Calibrate My Monitor

[pc185]

Myself and Shimmyhill are taking photos to sell at a trackday at the end of the month and we were thinking we better calibrate our monitors to get the end product spot on.

Having looked into this complete minefield what do people suggest if you're printing using photobox?!

Spyder 2 Suite
Spyder 2 Express
Pantone Huey

Any people use these and what are your experiences?!

Thanks for all your help

 

[Shoei]

Ive got a Huey, granted its probably not the best, but its made a big difference on my Viewsonic 17" TFT.
Colours now look a lot warmer and natural rather than cold and harsh.
Print out match whats on the monitor as well, but that could also be down to using the ilford custom profile for my printer.

Either way, id invest in a calibrator of some description esp if you planning to sell on prints.

 

[Strax]

Spyder 2 express which can be had for £65.

Easy to use (borrowed my mates )

For printing I use an srgb profile for sending stuff to photobox and it seems to work out ok colourwise.

 

[FranchiseJuan]

Get the spyder 2 express. It is easy to use, and performance is not too bad. You only need the suite if you need print RIP I think, and you can get a pretty good free one of those.

 

[morgan]

I use the gretag mcbeth eye one display 2 and its superb.

for photobox see below (a great guide by kev)

I contacted Photobox about this after getting some poor colours on a christmas present.

I spoke with their quality control manager who sent me the Fuji paper profiles for Glossy and Matt prints that they do in the following sizes on their Polielettronica machines:
10x7" A4 12x10" 15x10" 12x12" 14x11" 20x8"
A3 16x12" 18x12" 20x16" A2 30x20".

MATT
GLOSSY

Instructions for photoshop:
You'll effectively be soft proofing your images and you can do this in
the following way;

First install the profiles on Photoshop. Then, before uploading your
images, convert them to the profile and make any required adjustments
before saving the new version of the image (save with or without the
profile):

1) Open the image in Photoshop and discard any other profile in the
image if it has one.

2) Go to View / Proof SetUp / Custom

3) From the drop-down list select the Fuji paper profile.

4) Select 'preserve colour numbers' (this will show the image as it is
presently printed)

5) Make the required adjustments so that the on-screen image appears
as you want it printed.

6) Save this new version of the image and upload it for printing.
Once these new versions have uploaded, the prints from them will be a
close match to what you see on-screen.

NOTE: When you look at your images in another photo program they will appear over saturated.

Hope that of some use folks!
/edit - the re-prints came out a million times better!

Kev

I'm so tempted to set up a web site/guide to talk people through how to get the ebst out of photobox...I did exactly what kev said and the results were so much better than before. Couldnt have asked for the colour to be closer to what was on the screen...

 

[Johnny|lucidcomposure]

I'm so tempted to set up a web site/guide to talk people through how to get the ebst out of photobox...I did exactly what kev said and the results were so much better than before. Couldnt have asked for the colour to be closer to what was on the screen...

Think you should. look how far cykey got with his hdr tutorial

 

[morgan]

Think you should. look how far cykey got with his hdr tutorial

dont think i'd do it quite fpr the same reasons more just to help people to get over the frustration of not getting what they want and struggling to work out whats wrong. Its taken me ages to work it out and i've been trying for ages. maybe something i'll do one day. may speak to pb themselves and see if I can get some help on it.
they are a great company - the deserve the extra business/support

 

[shortone]

Do you guys calibrate monitors a lot ? Just trying to work out if buyong a spider is justifiable if its only used the once ? If that is the case I was thinking of trying to hire one to do the calibration.

 

[growse]

Do you guys calibrate monitors a lot ? Just trying to work out if buyong a spider is justifiable if its only used the once ? If that is the case I was thinking of trying to hire one to do the calibration.

I do it once a week, normally.

 

[FranchiseJuan]

Do you guys calibrate monitors a lot ? Just trying to work out if buyong a spider is justifiable if its only used the once ? If that is the case I was thinking of trying to hire one to do the calibration.

You do not need to do it once a week, but at least once a month is needed for most monitors (cause they drift over time).

 

[Shoei]

my huey reminds me once a fortnight to re-run it.

 

[shortone]

Ok thanks for that, maybe a purchase for the future then