MacBook Pro Display too yellow compared to Studio Display

Yes. That's part of the entire point of using them.

The X-Rite systems are typically more advanced. Such as, you can profile one monitor, then save a reference file. Bring that file to all of the other displays in your business and have the software match each monitor (as closely as possible), to the reference data.

Or, just calibrate and profile each display using the exact same settings. They should be at least nearly indistinguishable from each other.

If you're in the printing industry, or will do any CMYK work for them at all, then a properly calibrated monitor goes past important to extremely important. The CMYK black color balance in Photoshop is based on your monitor's settings. Using a D50 color balance for the monitor, you get a perfect CMYK gray balance in Photoshop.

With a 6500K setup, the balance would be something more like 80, 79, 55, 95. Very blueish/purplish. Your clients will not be happy that everything that's supposed to be neutral gray, isn't.

To add: Since you have an Apple Studio display, I would suggest the top X-Rite model. The SL can only handle 1,000 nits. The Pro HL is decent at 3,000 nits. But the Plus HL jumps the accuracy up to 10,000 nits. Then you know for sure it will be able to handle the physical color and brightness response of the monitor. $339 (only $60 more than the Pro HL) isn't that bad, and then you'll have a very capable model for years.

I can't really comment on it other than I know about DataColor's devices. I had one a long time ago, but wasn't happy with the accompanying software. It didn't have a choice for D50, which is more important than it sounds.

X-Rite did a worldwide test some years ago. They recorded the color temperature of light at noon with a clear sky. The average was 5200K. But it isn't a straight 5200K. This is where D50 comes in.

If you look into it, you'll see 5200K is often presented as a photographer's monitor settings. But it also isn't correct. That makes everything 5200K, including the white and black points, even thought the true natural measurement is much closer to 5000K.

This is why using a 5000K setting also doesn't work, which is all the DataColor software I had (from at least 10 years ago) offered. Using that setting makes the entire gray balance 5000K and results in noticeably yellowish gray balance.

D50 uses a 5000K white/black point balance, but also builds a slightly cooler - yes, you guessed it - 5200K mid point gray balance. This is as close to a natural light gray color balance as you can get.

Unfortunately, even looking at the user manual PDF for the Spyder, you can't tell what choices you get. It only (repeatedly) insists the user choose 6500K as the recommended setting. Any true color professional will tell you to never use that setting. It even states this is the color of daylight at noon. This is wrong. Very, very wrong. That number comes from an old test where they measured daylight in a far northern area on a cloudy day. Yeah, of course it's going to be a cold, bluish color.

But literally anyone can disprove that claim by setting their monitor to 6500K. Follow that by taking a shot of you home or front yard on a sunny day and then display it on your computer. You will never - truly, never - see anything out your window as blue as it will look on your monitor. And you can't even adjust that blue color out since the white and black points are fixed at 6500K. Anything on that monitor will be heavily blue. Always.

Nobody here can actually promise you anything.

We can promise we'll be responsible in our suggestions, but promising you a certain outcome shall happen is not reality.

If I made you a promise and it didn't come true, what would you do? It's only a person's recommendation of what he/she feels is a likely outcome, not a declaration of a 100% known future.

Expert mode is still there. You have to hold down the Option key while clicking the + button to start a new calibration.

And why do you think a monitor profiling system would fail? They've been around for decades, and work very well. The last step the software does is save the completed profile (which also contains the LUT to set the matching calibration) and automatically sets it as that monitor's default profile.

This may be an issue with how Apple's Studio Display works with the OS. But I can only guess. However, I have no trouble bringing up Expert Mode.

System Settings > Displays. Nothing unusual here. I presume you see essentially the same thing.

Clicking on the double arrow next to the currently selected profile gets me the typical list of profiles you can choose. Most of which are not monitor profiles at all. Choose Customize at the bottom:

That brings you here:

Holding the Option key and clicking the + button brings up the Calibrator in Expert Mode as expected:

If this isn't working for you, I couldn't tell you why. Other than Apple possibly has some sort of non-standard way of doing things with the Studio Display.

Beyond all that, you complain this is driving you crazy, but won't spend a lousy $300 to get the hardware/software package to do this quickly, and more importantly, correctly. And yes, after spending $7,000 for what you have, $300 is nothing.

And why "correctly". Because you already have a visual mismatch. The only thing expert mode will do for you is allow you to move the Kelvin slider for each monitor so they visually match. But since they already don't match, you'll have to choose a different value for each monitor. The OS has no clue what you're looking at. It will only know you DON'T want the monitors to match.

Okay, that made me look. As I suspected, Apple made this as unintuitive as possible. And much more difficult than necessary.

You can't get anywhere because Fine-Tune Calibration is grayed out. In order to activate it, you need to choose a different reference mode. These are the modes you can select from:

• Apple Display (P3-600 nits)
• HDTV Video (BT.709-BT.1886)
• NTSC Video (BT.601 SMPTE-C)
• PAL and SECAM Video (BT.601 EBU)
• Digital Cinema (P3-DCI)
• Digital Cinema (P3-D65)
• Design and Print (P3-D50)
• Photography (P3-D65)
• Internet and Web (sRGB)

Since you're doing professional color work, the only logical choice is Design and Print (P3-D50). But that is going to be a preset that you're eyeballing color on. Not measuring with an instrument. And as noted earlier, useless as the monitor ages since it WILL drift away from neutral.

Apple provides their own profiling software for the Studio Display, which I presume behaves similarly to the software that comes with the X-Rite and DataColor products. But you then still need to go out and purchase a spectro device to measure the screen. Apple's software supports these models:

• Photo Research SpectraScan PR-740, PR-745 or PR-788
• Colorimetry Research CR-300

And to say these are overkill isn't even a close description. Check out the eye watering price on the CR-300. I haven't found a price on the SpectraScan units, but you probably don't want to know what they are.

If the Studio Display were my monitor, I'd set it to the P3-D50 reference, then calibrate and profile it from there with the X-Rite device.

Or, quite honestly, return it and get an EIZO monitor. And while I can use my i1 Pro 3 spectro along with i1 Profiler to calibrate and profile my CG279x, the EIZO ColorEdge monitors come with a built-in colorimeter and their own profiling software. It's all there, ready to use without purchasing anything separate from the monitor.

Throwing out another option that doesn't cost the and arm and leg of an EIZO unit, as they are silly expensive. I love mine, but I won't be buying another one in the future now that I'm retired. I no longer have a need for that kind of color control.

The Alogic monitors get very good reviews. The Alogic Clarity 27" is only $800. An extra $200 adds a built-in webcam, and $200 more above that makes it a touch screen. But really, who the heck wants to put fingerprints on their monitor, and reach across the table to use it. Anyway, it's cheap compared to the EIZO line, and somewhat less than Apple's Studio Display.

The Studio Display can output 600 nits of brightness. The Clarity, 400 nits. But that's irrelevant as both are maximum output values, and no one in their right mind would ever use a monitor cranked up to either of those numbers.

It's a good choice that doesn't break the bank. One of those and an X-Rite monitor profiling package would put you at about $1150. A few hundred less than the price of the Studio Display alone.

And after all of that, you already have the Studio Display, and it wasn't that much more than the Alogic monitor. Just get the X-Rite or DataColor unit, calibrate and profile both of your monitors, and stop driving yourself nuts.

X-Rite has put together a pretty nice video of how to profile a Studio Display with their colorimeter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_EIy60UBTU

Yes, it's far more complicated that it should be because of Apple's insistence of using reference modes with this monitor. But at least it can be done.