Monitor Calibrator

[saltydog3317]

I went to visit my brother in law on the weekend and took many pictures of their new baby girl. I downloaded them on to his monitor and we all liked how they turned out. When we came home my wife had me load the pictures on our computer and when we were looking at the pictures again we both noticed how the pictures didn't look as good on our monitor.
Their must be a way to calibrate our monitor so the pictures look better than they currently do? Is there software I could do this with?

Kevin

 

[Johnboy2978]

It's probably best to use a hardware calibrator. Check out Spyder2express by colorvision or Huey or others over at B&H's site.

monitor calibration | B&H Photo Video

 

[Samanax]

I use X-Rite Eye-One Display 2.

 

[dhilberg]

I use the Spyder 3 Pro. It's the only one I've ever used, so I don't have anything to compare it to, but it works well and is pretty simple. Not too expensive either.

 

[saltydog3317]

I will have a look at the Spyder 3 Pro. I have seen it mentioned in a few posts. I thought there were some that were strictly a software program? Am I wrong about this?

Kevin

 

[davebmck]

Yes, there are software programs out there and they are better than nothing, but you will not get very good color profiles out of them. The problem is that you must make subjective judgments about the colors and your eyes can be fooled by many variables. The hardware solution solves this problem by making measurements with a device that can accurately measure the color levels of your monitor.

BTW, I use the Spider3 Pro also and it works great. Easy to use too.