler with every thread colour and photograph it. Having done that, I then colour corrected the vignetting my camera produced with a program I wrote which adjusted the white RGB colour all over the photo to match the white bit at the centre. Then I  took RGB colour samples from that corrected photo to create my own RGB thread definitions.

    On screen, it doesn't look as good as the 'standard' colour conversion colours. However, the thread colours are real, and not the colour on screen. When images are stitched up from the chart, the stitched pictures now look much closer to the digital images than they did when using the 'standard' colours. 

    So, how could this lesson be applied in your case?

    I am not entirely sure I can offer a definitive solution, but one that may be good enough, as below.

    What you could do is to calibrate a camera-monitor combination rather than just the monitor. Put up a monochrome image with a known rgb value, then take a photo of the monitor, if the photo colour of the monochrome patch is different, tweak the monitor output a bit to reduce the difference and correct it. Then try again until you reach the point of diminishing returns. It can be done using equipment you have and while it may not be as accurate as with purchased equipment, you'll have zero expense & a similar output even if it's not exactly the same. What you will be doing is inversely matching the monitor to the camera, and does rely on the camera reproduction accuracy. However, that tends to be pretty high with recent cameras attached to even moderate spec phones. And, in all probability, it'll be good enough for hobby use.

    Regards,

    Richard

    Post edited by richardandtracy on
  • sunnyjeisunnyjei Posts: 502
    If you have Apple devices that are accurate why not adjust your monitor to match them as closely as possible then when you finish rendering do final correcting on your Apple devices?
  • vijayasimhabrvijayasimhabr Posts: 204

    Omniflux,

    I checked that link. It had some tools that I was not aware, but dont think, it helps my situation.

    Prixat,

    ah yes, this is what was I was hoping to hear. Looks like sRGB is good enough for the work. I will continue using it (along with the CAD mode, which helps in night, dark shadow scenes). 

    Richard,

    I have to confess, I could not follow your sentences. It became too technical for me. As I have mentioned in my other forum posts, the pandemic, isolation and so much death in India and in my personal life, has reduced my mental facultly. It has become so bad, I had to reduce my work load (despite suffering from money problems) to battle ongoing depression. 

    I will probably look into your advice, a few months later or next year, when, hopefully, my mind is in a better state. Thank you for your suggestions. 

    Sunny Jei,

    I believe that is something I will end up doing, yes. Just put my iMac next to the BenQ and match them up. Thank you.

    ---------

    All said and done (and given my weakened state of mind), I will just stick to the built in sRGB option on my display. I suppose, I could just adjust the colors on Photoshop on one of my Apple devices after the render. I have been learning Daz side by side with Photoshop, and I think color correction is fairly straight forward (with some practice and experience). Good enough for my hobby results.

    Thanks everyone. I would consider my question answered at this point. 

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