Is there a point to color calibrators if one does not do prints?

[Munky]

If you're not going to print, calibrating may be more trouble than it's worth. I tried using a calibrated profile for my monitor, but it turned out to be a nightmare, with different programs displaying different results, and that's not even considering other computers and monitors, or other settings on my own monitor.

For posting images online, the default and standard profile is sRGB, and most browsers don't even check if you're using a different profile. As long as your images look correct in sRGB color space, don't bother with color calibration.

 

[corkyg]

. . . And even the best equipment won't have ideal white balance adjustment all of the time. A good photographer will learn to adjust white balance adjustment from the standard to fit the mood of the scene. Some scenes look better warmer, some colder.

Very true! Also, consider this! All human eyeballs do not see colors exactly the same way. I have two eyes - one sees warm and the other cool. The brain makes automatic adjustments.

Munky really makes sense above.

 

[PurdueRy]

Good photographers with good cameras take good pictures that should not need color adjustment. What you do to your monitor is a personal choice. My monitors are set at OEM's standard, which is based on Pantone. I have never had to edit colors in the file just because a different computer or monitor setting.

I think that's a little shortsighted. Its true that in the ideal case you want to minimize the editing necessary. However, to get the effect you are looking for in your photo you may need to combine exposures, adjust contrast locally, adjust exposure locally, adjust color temperature locally for mixed lighting etc. Every photographer I know edits their photos to get the effect they were looking for.

If you have a high quality monitor its likely the effect of calibration will be minimal and won't drastically change your previous edits. However, when I edited imagines on my old TN monitor, calibrating it resulted in a dramatic difference in contrast and color temperature.

Any like I said before, if you have a wide gamut monitor which is increasingly common, making sure you have a color profile assigned to your monitor is absolutely critical.