Spyder 3 Software

[Rosy]

Hello there

Can anyone give me input on this software. They state is calibrates your monitor and evens out the colors. I've noticed that what I see on my monitor is a bit differant than what I print.
Also - once you've perfected the color and exposure aspect of your image on your computer- where is the best place to print your images??

thank you all for your wisdom....

 

[Big Mike]

The Spyder 3 is a hardware device. It attaches to the front of your monitor and reads the colors & tones of a series of test screens. The associated software then takes that information and creates a profile which is loaded by the video\display card.

Calibrating your monitor is a pretty important part of digital image editing....because if you don't know that your monitor is displaying things correctly, then how would you know if any of the edit you make, are actually making the image better? It wouldn't really matter, if all you ever did was view the images on your own screen, but when you send the files elsewhere, to be viewed on other screens or to be printed, then you should make sure that your images are actually the color & tones that you think they are...and that is why we calibrate. If you are getting prints that don't look how you expect, the first step is to make sure things are accurate on your end, and the first part of that is to calibrate your monitor.

Proper calibration does require a hardware device. It's not something that you can do accurately by eye.

There are several different devices available...the Spyder is a popular one. I believe that you get get it with one of three different software packages. Express, Pro & Elite (or something like that). The website has a comparison chart that should help with choosing which is right for you.

Also, you should know that not all monitors are created equal. Most of the flat panel screens out there are made to be fast & bright, which is good for gaming and general computing, but they aren't ideal for accurate calibration. You can buy monitors that are better suited to photo editing because they can display a wider range of colors and they can be calibrated more accurately.