Color Calibration

[GwagDesigns]

As ive not the money quite yet to buy a high end color correction device for my monitor, ive been using adobe gamma, which has seemed to work well, but i am still having some issues. I just printed off an image, this one to be exact:

http://gwagdesigns.deviantart.com/art/BMW-76157316

but the reds are coming out darker, my logo looks nice and red, but it comes out dark, the reds that is, all teh other colors look goof it just seems to lack red. and my friend, ( who supposedly has a color corrected monitor as well) says its dark on his end,

any help will be appreciated.

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[Happy Hour]

what size screen are you using? and what is your screen resolution set at?
Allot of people change there screen resolution to make things more readable. This can result in altering how colors look. try resting your screen to the original setting. see if that helps.

[molsen]

more importantly, what color profile (color space) are you using on your computer and for your images? please don't say adobe RGB

[SpeedTrap]

Sorry to tell you, but untill you calibrate you monitors, it will never be right. I have seen people try before, but it just does not work out.
I am using the spider 2 pro rigt now and I am happy with it, now that the spider 3 is out you might be able to pick one up cheap.

[molsen]

if you can get your photo lab to print a color card, you can use that to calibrate your monitor pretty well. obviously, it won't be as exact as using the calib. hardware, but it's still pretty darn close. also, print out a couple test 4x6s with lots of colors and highlights and shadows in them. use that also to help calibrate.

you can get pretty darn close for next to $0

[Brent17]

It won't matter that you Calibrate your monitor if you don't calibrate it the ICC profile of the lab that you are printing with. You need to ask your lab to send you a calibration print and a link to their ICC profile so you can calibrate your monitor exactly to match their printers output.

[Big Mike]

I tired Adobe Gamma and a few other cheap ways of trying to calibrate my monitor...but they come down to eye-balling it...which just doesn't cut it.

When I finally got the Spyder II, the difference was amazing. The are a few different options, Express - Pro etc. The hardware is the same but the software is different.

Now, I'm close enough to accurate that I'm happy with the results. I've read some stuff recently though, that says that for true calibration you need a high end monitor that is made for professional calibration.

[frXnz kafka]

more importantly, what color profile (color space) are you using on your computer and for your images? please don't say adobe RGB

What's wrong with Adobe RGB?

As for the OP, color calibration hardware isn't that expensive. You can get the Spyder2Express for $60 at Best Buy.

[molsen]

What's wrong with Adobe RGB?

unless you're printing your own pictures yourself, everything