Monitor Calibration

Getting your computer monitor to accurately display your photographs is absolutely crucial to good digital photography. Without knowing that your monitor accurately portrays the exact tones and colours in your image file it would be pointless trying to make any adjustments to the image at all.
It's also important to appreciate the set up of a monitor is not a once only task. The controls on the monitor can be knocked or drift, the output of the graphics card can be changed with its software settings and the physical output of a computer monitor screen can change with time too. As a result the monitor should regularly be checked with a known calibration file to see if there are any noticeable changes.
There are two basic ways of setting monitors up correctly, either using software aids or measuring the exact output with some sort of colour meter.

Many digital imaging programs come with a utility to help set up your computer screen to give the best results. Adobe supply "Adobe Gamma" with Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. In Paint Shop Pro on Windows the monitor gamma utility can be accessed from the File|preferences menu.
Both of these program's utilities work in a similar way. You view a set of coloured squares and adjust the gamma of the image of the screen display until the inner box matches its surround.

Whilst this appears a simple procedure, care needs to be taken to get the results exactly correct. Once an apparently good setting is reached it is a good idea to stand back from the monitor and see if the boxes are still merged from a distance.
Once you've adjusted your monitor and software as best you can, it's important to ensure that the settings don't change. This is especially important if your system is used by others who may adjust monitor controls without your permission. A small bit of tape over the controls is a wise move.
For a detailed description of software calibration please read Norman Koren's excellent web pages on the subject. His pages include some graphics that help setting up monitors with even greater control.
Apple Mac users running OSX are very well catered for with the Digital Calibrator Assistant, which works in the same way as the above utilities only with even more accuracy possible. It can be found as a "Calibrate" option on the color tab of the displays pane, found in system properties.

The most accurate way to set up a monitor is with a dedicated hardware measuring tool that will help you set up the contrast, brightness and colour controls for the best display. Then it measures exactly how the screen displays colour and creates a custom monitor profile that will allow the monitor to deliver the highest quality picture it's capable of.

The above illustration shows 3 of the best known hardware calibrators. On the left is the Gretag-MacBeth i Display, centre is the Gretag-MacBeth i Photo and on the right is the Pantone ColorVision Spyder. Each is used with dedicated, easy to use software that makes creating an accurate monitor profile a simple process. One key advantage of using a hardware calibrator is that removes subjectivity from the process to help ensure consistent results from calibration to calibration