Datacolor Spyder 4 Pro Software Review

[nbaresejr]

I finally received my Sypder 4 Pro monitor calibration software Saturday afternoon. I installed it last night and went through some of my images today.

A little background. I have been using my HP laptop for editing. When printing images through Mpix or Adoramapix the images i got back were fairly close to what i was seeing on my screen. In December I got a 22" Asus IPS monitor to edit on because the 15.6 screen was just too small for me when using photoshop and lightroom. I only use the monitor when editing. I tried to match the monitor the best i could to my laptop screen and i thought i did a decent job.

After getting back from Disney about a month ago I hooked up the laptop to the screen and began to edit. I had alot of images i was really happy with and posted several here and sent some out to the printer. When i got these images back from Adormamapix i was very disappointed. My images were much darker then what i was seeing on screen. I also noticed some of the colors were off. Mostly the whites. I did some research and it seems this is a common problem. Everything i read said monitor calibration was necessary.

After doing some research I went with Datacolor's Spyder 4 Pro. This is the middle of the road version of the line. It has the ability to work on multiple computers and screens. The goal was to match my laptop and IPS screens so if i needed to edit without the IPS monitor the images would still look took when being printed.

1. Install the software.
2. Attach the devise via USB and follow the on screen instructions.
3. Start calibration- this takes about 3-5 minutes. It checks colors and creates a profile.
4. Review the before and after and save the profile.

Now the profile loads automatically any time my IPS screen is hooked up. The main thing i noticed is the brightness level on all monitors is turned up way to high. When that got in check i noticed many of the images i thought were good were mostly underexposed. I plan on sending out some more images this week to the printer and i think this time they should be spot on.

If anyone has similar issues this software is super easy to use and I highly recommend it. The cost was $169 and i picked it up from my local camera shop.

If anyone has question just ask

My 1st re-edited image

Reflections Redux by nickbarese, on Flickr

 

[cjstarr]

Nick post a comparison between the two photos.
I would like to see how much of a difference there is.

Thanks

 

[nbaresejr]

Here is the 1st edit.

Night Reflections by nickbarese, on Flickr

The new version in my first post in this thread has a few tweaks to get it to look the way it does. Shooting in RAW greatly helped.

 

[nvtsallo]

I have that and like knowing when I edit my images that what you see on the screen is accurate. I calibrated my hp zr ips monitor and y macbook retina notebook so no matter where I am I am fairly consistent. Well worth the money for prints or like me converting to jpeg and deleting the raws.

 

[nbaresejr]

I have that and like knowing when I edit my images that what you see on the screen is accurate. I calibrated my hp zr ips monitor and y macbook retina notebook so no matter where I am I am fairly consistent. Well worth the money for prints or like me converting to jpeg and deleting the raws.

Agreed. I am looking at images on my work computer right now and my re-edit does not look right but i know thats because i am on an uncalibrated screen with the brightness turned up to high. The brightness in the screen vs. the printed image is what really got me. Now i knot what i sent to print will look exactly as intended.

 

[ThurlFan]

I may invest in one of these when I get my next montor. Currently I'm getting fairly good match when printing with mpix and persnickety prints (DW is a scrapbooker, hence the affinity for Persnickety).

I appreciate you taking the time to post your experience!