Calibrating your monitor for viewing photographs correctly:

The strip shows a range of greys from pure black to pure white.
You should be able to see a clear difference between each
shade of grey, ranging from pure black (left) and pure white (right).



Along the top of the strips are alternate patches of black and dark grey.
If it looks solid black to you (look very carefully),
your monitor's brightness setting is too low. Increase it until you can -just- perceive the difference between the grey and the black squares.

Disclaimer

_{The work contained in my gallery is Copyright ©2006-2008 Kristina Kotarski.
All rights reserved. My work may not be reproduced, copied, edited, published, transmitted or uploaded in any way without my written permission. My work does not belong to the public domain.}