Calibrating your monitor... Ideas, suggestions?

[SolaresLarrave]

Some time soon I may land my hands on a new desktop computer and would like to have it nicely ready to scan and print photos. However, in order to do this, I need to calibrate it one way or another. Do you use a monitor calibration devise? Which one? Do you recommend any? Do these gizmos help calibrate your printer as well?

BTW, all my peripherals (inkjet printer and scanner) are HP. Both are discontinued already, but they work and do an acceptable job.

Thanks in advance! 🙂

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Hmmm... Bump, just in case.

 

[Vics]

Doesn't PhotoShop come with a monitor calibrating program? Adobe Gamma, I think? Worked pretty well for me. At least that way I got a starting place and could fine tune from there. Actually it was for my wife with the digi cam. I shoot all B&W film and print in the darkroom.
Vic

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Fred, I'm not discussing anything. Rather fishing for ideas.

Vic, I won't have Photoshop in this computer, but I'll take a look at what I found already online. I was mainly interested in the experiences some people would have on the matter, that's it.

 

[pizzahut88]

Use Pantone Huey color meter.
Forget about Adobe or those built-in programs.

But how serious are you about your colors?

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Usually, I know that my printer and computer have a slight difference, and I learned to live with it. The images I see in my computer are printed about two stops lighter or "overexposed." I think I'll be careful calibrating the monitor in the next computer and probably working with ICC profiles instead of Adobe RGB stuff.

The only problem I have consistently is that greens and blues tend to appear extraordinarily saturated in prints. If a monitor calibration device won't "cure" the problem... I'll rely on my eyes. At least, I now know I should try do this in a darkened place. Thanks for the tips, Fred! 🙂

 

[wray]

I picked up a used GreytagMacbeth eye-one calibrator on another forum for $50. It does a great job. The built in calibrator for the Mac is okay but not in the same league as the eye-one.

 

[whitecat]

Go with the Pantone Huey. Excellent value and let me say the best thing I ever did was calibrate my monitor.

 

[visiondr]

None of this, however, helps make images we post in online galleries, flickr, picasa more consistent. Wouldn't that be nice?

 

[visiondr]

Are you saying that when I save my JPEG images in Photoshop as sRGB IEC611966-2.1 it will look the same to you in Brooklyn as it does for me in Portland? Or, is that what you mean?

We're talking about final saving step in an image and converting the image to a certain "profile", correct?

 

[pesphoto]

I use Spyder for calibration. My wife is a wedding shooter and we calibrate about once a month. Her prints form her lab are always right on the money.We work on a mac computer. I recommend the Spider.
http://www.colorvision.com/products.php

 

[kuzano]

Earthbound Light web site

Earthbound Light web site

I find this web site helpful in many areas. Here is a link to their page on monitor calibration. Getting all the pieces of your system calibrated is a real chore, but it's really nice to work with printers, scanners, computers, monitors and software that is all speaking nearly the same color language as possible. And, you have to keep checking your calibration regularly if you get hooked on that process.

Heres the link I spoke of:

http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/color-management-monitor-profiling.html

 

[amateriat]

I use a Spyder Pro with my two-monitor Mac system (both CRT; a 17" Apple Studio Monitor, and a 21" LaCie Electron 21/108). Works swell for me.


- Barrett

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Thanks for the links to all of you, guys! I do appreciate your information.

 

[Zathras]

I use Spyder for calibration. My wife is a wedding shooter and we calibrate about once a month. Her prints form her lab are always right on the money.We work on a mac computer. I recommend the Spider.
http://www.colorvision.com/products.php

Another vote for the Spyder. I bought one used from a fellow RFFer a couple of months ago, and after using it was amazed at how far my monitor was out of calibration. I had some prints done on a Frontier that looked nothing like what I was seeing on the monitor. After I used the Spyder to calibrate my monitor, I opened up the the files for the prints I had made, and was shocked to see that the prints and monitor now matched quite closely. After seeing this, I rescanned the negs and had new prints made, and I'm now much happier with the results. I now recalibrate every two weeks. I don't know how much the Spyder and the software cost new, but for me it was fifty bucks well spent. 😀

Mike

 

[usagisakana]

I am waiting for my Spyder 2 express to arrive... had prints come out looking very different from the monitor (which I expected... but wanted to test anyhow). I wouldnt print anything myself, dont see the point when I can get high quality prints done for very little money, and once my monitor is calibrated they should come out exactly as I see them on my LCD... which will be great 🙂

 

[robert blu]

I'm using Spyder 2 pro on my i-mac and printing with hp-9180B. It's ok.
robert

 

[2tcreative]

calibration

calibration

Use Pantone Huey color meter.
Forget about Adobe or those built-in programs.

But how serious are you about your colors?

I second the Huey. Inexpensive way to get started in calibration. You MUST get your monitor right if you are to hope to get consistent printing results, regardless of if you shoot color or on B&W. But especially color.

The whole digital workflow has many steps and if you vary each one time and again you can't possibly get consistent with your image making.

 

[whitecat]

Best thing I ever did for photography and a computer. Try the Spyder pro or Huey.