Apple Studio Display calibration

Hi, I have the Spyderx Pro and I am trying to calibrate the Studio monitor. I have been using the reference mode Photography P3 D65, photographers online have indicated that the brightness is 160cd/m2 which is too bright. I know that I can make a custom setting and change it to 120 or 100cd/m2 but can I then calibrate the monitor while in this setting? Or is the display good enough and does not need calibration?
I have also tried to calibrate the monitor while on the factory default setting, as recommended by Datacolor, but when Spyderx Pro asks me to set the brightness I am unable to do so. Has anyone tried this?
The monitor is the main display for my MacBook Pro 2016.
Thank you.

Hello Rosario

I don't have an Apple display but I do use the Spyder 5 Pro. It's a while since I last used it but my recollection is that the calibration can be performed at different screen brightness values. It also measures and makes recommendations about room brightness, as ambient light is important for colour accuracy. I have always just followed the steps through as recommended by the Spyder software and it seems to work out OK.

I can't find any information about the monitor's factory colour profile but I suspect, given this is a fairly high end monitor, that it would come out the factory pretty well set up. I expect it would be within a few percent of what the Spyder system would calculate.

I understand the Studio monitor has Apple's TrueTone technology which automatically adjusts the colour profile depending on the ambient light. I have no idea how much this affects the colour, and on my iPad I leave it on (but don't do any colour critical work on that anyway). I expect that if you perform a calibration you would need to find a way to disable it, unless the Spyder profile overrides it, or the whole point of the calibration will be lost.

I found this article on the Datacolor website: https://spyder-support.datacolor.com/hc/en-us/articles/4770790975388-Information-about-the-calibration-of-the-Apple-Studio-Display. Note that they say you should calibrate the monitor using the profile P3 600 nits.

Apple also has this article about fine tuning calibration of monitors using software: https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/mac-help/mchlee9c1884/13.0/mac/13.0 (relates to OS 13 Ventura but probably also relevant to OS 14).

This article (https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/mac-help/mchlca6faa13/mac) tells you how to change display settings on a Mac (not sure if it applies to MacBook), and provides a link to other ways to change the monitor brightness.

Finally, I am not sure whether calibrating a separate monitor on a Macbook also affects the laptop screen. I have never calibrated a laptop but I presume it is possible to calibrate both screens separately.

Not sure if any of this helps at all.

Simon

Hi Simon
Many thanks for your response, much appreciated.
I read some articles by different photographers and they all suggest to skip the automatic functions of brightness control on the Spyderx pro and the Apple True Tone.
Thank you very much, for the Apple articles, one aspect that I have not considered is the fact that the reference modes in the Studio display are to be used in control environments. I have a room with large windows and I will try to use the blinds that block out the external light.
I will contact Datacolor and hopefully they can help. The setting that they suggests for calibration is p3 600nits which is the setting for normal web browsing and computer work. Up till now, I have not consider the importance of calibration and there is a lot to learn, some of it is quite technical.
Thanks again for your help.
Rosario Roger