Welcome to my callibration nightmare

[Lightchaser]

Let me start by saying that I am pretty well out of my depth with all this callibration / colour profiling stuff. I feel like the more I read about it, the more confusing it gets. (Do you ever just think "What is with all this stuff - can't I just take photos any more?!) Anyway...

I bought a Spyder2 and callibrated my monitor, which is a 5-year old LCD. Well the monitor dosen't have Kelvin sliders or presets so I could only tweak the RGB sliders and despite endless attempts I was getting wild variations in the results, despite only tiny adjustments. The Spyder software warns this may happen with RGB sliders.

In the end I did what it suggested - reset the factory defaults on the monitor, unticked the box on the Spyder software that told it I had RGB sliders, and let it do everything itself.

Well now everything has a green cast.

If I go out and buy a better monitor, will this fix my problem? Or is there a magically simple solution that I'm overlooking?

[PhotosGuy]

Have you made a calibrated print to get some idea of what is going on?
Test files at the bottom of...
http://www.gballard.net/psd/srgbforwww.html

[SBug]

Have you downloaded the latest software ? I had a simular issue on the Spyder 2 suite I bought last month and getting the latest helped.

[René Damkot]

First things first: What hard / software?

Did you disable Adobe Gamma (if that is present?) and/or other pieces of software that might interfere like graphic card drivers (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=479462&highlight=spyder)?

Setting the monitor to native whitepoint *should* give decent results.

Maybe related:
A threads on problems with a spyder 2/3 (and some possible solutions): Click (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=489598)

ATI drivers give problems (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=481056&highlight=spyder) sometimes for instance

I've heard of problems with a few Hueys (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=446760) being defective. Sometimes replacement helped. Haven't heard the same about Spyders though...

[poloman]

Make sure, if you are using Vista, that your calibration is staying in force. Just before using your editing software go to startup and run the calibration program. If you see a color change, you will need to disable all the stuff your video card loads at startup.
Does your monitor have a setting for argb as well as srgb? Make sure the setting agrees with what you are doing with your calibration.

[Lightchaser]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I tried a few different variations and in the end, setting the white point to Native instead of the recommended 6500 seemed to do the trick. Thanks again!

[freebird]

How do you set a monitor to "the native white point"?

Chuck

[Lowner]

Chuck,

Using the Eye1 Display2, its one of the first "multiple choice questions" in the calibration software.

Richard

[Lightchaser]

Yep, when you get the option near the beginning to 'continue with these current settings' or 'change these settings', click change, and then when you get to the screen titled 'Select Target' use the drop down box to select 2.2Native.