Robert_Charlton - 9:00 am on Jan 3, 2009 (gmt 0)

Note that if you're planning to use a monitor to judge lighting and color, it's extremely important to calibrate your monitor using SMPTE or HD "color bars" of some sort.

How to do this is a long discussion, particularly as you get into the differences between the color curves of computer monitors and the color curves of TV sets. (TV sets are generally more saturated and contrasty than most computer displays). We're also in a transition between television systems, in the US moving from NTSC analog to ATSC digital.

The principles of NTSC monitor calibration can nevertheless be applied to ATSC. Color bars with various degrees of accuracy are available from: professional color bar generators, professional video monitors or cameras, prosumer video cameras, jpegs and video on the web, video tapes, DVDs, etc.

There are numerous references online for calibrating TV monitors. Search for various combinations of these phrases for instructions on monitor calibration and setup, and just to get a background on the subject...

television/ TV monitor calibration/ calibrating monitors / etc
SMPTE color bars
HD color bars
NTSC
ATSC

It's likely you're not going to have a professional monitor with a blue-only button, which is generally what's used to achieve neutral color balance in production situations, so you should use a blue filter, as some instructions will describe, to view the color bars for setting up chroma (the idea is that when all the bars are blue, making them equal in brightness will give you a "flat" color curve).

Consumer and some prosumer equipment is not going to have any standard "neutral" setting, so it's probably a good idea to do some tests with whatever cameras, monitors, and calibration procedure you're going to try.

Also, extremely important in my experience is to be cautious about ambient light when you view your monitor in the field. It's a good idea to carry a black cloth to drape over yourself and the monitor, and to let your eyes get accustomed to the dark before making any critical adjustments.