Understanding Spyder

[KellyL]

I have tried to calibrate my monitor twice. According to the Spyder directions, it is best to leave brightness and contrast at factory presets. Next I was asked to use a factory preset for Kelvin, 6500. My Gateway LCD monitor does not list numbers, but gives me options. So....I chose "Picture" and then calibrated the monitor. Does that seem logical? After calibrating this way (last time I fooled with the RGB sliders) the colors seem a little more dull. Was my monitor oversaturated before?

How does one tell?

[Jason Hermann]

So frustrating Kelly, I feel for you buddy!! I'm sure they guys will chime in shortly to help you out. I have the huey and it just runs an sequence of tests and creates a monitor profile for me. You would think the Spider would do something similar?

Jay

[KellyL]

Yes, the Spyder does do that, after you preset your display. How important the presets are, I am not sure, since the Spyder takes over and does the true adjusting.

Thanks Jay.

I noticed this morning that you and I were at the same Karma level, which I found interesting. But sometime today, somebody thought you were awesome!

Go over to portraits and show me some of your latest work.

[KellyL]

NOT that I am keeping track of who has what Karma, mind you.

[kgphoto]

Will Crocktett is not a fan of the Syper products. See his thinking at ShootSmarter.com.

I have been researching all this digital stuff since i don't want to buy and re-buy products. A friend of mine is jumping in with two feet and has already bought and replaced two cameras. Expensive lessons. Find those whose work you want to emulate and use what they use. It is a good short cut.

[Mr. Pickles]

That Gateway monitor is pretty hard to calibrate. This "review" of it with other LCD's may educate you some on what they had to do to make the Gateway "acceptable".

AnandTech: Acer AL2216W: a worthwhile compromise?

[golfer]

With the LCD type monitor, try to just stay with the auto system in spyder. Let it chose the color temp. I use spyder pro and it seems to work well with my LCD screen. Since you have no way to calibrate the screen, you should be able to indicate so in the set up. I will watch for you follow up and see how it goes.

[KellyL]

I am not sure what you mean by let the computer choose the Spyder choose the color temp. When I run through the program, the Spyder asks me to reset the LCD monitor to factory specs, then set the color temp.

Maybe I should run it through the paces again and just experiment.

[Mr. Pickles]

On my old beater monitor, there are 3 settings for the "color temp", as follows.

9300 - General Use
6500 - Image Management
5500 - Photo Retouching

5500 sounds like the most logical, but I use the 6500 - Image Management one. Perhaps your picking "Photo" is a bit of the problem? might try a different one and see.

[golfer]

Kelly, been away a while. Set your monitor to factory default, the spyder will take over and set you monitor from there. Do not try to tell it what color you want, it will set for you. Try to use the defaults for spyder. I hope this helps. I will attempt to go through my spyder set up this evening and see if there is more. Will come back to you.

[KellyL]

Thank you!

[golfer]

Kelly, hope this helps, I just went thru a calabration. My primary settings on the 2nd screen were gamma; 2.2, white point; 6500k, luminance; visual./ I think these are good color points to begin with. Make sure you have the latest update and just follow the screens. You can't really mess it up as you can go back to the original computer profile anytime. - with.

[jfrancho]

For most LCD, you just need to profile the device - no calibration (adjusting brightness, contrast, RGB sliders, etc) is necessary. It is very possible that the default colors are over saturated, or off enough to give that effect. Trust what the tool gives you, and look closely at the before and after and you'll see better color.

[TonyK]

Hi Kelly,

I have a Spyder 2 Pro and use it on a Sony 23" LCD flat panel. If memory serves correctly the software asks if the monitor uses presets or some other measurement means (can't recall all details). For my system I used presets and do pretty good.

What is the status of your calibration effort?

TonyK

[KellyL]

Tony, Sorry I did not get back to you on this. I must have been tremendously caught up in a lot of work.

I went to the article that MP suggested. Using those settings I got this terrible display. Everything went so dark. So, I went back to the Spyder menu and set my RGB values. REd 91, Green 93, Blue 98, left the Brightness and Contrast at 100. The result was a color temperature of 6484, the target number I am supposed to be shoot for (less than 0.5, was .14, so I felt like my monitor should be fairly accurate. I am hoping so. This whole monitor calibration thing has me pretty worked up.

[TonyK]

When I started calibrating my system it was a mess. Took several attempts to get things correct. Lets not even talk about calibrating the printer.

[KellyL]

I'm not messing with the printer. As long as I can get a decent view on my monitor and it matches fairly well to what I get back from my lab, I will be happy.

[golfer]

Kelly, did you get the Spyder to work for you?

[Nikonfreak]

Originally Posted by TonyK

When I started calibrating my system it was a mess. Took several attempts to get things correct. Lets not even talk about calibrating the printer.

Oh jeez... That's TRULY a NIGHTMARE!

I'm not sure I understand it very well either... I let the Spyder 2 do it's thing and went along with the program. The monitor color and what I get out of the printer match fairly well, except I have to take the brightness of the prints up by about +2 to match the monitor. I figure it's a backlit LCD and that's why based on where it is in my office, etc.

I'm using the Samsung SyncMaster 225 BW monitor (22" LCD)

Julio

[golfer]

The Spyder products has two additional items you may want to look into: Print Fix Pluss and Profile Chooser.
With these, you can create a print profile from your monitor calibration and assign it to you printer thru Print Fix Pluss. Works pretty well. And there is not fear using it with your printer. You can always go back to the default you already have. I thought my printer was doing pretty well until I used the prifile setup. My prints looked even better.