Spyder3 color calibration

[kevinbythebeach]

Well I think I need one ... my Canon software and CS3 both look greatly different from each other and print with a large difference in color and tone ... actually the Canon prints look better and closer to what I see on the monitor but still it doesn't match...

So, does anyone use a Spyder calibration tool? or anything else like it? Any recommendations?

[Colin Southern]

So, does anyone use a Spyder calibration tool? or anything else like it? Any recommendations?

Yes, I use the Spyder III Elite package - seems to work OK.

[kevinbythebeach]

Looks good ... pricing it now seems to be $219.00 USD ... but thats $219.00 further away from a new body ... grr ... I should take up a cheaper hobby. Maybe knitting, or origami. Anyone have any cheaper suggestions? hehe

All this to get colors to match ... geez you'd think the brains of the world could agree on what red, blue and green are and what they make and how to make it ... and not all this over lapping of gamuts and whatever ... I think people who make camers and printers and photo editing software are too smart for everyone elses own good ... they keep reinventing the color wheel ... so to say. I hope they go color (colour) blind. Just kidding. Because if they did go color blind then they'd reinvent black and white again.

Sorry if I rant ... but it kinda pi**es me off that I must spend a lot for a decent camera and Lens, a lot for a decent printer and paper and ink ... a lot for a decent photo editing program ... and none of these things can agree on what blue is ... without some sort of fancy smancy a lot costing suctionc up garfield gizmo ... GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

Ok I feel better now...GO LAKERS

[kevinbythebeach]

In case your wondering what a Garfiled window gizmo cling thingy is ...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wendie-potd/422708664/

[kevinbythebeach]

I went and got the Spyder 3 elite today ... and actually I liked the way things looked on my monitor before hand. But Ive done a few test prints and things are matching up ... cool.


Wow what a difference ...

[Dave Humphries]

I can see I'm going to have to go this way one day, but for now I'll keep my head in the sand

But I've done a few test prints and things are matching up..cool.

wow what a difference...

Good to know it worked for you though

[Colin Southern]

I can see I'm going to have to go this way one day, but for now I'll keep my head in the sand

I like to think of it in terms of "a chain being only as strong as it's weakest link" - it's undeniably another expense, but if lack of calibration and profiling means that the results in all previous efforts and equipment are rendered "sub-optimal" then perhaps it's ultimately more expensive not to have one?

At least its a one-off purchase - and - if your keen, you can calibrate and profile equipment for others and get some (or all) of your money back!

[Raycer]

congrats!!

I bet you never thought you would spend that much just to get the right shade of red...

and to think, all this years I bugged my wife about all the shoes of the same colour oh wait, they are not all the same shade...

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Colin,

My view is that for now, I'm not selling prints, in fact I rarely print my own shots, usually only my wife's, shot on either her mobile phone (3MP) or an aging Nikon E2500 (2MP) and then rarely larger than 6 x 4. If the grass isn't the right, or a consistent, shade between shots, it doesn't matter too much - the biggest issue I have is flare and the main difference between print and screen is black/gamma related, I seem to need more fill light to print if you want to see 'into' the darker colours.

My own work is usually only ever seen at PBase or here; i.e. on screen, I don't see the need for one yet. Comments I've had back from here rarely crit the shadow detail, sometimes the WB, but that may be more to do with my inexperience.

Am I mistaken placing my head in the sand under these operating conditions?

Obviously I'd review the situation if ever I needed to print properly, e.g. for a camera club competition (since that's far more likely than me actually selling anything), but since I don't belong to one of those either ....

Cheers,

[kevinbythebeach]

Dave....
I've got to say in defense of buying this software ... that it makes a huge difference ... my monitor and printer using PS now agree on the colors ... although I can't get the Canon software to match up yet. It only took about 5 minutes to calibrate ... All you basically do is reset your monitor to default factory settings and it does the rest and sends the corrected values to your video card, which it loads on PC start up.

So anyways I have been thinking back to images I have posted on this site and in the past on others and that I have sent to people and realizing that color wise they didn't look as good as I thought they did. So what you see on your pbase isn't what I am going see on your pbase, and who knows how out of wack other uncalibrated monitors out there are.

So for the sakes of uniformity ... get one ... Then if someone doesn't like your pictures..you can say its because they arn't calibrated

[Colin Southern]

it makes a huge difference

It certainly can do - but the overall benefit is proportional to how far out it was in the first place. Mostly colours are pretty close - it's usually the black and white points that are usually all over the place (which in turn will cause colour variations; the brighter the screen, the more the colours washout).

In theory they should be preset to something that resembles sRGB (which is a standard in it's own right, unlike "RGB") - so, so long as black and white points are set correctly (which can be done "reasonably" successfully without the colorimeter), it is pssible to get things pretty close (whether or not you can have any confidence that it's close is another matter as it's still only an educated guess without the tools to back it up).

It only took about 5 minutes to calibrate

Just a small point here Kevin - what it's doing here is profiling your screen - calibration is the manual adjustments that you can (optionally) do to the monitor controls (adjustment of brightness / contrast etc). It might seem like splitting hairs (and it probably is to a degree), but the two don't always go together.