By Ryan Klos, Calumet Photographic

Achieving accurate color has this alien quality about it, something everyone believes in, yet few have experienced themselves. For professional photographers, speculation won’t do. That’s why the first step in every digital workflow should be monitor calibration, but when you hear those two words, the last things to come to mind should be difficulty or frustration.

Datacolor’s Spyder3Elite may be the answer. Not only is it extremely easy to use, but in advanced mode the Spyder3Elite allows you to make fine adjustments when it comes to white point, target luminance values and more.

Or you can choose to run the calibration with very basic default settings (which are likely suitable for most users). In advanced mode, this colorimeter is probably more than most users will ever need—it is most certainly a professional calibration tool.

I used the Spyder3Elite on three different monitors: a 17" PowerBook G4, a 24" iMac with a glossy screen and a standalone LCD monitor connected to the PowerBook G4. While the results were good on each, the laptop had the most trouble due to low luminance values—even with brightness pumped all the way up, it wasn’t bright enough to hit the targets the Spyder3 wanted.

Using the Spyder3Elite
The Spyder3Elite calibration software is very intuitive and easy to use in the auto mode. On the initial screen you choose what type of monitor you’re calibrating—this is a one-time thing; once you choose your monitor it will remember it (but you can change it later if you need to). The software will also remember your choice for mounting the unit: suction cup, gravity (hanging over the top of the screen with weight on back) or tripod.

Once these initial settings have been chosen, there are a few more questions to answer before the calibration takes place regarding ambient light compensation, gray balanced calibration and Spyder Certification. Thankfully, a help button at the top of each window offered a more thorough description of each so I knew exactly what the software was asking. For example, the simple description for Spyder Certification says: “Please select Spyder Certification from the popup menu below. Off is the most common choice. Select On if you want the Spyder Utility to monitor the current calibration assigned to the display and alert you if the display falls out of certification.” When you click help, it offers more (see image below).

After all the selections had been made and the Spyder3 was mounted to the monitor, the calibration began with several color swatches showing up beneath it. The calibration takes only a few minutes (recalibration goes a bit quicker after this initial setup has been done). When the calibration is finished, a 4x3 test proof of sample images appears with a button that toggles between the calibrated settings and the previous display settings.

Toggling back and forth let me see my before- and-after results very clearly on a variety of images, from landscapes and black- and-whites to skin tones and vegetables. A single click on one of the 12 images enlarged it for a more detailed preview. The l ast step is naming the profile. If all this sounds easy, it should. The whole process was very intuitive.

Performance and Results
The results I achieved on the iMac and external LCD screen were very good. The iMac looked the best, but that may have something to do with the glossy screen versus the matte LCD on the external monitor. The laptop results were not so great. Again, I’m assuming poor results had something to do with luminance limitations in my laptop’s LCD (it is two years old, after all, a dinosaur in technology terms). I initially used the suction cup to secure the Spyder to each LCD, but the suction lifted the bottom end of the Spyder ever so slightly, which allowed too much ambient light underneath the sensor. I reran the calibration with the gravity method of hanging the Spyder over the monitor and my results were, not surprisingly, brighter. Maybe my device is the only one with an overly strong suction cup, but be sure to double-check yours to ensure the most accurate calibration.

My testing was done with the intent of using the Spyder3Elite as the most common user might. I wasn’t able to calibrate a projector and I didn’t use the calibrator on a tripod (both of which are features available with the Spyder3Elite). While I did try it, I did not leave ambient light metering on. Doing so meant another software program running in the background and leaving the Spyder3 plugged in. Plus, I do most of my photo editing at the same time of day and in the same lighting conditions so this wasn’t an issue for me. Not to mention I wasn’t big on a blue light pulsing in my periphery. However, for users who edit in varying lighting conditions, this monitoring feature could save you a few headaches from reworking your images. There are many more features of this setup that I wasn’t able to test, but again, my review is focusing more on its basic applications.

When I printed an image I had processed using the newly calibrated settings, it came out extremely close to what I saw on-screen. While I was pleased with this result, I have to assume it is atypical because I have never calibrated my printer—dumb luck, really. Don’t assume that by simply calibrating your monitor with the Spyder3Elite that your prints and screen will match exactly.

Recommendation
The Spyder3Elite was easy to use, offered a variety of options for fine-tuning adjustments and yielded accurate color results. For the average user, the Spyder3Elite may be a bit like using a sledgehammer on a pushpin. But even in its basic mode, this color calibration system carries the strength of that sledgehammer (see screenshots for basic and advanced).

For those who feel it is necessary to tweak the settings further and really get into the guts of complex calibration, advanced mode will certainly keep you happy. The Spyder3Elite has enough functionality for any professional studio, while allowing even the most technologically timid to achieve accurate on-screen color.