Colour/monitor calibration help please!

[Marvin]

I have had an old spyder2 for quite a while. I used it to calibrate my monitor and have used ICC profiles to get a photobook from Momento. The colours were perfect in the book and it matched what I saw on the screen (they had sent me a test sample to compare with beforehand too). I was kind of flying blind and just followed the instructions but was very happy with what I got.

I recently upgraded my computer and monitor and am now running Windows 7. The spyder2 software that came with my spyder doesn't work so I downloaded the latest software/driver from the website. I have calibrated my monitor and now it seems to have a yellowish tinge as well as greyish whites.

I am wanting to make another photobook and am not sure what to do about my dodgy colours when I am editing my pics. If I am using the profiles and I just adjust my monitor to look like the Momento picture will that actually work? I have tried recalibrating but I don't really know what to do from here. I don't want to go ahead and edit to what I think looks good, pay a lot of money for the book and find out it looks like crap!

Any advice?

Thanks,

Lee

[DaveB]

I recently upgraded my computer and monitor and am now running Windows 7. The spyder2 software that came with my spyder doesn't work so I downloaded the latest software/driver from the website. I have calibrated my monitor and now it seems to have a yellowish tinge as well as greyish whites.

I haven't loaded any of this stuff on Win7 so there may be some gotchas I don't know about, but in general it sounds like you've done the right thing. Other things to think about:

You don't have Adobe Gamma in your Startup menu do you? (Sometimes appears after installing Photoshop)
What type of monitor do you have now? Unfortunately the Spyder2 hardware struggles with some of the recent monitors that have large colour gamuts.

[Marvin]

Thanks Dave. I'll check out whether or not Adobe Gamma is in the startup. I have a Benq 24 inch HD monitor. I don't really want to buy a spyder3!

[radar]

Lee,

you may already have done this but before calibrating your LCD, make sure it has warmed up. Most recommend to have the monitor running for about an hour prior to doing any calibration.

Also, what values are you using for the calibration using the Spyder 2? For example, I use luminence 100 to 120, colour temp of 6500 and a gamma of 2.2. If you work in a room with low lighting, you can probably lower the luminence even lower but certainly do not exceed 120.

HTH,

André

[Marvin]

Thanks Andre. I have no idea about any values. I will have a look - the old software I got with the spyder2 didn't give me any choices. I have only used the new software twice and didn't change any values. I'll check it out.

[radar]

Lee,

from memory, the software can run in semi auto mode where you didn't need to set values. I never ran it that way once I found out what the proper values should be, made a big difference at the time. Get out of the auto mode and make sure you specify the values yourself.

If you get asked by the software to use current settings, say no to change the settings and that should get you on your way.

Found this link which seems to go through the process:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/ACCS/SP ... PYDER2.HTM

Difference from the instructions above is that I also set my luminence, in the examples, he skips that. Not sure if the new software asks for black luminence, if it does, set to 0.30

Let us know how you go.

André

[Marvin]

Thanks guys. I have given up and ordered a spyder3 pro. It's only a couple of hundred bucks, cheaper than the book and I'm sure it will come in handy!
Lee