Playing with Colors

I finally got hold of a Spyder2 Express from Bella Lucé last week.  Life has and will be different then on – at least for my hobby in photography.  Jo Avila had been a great mentor in photography.  He showed me the benefits of color management and take away the ‘guessing game’ into printing.

Spyder2 Express

The Spyder2 Express is a color display calibration device that automatically measures the display’s color output and creates a display profile to set the display to show colors correctly – at least close enough, as compared to ballparking with your eyes with manual calibration using Adobe Gamma or the Mac’s Color calibration preference pane.

After calibrating my display, I viewed some recent photo sets that I have in Aperture.  I was surprised to see that most photos I took for the last month were too saturated.  I wouldn’t worry though.  I haven’t printed any of them yet so I can still adjust.  I don’t even have to repost them in the web since most likely, anyone viewing my photos doesn’t have a calibrated display.

Some of you may ask: Would I recommend buying a color calibration device for your displays?

If you intend to print your photos, then YES you should.  If you solely view photos on your display or just post them on the web, it should be a toss coin for you (whatever makes you comfortable).  It’s debatable if it is practical or not – I would, however, say it is better than not calibrating at all.