ColorPlus for monitor calibration

[Timothy Huber]

Just picked up a ColorPlus from Pantone ColorVision. $99 on the shelf at CompUSA (we won't go into the lousy customer service and the hostile sales people).

It comes with a Spyder color hardware sensor that connects via USB and a wizard-based calibration utility.

It is incredibly easy to use. Install the software, plug in the Spyder, and run the utility. It prompt to place the Spyder on the CRT or LCD, then runs through a color assessment that takes about 10 minutes. When completed, it creates a custom monitor calibration profile.

I profiled my two laptops and our desktop. It resulted in a very visible difference on the laptops. Improved flesh tones and overall color temperature. On my main PC, where I do most of the photo and video editing the change was less dramatic. As I already had the LCD set to 6500 Kelvins and had manually profiled with Colorific and/or Adobe Gamma (since Colorific stopped supporting their product), that may be the reason.

In any case, after spending way to much time fiddling with calibration settings in the past, this truly "plug-and-play" solution is the way to go.


Timothy

[Jason Dunn]

Excellent, thanks for the mini review! I too have been looking at this solution as well...maybe I'll ask for a review unit. :D

[Timothy Huber]

There's the challenge... feeding my technology appetite while keeping my family fed and clothed ! :wink:

[dartman]

Just found a left over Christmas $20 gift certificate from CompUSA and picked up ColorPlus.

Worked easily on my Trinitron monitor. It seems to have made quite a difference on some pictures. I had a couple I was fighting with last week that adjusted nicely after the calibration. Should cut down on my wasted prints.

Seems like a good value for $99.

I'll try it on my laptop next.

dart

[dartman]

After a couple days using the calibrated monitor, it looks like I had it too bright and it was masking some underexposure on the Drebel. No wonder I was having trouble with the post processing.

I've got to learn to pay closer attention to the histograms on the camera to get them properly exposed in the first place.

The learning curve continues!

dart

[Jason Dunn]

After a couple days using the calibrated monitor, it looks like I had it too bright and it was masking some underexposure on the Drebel. No wonder I was having trouble with the post processing.

You're saying that the calibrated monitor was too bright? Hmm - isn't that the kind of thing these systems are supposed to help avoid? 8O

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

I think he meant he had it too bright originally?

[dartman]

After a couple days using the calibrated monitor, it looks like I had it too bright and it was masking some underexposure on the Drebel. No wonder I was having trouble with the post processing.

You're saying that the calibrated monitor was too bright? Hmm - isn't that the kind of thing these systems are supposed to help avoid? 8O

Lee was right. I guess I wasn't clear. My monitor was too bright BEFORE the calibration. Pics that looked Ok didn't print the same.

Calibration helped with that issue.

Now that the monitor and the printer are closer, I need to be a better photographer to get the exposure correct when I take the pictures. Should cut down on my post processing.

Been playing with some test shots today. Wish I had more time to play!



dart

[Jason Dunn]

Aha, thanks for the clarification. That's what I thought, but what you wrote didn't make sense to me. :lol:

[Suhit Gupta]

Now that the monitor and the printer are closer, I need to be a better photographer to get the exposure correct when I take the pictures. Should cut down on my post processing.
Did you callibrate your printer as well? (obviously not with this tool)

Suhit

[dartman]

No printer calibration.

I'm using a Canon I960 and it does fine the way it is. I'm afraid I'd mess it up if I tried to calibrate it. I'm just happy that the screen now is a closer match.

OTOH, I don't really know much about printer calibration. Don't you need different profiles for various ink and paper types?

Is there reasonably priced software to do this yourself?

dart

[Timothy Huber]

ColorVision sells a product called ProfilerPlus for $110. Here's the description from their site:

ProfilerPLUSTM
Simple, Powerful, Scanner-Based Color Control for your Printer

ProfilerPLUS software is a simple-to-use plug-in for Adobe® Photoshop® or Adobe Photoshop Elements that creates scanner-based RGB or CMYK profiles for color printers, PostScript printers and RIPs.

Looks interesting. I'd be curious how it handles an uncalibrated scanner, although I did a quick search for reviews and didn't really find any negative comments. It allows profiling of different papers, which would be really great.

Timothy

[dartman]

Looks like I can buy a preconfigured printer profile from Digital Domain, Inc using their Profile Prism product. You can also get the software and do it yourself for combinations not specified. I think you need a better scanner than I have to make it work correctly.

Anyhow the Canon I960 lists profiles for 4 paper types at $25 each. All 4 for $75.

http://www.ddisoftware.com/printerprofiles

Might try it although I'm inclined to leave well enough alone since I'm not unhappy with my prints.

dart

[Jason Dunn]

Might try it although I'm inclined to leave well enough alone since I'm not unhappy with my prints.

Indeed - don't get too worried about being calibrated up the wazoo ;-) - what really matters is how happy you are with the output.

[SassKwatch]

I've got to learn to pay closer attention to the histograms on the camera to get them properly exposed in the first place.
I've found in camera histograms to be more trouble than helpful thus far. Maybe it's just me, but they tend to pull my mental focus towards them and away from the 'big pic' (pun intended :)).

More and more, I find myself using the spot meter, exposing for the highlights, and pretty much letting whatever happens to the shadows happen.......primarily because it continues to amaze me how much shadow detail can be brought out in post processing. At least when shooting in RAW.....not sure if it would be quite so applicable with JPEG.

The learning curve continues!
I've adopted the philosophy that it's a lifelong process. The day one quits learning (or more commonly, being willing to learn) is the day stagnation begins to sit in......and you can bet creativity goes out the door at the same time.

[Suhit Gupta]

Looks like I can buy a preconfigured printer profile from Digital Domain, Inc using their Profile Prism product. You can also get the software and do it yourself for combinations not specified. I think you need a better scanner than I have to make it work correctly.
Yeah, but the point I was trying to make is that it would be nice to have a device that calibrates your monitor, printer and perhaps scanner. This way you can be more sure of getting very similar results across your entire setup.

Suhit

[Timothy Huber]

Might try it although I'm inclined to leave well enough alone since I'm not unhappy with my prints.

Indeed - don't get too worried about being calibrated up the wazoo ;-) - what really matters is how happy you are with the output.


Absolutely.

That being said, I didn't know how unhappy I was with my previous output until I calibrated and profiled the monitor accurately and ran a custom profile on my printer for the different papers I use.

In a discussion with a coworker from my office's graphics group, I found out they had a copy of ProfilerPlus. I borrowed it to try out last night and placed my order for the full product before I went to bed.

I have a Canon i850 which has given me great results with Canon papers and okay results with other papers. So last night I profiled with the Epson glossy paper I picked up at Costco and my okay results turned into amazing! It completely removed that "digital photo" flat gray look and gave beautiful flesh tones, better color, and more detail in shadows and highlights.

Greatly encouraged, I ran a profile on the Canon 4x6 papers that I have been happy with and found, while not as great a quality gap as I encounted with the Epson paper, that I was much more pleased with the custom profile.

Timothy

[Jason Dunn]

I have a Canon i850 which has given me great results with Canon papers and okay results with other papers. So last night I profiled with the Epson glossy paper I picked up at Costco and my okay results turned into amazing! It completely removed that "digital photo" flat gray look and gave beautiful flesh tones, better color, and more detail in shadows and highlights...

Wow...again, I'm impressed. I've obviously undervalued the power of calibration. You've made me a believer - I've got to pick some of this stuff up now. :-)

[Timothy Huber]

I have a Canon i850 which has given me great results with Canon papers and okay results with other papers. So last night I profiled with the Epson glossy paper I picked up at Costco and my okay results turned into amazing! It completely removed that "digital photo" flat gray look and gave beautiful flesh tones, better color, and more detail in shadows and highlights...

Wow...again, I'm impressed. I've obviously undervalued the power of calibration. You've made me a believer - I've got to pick some of this stuff up now. :-)

After struggling with color profiles, manual calibration utilities, and the inconsistencies I encountred printing out of Photoshop I had sort of "given up," if you will, and settled on Photoshop Album to print everything. It gave me decent results that looked pretty good. These tools have given me the capability to produce results that look great... I don't have to settle for good.

This opens up a bigger topic, the impact the availability of digital media technologies and the capabilties it provides. It has enabled us to produce some pretty amazing things that would not have been possible a few years ago without a significant (read tens of thousands of dollars) investment and training. And spend some time learning about the media; about digital photos, digital video, digital audio, good design principles; and the skies the limit!

There's the triumph of this technology: easy to use tools that enable us to accomplish our vision; to realize the photographs, holiday cards, DVD's, t-shirts, and photo books that we see in our mind's eye.

It has also enabled us to produce crap that we pass off as quality because we can do it on our PC and print it on a high quality laser or inkjet printer. I have a friend who is proud to send us the family photos he's taken with his digital camera and printed on his inkjet printer. Flesh tones are gray, there's no detail in the shadows, the whole photo looks flat as the paper its printed on. The truth be told, if as photo lab gave him photos with this quality he would demand his money back.

That's the tragedy of this technology: easy to use, little or no expertise required and out pop some digital photos of family with ashen, flat faces or a three-fold brochure with an all-capital headline using a script typeface and the single vertical quote (used to designate feet measurement) rather than a true apostrope.

The triumph and the tragedy. To quote the now defunct Horizons attraction at Epcot: "If you can dream it, then you can do it. Yes you can." To which I will add: "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should!"

But looking at what we can produce from our home media studios, I wouldn't have it any other way. But I still won't settle for good enough. I want it great!

Timothy

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should!

Exactly. I never understood the W?BIC mentality.

And which is why I'm still not going to get a photo printer for now. The professional labs in my area are serving me just fine.

[dartman]

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should!

Exactly. I never understood the W?BIC mentality.

And which is why I'm still not going to get a photo printer for now. The professional labs in my area are serving me just fine.

You're probably right. Still, thuber now has me curious about printer profiles.

What do you think about buying one of those pre-configured profiles I mentioned for the I960 and Canon or Epson paper?

Can I assume that all the I960's are the same?

The problem with doing it myself (other than the software costs) is it seems like I need to calibrate the scanner as well. No idea how to do this.

I seemed to have stepped into a bit of a calibration quagmire here.

dart

[Timothy Huber]

You're probably right. Still, thuber now has me curious about printer profiles.

What do you think about buying one of those pre-configured profiles I mentioned for the I960 and Canon or Epson paper?

Can I assume that all the I960's are the same?

The problem with doing it myself (other than the software costs) is it seems like I need to calibrate the scanner as well. No idea how to do this.

I seemed to have stepped into a bit of a calibration quagmire here.

dart

I did not calibrate my scanner (an Epson Perfection 2400) but according to the ProfilerPlus website "If your scanner isn't calibrated, the profiler plug-ins will make automatic corrections for this. " Don't know exactly how they do it... perhaps they analyze the white border on the scan and adjust accordingly?

The documentation directs you to configure the scanner before scanning the calibration chart: black point 0, white point 255, gamma 1.5, turn off all sharpening and other filters, 300 dpi scan at 100%.

However they accomplish it, the profiles are great. The key benefit over purchasing individual profiles is that I can generate new profiles for any ink/paper combination I desire.

Timothy